SpinnerMan 2021-2022 Logs

[SpinnerMan]

Date: September 1 (Opening Day Early Goose)

Hunters: Myself

Time: Morning

Location: B&G Blind 22

Weather Conditions: Sunny, no wind to speak of and very warm

Waterfowl Activity: Heard a few geese but saw none. A few ducks but not many.

Birds By Species: None

With the recent weather I wasn't too optimistic about the hunting. However, the fishing was very good

I caught 7 bass, no size including a few very small ones. One nice 3-4 lb bowfin (dogfish). Had a bunch that just missed the topwater. Probably a half dozen decent fish, not to mention the countless times little guys took a whack at it. Had one nice fish take a whack at it right at my feet just as I was picking it up at the shoreline. Always funny and disappointing. I think it was another decent sized bowfin.

It was a beautiful morning to be out. A lot of interesting wildlife. Had a beaver give me a nice big tail whack while I was fishing in the dark.

Not the prettiest sunrise, but it's nice to be back out seeing them from the field.

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[Rick]

Reads like a pleasant one. See the beaver first or get surprised?

[MARSH BEAR]

At least you were out there. Last Saturday I only saw 5 teal in our marsh - not much to get excited about, but I am going anyway when the season opens Sept 11

[SpinnerMan]

See the beaver first or get surprised?

Both sort of. I saw him swimming and was watched him for a bit. I thought he was going to just pass by. He probably didn't see me. So when I stopped watching him, I probably moved and that startled him which he then startled me a bit.

[SpinnerMan]

I think my log deserves a non-hunting entry.

We are in the 8th day of early goose season. Normally I would have been goose hunting close to 8 times at this point. I've still only been out opening day.

There are a variety of reasons.

Day 2

I'm in my early 50's, so they want to take pictures of places you don't really want pictures taken So for the 2nd day of the season, I was not allowed to eat anything. So given the hot weather and poor prospects, getting up early to hunt on an empty stomach didn't seem like a great plan. Sleeping in seemed the better option because the day was definitely going to go down hill as not eating was by far the least unpleasant part of preparation for the next day

Day 3

Obviously, the 3rd day of the season was out. Maybe in my younger days, I would have gotten up and hunted before hand as there was enough time. Of course, if it was my younger days, none of this would be happening.

On the plus side, everything is good

With that behind me, I'm going to get out tomorrow. Just got my truck back that's been in the shop for almost 2 weeks. Been extremely frustrating. Even got it back once as "fixed" but that only lasted about 18 hours.

Loaded up my truck, got everything ready. Went to bed looking forward to getting out.

Day 4

Can't sleep. After effects of the last 2 days. Toss, turn, so about 30 minutes before the alarm is set to go off, I turn it off. Hunting still sucks and it will be an unpleasant day on about 0 hours sleep.

So I finally did get a few hours sleep. After breakfast, I run to the store to grab something. On the way back, the effing idiot lights are back on. At this point, I am 20 miles passed pissed and off into just surreal shock. They can't fix my truck. Because of Covid, I cannot find a truck to buy. It's a total train wreck.

I drive home, completely unload the truck and back to the garage we go.

The dealer has been great to us. They actually gave us an extended warranty for free, so I haven't been paying for this. My wife knows the sales manager and had been talking to him about this situation. I was too pissed to even talk to him two weeks ago when it came up again. I did talk to him the day before when I picked up my truck. This is somewhere around the 6th time I've had some version of this problem. As I said, I'm beyond pissed and into the last stage of grief. So I went and talked with him. They have absolutely nothing in stock that would fit my needs. He gave me a loaner Buick Expedition. That's now my hunting vehicle instead of my wife's Hyundai Sante Fe.

Day 5

OK, ready to get out. Got the Buick packed full of decoys and the minimum amount of gear I need. Even if the hunting hasn't picked up yet, the fishing was great opening day, and I'm itching to get back out.

Headed out to the club at the very early hour. First one there, so I'm guaranteed the blind I want. Things are looking up. Did some fishing while I'm waiting for jump time. Hooked a heavy fish, but lost him.

Jump time arrives and nobody else has shown. That seems odd.

Head to the back of the club. Damn it. The road is blocked. I cannot drive to the blind. WTF.

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. I could grab my boat and it's a short boat ride to the blind I want.

However, the expedition doesn't have a trailer hitch. There are no other blinds I can get to that don't require a boat.

Day over.

Day 6
Back of the club is still closed.

Will be open the next day.

Day 7 - 8
Between my truck and other things going on, I just have not been able to push my self to load the Buick and go have crappy hunting. The club has 2 geese total so far.

I'm just completely out of sorts right now. So far behind with so many things after 3 straight weekends without my truck.

I won't get out tomorrow, maybe on the 10th day I'll get out for the 2nd time. We'll see.

This season definitely fits the definition of FUBAR

[Rick]

"With that behind me..." A punster.

[Deltaman]

Damn Ed, you are due for a change of Luck!!!! That starving for a day stuff is tough enough, but the continued BS with your truck flat sucks May the molt migration cover you up, and get some resolution on the truck issue! Good Luck!

[SpinnerMan]

This truck thing is just beyond absurd. Thank God I bought it from a big dealership that cares about their reputation and has eaten a ton of costs. I can't even imagine what the bills would be. I'd probably be contemplating scrapping a truck with 70k miles that's well kept or continuing to throw more good money after bad.

I forgot to include my photo op from opening day.

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[Darren]

Certainly applaud your commitment to getting out there; the ideal vehicle is just the one that can get you to the hunt or fishin hole sometimes.

Surely hope things shake out your way soon!

[Deltaman]

Spinner, what model is your truck, and what are the issues?

[SpinnerMan]

Spinner, what model is your truck, and what are the issues?

2015 GMC Canyon.

Electrical issues. There is something loose/cracked/whatever that keeps screwing up the modules in my truck.

It will give me a notification to service the Theft Deterrent System and the idiot light for that system will go on.

Sometimes it decides it will not allow me to do anything. I turn the key and absolutely nothing happens. So far, after a while, it will decide it will allow me to start my truck and go on my way. Other times it just gives me the warning.

I try to not to turn it off after it comes on because I just don't know if it will start again. So I take it right in.

It happened 2 years ago. 3 trips to the garage in a month and it seemed to be fixed.

It was during late goose. The second time was in the morning, I had set all my decoys. Got in the truck, started it and the damn warning came on. Now the debate, do I gamble, hunt and hope it starts and risk being stuck out here in field? Nope, left it running, packed everything, drove around for awhile doing some scouting until they opened shop.

Ultimately, they replaced two modules and a bunch of wiring.

But apparently it was just luck.

Back at the beginning of July it did it again.

Replaced another different module. I didn't know these things had so many computer chips in them. That's when I decide it was time to find a new truck, but vacation and other things I really didn't have any time to look in July or August.

Then 3 weeks ago. It happens again. I'm pretty pissed this time. I give the service guy some grief, my wife goes and gives the sales manager some grief.

About a week, they replace another module, 4th different one, had to order, so it took awhile. They even kept it an extra day and the mechanic drove it home and stuff.

Picked it up in the evening. Next morning, first thing, here we go again.

About another week, they have a couple false starts, replace some things that don't fix it. Finally, they think they found the problem. Replace some wires and something else.

I pick it up in the evening, next morning, first time iI ran to the store first thing in the morning. There is a railroad crossing that needs some work. I slow down so I don't bounce too much. But it was enough to set it off again

I drove home as carefully as I could to try not to bounce whatever I had just bounced, left it running so the computer wouldn't reset. Unloaded it completely, again. Drove very carefully back to the garage. I argued with the guy at the service that checks you in. Not the guy I've been dealing with. Look at my truck now. Don't turn it off. Maybe we can get luck. "No the mechanic is leaving in an hour, what can he do, I have the codes" This is Saturday before labor day. So I get they aren't working a full day. He just didn't get it. There is some damn short in there and until they see it, this will not stop happening. Maybe this was the chance to get luck. Finally, I gave up. Haven't hear a word from them since. So obviously, they are back to chasing their tails.

[MARSH BEAR]

My sister has a 2016 GMC Canyon, she bought it new and within a year the truck would just kill going down the highway, and would not restart. The dealer would tow it in change modules, etc and within a week it would do the same thing. After the 4 or 5 time we told them enough and they put a whole new engine in the truck and she has not had any trouble with it since. This truck was still under factory warranty which helped a lot. It took her about 6 months before she felt safe driving the truck.
Wishing you luck on yours, and you can get back hunting

[Deltaman]

Sorry Spinner, and know it is doubly frustrating in these times. At least they gave you a loaner to get around in, and we are waiting for pics of dead geese on the hood of your new duck hunting vehicle, to show us you won!!!!!! Good Luck!

[SpinnerMan]

Date: September 15 (Last Evening Early Goose)

Hunters: Myself & Jose

Time: Evening

Location: B&G Blind 22

Weather Conditions: Sunny, stiff east wind and warm

Waterfowl Activity: Actually saw a few geese and a few wood ducks

Birds By Species: None

I decided to take a break from work early and go fishing. Grabbed a few decoys and my gun just in case.

Set out my decoys and was just about to go fishing with my gun over my shoulder when Jose rolled up. He said he saw a few geese the evening before. So we set out his decoys as well.

Probably our best opportunity was while I was putting the last of the decoys out and he was parking. A decent size flock came over that showed a little interest, but always tough when you are standing in the middle of the decoys when they first show.

We saw a few and actually felt like we were hunting. There were birds on the water to the north and southeast of us. Nothing showed any real interest.

Time expired, so we picked up and I set out to do what I expected to do for a little while into the dark.

Fishing was decent. Only landed 3. Lost one that felt like it had some serious weight. Had several smaller bass just go kamikazee on my topwater. That's what's fun about topwater. No matter how long you've been doing it, you will still overreact sometimes. Twice I sent my bait hurling back towards me as I set the hook into air after an exposive miss not far from me

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[Deltaman]

Bummer on the lack of action with the geese, but glad to see that your Boy Scout preparedness paid off with the sunset bass bite! Those top water bites NEVER get old

[SpinnerMan]

Update on the truck

It appears that it may be my wireless phone charger interfering with the theft deterrent system. The key has an RFID in it.



They returned it as "fixed" once again and my wife and I drove about 2 miles down the road, parked and went for a walk. Got back in, and the damn warning and idiot light were on.

Took it right back and dropped it off. I told them the only thing I did was power off the radio and plug in my wireless charger to the USB port and charged my phone. For some reason they had unplugged it while tyhe were working on it and looking for the problem.

They've actually got it to repeat a few times, by just plugging in my charger. So was that it all along? I got a new nice wireless phone charger that holds my phone so I can see it while driving and charge it at the same time.

Computers sometimes do crazy things.

Did I have multiple problems?

Fingers crossed, the new phone charger is what has screwed up a good chunk of my summer.

[Duck Engr]

Wow

[Deltaman]

Sure hope that solves your issue Spinner!!!!!!

[SpinnerMan]

Date: October 23 (Opening Day)

Hunters: Myself & Jesse

Time: Morning

Location: B&G Blind 19

Weather Conditions: Sunny, light wind and cool

Waterfowl Activity: More than expected but not much

Birds By Species: None

I might be done duck hunting at the club I have been hunting at since 2004. Last season was DNS. The year before was not much better. Where we used to get 60+ ducks for the club on opening day. We got 5. Which I think was an improvement over last year's opener.

Hopefully things freeze up early so I can start hunting by the cooling lake.

[Ricky Spanish]

Date: October 23 (Opening Day)

Hunters: Myself & Jesse

Time: Morning

Location: B&G Blind 19

Weather Conditions: Sunny, light wind and cool

Waterfowl Activity: More than expected but not much

Birds By Species: None

I might be done duck hunting at the club I have been hunting at since 2004. Last season was DNS. The year before was not much better. Where we used to get 60+ ducks for the club on opening day. We got 5. Which I think was an improvement over last year's opener.

Hopefully things freeze up early so I can start hunting by the cooling lake.

I was told to not even bother heading north to hunt.
I hunt at the convergence of two flyways.
Not hard to see y

[SpinnerMan]

Date: October 23 (Opening Day)

Hunters: Myself & Jesse

Time: Morning

Location: B&G Blind 19

Weather Conditions: Sunny, light wind and cool

Waterfowl Activity: More than expected but not much

Birds By Species: None

I might be done duck hunting at the club I have been hunting at since 2004. Last season was DNS. The year before was not much better. Where we used to get 60+ ducks for the club on opening day. We got 5. Which I think was an improvement over last year's opener.

Hopefully things freeze up early so I can start hunting by the cooling lake.

I was told to not even bother heading north to hunt.
I hunt at the convergence of two flyways.
Not hard to see y

It's extremely convenient. I can hunt before work every day if I want. The development has finally pushed what was left of the ducks to the west.

So time to just play with the deer.

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Actually I have a spot I want to try but I need to rewire the lights on my trailer to get there.

[SpinnerMan]

Date: October 26 (Final got a buck)

Hunters: Myself

Time: Short after work evening hunt

Location: B&G Deer Blind

Weather Conditions: Sunny, light wind and cool

Deer Activity: Quite a bit for my short trip.

Deer: First Antlered Buck in Illinois

I have seemed to always find a way to let the antlered deer live. I continued to find new ways to blow it. I've been hell on the antlerless ones, but put even a speck of antler and I'd find a way to let it live. It ranged from uncleared shooting lanes, wrong distance, wrong pin, knocked my pins off, ... Never the same way twice, but always resulted in the buck getting away.

Last week I found a new way to let a buck walk. One area I now hunt has an antler restriction. He was just under or borderline at best. That area gives up a lot of very nice buck. I wasn't going to shoot this one even if he did technically have 4 little points on a side. So I watched the buck walk by wide open at 35 yards.

Last night, I had a little buck come by my stand from behind. He popped out from behind at about 10 yards. He was at a less than ideal angle, but walking in the clear. So I was patiently letting him walk away hoping for a better angle. As I adjusted as he moved, I banged my bow. He spun his head right around Better shoot now. Had to shoot quick and hit just a little high and back of where I wanted to hit, but I was pretty sure it was still a good shot despite the bad angle.

Because the shot was a little high and didn't pass through (I hit the far shoulder), there was a pretty minimal blood trail. That didn't surprise me, but was making me a bit nervous because it was really slow going through the thick brush. That and the deer took a zig zag path. I've never seen a deer make so many turns after being shot. Patient tracking and I found him about 75 yards from where I shot him.

Not exactly a wall hanger, but definitely puts a good dent in filling the freezer. Plus hopefully now I have this antlered deer monkey off my back.

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While giving him some time to lay down for good, I had a doe walk by right in front of my stand.

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[Rick]

Meat to eat.

[Duck Engr]

Nice work! Glad you got off the schneid.

[Deltaman]

Congrats Ed!

[DComeaux]

Good meat for the freezer.

[SpinnerMan]

Put together a big pot of venison barbacoa. Basically a Mexican seasoned slow-cooked pulled roast beef. Chipotle has this and I love it, so I gave it ago. My first attempt using an internet recipe is not exactly what I'm after, but still pretty good. I will work on spicing it up for my next attempt.

In the past I never made roasts from deer. Now that I found something I like from them. It saves a lot of time processing the deer when you leave it in big chunks

Grinding hamburg tonight. On the fence about making some bologna. Probably won't, so I guess I need another deer for bologna, jerky, etc.

[SpinnerMan]

Date: October 31 (Halloween)

Hunters: Myself

Time: Evening hunt

Location: JTA Area 1 (The Mud Puddle)

Weather Conditions: Sunny, windy but nice

Deer Activity: Quite a bit.

Deer: DNS

With about 50 lbs of venison in the freezer, I'd still like another deer, but my focus is on getting a big one. Sitting in the stand, it was windier than I like, but at least the wind was in the direction least likely for any deer to approach. The mud puddle that the deer like to use as a watering hole is 40 yards to the far side. With the wind, I really didn't feel comfortable shooting an arrow that far. I decided if I were going to shoot a doe, it would have to be 20 yards or less. Mr. Big Buck, I'd shoot out to about 30 if he was broad side and any further I'd try to talk him in a little closer.

Not long after I got up in the stand I had a young buck come out at about 90 yards NW of me and spar with a sapling for about 5 minutes or so. At one point he turned and looked east and hauled ass. I was pretty sure he must have seen a big buck, but never did figure out what sent him packing.

Well, I did get a doe at 15 yards.

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She probably spent 10 minutes feeding less than 20 yards from me. With one in the freezer, I left Bambi's little sister alone. Not exactly the doe I was looking for However, without one in the freezer, she would have done just fine.

She had another young one with her that hung back a bit in the bushes while she fed practically under my stand. Then they both walked over to the mud puddle and had a good old time playing. I suspect they lost mom in a tragic hunting accident because she was nowhere to be seen.


They played like this for about 10 minutes.

Finally the end of shooting time came and the two little ones were still in the field. I didn't want to spook them. Tried making some noise to encourage them to move on. After about 10 minutes I finally decided I just have to go. Started lowering my stuff down from the stand. While doing this, I looked back at the fawns and SOB!!! There stands a definite shooter buck looking right up at me at about 30 yards. He then proceeded to bolt. Damn it! Not the way I wanted to end a very lovely day in the tree stand where I had watched an eagle soaring around in the bright sun, white pelicans flying down the river, a little buck sparring with a sapling, two little deer playing. Then again, biggest buck I've seen in person in quite some time. I know he's in the area, our rut should be ramping up fast now, and they run into people all the time, so maybe he didn't really freak out too bad over the camo blob in the tree.

[Rick]

Something to look forward to...

[Duck Engr]

Reads like a really nice sit! Back when I deer hunted I would coyote howl to clear the field before getting down.