reddog
Well-known member
Left the wife behind on Thursday night and headed west. Stopped in Pukwana for a pizza at Jackies. If you get the chance,, try it.. I drive by a lot of pizza joints in the 260 miles it takes to get to the cabin, but wont stop till I get to Jackies.
Thursday morning found me in driving around Lyman county trying to get a handle on what kind of cover the birds were using and the status of the harvest.. What I found, was plenty of birds out in the winter wheat getting greens and moisture for the day. I started out the morning on a small corner of WIA, that has been good to me in the past. That produced one rooster out of a milo field edge. Moving on to the next WIA, found me in a 60 acre semi dry swamp. Not real heavy, or wet. just pockets of water. Let the pooches out, and right off the bat, birds start moving. Oh well, the sooner you figure out that you're not going to get every bird in the field, the better off you're going to be. I proceed around the perimeter, and about half way, Breez locks up solid on a point of marsh weeds. I walk up and a nice rooster breaks cover, heading to my left. I single shot from my 686 skeet bbl sends him crashing to the ground.. Breez makes a nice retrieve, and we proceed onward around the swamp.. We get to the far side, and have to make a decision to proceed on, or hunt with the wind back to the vehicle. I decide to go towards the vehicle, and Breez busts a rooster on a downwind cast. We load up and drive back around the swamp to hunt a line of cedars/trees. I don't really care for hunting these things alone, because its so hard to pin a bird down, but, it was fairly early in the day, and I figured if I moved the out of the treeline, I could hunt them in the grass.. Never made it to the grass. Ellie pinned a sleeping rooster along the fenceline, who was none to happy about having his morning nap interrupted, and was cackling all kinds of obscenities at her as she flew away..... right into a ounce load of #5s.. Breez runs out into the harvested milo and brings it back to hand.. As I'm heading back to the truck, another truck pulls up beside mine. I'm walking back to my truck, with my double broke over my shoulder. The guy comes out to talk to me and we have a nice chat.. He sees one set of tailfeathers hanging out of my vest, and asks if I wanted to hunt with him.. He had a gorgeous English Setter that I would've loved to seen work, but I told him that I was headed back to the cabin to get the boat, and try fishing in the afternoon, if the wind wasn't too bad. Gathered the pooches up, and the birds and posed them for a picture.. For some reason my dogs hate pictures, and always look sad or distracted.. I wonder if they know the picture means they're done for the day?
I drove the 30 miles to the boat ramp, and found the river to be way too angry for me on this day. So I spent the rest of the day scouting new areas..
Saturday found me hooking onto the boat, first thing in the morning. I was going to save me a 50 mile round trip to go get it. I dropped it off at the ramp about 9ish, and headed back to the WIA that I only got started on the day before. (never hunted it before) This day was a series of discoveries, one of which I would've thought Id have known already.. Trust your dog (s). I had both dogs on the ground first thing.. Almost exactly in the same area of the treeline, (only on the opposite side because of the wind) Breez and Ellie come together on a cast, and both instantly lock up with noses almost touching.. I get just enough time so dig my phone and snap this picture, when a rooster jumps up and flies to my right. I drop the phone, snap the safety off, and when the gun hits my shoulder it goes off and this rooster comes tumbling to the ground. Breez runs down to make the retrieve, when two more roosters flush. I could've easily shot (at) one of them, but one other thing I've learned is that I don't shoot other birds till the initial one is delivered.. I've got plenty of doubles under my belt, but I also have plenty of lost second birds, and wont do it now.. I know, its not for everybody, but its a rule I come to enforce for myself.. Plus, I don't want to be done right away.. We continue down the treeline, and when I get to where I can see the end, I see birds moving out... over the hill.. We continue down the treeline and Breez sticks a point.. Hen.. Over the hill, there's another swamp, only this one is dry.. We enter one end, and the birds file out the other..but not all of them.. Were working our way around, and Breez heads for high ground, nose and tail up in a beeline to nowhere.. or so I thought.. she stops on top of the hill, I hit the road, not convinced what I'm going to find.. Ellie stops on the edge of the swamp, looking at Breez.. I cant tell if she backing, or just wondering WTH is she up to now.. I get to 20 yards from her, and a rooster erupts out of thin air.. He meets a load of 5s to the back of the head and comes tumbling to the ground with his wings and feet flapping, but not going anywhere. Breez has a tough time getting ahold of this guy, because he's jumping, tumbling.. well, you know.. By the time she delivers him to me, he's a ball of soft feathers in my hand, from expiring.. We work our way to another treeline, and work it back to the truck. With no further contact.. We load up, and head to another area I want to hunt about 10 miles away.. Its big, and I only need one bird.. Maybe I'm getting lazy in my old age, but, I have a hard time getting excited about jumping into a half section for one bird... but, away we go.. I leave Ellie in the crate on this trip, because she's old, tired, and I don't want to keep track of two dogs in the medium height cover. We start out heading for the thickest stuff I can find on this piece.. We work it for half an hour, with no contact, or even any semblance that a pheasant has ever lived there, according to Breezs nose.. We find ourselves at the edge of the heavy cover, and have a area of old wheat stubble to cross before we can get to the grassland surrounding the heavy cover. About half way across, Breezs nose and tail rise up, and she goes into a prance/walk into the wind.. She locks up about 90 yards away from me. I get my phone//camera out, while picking up the pace to her. I snap a series of pictures as I'm moving around to flank her.. Here's the first picture, zoomed in max on my phone.
here's the last picture I took before putting the phone back in the vest.
I walk up a 5 rooster and 3 prairie chicken jailbreak occurs.. I pull on the nearest rooster, and send a load of shot his way, and he tumbles to the ground, and Breez is on him.. I whistle her in, and place this young rooster in my vest..
I stand there looking around, wondering what the heck just happened.. While I'm daydreaming, Breez is gone off to my southeast 100 yards and has her nose and tail up again, stalking.. I stand there and watch.. Just as she's about to freeze up, two chickens bust out. I have a hard time calling her out of the field,( I think she knows there's more birds there, or maybe she knows she's done) but.. I've got a boat waiting for me 40 miles away, and its nice out.. No pictures today as I'm motivated to get on the water..
continued:
Thursday morning found me in driving around Lyman county trying to get a handle on what kind of cover the birds were using and the status of the harvest.. What I found, was plenty of birds out in the winter wheat getting greens and moisture for the day. I started out the morning on a small corner of WIA, that has been good to me in the past. That produced one rooster out of a milo field edge. Moving on to the next WIA, found me in a 60 acre semi dry swamp. Not real heavy, or wet. just pockets of water. Let the pooches out, and right off the bat, birds start moving. Oh well, the sooner you figure out that you're not going to get every bird in the field, the better off you're going to be. I proceed around the perimeter, and about half way, Breez locks up solid on a point of marsh weeds. I walk up and a nice rooster breaks cover, heading to my left. I single shot from my 686 skeet bbl sends him crashing to the ground.. Breez makes a nice retrieve, and we proceed onward around the swamp.. We get to the far side, and have to make a decision to proceed on, or hunt with the wind back to the vehicle. I decide to go towards the vehicle, and Breez busts a rooster on a downwind cast. We load up and drive back around the swamp to hunt a line of cedars/trees. I don't really care for hunting these things alone, because its so hard to pin a bird down, but, it was fairly early in the day, and I figured if I moved the out of the treeline, I could hunt them in the grass.. Never made it to the grass. Ellie pinned a sleeping rooster along the fenceline, who was none to happy about having his morning nap interrupted, and was cackling all kinds of obscenities at her as she flew away..... right into a ounce load of #5s.. Breez runs out into the harvested milo and brings it back to hand.. As I'm heading back to the truck, another truck pulls up beside mine. I'm walking back to my truck, with my double broke over my shoulder. The guy comes out to talk to me and we have a nice chat.. He sees one set of tailfeathers hanging out of my vest, and asks if I wanted to hunt with him.. He had a gorgeous English Setter that I would've loved to seen work, but I told him that I was headed back to the cabin to get the boat, and try fishing in the afternoon, if the wind wasn't too bad. Gathered the pooches up, and the birds and posed them for a picture.. For some reason my dogs hate pictures, and always look sad or distracted.. I wonder if they know the picture means they're done for the day?
I drove the 30 miles to the boat ramp, and found the river to be way too angry for me on this day. So I spent the rest of the day scouting new areas..
Saturday found me hooking onto the boat, first thing in the morning. I was going to save me a 50 mile round trip to go get it. I dropped it off at the ramp about 9ish, and headed back to the WIA that I only got started on the day before. (never hunted it before) This day was a series of discoveries, one of which I would've thought Id have known already.. Trust your dog (s). I had both dogs on the ground first thing.. Almost exactly in the same area of the treeline, (only on the opposite side because of the wind) Breez and Ellie come together on a cast, and both instantly lock up with noses almost touching.. I get just enough time so dig my phone and snap this picture, when a rooster jumps up and flies to my right. I drop the phone, snap the safety off, and when the gun hits my shoulder it goes off and this rooster comes tumbling to the ground. Breez runs down to make the retrieve, when two more roosters flush. I could've easily shot (at) one of them, but one other thing I've learned is that I don't shoot other birds till the initial one is delivered.. I've got plenty of doubles under my belt, but I also have plenty of lost second birds, and wont do it now.. I know, its not for everybody, but its a rule I come to enforce for myself.. Plus, I don't want to be done right away.. We continue down the treeline, and when I get to where I can see the end, I see birds moving out... over the hill.. We continue down the treeline and Breez sticks a point.. Hen.. Over the hill, there's another swamp, only this one is dry.. We enter one end, and the birds file out the other..but not all of them.. Were working our way around, and Breez heads for high ground, nose and tail up in a beeline to nowhere.. or so I thought.. she stops on top of the hill, I hit the road, not convinced what I'm going to find.. Ellie stops on the edge of the swamp, looking at Breez.. I cant tell if she backing, or just wondering WTH is she up to now.. I get to 20 yards from her, and a rooster erupts out of thin air.. He meets a load of 5s to the back of the head and comes tumbling to the ground with his wings and feet flapping, but not going anywhere. Breez has a tough time getting ahold of this guy, because he's jumping, tumbling.. well, you know.. By the time she delivers him to me, he's a ball of soft feathers in my hand, from expiring.. We work our way to another treeline, and work it back to the truck. With no further contact.. We load up, and head to another area I want to hunt about 10 miles away.. Its big, and I only need one bird.. Maybe I'm getting lazy in my old age, but, I have a hard time getting excited about jumping into a half section for one bird... but, away we go.. I leave Ellie in the crate on this trip, because she's old, tired, and I don't want to keep track of two dogs in the medium height cover. We start out heading for the thickest stuff I can find on this piece.. We work it for half an hour, with no contact, or even any semblance that a pheasant has ever lived there, according to Breezs nose.. We find ourselves at the edge of the heavy cover, and have a area of old wheat stubble to cross before we can get to the grassland surrounding the heavy cover. About half way across, Breezs nose and tail rise up, and she goes into a prance/walk into the wind.. She locks up about 90 yards away from me. I get my phone//camera out, while picking up the pace to her. I snap a series of pictures as I'm moving around to flank her.. Here's the first picture, zoomed in max on my phone.
here's the last picture I took before putting the phone back in the vest.
I walk up a 5 rooster and 3 prairie chicken jailbreak occurs.. I pull on the nearest rooster, and send a load of shot his way, and he tumbles to the ground, and Breez is on him.. I whistle her in, and place this young rooster in my vest..
I stand there looking around, wondering what the heck just happened.. While I'm daydreaming, Breez is gone off to my southeast 100 yards and has her nose and tail up again, stalking.. I stand there and watch.. Just as she's about to freeze up, two chickens bust out. I have a hard time calling her out of the field,( I think she knows there's more birds there, or maybe she knows she's done) but.. I've got a boat waiting for me 40 miles away, and its nice out.. No pictures today as I'm motivated to get on the water..
continued:
