SpinnerMan 2022-2023 Log

[Rick]

If you see them, grab your gun not your call.
When you think you’re leading too much, lead even more.
#4 steel through an improved cylinder or more open choke is your friend.
They are a very humbling duck to pursue.

I've pass shot wood ducks on pipeline cuts and tolled them umpteen other places. Tolled wood ducks are easy to hit.

[Ricky Spanish]

What I’ve learned over the years about wood ducks:

If you see them, grab your gun not your call.
When you think you’re leading too much, lead even more.
#4 steel through an improved cylinder or more open choke is your friend.
They are a very humbling duck to pursue.

I know a bunch of wood duck holes. Ironically nobody hunts the best ones. ?

First split is a wood duck shoot in the north woods.
You can pass shoot and miss em or decoy them to where they want to be anyway.
They tend to drop into a hole then zip off thru the brush and light out of range. Then they laugh at you.
If you've hunted a hole enough to know their escape route you can pop a few.
It ain't easy.
I hear kids shooting up boxes of shells trying.
I'm no expert but that's how it works in timber.
That's why they're called lawn darts.
Zoom they gone

If it don't start making wet I'll be pushing my boat a LOT.
If that's the case fuck using the north woods.
Good luck spinner. Bring me some goose Jerky?

The wood duck calling video I liked is a guy from up north of us. Wisconsin. Says he kills tons of woodies.

He does 'two-week' on the call once.
Then pip pip pip very softly making feed noise.
Not much just a little.
He said it's not like calling mallards.
Mallard callers tend to over-do it on woodies.

I've sat near flocks that landed and that guy knows his wood ducks I think. They act pretty much like that guy said.
I'll search for that video if u want

[SpinnerMan]

If you see them, grab your gun not your call.
When you think you’re leading too much, lead even more.
#4 steel through an improved cylinder or more open choke is your friend.
They are a very humbling duck to pursue.

I've pass shot wood ducks on pipeline cuts and tolled them umpteen other places. Tolled wood ducks are easy to hit.

It doesn't seem like you have to hit them hard, you just have to hit them.

Where we are, as I told my wife (report to follow), wood ducks do what the hell ever wood ducks want.

Every once in a while they will clearly respond to calls as pretty as can be. My dad had asked me if I could get him a drake wood duck to mount because he regretted never getting one when he used to duck hunt. We had a flock of 10 or so pass to our right heading away and hit them with a hard come back ... and they did Spun around and decoyed as beautiful as could be. One of those memorable ones even if not for the connection to my dad. First shot I got an absolutely gorgeous mature drake which I got mounted for him and he was pleased as punch when I gave it to him. Sadly, although now more fond memories it is on my wall.

I've also had some luck with the wood duck call once I learned that you don't use their alert call which is mostly what you hear. But almost all are snap shots at passing woodies that you saw just in time to throw a quick shot at them. Of course when you do hit, you feel like an awesome shot.

[SpinnerMan]

Date: October 23

Hunters: Gina & Myself

Time: Evening

Location: B&G Blind 3

Weather Conditions: Sunny, very warm, strong south wind.

Waterfowl Activity: For an evening hunt, quite a bit of wood duck activity, exactly one mallard and not a goose seen although some were heard.

I took my wife out for the last 2 hours. We had a great time. I think I've solved the problem of her getting up and out of the blind to shoot. Don't hunt from the blind.

I took some bag chairs, and we set up next to the blind back in the shadows and with enough cover we should be OK. We need to be stiller but she's only going to shoot fully committed if not landed ducks right out in front and she's set and ready for that. We put on masks to conceal us a little better. Given the birds we saw, I don't think they were aware of our presence. She was also a lot more comfortable and could watch the entire time without having to stand for the entire time.

And the wood ducks put on a pretty good show for us, which she really enjoyed. I would have gotten to take a couple cracks at a few of them, but nothing slowed down enough to give her time to shoot.

Shortly after we were set up, I see a mallard at about 400 yards just parachuting towards us in the 20ish mph wind with stronger gusts. About 150, it just decided to go elsewhere and couldn't be convinced otherwise. Last mallard of the evening.

We had wood ducks buzz us from left, right, behind. Had some come straight in front when about 5-6 popped up over the ridge about 60 yards in front of us, maple leafed down from about 20' to about 2' then decided they didn't want to land in the goose decoys and were gone.

We had a big bunch of geese heading right at us low and from the south making a ton of noise. So low I couldn't see them, but wasn't trying to poke up my head and see them either. These guys were the ones I hope for in the evening. Coming back for some water after a day in the dry fields. About 200 yards out. Silence They must have dropped in a couple channels south of us

Birds By Species: DNS, but had a lot of fun.

Curses: Mud, mud, mud. Our lakes are very low. When I set my decoys, I had to shove my boat through the mud to get it in the boat hide. I actually used another boat left nearby on the shore to retrieve the birds, so I didn't have to mess with mine. Well the water dropped a little more since Friday morning when I set up. My wife joked that she thought I was going to have a heart attack getting the boat out of the mud They also go forward a lot easier than backwards. I was plowing mud for about all of the 15' that it took to get to water But the decoys are picked up because I don't think I will be able to get out the rest of the week and I had to pick up by Friday because Saturday we move to another blind.

Photo Ops:

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[PorkChop]

I absolutely love it when my wife Sarah is able to join me! Definitely my favorite hunting partner! Glad you were able to get out with yours!!

[SpinnerMan]

Date: October 28

Hunters: Gina & Myself

Time: Evening

Location: B&G Blind 3

Weather Conditions: Sunny, cool, light to no east wind.

Waterfowl Activity: Not a thing until 2 mallards right before the end


Neither of us noticed the pair until the where about 20 feet over the decoys coming in as pretty as can be. Unfortunately they landed a little long. We couldn't see them on the water.

They swam a little further away and I heard them holler at another duck that hollered back. Time was about to run out so I had my wife get ready as I tried to sneak back the trail and flush them her way. Almost worked. They swung a little wide, circled and went on their way. A little excitement to end the day.

Birds By Species: DNS.

[Rick]

Chamber of Commerce ducks, "Y'all come back."

[Ricky Spanish]

Ducks landed long? .
Hm..
By any chance were trees blocking the wind?
It's quite common for gliding ducks to stall and land long if they run out of lift from the breeze.
It's just part of the game.
It's hard to put them where you want.i usually don't have that problem. The opposite. They'll come in too hot and bust me.

Hunting with crop duster pilots has had an effect on me.

[SpinnerMan]

The flew over the decoys. They went too far. Had we noticed them a bit sooner we would have had shooting.

[SpinnerMan]

Date: November 1

Hunters: Gina & Myself

Time: Evening

Location: B&G Blind 3

Weather Conditions: Sunny, comfortable, light west wind.

Waterfowl Activity: Enough to be interesting

Just after setting the decoys while getting everything else in order a half dozen mallards circled while I was standing in the wide open and no loaded guns. Probably would have taken a whack if loaded. Heard a few on the water nearby and had a pair pass by wide with no interest in what we were doing. We saw a fair number of geese heading back to the roost before shooting time ended. All high fliers over us and the low fliers at the far end of the lake. None interested in what I was selling.

Birds By Species: DNS.

[Deltaman]

Bummer on the surprise birds, but ole Murphy has a way of sneaking in when least expected

[SpinnerMan]

My wife is enjoying being out, so these evening hunts have all been a success. It would be nice to add a bird or two. She actually called me at work and asked if we could go

[Rick]

She actually called me at work and asked if we could go

Blue ribbon winner, she.

[SpinnerMan]

Date: November 4

Hunters: Gina & Myself

Time: Evening

Location: B&G Blind 3

Weather Conditions: Mostly cloudy, warm, strong gusty wind that could not make up its mind between S and W.

Waterfowl Activity: Pretty good numbers of ducks and geese but all high and uninterested.

Another nice evening out with the wife unfortunately no waterfowl were harmed.

Birds By Species: DNS.

[SpinnerMan]

Date: November 13

Hunters: Myself, but Jose plays a roll

Time: All day

Location: JTA Area 1 (Should have been B&G Area 1)

Weather Conditions: Cold, puffy clouds and beautiful blue sky and moderate NW wind

Waterfowl Activity: Quite a bit, but I was deer hunting

I hunted all day except for a lunch break. Unfortunately I did it at the wrong stand. I know there are some nice deer in the area including this guy that I have gotten on my camera a couple times.

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But I haven't seen a one.

I have a cell trail cam set up at my other spot. Several times it texted me to let me know I chose the wrong stand.

7:23 a big doe walks by

8:10 a doe and a fawn decide to feed in front of my stand. I got texts every few minutes when one would walk by the camera.

Would have been nice, but not a big buck. Well until 2:46, then this guy walked by.

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The reason I have the cell camera there is often they came back out the way they go in before dark when they go in early afternoon. I was just too far away to get there for the last hour. So I texted Jose the picture and told him to hunt my stand.

Unfortunately he didn't get the deer, but he heard a buck grunting, does moving around. He called me after and said even though he didn't see anything it was the most exciting hour of hunting this season.

[DComeaux]

Nice bucks! ......Always where you should be, but would they have been there if your essence was floating in the air?

[SpinnerMan]

That spot I built a little house. It's down in a bit of a bowl and the wind swirls, so any wind was a problem. After trying a few different setups over the years, I cut out a section of buckthorn and built a blind and a little side trail so I can walk the dirt road and then cut into my stand without crossing any trails the deer take. Since building the house I have never been winded or busted no matter what the wind. It took trial and error, but that spot I am as certain as you can be they would have had no clue

[SpinnerMan]

Addendum: While I was not able to find him this morning, Jose found him this evening.

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All seriousness I have complete and total shit luck when it comes to antlered deer. I am not one that believes in luck, but doubt is definitely creeping in.

[Duck Engr]

You seem to be snake bit for sure Spinner!

[Anotherone]

Nice buck. Congrats to Jose.

[Deltaman]

Hate it wasn't you that got him, but now you can concentrate on nannies without the fear of him busting you!!!

[SpinnerMan]

This is Illinois, there are no short supply of deer that size or better. I've crossed paths with many over the years. 3 different bucks significantly better than that last year within 60 yards. One that size or better that I shot and lost this year. I hunt two different locations. Illinois allows 2 bucks which are over the counter tags for archery. However, I hunt two places. At JTA, they only allow 1 buck and it has to have a minimum of 4 points on one side. Jose's deer, I would probably shoot there, but it would be a maybe as there are many deer of a lifetime taken there. At the club where he got it, no question, It's the nicest deer taken there in a long time. Much bigger ones cruise through, but they don't tend to stick around like this one did. We've had truly massive deer pass through. A 180 inch 8 point walked by my stand, when I wasn't there of course, and bedded down 50 yards behind the guy hunting the next stand over. He was taken later that year on the adjacent property.

To add to the list of annoyances that I didn't mention.



One of our better stands at our club is in the archery range, which is closed in the morning and evening for practice so people can hunt if they want.

I was planning to go to this blind which is just to the left off camera, but my wife decided she'd like to go duck hunting. The little buck on the right side of the screen is only 15 yards from the stand. The other two off screen are probably checking out the blind that I had just set up the day before.

Date: November 1

Hunters: Gina & Myself

Time: Evening

A couple days later, I had taken vacation to go hunt. I was going to go to this stand, but my wife asked if we could go do something together. It was windy and I hunt a lot, so neglect her a lot, so I agreed. A buddy went later and had a very nice buck walking around. I still don't get why he didn't shoot it. Something about it being my spot and my deer. He's shot a lot of big buck. Unfortunately, the batteries needed replacing and I didn't get video.

Stuff like that happens all the time. I'll hunt a stand nothing. A buddy, will have three bucks fighting under it. I'll hunt 5 days in a row, day 6 will have a buck milling around on the camera.

It used to be funny. It's starting to get annoying, but I'll be out again this evening and morning and evening tomorrow. Which wrong stand will I choose? As long as I don't lose another one. I hate losing deer. But it would be nice to get a decent buck, but I've got an antlerless deer almost every year. I was happy with that and the near misses on the bucks, but it's starting to feel like more than just "that's hunting." Which I used to just joke about it in good fun, getting to feel a little real which is not good.

It only takes one The cubs did eventually win the World Series too.

[SpinnerMan]

Date: November 20

Hunters: Jeremy, Niko & Myself

Time: All day

Location: MU Pit 22

Weather Conditions: Mostly sunny, cold, strong west wind

Waterfowl Activity: Completely dead until 1 PM and then they opened the pens.

I hunted my club by the cooling lake. Right now we have one large field on the west side of the lake with 4 pits in it producing decent numbers. All the other pits are producing nothing. The ducks tend to fly later in the day, but may fly at any time. We have two draws during duck season. One hour before shooting time and noon. To get one of the only blinds producing now, you need to commit to all day. When we get more ducks, other fields will produce. We drew the 4th blind. There were 5 groups. The 5th left to go hunt somewhere else.

Jeremy had to head out at 11, so he missed the show.

About 1 PM the first ducks started flying. We had about a half dozen zero in on us and two came right where we want and we sent them off with some warning shots.

Actually, my gun didn't cycle Worked the rest of the day, so let's hope it was just one of those things. I got a new gun a year ago because of frequent problems with my old. Doesn't sit well.

We saw a lot of ducks shot in the field. We had the small spread. One group a half mile away had 400 decoys, 5 spinners and a cyclone. They got 16 mallards and could have shot a lot more.

We saw probably two thousand mallards at least. Probably half in the last hour and they were pouring out when time expired. Unfortunately most were high flyers that showed no interest, but we got 2 singles and a pair towards the end of the day and unlike the first two we showed no mercy.

Birds By Species: 4 Mallards

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[5 stand]

You deserve a good hunt... As I've mentioned before MIGHTY FINE...

[DComeaux]

Awesome. Good read.

[Rick]

"Persevere to persevere." Sometimes it works out nicely.

[Ricky Spanish]

Date: November 20

Hunters: Jeremy, Niko & Myself

Time: All day

Location: MU Pit 22

Weather Conditions: Mostly sunny, cold, strong west wind

Waterfowl Activity: Completely dead until 1 PM and then they opened the pens.

I hunted my club by the cooling lake. Right now we have one large field on the west side of the lake with 4 pits in it producing decent numbers. All the other pits are producing nothing. The ducks tend to fly later in the day, but may fly at any time. We have two draws during duck season. One hour before shooting time and noon. To get one of the only blinds producing now, you need to commit to all day. When we get more ducks, other fields will produce. We drew the 4th blind. There were 5 groups. The 5th left to go hunt somewhere else.

Jeremy had to head out at 11, so he missed the show.

About 1 PM the first ducks started flying. We had about a half dozen zero in on us and two came right where we want and we sent them off with some warning shots.

Actually, my gun didn't cycle Worked the rest of the day, so let's hope it was just one of those things. I got a new gun a year ago because of frequent problems with my old. Doesn't sit well.

We saw a lot of ducks shot in the field. We had the small spread. One group a half mile away had 400 decoys, 5 spinners and a cyclone. They got 16 mallards and could have shot a lot more.

We saw probably two thousand mallards at least. Probably half in the last hour and they were pouring out when time expired. Unfortunately most were high flyers that showed no interest, but we got 2 singles and a pair towards the end of the day and unlike the first two we showed no mercy.

Birds By Species: 4 Mallards

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I know guys in Arkansas that'd get all goofy over 4 mallards. It's gotten that bad.

[SpinnerMan]

Date: November 23

Hunters: Sarah, Jose & Myself

Dogs: Randy, Hank, and Hazel.

Time: Afternoon

Location: JTA

Weather Conditions: A little overcast, warm, light wind. Perfect for our intentions.

Waterfowl Activity: Don't know. Hunting pheasants.

Jose and I decided to take an afternoon and chase pheasants. One big problem is we don't have a dog. So our plan was to go to JTA and hope to find a lone hunter with dogs that wanted company. If not we'd go stomping some brush.

I got to the sign in shack a few minutes before Jose. There are two trucks with dogs in the parking lot. Promising. Walk in the shack and there's a guy and a woman. Interesting. I strike up a conversation. Turns out the guy is signing out. The woman seems very nice and sociable. We chat for a few minutes and then I ask if she'd like some company, which she did.

Jose jokingly told me to not tell my wife I sweet talked a woman

We had a fun afternoon. Hank was the only one successful as he actually caught the ringneck. I suspect it was wounded by another group hunting the same big field.

If the weather turns bad and brings the ducks and geese down, we're going to take Sarah out on her first waterfowl hunt. Really nice person and Chicago PD patrolling the less desirable parts of Chicago

Birds By Species: 1 ringneck

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[Ricky Spanish]

That's a rooster...
This is a ringneck.

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Had me going there a minute man.
It's awesome when your dog catches.a Pheasant.
Mine used to do it occasionally

[SpinnerMan]

Date: December 12

Hunters: Jeff, John, Two from Oklahoma & Myself

Guides:Rod, Mike, and Jay

Time: All day

Location: Roque Bluffs, Maine

Weather Conditions: Maybe 20 at sunrise, moderate wind, sunny.

Waterfowl Activity: A lot of old squaw, decent numbers of scoter, almost no eiders, and a fair number of bufflehead and a few other ducks.

Everyone got one or two nice drake old squaw and we could have shot quite a few more. The scoter just didn't want to play.

For my first time hunting on the ocean was fun. You don't usually have a seal swimming around you in Illinois.

We hunted layouts, drifting and ledges. I started out drifting and everyone else in layouts. Basically drive around and look for birds, cut the motor upstream and try to drift to them. Got my first drake that way. Saw a ton of old squaw and quite a few surf scoter. The scoter wouldn't let us drift within 100 yards.

Swapped out into a layout. A single drake came in immediately and I got him. Had another pair land just a little too far to my right. Just couldn't turn quite far enough to shoot. Watched them swim around teasing me until they swam off.

I passed on a few hens. Had a flock of 8-10 come in really nice. One nice drake in the group, but they stayed packed too tight, so I didn't shoot because there was likely to be collateral damage and the limit is three and I had two.

Then we all got moved to a couple different ledges. I missed a few divers hauling ass by. Damn can they go fast. Need more lead!!! Had a seal in front of me the whole time.

Birds By Species: 12 Old Squaw, 3 bufflehead, 2 Red breasted mergansers

Curses: Just the lack of our primary target.

Photo Ops:

He kept it interesting during the slow periods.

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