2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby Rick » Sun Dec 18, 2016 5:26 am

SpinnerMan wrote:...The goose still stayed there. Jose joked that he felt he should load his gun and shoot him out of general principles...


Want that one to breed.
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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby SpinnerMan » Sun Dec 18, 2016 5:41 am

Rick wrote:
SpinnerMan wrote:...The goose still stayed there. Jose joked that he felt he should load his gun and shoot him out of general principles...


Want that one to breed.

:lol:

Probably not.

It sure looked like he knew the law. We were limited out. Can't shoot that close to your vehicle. And only when a hunter without his limit was coming into range did he scoot.
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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby Rick » Sun Dec 18, 2016 10:29 am

Chamber of Commerce bird: "Y'all come back."
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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby SpinnerMan » Sun Dec 18, 2016 3:47 pm

Got the Chamber of Commerce bird today. Peawanuck, Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

Date: 12/18

Location: About 4.5 miles SW of Braidwood Cooling Lake (Migrators - Pit 1) It worked well yesterday, why change?

Field - Completely snow covered field on the cutline with a bean field to the north and a corn field to the south

Weather - WInd NW 10+ mph, clear, sunny, and cold ~ 5F give or take a few degrees, but enough wind I was optimistic.

At the drawing for the blind, I only had Jeremy with me. On the weekends, groups of 3 or more get first choice before the 1's or 2's get to pick a blind. Saw guy on the board by himself. We found Kris and asked if he wanted to hunt together. He told us he was going to hunt with Ryan as well, but would be happy to hunt with us. We got drawn pretty early and decided to go with what worked yesterday.

The birds were definitely slower getting up with the cold and sunny. Cold sunny and calm and the birds often just don't fly. But with the wind, I was pretty sure we'd be fine. When it got to be around 9 and we had hardly seen a bird, I was still pretty confident, but no longer over confident.

I like to set an order for geese in case we get less geese in than shooters. No point in having multiple people shoot the same goose when you only get 2. Ryan was up first, then Jeremy, Kris, and then me. A little after 9, we pull in a pair. Ryan knocks his bird down. Jeremy empty's his gun and the other bird is still going strong, but the bird swings around over top of the blind and Ryan nails him straight up. And then realizes Oh Crap and dives for cover. He looked like he was coming right in the blind, but I think just enough wind and he hit just in front a foot or so.

Kris is up next. We call in a single that he makes short work of at about 15 yards.

I'm up and a single comes in low nose on and I take the shot when he's about 30 yards or so. Should have dropped him dead, but I think I messed him up because he keeps coming dead straight at me. 2nd shot I put him down and he starts running straight at me. I finish him off with the third. I wish I would have waited and see if how far he was going to run.

Jeremy and Kris make short work of 2 singles. That leaves me and Jeremy with 1 goose a piece. We get a pair, they don't finish quite as nice as we would have liked, but still should have been two dead birds. Jeremy drops his. I hammer mine on the first shot. I need to rotate right and get hung up on the blind cover or something and can't swing through right and we watch him. Thought he was going to go down, but cleared the trees about 400 yards away. :( However, my poor shooting turned out to be my good fortune.

About 10 minutes later, a single came in absolutely as nice as you want. I just let him come and come and come and at about 15 yards I made short work of him. Kris was by the ladder to get out of the blinds hops out and goes and gets him.

Then I hear him say "Winner winner chicken dinner" :clap:

Species: Canada Goose
Date banded: 08/02/2016
Banding Location: NEAR PEAWANUCK, ONTARIO, CANADA
Age: WAS TOO YOUNG TO FLY WHEN BANDED IN 2016
Sex: FEMALE

Almost didn't see a duck and had planned to leave early, so we called it a day. Another great day.

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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby SpinnerMan » Mon Dec 19, 2016 9:43 pm

Date: 12/19

Location: About 3.5 miles SSW of Braidwood Cooling Lake (Migrators - Pit 2)

Field - Completely snow covered bean field

Weather - WInd S 10+ mph, clear, sunny, and cold. It was -10 at sunrise but warmed nicely to a balmy 10 or so.

I had some work to take care of in the morning and the birds usually don't fly until later when it is really cold, so I didn't head out until late morning. Got to the clubhouse at 11AM expecting to have a couple pits to choose from. :shock: Only pit not occupied is 2. This is in the less attractive end of a huge field. Better than nothing. Head out drop my stuff off quickly. Park the truck. Want to hurry and get set up so I don't screw up the guys at the other end of the field. Heard a goose, so stayed put at the truck. Watched the guys whack a single. Hurried out to the pit. Busted my ass and got everything out pretty quickly. Definitely showed up at the right time. Man did the geese start to fly. And that was one of my problems.

There were generally so many geese flying it was hard to compete with the real deal. Add on to that, that I had the guys in Pit 3 to my south with a bigger spread and 3 callers. And to my north I had another group that seemed to have a good spread and callers.

Given how good hunting had been. Fairly early I called in 3 that came over the top of pit about 30 yards up. Pretty easy shot, but I wanted feet down. Started seriously regretting that later. Those birds went down to pit 3 and tried the same thing, but they were a lot more trigger happy than me and they dropped a couple of them. Every time I'd get birds to work, either pit 3 or the other blind to the north would pull them away. Did manage to scratch out two singles, but I would not have got a third. Saw very few ducks, one small flock of snows, and a huge number of Canada geese. I felt like I was snow goose hunting with the number and size of the flocks of Canadas. Amazing bird watching but tough hunting. Another great day.

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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby SpinnerMan » Tue Dec 20, 2016 9:04 pm

Date: 12/20 (Last Day of Duck Season)

Location: About 3.5 miles SSW of Braidwood Cooling Lake (Migrators - Pit 2)

Field - Completely snow covered bean field

Weather - WInd S 15+ mph early and died down later, clear, sunny to partly cloudy, and typical winter temps in the 20's.

I hunted with Jose and Jeff and they couldn't get out until 9AM, so I waited for them. By the time we got to the clubhouse, a couple blinds were limited out on geese. However, it was blinds in the part of the club that they don't hunt all day to allow the geese safe haven in the afternoon, so we went over to one of the two open blinds.

Geese were tough on that side of the club. I think the guys on the east side must have got a bunch of new birds that didn't know what was what. We had to work a lot harder. Of course, that's a lot more fun when it works out. And it worked out. We ended up with our 6 geese. We also got 3 gadwall. We killed every bird we shot at. We let one goose buzz the blind that we should have killed. Other than that we made the most of the opportunities we had.

This was the 5th straight day I shot my limit of geese. Now I have to go to work for a coupled days :(

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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby Rick » Wed Dec 21, 2016 5:26 am

I'm over feeling sorry for you and your "terrible" Northern Illinois hunting.
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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Dec 21, 2016 7:51 am

Rick wrote:I'm over feeling sorry for you and your "terrible" Northern Illinois hunting.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

When it comes to Canada geese, if you can get access, you can kill a pile of geese.

When we have a real winter, the geese and mallards just stack up on the Braidwood cooling lake. It is amazing. I've seen surveys that reported 100,000 Canada geese. I'll bet we are up there right now. It is a destination spot for Canada geese. DU had a write up on it 3 or 4 years ago.
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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby aunt betty » Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:07 am

SpinnerMan wrote:
Rick wrote:I'm over feeling sorry for you and your "terrible" Northern Illinois hunting.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

When it comes to Canada geese, if you can get access, you can kill a pile of geese.

When we have a real winter, the geese and mallards just stack up on the Braidwood cooling lake. It is amazing. I've seen surveys that reported 100,000 Canada geese. I'll bet we are up there right now. It is a destination spot for Canada geese. DU had a write up on it 3 or 4 years ago.


Braidwood Hunt Club.
Never been there but know some guides there. They talk.
From what I've gathered it's 40 acres, two pits, and a whole lotta lotta canada goose killin.
And...lots of bands taken in that area. I'd have to have a heater on each side and would be a pita for the guides. :lol:
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby aunt betty » Wed Dec 21, 2016 8:13 am

Have hunted around that area and it's impressive. Water everywhere.
Several rivers all in a relatively small area. Fox, Illinois, and the Kankakee. Plus there's thousands of gravel pits/strip mines. Permission is a pita so I've avoided going north. There are tons of Canada geese for sure.
Camped at Channahon a few years ago to hunt up there. Neat little place. The canal attracted a lot of geese while I was there.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Dec 21, 2016 9:31 am

aunt betty wrote:Braidwood Hunt Club.

This is the place I joined last year. I had a private spot that I had permission to go any time I wanted and hunted a number of years. That's where the avatar picture was taken with my dog retrieving the goose. Then my buddy just stopped. I all but begged. I'd do everything to get the blind ready. He just had to talk to the farmer. No luck. So I was talking to a bowfishing buddy and he is member of this place and I decided to join.

http://migratorshuntclub.com/
They have 11 pits and 6 fields you can hunt out of layouts that are spread out from due east of the lake wrapping around to SW of the lake. Some in real close to the lake and others pretty far out.

Each pit has 70 bigfoots and 20 shells. And each has a heater with spare propane bottles.

You get 4 free adult guests per year (a $600 value at Braidwood Hunt Club). Kids that are hunting don't count (a great deal if you have kids) and you can bring along non-hunters with you as well.

When I claimed the last pit on Monday, that was the only time I've seen all pits taken. Generally, that is not a problem because that means they are killing them, so one should come available pretty quick and most likely the one you want.
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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby SpinnerMan » Wed Dec 21, 2016 3:54 pm

Marsh Bear wrote:what is that white stuff on the ground?
A godsend for goose hunting :thumbsup:

I am actually worried it will get too warm this coming week and melt that white stuff. It will making goose hunting a lot harder. Many will move back north and the ones that stick around will be a lot harder to hunt. I think it is dark decoys against a dark background just don't have the pulling power.

Plus everything gets muddy. It is nice to hunt on the frozen tundra. Drive to the blind, no mud, not wet, ...

Marsh Bear wrote:I don't have enough clothes to hunt where you hunt.

I think the coldest I hunted this last week was probably a little below zero with a windchill of around -20 to -30. You got to keep the skin covered when you are outside the pit. Down in the pit even without the heater, it's not so bad. Your face gets wind burned as hell watching for birds.

Some guys hunt out of layouts under those conditions. I don't know if I could do that.
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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby aunt betty » Wed Dec 21, 2016 4:09 pm

Will take a moment to explain the concept of "hunting the snow line".
These days and really for quite some time the waterfowl have completely changed their migrations. Here in the midwest anyway.

Used to be that around September we had this harvest thing going on and then as sson as the grain hit the bins the ground got plowed under. Oh them days sucked for an upland game hunter. Suddenly the fields were practically unwalkable. It was to kill the insects and thier larva. Freezing cold will do that.

Nowdays...uh uh we got chemicals so why bother with all the fuel wasted on tilling all that earth? Sounds great especially for waterfowl. The spilled grain that was once plowed under and gone is now left laying there on acre after acre after acre...endless acres of corn and beans. The birds only have to fly south to the edge of the snowline. They can feed just beyond it. "ALL THAT FREE GRAIN!".

Now are y'all starting to understand why your birds have been acting funny the past 35 years?

Oh the arguments I've had to quietly set thru....listening to the old timers down south debate "where the birds went".
Many say that the migration has edged eastward. lol Nope. They're on the snow line.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
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Re: 2016-2017 SpinnerMan Log

Postby SpinnerMan » Fri Dec 23, 2016 7:18 pm

Date: 12/23

Location: About 5.6 miles SE of Braidwood Cooling Lake (Migrators - Pit 18)

Field - Bean field about 20% snow covered

Weather - WInd S 5 mph cloudy, and temps in the 30's.

Should have went to the SW. Very little came our way. Only pair that looked good flared off of something.

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