Marc
11-07-2009, 06:00 PM
Man did it rain the last two days, we headed out to the field this morning and I was a bit nervous taking the truck out to the blind but I managed and spin a bit leaving after everything was dropped off and set up.
We figured we’d do well on ducks and man was there ducks. We had ducks working the spread all morning making it quite easy to be selective. We even managed to shoot a banned mallard hen. Around 9:00am we had a small flock of geese catch us by surprise, the first flock came in from nowhere and we shot them with duck loads stoning two.
The dog was getting plenty of exercise today and made some impressive retrieves. One bird was hit but was struggling to stay air born and Marshall was on his tail feathers for a good 150 yards before the bird hit the ground in the flooded field. You could see the dog running and the spray from the water as the duck was trying to evade him. That only lasted for a few seconds, we weren’t sure if the dog had the duck or not but it became apparent he had indeed caught the duck and brought it back to the blind. He didn't get much time to get cold as he was out retrieving pretty much the whole time we were out there. He did shiver a couple of times as we were getting poured on and we were set up in a ditch so the majority of the time he was standing in water.
Once we had our limit of ducks in the blind, we changed out our shells to goose loads we had decided we’d stay until 10:00am to see if anymore geese show up. Well we were just getting ready to pack up when I heard some geese and we spotted a flock of geese that was passing to our left. Then I heard more geese but this time they were headed right for us over head. They must have heard us frantically trying to turn the other flock and honed right in on us as they were quite low when they came over the trees. They flew over us, lost some altitude and headed back right over top of us again. Field Marshal and I managed to cut 5 more geese out of that flock.
Wow what an amazing day, A limit of Mallards each (14 Drakes,2 hens) and now 7 geese between us. I was thinking to myself how could this day be more eventful.
So we call it quits and I head out to get the truck while James and Field Marshall collect up the decoys. We figure the best thing would be to back the truck up to the blind this time so I wouldn’t have to turn around and almost get stuck like the last time. Well this turned out to be a big mistake. I got to about 100 yards from the blind and the two right tires sunk right in, we gathered the decoys and everything and loaded up the truck and spent the next two hours digging and placing boards under the tires trying to get the truck out of the rut. My poor truck is covered in mud inside and out, good thing I bought neoprene seat covers last Christmas or I’d be out there with the carpet cleaner giving the seats a going over.
I probably won’t be posting much in the next day or so as I’ll be plucking my thumbs off and up to my elbow in goose and duck guts.
Thanks again Field Marshal for a great day hunting and your expertise in getting a stuck truck out of a corn field. :razz:
Here are a few pictures from today. The first picture is of Marshall with "his" birds, in the blind he would often give them a nudge with his snout making sure there were no alive ones in the bunch.:mrgreen:
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Marshall_with_Birds.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/tony_with_birds.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/marc_with_birds.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Marc_with_Geese.jpg
We figured we’d do well on ducks and man was there ducks. We had ducks working the spread all morning making it quite easy to be selective. We even managed to shoot a banned mallard hen. Around 9:00am we had a small flock of geese catch us by surprise, the first flock came in from nowhere and we shot them with duck loads stoning two.
The dog was getting plenty of exercise today and made some impressive retrieves. One bird was hit but was struggling to stay air born and Marshall was on his tail feathers for a good 150 yards before the bird hit the ground in the flooded field. You could see the dog running and the spray from the water as the duck was trying to evade him. That only lasted for a few seconds, we weren’t sure if the dog had the duck or not but it became apparent he had indeed caught the duck and brought it back to the blind. He didn't get much time to get cold as he was out retrieving pretty much the whole time we were out there. He did shiver a couple of times as we were getting poured on and we were set up in a ditch so the majority of the time he was standing in water.
Once we had our limit of ducks in the blind, we changed out our shells to goose loads we had decided we’d stay until 10:00am to see if anymore geese show up. Well we were just getting ready to pack up when I heard some geese and we spotted a flock of geese that was passing to our left. Then I heard more geese but this time they were headed right for us over head. They must have heard us frantically trying to turn the other flock and honed right in on us as they were quite low when they came over the trees. They flew over us, lost some altitude and headed back right over top of us again. Field Marshal and I managed to cut 5 more geese out of that flock.
Wow what an amazing day, A limit of Mallards each (14 Drakes,2 hens) and now 7 geese between us. I was thinking to myself how could this day be more eventful.
So we call it quits and I head out to get the truck while James and Field Marshall collect up the decoys. We figure the best thing would be to back the truck up to the blind this time so I wouldn’t have to turn around and almost get stuck like the last time. Well this turned out to be a big mistake. I got to about 100 yards from the blind and the two right tires sunk right in, we gathered the decoys and everything and loaded up the truck and spent the next two hours digging and placing boards under the tires trying to get the truck out of the rut. My poor truck is covered in mud inside and out, good thing I bought neoprene seat covers last Christmas or I’d be out there with the carpet cleaner giving the seats a going over.
I probably won’t be posting much in the next day or so as I’ll be plucking my thumbs off and up to my elbow in goose and duck guts.
Thanks again Field Marshal for a great day hunting and your expertise in getting a stuck truck out of a corn field. :razz:
Here are a few pictures from today. The first picture is of Marshall with "his" birds, in the blind he would often give them a nudge with his snout making sure there were no alive ones in the bunch.:mrgreen:
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Marshall_with_Birds.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/tony_with_birds.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/marc_with_birds.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Marc_with_Geese.jpg