All drake hunt

[Marc]

Well we had set out to try and shoot a two man limit of Drakes today in Cowbay. HuntNHookSports and I headed out for sunrise and hunted to sunset. We were 3 ducks shy of reaching our two man limit but if we hadn’t set the goal to just shoot drakes we would have been limited out by lunch time. Man it was a long day but fun to say the least. It’s pretty hard to try and single out just the drakes and wait for the hens to clear before shooting.

Both Marshall and Beaner made some good retrieves. I tried to make Marshall honor the other dog when I wasn’t the one making the shots. Managed to hold him off most of them. There was a couple of tag team action on a couple of cripples. Great to see the dogs working together without having the birds come back in two pieces.

Here are a couple of pictures from today’s hunt. The picture with the dog I can’t put my hand over my heart and say I shot this limit as there was a couple of them that were double tagged in the air. Still makes for a good picture though. Man I love this little boat. 80% of my hunting today was from the boat.

We saw some Canada Geese but no sign of any snows in the bay today. It still floors me at the lack of people hunting the bay today on a Saturday.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Marshall_and_a_limit_of_drakes.jpg



http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/all_drakes.jpg

[HighCountry]

congratulations Marc.Nice dog and those ducks look tasty.

[dutchie]

Congrats on another great hunt!

Looks like your hunting partner there had a great day of retriving for you! Marshall looks like he is in his "feild of Glory!"

dutchie

[longshot]

looks like a great hunt. We're always there on saturday's. Today we stayed home and slept in from yesterdays hunt. We got to wake up really early as it takes a while to drive there.

Nice pictures!

Giovanni (Longshot Junior)

[porcupine]

Congrats on another great hunt, both of you. I think the snow is keeping a lot of hunters at home.
________
Honda CR110 (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_CR110)

[phearless]

I sure do miss that.
Looks like you guys had a great hunt.
At this time I am hunting vicariously through all you guys on the site.
Thanks for sharing.

[Marc]

Congrats on another great hunt!

Looks like your hunting partner there had a great day of retriving for you! Marshall looks like he is in his "feild of Glory!"

dutchie

He just goes nuts when I start collecting things to go hunting. I've never seen a dog who loves to be out in the marsh like this one. It's also like someone turned a switch when he's hunting. He goes from the "I'm so excited" to the "I'm now hunting mode" He is just so full of energy, when he sees birds working the decoys he tenses all up waiting to spring into action.


looks like a great hunt. We're always there on saturday's. Today we slept in from yesterdays hunt. We got to wake up really early as it takes a while to drive there.

Nice pictures!

Giovanni (Longshot Junior)

Did you get out there today? We heard some shooting but like I said it wasn't until late in the afternoon before anyone else was around.

[Kitimat Killer]

hey marc way to go on the hunt i know how hard it is just to pic on drakes i've have tryed it and it's tuff thats for sure looks like your dog is doing great i only have 4 more day of my season here so going to hit it hard starting monday

kk

[longshot]

Did you get out there today? We heard some shooting but like I said it wasn't until late in the afternoon before anyone else was around.

Hey marc,

We stayed home today. We thaught we would give the birds a rest. Might not get out now until next weekend as my school starts again monday. :cry:

Giovanni (Longshot jr.)

[kyleklassen]

just waitin' for everybody to get back to work and school. start hittin' her again monday. lovin' the laid off life.

[rifleman]

Way to go Marc. That sure is a nice pile of drakes you got there. That is one proud looking dog. It must have been quite the challenge to shoot just drakes. Congrats on your successful hunt.

[Marc]

Way to go Marc. That sure is a nice pile of drakes you got there. That is one proud looking dog. It must have been quite the challenge to shoot just drakes. Congrats on your successful hunt.

It was a great challenge and sometimes frustrating as ducks would come over the decoys and because of the sun or angle you couldn't tell if it was a drake or a hen until it was on it's way out. We had several drakes check the decoys out and leave unscathed because we couldn't ID them until they were out of range.

We had several teal, hen mallards, and hen widgeons land into the decoys that we could have easily shot on the way in but we wanted to try and concentrate on shooting drakes. We did have one pintail sprig/drake skirt the spread a couple of times but he wouldn't commit giving us a decent shot so none where taken.

[Tanya]

:grin: Excellent work guys! Marshall looks very proud. As Marshall ages he will know which of your "toys" he gets to join in playing with you. Our old lab would get bummed out if John brought out the rifle, but went crazy if he produced the shotgun. Wish we could've been out to the bay, but alas, we must work thsi weekend. John and I got out for an hour this morning after chores to a field hunt, and managed 2 ducks and 3 geese in that span.

[branthunter]

"He just goes nuts when I start collecting things to go hunting. I've never seen a dog who loves to be out in the marsh like this one. It's also like someone turned a switch when he's hunting. He goes from the "I'm so excited" to the "I'm now hunting mode" He is just so full of energy, when he sees birds working the decoys he tenses all up waiting to spring into action."

Good job on waiting out the drakes Marc. It adds a nice touch to hunting and makes you focus more on your quarry, how they fly, what the appearance is, what noises they make. etc. I've found that with mallards at least, when light conditions are difficult, you can often pick out the drake/s from body size well before they get into range.

It looks and sounds like Marshall's going to be one of those super dogs of waterfowling. I've been fortunate enough to have one in my chocolate male Jake and it's been tough this year watching him struggle with his hips after each hunt, altho in the marsh/field he's still just as keen and almost as active as ever ( the Metacam does help tho). Watch Marshall's eyes when he's looking behind you. I bet they'll tell you when he spots birds coming from that direction.

[Marc]

:grin: Excellent work guys! Marshall looks very proud. As Marshall ages he will know which of your "toys" he gets to join in playing with you. Our old lab would get bummed out if John brought out the rifle, but went crazy if he produced the shotgun. Wish we could've been out to the bay, but alas, we must work thsi weekend. John and I got out for an hour this morning after chores to a field hunt, and managed 2 ducks and 3 geese in that span.

Good to hear you two are getting out. I bumped in to Fred down at the bay last Saturday and had a little chat. Looks like the snow has pretty much buggered the field hunting this winter for ducks.




Watch Marshall's eyes when he's looking behind you. I bet they'll tell you when he spots birds coming from that direction.

He's seen some birds before me a few times. In the boat I know there are birds around as he flintches and tenses right up and shakes the boat as they work the decoys.:lol:

[newhunterette]

jeepers Marc , Marshall sure has grown up - wonderful job and congrats

[branthunter]

Good to hear you two are getting out. I bumped in to Fred down at the bay last Saturday and had a little chat. Looks like the snow has pretty much buggered the field hunting this winter for ducks.



He's seen some birds before me a few times. In the boat I know there are birds around as he flintches and tenses right up and shakes the boat as they work the decoys.:lol:

I was out last night in a field that has produced ducks for me every time this year, right up to last week. Nothing. Even as I was walking out after pulling my set, when it was well after legal shooting, there were almost no birds coming into that field.

[Elkhound]

Looks like you will need to buy another freezer just for birds...lol

[Marc]

Looks like you will need to buy another freezer just for birds...lol

With 5 guys at work that love ducks it doesn't take long for them to go. I can roast up a limit and take them to work and all that's left an hour later is a pile of bones. :lol:

[Marc]

A bit more to the story.

What I didn't realize was that it was going to be a a fairly low tide at sunset. We ended up having to drag the boat to the closest channel which luckily was only 100 yards away. So we empty out the boat and bring the 2 dozen decoys, the 13 birds, my day pack, and my shotgun to the channel edge. We then both grab hold of the boat and drag it to the channel.

Marshall the whole time we were dragging the boat thinks it's a game and jumps and bounces off of Josh and I almost knocking us over as we're trudging through the mud:lol:. It's funny thinking about now but it wasn't very funny when we were trying to drag the boat to the water.

Had an excellent time out there as always with Josh & Beaner, hoping to get back out next weekend. Haven't decided yet if I'll go for ducks or geese, time and rain will tell I guess. It's my B-day on the 10th so I'm hoping to get lucky.

[kyleklassen]

get the dog to drag the boat.lol. got all drakes tonight too . went down for the last hour and got 4 greenheads and a drake greenwing.

[Marc]

get the dog to drag the boat.lol. got all drakes tonight too . went down for the last hour and got 4 greenheads and a drake greenwing.

Hmm, interesting. I wonder how hard it would be to get a dog harness. I've heard of chessies beating husky dogs in dead weight sleigh pulling.

[NaStY]

Man that sure does look like fun. Will have to give it a try one of these days.

[kyleklassen]

i'm not a dog guy but i have heard nothing beats a chessie. especially for cold water endurance.

[Marc]

It was -4 that morning and after half dozen or more times into the water, and laying out in the boat with a wet coat, he did start to shiver a bit by mid day. I shared half my turkey sandwich and a couple PB cookies and he was ready for round two.:biggrin: I have a piece of rubber foam and a down coat liner he lays on in the boat. It never stays dry but it gives him a bit of insulation.