Gave it the old college try this afternoon Sioux City ish area after working a morning shift and was able to hunt from noon to the 4:30 pm close. My brother was able to join me which was nice. It was a beauty of a day out and we were able to walk quite a few ditches taking turns hunting with Kepa. It was my brothers first time handling Kepa and it was nice to see she worked for him just as well as she does for me. He was really impressed with the vari tone feature of her collar. Being able to bring her back into range with the "push and slight hold" of the tone or all the way back in with a "solid hold" of the tone until all the way back impressed him to say the least. No yelling required!!!
As for the hunting we walked 2 "spots" one an old cemetery and the second a nice intersection corner cattail patch along with about 10 ditches, or sections of ditches varying from a 100 yard walk to almost a mile. And we put up 2 roosters. One, Kepa put up right in my face. I could tell from the moment we entered the cover there was a bird in there somewhere. Thankfully the rooster held well and Kepa made a nice flush and a great retrieve on a very much alive rooster. One rooster was it for that spot though and we moved on. Another ditch an hour or so later held another rooster but it flushed early (too far ahead for me) and cut out the side too far away from my brother who was blocking the ditch down the fence row.
I am utterly amazed at the number of single roosters I have put up this year and the number of one bird in the bag hunts I've had too. As far as hunter numbers we did see a couple of other road hunters out as well, but not nearly the number of guys I was seeing back in November.
As for the hunting we walked 2 "spots" one an old cemetery and the second a nice intersection corner cattail patch along with about 10 ditches, or sections of ditches varying from a 100 yard walk to almost a mile. And we put up 2 roosters. One, Kepa put up right in my face. I could tell from the moment we entered the cover there was a bird in there somewhere. Thankfully the rooster held well and Kepa made a nice flush and a great retrieve on a very much alive rooster. One rooster was it for that spot though and we moved on. Another ditch an hour or so later held another rooster but it flushed early (too far ahead for me) and cut out the side too far away from my brother who was blocking the ditch down the fence row.
I am utterly amazed at the number of single roosters I have put up this year and the number of one bird in the bag hunts I've had too. As far as hunter numbers we did see a couple of other road hunters out as well, but not nearly the number of guys I was seeing back in November.