What a difference a year makes. We had daily limits in under three hours every day last year. This year we hunted public land between Selby and Eureka. We literally found one corn field that had been picked. The rest were up. Most were still picking beans. I didn't see many combines even in the fields I'm guessing because of recent rains. There was standing water in some ditches. Pretty much all ditches were mowed several with round bails of hay in them. WPA's had cattle in them or were grazed already. I'll break it down from here.
We arrived Friday to 45 mpw winds. Withing two minutes we jumped a rooster and a hen so I assumed we would see birds. We hunted from around 2pm until dark and were skunked. Literally. Last moments of daylight my bro in laws lab took a shot point blank from the black and white rodent. That curtailed most of our night plans.
Saturday's weather was nice but the hunting was not. We had a grand total of three birds for five guys. At dark we loaded the gear and dogs and did the half hour drive back to our rental house for steak dinner. To my terror my GSP had been left behind. A gut wrenching 100mph drive back ended well as she was sitting where the truck had been. Thank God! That pretty much ruined the rest of the trip for me. We had six dogs with us and were constantly pulling custom made kennels in and out to get them all in. My buddy and bro in law did the dog loading that night. My GSP had decided to keep hunting in the corn field we were parked by. So in the confusion and darkness it happened. I was never so happy that I bought a beeper collar for her.
Sunday was more of the same. Windy and only two birds.
Sunday night three of the guys in our group (not me) decided to stay up until 3:30 am.
Monday Two of them went back to the house after one push for a nap.:cheers: After we parted with them and en route to the next field I noticed a bird get up and then quickly back down. We stopped the truck and I hopped out with my loaded gun and grabbed my lab. The one bird turned into a 50+ bird flush. The other two in the truck jumped out when they saw the birds and we finished with 6. The key was this the only ditch cover we seen next to a picked corn field. We did see 20+ get pushed out of the beans by a combine later that night but couldn't hunt where they landed so clearly the birds are still in the fields.
Tuesday--Long disappointed ride home.
Upside is we're going back in 5 weeks. My hopes are with crops still up and many groups not getting their birds that there is plenty left around when we get there. This trip really opened my eyes to how lack of cover really effects the birds.
We arrived Friday to 45 mpw winds. Withing two minutes we jumped a rooster and a hen so I assumed we would see birds. We hunted from around 2pm until dark and were skunked. Literally. Last moments of daylight my bro in laws lab took a shot point blank from the black and white rodent. That curtailed most of our night plans.
Saturday's weather was nice but the hunting was not. We had a grand total of three birds for five guys. At dark we loaded the gear and dogs and did the half hour drive back to our rental house for steak dinner. To my terror my GSP had been left behind. A gut wrenching 100mph drive back ended well as she was sitting where the truck had been. Thank God! That pretty much ruined the rest of the trip for me. We had six dogs with us and were constantly pulling custom made kennels in and out to get them all in. My buddy and bro in law did the dog loading that night. My GSP had decided to keep hunting in the corn field we were parked by. So in the confusion and darkness it happened. I was never so happy that I bought a beeper collar for her.
Sunday was more of the same. Windy and only two birds.
Sunday night three of the guys in our group (not me) decided to stay up until 3:30 am.
Monday Two of them went back to the house after one push for a nap.:cheers: After we parted with them and en route to the next field I noticed a bird get up and then quickly back down. We stopped the truck and I hopped out with my loaded gun and grabbed my lab. The one bird turned into a 50+ bird flush. The other two in the truck jumped out when they saw the birds and we finished with 6. The key was this the only ditch cover we seen next to a picked corn field. We did see 20+ get pushed out of the beans by a combine later that night but couldn't hunt where they landed so clearly the birds are still in the fields.
Tuesday--Long disappointed ride home.
Upside is we're going back in 5 weeks. My hopes are with crops still up and many groups not getting their birds that there is plenty left around when we get there. This trip really opened my eyes to how lack of cover really effects the birds.
