"Guns kill people like spoons made Rosie O'Donel fat"
It's been my experience living in the eastern Fraser Valley when we had weather like this the birds weren't in the fields, they were in the creeks and ditches in the lee of the out flow eastern wind blowing 30-40km. If you could brave the wind you could always pick up a few birds. It wasn't the-10 that was bad, it was the wind and snow drifts. I don't care where you live -10 with 30-40km wind isn't comfortable. And you really have to keep a close eye on your dog.
Never mind the dog you gotta love shitty tasting ducks to be out !!!
I think Labguy is right on the money. Know your own dog and judge accordingly.
My pup loves being wet, loves the water, loves being muddy, loves retreiving but she has a pretty pampered life at home, lives inside and her kennel is 15 ft from a wood stove. She is fit, lean and doesnt have a heavy coat. Its rarely colder than -2 here so pretty mild conditions for Dec/Jan waterfowl hunting. Seeing her shiver at all is rare. That said, its near -10 and windy here today and there is lots of open water as I hunt the salt marsh. But I would be hesitant to bring her out if it were to get any colder.
She wears a neoprene vest and Id be toweling her off between retrieves and making sure she had some sort of wind break. If its slow, Id let her out of the blind to move around every now and then and Id be watching her shivering and attitude like a hawk and the hunt would be over if I felt she was too cold or appearing to be " sucky" as we like to call it. She gets like that when shes bored or uncomfortable and I can see it immediately when her demeanor changes. Her safety and enjoyment are more important to me than any single hunt.
Last edited by Ron.C; 01-14-2020 at 01:17 PM.
^^^^ Good post! ^^^^
The only shitty tasting ducks I'v had from the valley came from the Harrison River, the Mallards just loved those big spring carcasses. The ones that we got from fields, creeks and ditches were mostly good. One time when I picking up some deer Pepperoni from Sumas meats Kurt gave me a small sample of some Kielbasa he had made from duck breasts that some guys from Abbotsford had brought in, it was excellent.