A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Ace & I had a good weekend. Ate, hunted, napped. The public land birds are pretty tough right now. Most of them know how to win the game we play with them. They've got almost as many options as they had on opening day. 6" of snow would shift the odds a bit more in our favor, even if only for a couple weeks.
Thursday: Stayed home w/ the wife, daughters, & Ace. Our usual family visitors stayed home this year due to Covid. The 4 of us still did the complete extravaganza though, so we ate a lot of great chow. Far & away my favorite meal of the year.
Black Friday: Gorgeous day. Ace & I hunted 2 public spots (a WPA & a WIA). The first one I hadn't hunted in at least a couple years. We hunted quite a bit & saw only 4 roosters & a couple hens. All roosters singles, in cattails. 2 pretty bad misses on my part (1 horribly embarrassing) & 1 good shot. Even though I had a chance at a relatively easy limit, I was a little discouraged by the birds we didn't see & the effort we'd expended to not see them. But I convinced Ace that as long as he keeps finding them, eventually I'd make it up to him. Pulled up to spot #2 for the last hour or so of daylight. We parked at the road intersection (not a normal parking spot) & started down a fenceline with picked corn across the road. It didn't take long for the deer moochers to set up posts at 3 different spots on the road around this 126 acre area. You know...because why hunt when someone else can do it for you?? Anyway, I figured they obviously know I'm out there, I'm wearing orange, so I'm probably safe. I eventually circle around toward a little cattail slough I wanted to hunt. I come over a little rise & here are 2 guys, no dog that I could see, maybe 100 yds from me, heading toward the same area, a mere 300 yards from where I'd parked. Both had over-unders, so not deer hunters. They stopped, looked at me, & proceeded. I look around & see 1 more of the trucks that had driven by me along the road, clear over on the other end of the area. I knew this had to be their truck. They had to have practically ran from their truck to beat me to this slough. I stood there on the rise, as they proceeded right in front of me & around the slough I planned to hunt. But....they didn't go in it; they stuck to the grass. And I didn't see a dog. And it didn't take them long to get around it & head back the same way they'd come. So once they were a safe distance away, I slid in right behind them to start hunting the slough. But MY partner thought it would be best to actually HUNT the cattails, while I leisurely strolled around the edge. And he wasn't wrong. About 15 minutes & 2 good shots later, we had our limit, & Ace felt much better about my shooting. Those guys were still only about 150-200 yards away, so I held both birds up high for them to see as they stood there gawking. A friend has since suggested that I should've also let out a primal scream & emptied the rest of my magazine into the air, just to really punctuate my victory. But jeez, what idiots. I don't think it's being selfish to expect people to stay out of the 28 acre corner, right by my truck, in a 126 acre area, when you KNOW I'm pheasant hunting there because you drove by & saw me! Morons.
Saturday: Since I really didn't find the birds I hoped to at Friday's 1st spot, I knew they had to be around somewhere, & I remembered a little WPA very close to it that I also hadn't hunted in a couple/few years. It's a little tough to get to, but whatever. And that's where they were. Great numbers. And it wasn't like opening day, but they acted like they hadn't been hunted much, at least not recently. Got 3 in barely over an hour. Much better shooting than Friday.
Sunday: The order of the day was wind!!! It made quiet communication between me & Ace almost impossible. He does a pretty good job staying close & checking in, but something yesterday through him for a loop. I can only guess it was the wind. At several points I had to just stand there & yell for him. It was really frustrating & if there had been any birds nearby, they weren't going to be for long. But we hunted 3 WPA's & saw "some" pheasants, mostly flushed out of range. I took 1 long shot & missed. But....the 3 swans I'd seen at one spot 2 weeks ago were still there, so we got to watch them a little (very uncommon in that area). They were only about 100 yds from shore & really didn't seem to mind our presence. Then an eagle flew into the area & started circling the pond, maybe only 50 yards high. He seemed to be pretty interested in the swans. They didn't seem alarmed. To my knowledge there are no fish in that pond/slough, but maybe he was just checking out the open water the swans were swimming in. But I kind of think he was trying to get one of those swans to fly. By the time a swan would get over ice, he'd still be quite low, the way they take to the sky. I think that eagle thought he could possibly take one out over the ice. Didn't happen though. Then we're driving along at about 4:30 & I see 1 rooster settle into the very edge of some cattails....on public ground....about 100 yards from the road. So we approached from downwind & miraculously he'd stayed put. And he had a buddy with him that I hadn't seen. And they're both hanging in my garage now. So that was a nice way to end a somewhat frustrating day.
All in all, it was good hunting, mostly decent shooting, better than working, & Ace will sleep all week until Saturday rolls around again. But we need snow bad.
Thursday: Stayed home w/ the wife, daughters, & Ace. Our usual family visitors stayed home this year due to Covid. The 4 of us still did the complete extravaganza though, so we ate a lot of great chow. Far & away my favorite meal of the year.
Black Friday: Gorgeous day. Ace & I hunted 2 public spots (a WPA & a WIA). The first one I hadn't hunted in at least a couple years. We hunted quite a bit & saw only 4 roosters & a couple hens. All roosters singles, in cattails. 2 pretty bad misses on my part (1 horribly embarrassing) & 1 good shot. Even though I had a chance at a relatively easy limit, I was a little discouraged by the birds we didn't see & the effort we'd expended to not see them. But I convinced Ace that as long as he keeps finding them, eventually I'd make it up to him. Pulled up to spot #2 for the last hour or so of daylight. We parked at the road intersection (not a normal parking spot) & started down a fenceline with picked corn across the road. It didn't take long for the deer moochers to set up posts at 3 different spots on the road around this 126 acre area. You know...because why hunt when someone else can do it for you?? Anyway, I figured they obviously know I'm out there, I'm wearing orange, so I'm probably safe. I eventually circle around toward a little cattail slough I wanted to hunt. I come over a little rise & here are 2 guys, no dog that I could see, maybe 100 yds from me, heading toward the same area, a mere 300 yards from where I'd parked. Both had over-unders, so not deer hunters. They stopped, looked at me, & proceeded. I look around & see 1 more of the trucks that had driven by me along the road, clear over on the other end of the area. I knew this had to be their truck. They had to have practically ran from their truck to beat me to this slough. I stood there on the rise, as they proceeded right in front of me & around the slough I planned to hunt. But....they didn't go in it; they stuck to the grass. And I didn't see a dog. And it didn't take them long to get around it & head back the same way they'd come. So once they were a safe distance away, I slid in right behind them to start hunting the slough. But MY partner thought it would be best to actually HUNT the cattails, while I leisurely strolled around the edge. And he wasn't wrong. About 15 minutes & 2 good shots later, we had our limit, & Ace felt much better about my shooting. Those guys were still only about 150-200 yards away, so I held both birds up high for them to see as they stood there gawking. A friend has since suggested that I should've also let out a primal scream & emptied the rest of my magazine into the air, just to really punctuate my victory. But jeez, what idiots. I don't think it's being selfish to expect people to stay out of the 28 acre corner, right by my truck, in a 126 acre area, when you KNOW I'm pheasant hunting there because you drove by & saw me! Morons.
Saturday: Since I really didn't find the birds I hoped to at Friday's 1st spot, I knew they had to be around somewhere, & I remembered a little WPA very close to it that I also hadn't hunted in a couple/few years. It's a little tough to get to, but whatever. And that's where they were. Great numbers. And it wasn't like opening day, but they acted like they hadn't been hunted much, at least not recently. Got 3 in barely over an hour. Much better shooting than Friday.
Sunday: The order of the day was wind!!! It made quiet communication between me & Ace almost impossible. He does a pretty good job staying close & checking in, but something yesterday through him for a loop. I can only guess it was the wind. At several points I had to just stand there & yell for him. It was really frustrating & if there had been any birds nearby, they weren't going to be for long. But we hunted 3 WPA's & saw "some" pheasants, mostly flushed out of range. I took 1 long shot & missed. But....the 3 swans I'd seen at one spot 2 weeks ago were still there, so we got to watch them a little (very uncommon in that area). They were only about 100 yds from shore & really didn't seem to mind our presence. Then an eagle flew into the area & started circling the pond, maybe only 50 yards high. He seemed to be pretty interested in the swans. They didn't seem alarmed. To my knowledge there are no fish in that pond/slough, but maybe he was just checking out the open water the swans were swimming in. But I kind of think he was trying to get one of those swans to fly. By the time a swan would get over ice, he'd still be quite low, the way they take to the sky. I think that eagle thought he could possibly take one out over the ice. Didn't happen though. Then we're driving along at about 4:30 & I see 1 rooster settle into the very edge of some cattails....on public ground....about 100 yards from the road. So we approached from downwind & miraculously he'd stayed put. And he had a buddy with him that I hadn't seen. And they're both hanging in my garage now. So that was a nice way to end a somewhat frustrating day.
All in all, it was good hunting, mostly decent shooting, better than working, & Ace will sleep all week until Saturday rolls around again. But we need snow bad.
