Oct 1st (afternoon)
"roaded" at the Square Pond - Taffey, Kooly &
Daisy went six miles &
Gunny did three miles
Interceptor for all
Oct 2nd (late morning) "roaded"
at the Square Pond - Taffey, Kooly & Daisy
went
seven
miles &
Gunny did three miles
(afternoon) Gunny
to vet for a "whole bunch" of shots & annual heartworm test was
negative
Oct 3rd day off for all.......except (afternoon)
Gunny scouted Horicon with
me.........beautiful,
crisp afternoon in the marsh.........not going to fight the "numbers"
this weekend, but
will hunt one day next week before the grouse trip
Oct 4th (afternoon)
"roaded" at the Square Pond - Taffey, Kooly &
Daisy went
seven
miles &
Gunny did three miles
note: duck opener at Horicon (Wisconsin).......wait until weekday
Oct 5th rain = day off......worked
on decoys
Oct 6th
(late morning) "road" all.......five &
three miles.......work chukars
note: buy Wisconsin hunting license on line
Oct 7th (very
early morning) hunted Horicon Marsh with Taffey, went very
early.....2nd boat
out but six passed us before we got to the main marsh, set up in a good
spot....then
two groups set up north and south of my spot.......lots of shooting, but
not by me,
a lone teal dropped into the decoys four minutes before shooting time
and left just
a half minute before legal time. it wasn't a wasted trip because I now
know just
exactly what "too much stuff" is, need to trim down on decoys and forget
about the
Power Hunter when I can't get out of the boat......near shore....Taffey
was perfect
note: tripped over the trailer tongue before going out....had a severely
bruised hip (which didn't help), ice & Naprosin later made for a quick
recovery along with sleeping 12 hours
note: Frontline Plus -
Taffey, Kooly & Daisy...Kooly
got a new Preventic collar
for fresh tick protection on this weekend's grouse trip
Oct 8th (evening)
Taffey, Kooly & Daisy
ran the remote drop drill with Gunny
watching from
a tie out.....Gunny then ran the short bumper and two longer cold
blinds....followed
by three hand thrown doubles working on steadiness and control
note: got most of the "stuff" lined up for the trip, finish list
tomorrow
Oct 9th (morning) "road" all
four dogs plus do some wagon wheel casting with
Gunny,
work Taffey and Daisy on chukars
note: charge fan battery & clean both guns
Oct 10-12th trip to
northern Wisconsin - grouse
note: great cabin to hunt from and sleep........with Direct TV & heated,
"one
nole: outhouse, more leaves up than expected and hunted in short
sleeves Saturday & Sunday
note: 17 flushes mostly not visible with two grouse in the bag for three
days of hunting (afternoon Friday, all day Saturday and morning
Sunday
note: dogs mostly showed inexperience with Dan's Wirehaired Griffon
do very nice work
note: Taffey and Daisy did the largest amount of hunting by themselves
while Kooly & Gunny hunted as a brace twice to spell the other
dogs.......they both hunted a bit too linearly at first ("roading"
mentality), but Kooly settled into a better close in pattern toward
the end
note: Finding out I am NOT close to being in the
required shape for this
kind of hunting (long walking with very rough terrain) was a huge
concern.
Oct 13th day off for
all......mostly for me....call doctor
note: Chronic knee and leg problems while hunting became very painful
liabilities (at times). I fell twice the first day with no harm done
(luckily). Being much more careful the next too days and hunting
mostly trails eliminated anymore falls.
The issue is expanded by the information that our hunting in SD will
be more difficult. Everyone else is much younger and I don't want to
be a "yoke" around their necks. The bigger problem is my four dogs
will represent two thirds of the "canine crew" for the trip.
I can't fathom the walking being any worse in terms of terrain, but
distance and the number of days will be an additional factors. Dan
was convinced it would be much worse for me. Bird density may
be my only hope. The fact the initial segment of pheasant season
has a daily starting time of noon will make the day in the field
shorter, too. However, it will be the warmest part of the day.
update: SD was easier! footwear corrections & easier terrain
made a huge difference even though we walked A
LOT FARTHER
Oct 14th rain = day
off
Oct 15th run set of
three cold blinds across the erosion strips in the picked bean field at
the
Square Pond DTA.......Taffey, Kooly, Daisy & Gunny.....all
did well
Oct 16th (afternoon)
"roaded"
Taffey, Kooly, Daisy & Gunny.......three
miles
note: boat readied for Saturday's duck hunt
Oct 17th (noon)
"roaded"
Taffey, Kooly, Daisy & Gunny.......three
and a half miles
Oct 18th duck opener - Illinois (Mississippi) -
Daisy, going
in the afternoon....fog, navigation
and safety were the deciding factors....small, slow boat, one person&
after the fact
comments from those coming in when Daisy & I were going out were
validations
note: got to the spot scouted a couple of weeks ago & set up ready to
hunt by
3:00 pm, quite a bit of shooting from the other end of this island & we
had
three quick shooting opportunities.......none of the ducks flying were
going
to decoy and were already shying from the Mojo (turned it off), found
out I
don't shoot nearly as well from the Power Hunter (sitting), at about
5:30 pm,
the blind around the corner (in the picture) shot twice and as I glanced
over
a duck was hooking out of their sight and not flying normally, landed
about
150 yards from us on a narrow patch of land, after waiting a bit and
seeing
no dog coming from their direction (didn't see see one in their boat
when
they went ashore out of sight, either), it became a long blind for
Daisy,
with lunging water all the way, I avoided loosing her behind the two
clumps of cover the left of the AOF..........she brought back a very
alive
hen green wing teal
note: shooting ended at 6:13 pm (heard some almost half hour later),
picked up
quickly to avoid darkness issue....didn't work, got semi-lost on a bend
in
channel and hit a mud flat on the Iowa side, corrected and then it
looked
like I would be right in the middle of two barges passing in the night,
decided to cross a mud flat that has a ton of stickups, water was about
six
inches higher than the last time through this area (when it was light),
got
hung up on submerged logs three times, but the shoreline was clearly to
the
east (lots of light from cottages), finally made the navigable channel
to the
landing, one of the barge spot light workers must have noticed my
"passage"
and had nothing else to do, so he lit up the shoreline to my right for
quite
awhile, no need..but it was a nice gesture, got back to the landing at
8:15 pm
and home at 11:30 pm.....some might think this was a bit too
unnecessary, but
I enjoyed every minute of the hunt, on the final run down the side
channel,
Daisy was curled up, sleeping in her small space in front of me with her
head
resting on my boot..........priceless!

side note: after I pushed the boat (still loaded with all the hunting
gear) into
the garage.....Daisy leaped up on top to look for her teal
(left
click on thumbnails)

"The Shadow knows"
|

"pintail"
|

"canvasbacks"
|

"32 inch goose"
|
"two more"
|

"full
bodies"
|

"Avery drake FB" |

"view
to the right" |

"Daisy's
blind" |
Oct 19th (afternoon) ran
Taffey, Kooly, Daisy &
Gunny on three blinds
note: Gunny still does not have a good straight ahead look
Oct 20th
(late morning)
"road" all.......three miles
note:
buy SD license on line
note: clean out van and start loading for SD trip
Oct 21-26th
KwickLabs First South Dakota Pheasant Hunt (link)
(left
click on thumbnails)

"close"
|

"Dan & Al" |

"Jim & Al" |

"one to go" |

"off the road" |

"Dan planning" |
Oct 27th day off for everyone - scouted bean field pond -
WOW!......300+ geese

"It's Time!" |
Oct 28th one more day off
Oct 29th (afternoon)
Daisy did a short session of walking
baseball with a couple of concept
doubles afterwards, Kooly did several
concept doubles taking most out of order &
doing a blind before any marks, Taffey did
about the same thing as Kooly and
Gunny did several hand thrown concept
doubles (working on the routine at the line)
Oct 30th (dusk)
Taffey & Gunny worked
together in honoring retrieves.....then
Daisy & Kooly
did the same thing (no e-collars) gas today was $2.27
per gallon
note: huge number of geese feeding.....late afternoon
in the bean field
Oct 31st (afternoon)
goose hunt.....setup around 11:30 am & went home for lunch.....Daisy
and
I came back around 1:30 pm to start the hunt, but first changed the
setup a bit (put a
feeders closer to the layout blind)....................... four geese
came in around 2:00 pm
and were headed for the pond.......not good because if they splashed
down there the
rest of the geese this afternoon may end up no where near
us..........finally got them
turned around and shot one, long wait until at 5:15 pm, one lone goose
decoyed in
and I just "dinged" him enough that he went into a long glide all the
way to the pond,
Daisy had a tough time snagging him after many dives, hurried and picked
up
everything.....but one group of 12 came along and saw us......not many
"educated"
(left
click on thumbnails)

"initial 18 decoy setup" |

"Daisy released" |

"2 o'clock goose" |

"Daisy's two pose" |
Nov 1st (morning)
two "Euro" Shoots at Milton's Blonhaven Game Farm -
Kooly & Taffey
1st
with Daisy
2nd
with Gunny
along for the ride
note:
Taffey & Kooly picked
up 24 roosters through 12 rounds, working together
being stead, quiet and delivering without issues was the focus,
Kooly
was
really focused and high.....at first
Taffey needed work on
her whining,
it was a perfect situation for training
note:
Daisy
worked in a different spot......and it was slow........not many roosters
made it easier to get her focused......one of the later rounds had her
running
four cold blinds and a couple of marks..........good session for her
note: decided to not switch out Daisy for Gunny.....cover too difficult
for a young,
inexperienced dog.......next weekend's "Euro" at Blonhaven - Orfordville
will be better
note: scouted early this morning found some mallards & the geese were
back in
the bean field again late this afternoon
(no rain on Sunday morning, but rain
in the afternoon)
Interceptor
(for all)
Nov 2nd (very
early morning) short
duck & goose hunt with
Daisy
note: they were there yesterday......didn't come back this morning
note: several groups of geese came to the bean field after 7:30 am
note: Hank didn't recover from his fight with "blasto" - He will be
greatly missed.
I will always remember his last four days of hunting in South
Dakota....he
was impressive.
Nov 3rd (dusk)
Taffey, Daisy, Kooly & Gunny
ran a set of two pattern blinds (orange bumpers)
for exercise.......very warm today
note: made a big batch of goose sausage this morning
Nov 4th (dusk)
repeated yesterday's leg stretching exercise - another warm day
note:
Daisy is in heat
Nov 5th (dusk) repeated yesterday's "exercise"
Nov 6th (dusk)
Taffey, Daisy, Kooly & Gunny
ran two cold blinds......Gunny & Daisy came back
out and ran a long 200+ yard cold blind up the hill into the bean field
note:
Daisy ran the long
blind really well, when
Gunny was half-way to
the blind
two geese landed about 75 yards off to the left of the blind and were a
huge
suction, walked out to close the distance and finally "hacked" him to
the blind
Nov 7th (early
morning)
Daisy - goose hunt in
the bean field - used ATV, 18 Avery Lesser FFD's
(12 feeders & 6 actives), 3 Avery Pro Grade feeders and 3 Pro Grade
feeder shells
note: four geese came in early......and four left....Duh! other geese
flew over,
but it seemed they are now more interested in nearby corn
(left
click on thumbnails)

"loaded ATV" |

"hunting equipment" |
"Daisy" |
(afternoon)
Gunny
ran his first "Euro" shoot with the focus on
delivery & control
note: picked up about 25-30 birds and improved as the session progressed
Nov 8th day off for all - rain,
wind & cold
Nov 9th (morning) "Euro" at the
Orfordville, WI Blonhaven Hunt Club - run
Taffey & Kooly
note: scouted bean field afterwards - many geese in pond
which may freeze up
this week - hunt tomorrow
note: the first station
had Taffey & Kooly behaving so poorly -
whining and
"competing" for each retrieve was getting to be a pain & corrections
were
not having any lasting effects, so I put them up for the day and brought
out Gunny - he was wonderful for just the
second time at a "Euro" & he
remembered how to negotiate the gates and fences, handling improved,
his search for running cripples was noticeably better and his deliveries
were much better........he was fun to work with
note: Gunny was a quick study - Friday the
horn for starting each round did not
mean anything to him and where the birds were coming from was not
too clear....today - the horn focused his attention toward the tower
hidden
in the woods & he "watched" for the flight of pheasants all morning & it
was not long before he was able to figure out which "falls" were his, he
was giving good efforts to do the right things and remained responsive
note: with the below freezing temperatures, concern for watering the
chukars
had become an issue, checked with Dawn at Blonhaven Game Farm and
they water once a day, game birds do very well with this routine....so
my "water tower" will be placed in the Johnny House during the above
freezing times of the day or for short periods when the chukars will be
able to get their daily "hydration" before the water freezes in the
"tower"
Nov 10th (morning)
Gunny's first goose hunt at the bean field
pond, 1st time wearing a neoprene
vest, first limit......used the Kwick Raffia "Halo" Blind and geese
never saw me,
until it was too late, wore it sitting on a bucket in a small area of
waist high
shore weeds and it worked like a charm, scored an easy double for Gunny
note: Gunny was steady and waited for me to
break out the camera,
he stayed nicely in the blind 15 yard behind me with his hide
hidden by large pine trees, mostly he was steady because he
didn't quite know what was going on
(left
click on thumbnails)

"Raffia Halo Blind"
|

"sans body"
|

"Gunny's Geese" |

"retrieve #1" |

"first ever goose"
|

"easy mark - got it"
|

"good pup"
|
"water exit"
|

"retrieve #2" |

"cold
blind" |

"close & wet" |

"A Kwick Two"
|
Nov 11th (morning)
Taffey's turn for a goose hunt, forecast
was for cold rain and/or snow, it was
only cold and Taffey had her two geese by 8:30 am.....more geese flying
today & the
"Halo" blind is deadly
her first was a water retrieve & the next "crashed"
about
six feet in front of her hide.......kind of like "duck" hunting
(left
click on thumbnails)

"setup"
|
"Taffey's hide" |

"retrieve #1" |

"better grip" |

"Taffey's limit" |
Nov
12th - rain, cold day off -
Daisy is in the "bleeding a lot stage" stage of her heat cycle &
so
far Gunny has not started to go crazy
Nov 13th goose hunt
with Kooly (depending on scouting results)
Nov 14th duck hunt
to Savanna with Taffey - hunted from 6:30
am to 4:00 pm, a few ducks were
flying early, high and didn't want to decoy, lots of "skybusting", shot
a merganser for
Taffey plus want to see just how bad they taste, even then lucky shot as
three were
really "trucking" flying in a small V, stood up from very low
blind and they flared to
my right in a line, shot at the front one and dropped the back one
, no more shots
the rest of the day, but the blind was comfortable.....so I stayed all
day, DARN tired when
I got home, puling the boat through too shallow mud and "doing" 26
decoys in the same
mud was tough.......on a positive note Taffey
was excellent today.....quiet & continually
and scanned the sky to my back (which helped a lot)
(left click
on thumbnails)

"Taffey Scanner" |

"Close Up"
|

"Merganser" |
Nov 15th day off - scouted bean field.......geese there......hunt
tomorrow with
Kooly
note: Taffey was a bit stiff in the left
front this morning, walked out of it........either
getting in and out of the boat or jumping into the blind (?) looks
minor, but
she is sleeping a lot today....watch carefully
note: Daisy is half-way through her heat
cycle........another benefit of having more
than one dog
Today
Nov 16th (morning)
Kooly did a goose hunt to the bean field
pond, setup a little different with 7
sleepers, 2 semi-active/resters and 5 feeders (all shells except to Pro
Grade feeders),
decided to sit in a chair instead of on a bucket, first two groups
around 8 o'clock flared,
ditched the chair and moved up the bank about 10 yards, next group in
dropped two, 1st
was a short "crip" in the water and the second was a long shot dropping
dead across the
pond in the bean field........Kooly gets
his two and completes the KwickLabs "goose limit
quad" with Taffey, Daisy, Kooly & Gunny
each getting a limit of geese this season.......we
are eating a lot of geese to keep up......."good stuff".....Big Bird
burgers, chili, lasagna,
hot meat loaf, cold meat loaf sandwiches.......and spicy jerky.... the
best thing is my wife
who would never eat any game or
fish.....thinks this goose "stuff" is delicious
note: setup at 6:45 am, 28º, 12 mph wind from the west, cloudy with
flurries at
10:30 am, but we were back home and unloaded by 9:00 am
note: the four sleeper heads for my Pro Grade Shells came in the other
day,
the online ordering process for Mack's did not distinguish between the
"male" attachment required for my field shells as opposed to the
"female"
of their floater decoys........I got the wrong ones
(naturally).......needed
them this morning, zip ties & drilling became the mode of attachment,
worked fine (except taking them off and putting back on is a chore), now
I have an excuse to buy four "floaters" which is beginning to
interpolate
toward the need for a bigger boat

(left click
on thumbnails)

"first goose down" |

"flapping wing" |

"cripple in tow" |

"it's almost over"
|

"better grip" |
"first retrieve"
|

"mark two" |

"in the bean field"
|

"clean kill"
|
"almost finished"
|

"2nd mark"
|
"good boy" |
|
|

"this is Kool" |

"Kooly's Double" |
|
Today
Nov 17th -
day off - "yard work" = back yard leaves
note: Daisy is still bleeding from her heat cycle and not particularly
happy
with her "confinement"
note: scouted for geese - no ice on either the swim-by pond or the bean
field
pond with about 30 geese using it at 10:00 am....freeze-up any day means
tomorrow will be a goose hunt for Gunny
  |