waterdog09
Active member
Was out in SD last week thur-sun. This trip wasn't about bird numbers in the bag as much as it was about memories from the past and creating new ones. Went out with a couple close family friends that I've known for 25+ years, well since I was a little kid. This past year I lost my dad to cancer, so it was only natural he wanted his ashes spread out in the fields we had spent so many years hunting together with our family that lives in SD. But this trip had one hunt that will live with me for as long as I live! Friday morning we decided to hunt some small patches of grass in a cut corn field and I said I would walk the ditch that ran along it, now this is the ditch that my dad hunted every year for atleast the last 10 years or so. So when I said I would hunt it with my dads 12 year old yellow lab I wasn't expecting much as she can barely walk let alone hunt. I figured I owed it to her and my dad to see if she could get one last rooster from the ditch they shared so many memories together in. The walk started out slow with her walking the road and not really hunting much, we walked about a 1/4 mile with her finally starting to work the fence line. We made the turn to hunt the ditch going north to south, we made it about 50ft and I started seeing tracks everywhere in the ditch, we had just gotten a fresh inch of snow on thurs so I had hope. We went another 100 yds and her ears perk up and her tail starts moving at a rapid pace which I've seen a thousand times before out of this dog. I continue on into a large willow patch looking at all the tracks and trying to watch the old timer. As I come out if the 8ft tall willows I see her working down into the ditch from the fence line and look 20 yds ahead of me and see a rooster running, as soon as she gets into the ditch a group of 10-12 birds get up at about 25yds, I pick out the first rooster and send it tumbling onto the dirt road, she slowly makes her way over to the bird and makes the retrieve bird to hand. At this point I was a little emotional knowing what just happened was something special! We continue on and another 100yds ahead she is back on the fence line and ears up and tail going again, I move to the road because she has started to run and go into a jog to keep up. Now keep in mind this dog is almost 13 and has a hard time walking let alone running! We go another 100yds at this pace and she stops about 50 yds from the end of the ditch just working the fence line. As she goes to work down into the ditch a rooster gets up 5ft from her, the perfect going away shot over a cut corn field, I missed low on the first shot adjusted for the 2nd and dumped the bird about 40yds into the field. Again another perfect retrieve bird to hand like I had seen her do so many times before. At the end of the walk my brother and I shared a high five and said dad was watching this and loving every minute of it!! To me hunting isn't about the number of birds but rather the stories and memories that are created on hunts like this! I hope everyone gets to experience hunts like this because it makes a entire season or trip worth the wait and the effort!!
