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Date: 11-2-19 coastal zone youth hunt

Time: left at 10 pm

Location: Public marsh

Cloud Cover: hoped for clear but a stubborn sheet of high thick stuff hung over us till quitting time.

Wind Direction and Velocity: N NE 10 mph or so...just right

Temperature: 50’s chilly with no sun

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: first time to hunt my nephews together in a few years.

Waterfowl Activity: very sparse. Didn’t see a teal

Waterfowl Responsiveness: what came, came pretty. Had some gadwall flare from our hide. Harder to hide when water level is high

Hunters: Colin and hunter with Corey and I

Guns:

Malfunctions:

Dog(s): Corey’s dog Boone

Special Equipment: no spinners (probably will be my theme this year)

Kudos: they shot good

curses: clouds and no birds

Birds By Species: 2 mottleds (hated shooting 1 out of a pair and then it be the hen, but hunter already killed his as a single and it couldn’t tell drake from hen until too late)
1 nice widgeon drake


Photo Ops:



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Curses continued : neon green as the new hunting fad


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Pretty close to the color of a dollar lily's bottom, so maybe if you stood them on their heads...

He had a camo bomber hat over the hat during the hunt for the record.




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Date: 11-3-19

Time: finished about 7:50

Location: my buddies pit

Cloud Cover: clear but fog built in on us till we were almost done

Wind Direction and Velocity: dead calm

Temperature: low 30’s

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: the guys killed 12 specks yesterday in 30 minutes with Dakotaclucking on his new redbone. The birds were thick and wanted to be in there pretty bad.

This morning was a lot tougher

Waterfowl Activity: their farm is loaded with ducks, saw every species of puddler except for mottleds. Specks wanted back in but fog had them bad skittish for first hour.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: they didn’t want to hear anything but a little clucking, mostly had to let them work in

Hunters: me dakota chase and 3 others

Guns:

Malfunctions: 2 fairly new berettas hang up

Dog(s): us

Special Equipment: all their duck decoys are out and we put out about 2 dozen full bodies.

Kudos: we shot pretty good, guys were patient and instead of shooting them high, let me work them in. I always enjoy the opportunity to mentor or help younger hunters on “doing it right”

curses: no wind

Birds By Species: 12 specks

Photo Ops:




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What an awesome hunt.

Suhweeet

Absolutely! Nice to know the ducks have that far, too.

Nice hunt and report Eric, congrats!!!!!

Finally got around to cleaning the specks from Sunday. Does anyone side get as excited as I do about finding gobs of goose fat in the cavity?

A pinch of that is the start to a tasty speck leg gravy.


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Looks like you saved him from a coronary.

Date: 11-8-19

Time: I left at 8

Location: buddie’s pit in Monroe area

Cloud Cover: could see stars on drive over but clouded up by daylight

Wind Direction and Velocity: NNE 10-15 mph

Temperature: 38-40

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes:

Waterfowl Activity: lots of ducks on the farm still, especially blue wings, spoons, and green wings

Waterfowl Responsiveness: specks broke to the call much better than Sunday, which was rewarding for me

Hunters: me dakota chase and 3 others

Guns:

Malfunctions: a Tristar wouldn’t cycle

Dog(s):

Special Equipment:

Kudos: I never picked my gun up but had plenty fun putting birds in close for the guys.

curses: a few groups flared on west side, I know they could see us. Mentioned to dakota a way to fix that issue on cloudy days

Birds By Species:
8 specks, they killed 2 after I left.


Photo Ops:

Dakota fetching


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Very Nice!

Looks like a nice day afield!

Guy down the road from where I hunt got the big deer several of us have been after this morning. I heard the shot.

As for me, the spikes are now at risk.

Headed up to the farm now to brush the pit for youth next Saturday.



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We had about 100 ducks on our field, mostly gadwall yesterday and saw several big strings of geese come from south and tornado into a field north of us.

Cleaned off and ready for brush. We don’t use those flaps, we flip them forward and I have 3 pieces of fence “hog panel”placed across the pit to divide the 4 hunters.


Still nice and dry.



Part of spread



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Lookin' good.

Love the spread. Very scattered and natural.

Duck Engr wrote:Love the spread. Very scattered and natural.

Thanks, that’s my main goal. I’m also planning to hunt without spinners this year at least when I’m there and see how that goes.


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Ericdc wrote:

Duck Engr wrote:Love the spread. Very scattered and natural.

Thanks, that’s my main goal. I’m also planning to hunt without spinners this year at least when I’m there and see how that goes.


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We did that last year when ducks got so stale. Haven’t so much as thought about charging a battery this year.

Duck Engr wrote:

Ericdc wrote:

Duck Engr wrote:Love the spread. Very scattered and natural.

Thanks, that’s my main goal. I’m also planning to hunt without spinners this year at least when I’m there and see how that goes.


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We did that last year when ducks got so stale. Haven’t so much as thought about charging a battery this year.

And?


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It’s been great. One less thing to fool with and no forgetting to turn them off for geese. I can’t recall any mallards flaring on “last pass” like they have in years past (though we’ve also improved our hide). I’d be a liar if I said some gadwalls hadn’t still flared, but that’s to be expected.

Good deal, yea that’s my thoughts on it. It might cost me some teal or gadwalls early but I think it’ll pay off with specks mallards and pintail later in the year.


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Ericdc wrote:Finally got around to cleaning the specks from Sunday. Does anyone side get as excited as I do about finding gobs of goose fat in the cavity?

A pinch of that is the start to a tasty speck leg gravy.


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Eric,
I like what you are doing with the goose fat, and bet it makes your gravy that much better

We do have to stay alert to traffic and aggressive with our calls to get their attention. I have noticed a drop in “oh shiz they’re in the decoys drop your bacon sammich and shoot” occurrences. But I’m fine with that. I hate to waste good bacon.

Duck Engr wrote:We do have to stay alert to traffic and aggressive with our calls to get their attention. I have noticed a drop in “oh shiz they’re in the decoys drop your bacon sammich and shoot” occurrences. But I’m fine with that. I hate to waste good bacon.

Yea I always keep a pretty good eye to the sky because most of our birds are traffic and except for what’s on the farm at shooting time.


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Watched this guy last 2 evening hunts before tonight with sausage on my mind. Killed a similar older big bodied deer like him 3 years ago. Didn’t feel like he would be much better next year as far as antler size. He’s been eating real well at my spot. He weighed 165 lbs on the hoof.

Side note: lease member went to farm this evening to bring his decoys and said we are loaded up with lots of geese and a decent amount of ducks. Looking forward to youth hunt in the morning.


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Date: 11-16-19 East zone youth hunt

Time: left at 11

Location: pit blind

Cloud Cover: clear

Wind Direction and Velocity: light north to about 8-10 NNE

Temperature: 29 to 50’s

Barometer:

Moon phase:

Special Notes: last youth hunt for these 2 with Colin being 17 and hunter 15.

Waterfowl Activity: lots and lots and lots of geese trafficking and on the ground in our area, specks and snows

Waterfowl Responsiveness: most of the specks were hard to pull away from the bigger bunches and the big snow feed north of us. Pintails and spoons worked pretty. Mallards and gadwall were weird.

Hunters: Colin and hunter

Guns:

Malfunctions: hunter’s newer 870 jammed s few times

Dog(s): the boys

Special Equipment: no spinners (retired and sold them) going traditional route with food decoys and focusing on calling.

Kudos: the boys shot pretty good

curses: I lit what would have been their 4th speck and called the shot when the other 5 swung over him.....they didn’t shoot the one I landed but did get one out of group. Both made excellent shots this morning and made their hunt on the few chances we had

Birds By Species:
4 shovelers
2 pintail
1 gadwall
3 specks



Photo Ops:


Colin’s first pintail...while we were trying to get them in we let a mob of shovelers come through...they wanted the pintails


Me and the boys



My sweetie


New iPhone 11 Pro takes pretty good pics.


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Very nice! And yea sweet pics too. Hard to beat the newer iPhones

Darren wrote:Very nice! And yea sweet pics too. Hard to beat the newer iPhones

Congrats on your hunt, very nice strap


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