Operation Get the Wife a Limit

On day two of grouse hunting here in north central Washington my one goal was to get my wife a limit of grouse. I was not going to shoot any grouse until my wife had her limit. This time I got a few hours of sleep the night before and again I woke everyone up to get going at first light. I rode the lucky gate and we headed to what we call "The Lower Road."

We get to the top of one hill but before we drop into the next drainage we have to go through another gate which is old, heavy and not fun to move at all. As I was going to get out to open it my wife tells me she will get it. As she drags it open like a pro I give her a smile as I drive through. After a couple moments of waiting for her on the other side I look in my mirror to see her moving the old heavy gate about an inch at a time and with a very flustered look on her face. I get out to HELP her and she quickly returns to her seat with a 'hurry and get this gate closed so we can go hunting' look.

A short time later I see the first grouse in the grass along the road. It flushes into a tree and my wife gets out to shoot it. She shoots a 7 1/2 12 gauge low base shell. So I like her to get a bit closer than she was when she pulled up for the shot. When she pulled the trigger feathers floated down out of the tree and the bird set its wings for the bottom on the valley. There are three choices to choose from in this situation.

A. Positive feed back. "Hey don't worry, at least you got feathers, we will see more."
B. Silence. "..............................................sniff, sniff........................................."
C. Poking fun. "Hey Annie Oakley did you have your eyes closed?"

I tend to start with A and after getting the just shut up look move to B. And if we ever do get some grouse I might be brave enough to move to C.

So this time I give her some positive feedback. As we are looking for more grouse after a few minutes I realize she is not that pleased with herself so I move to silence.

A few corners later I spot the next grouse. My wife gets out and drops it. and I revert back to some positive feedback.

When we finished the lower road my wife had three birds. So I put my big boy pants on and went in for some Poking Fun. "Well I did my job, I showed you 4 birds." with a smile and after an "yeah, yeah" from the wife, I knew she was feeling a lot better now that she had three birds in the bag.

I again decided to take the big loop around, with the idea of stopping in one creek bed where we have had good luck with ruffed grouse in past years. I pull the Jeep over and my wife asks me what I am doing. I told her I was going to go find some grouse. We both get out of the vehicle and load our guns. I went straight in to the thick and nasty stuff and my wife stayed out on the road. ( sometimes I like having someone out of the thick stuff so they can see where the grouse flush to.) Meanwhile our two Wirehaired Pointing griffons start working the creek bed.

5 minutes into the walk the bushes explode with flight. I yell to my wife "Get in here". Her response is "I am busy helping Maddy go Potty". I knew what that meant. BANG, BANG, BANG. My wife yells to me "How many are there!?" I told her - well I just shot three. The dogs start coming out of the brush with birds in the mouth like worker bees bringing pollen back to the hive. They drop the birds at my feet and go back for more. When all the downed birds are back they go back to searching for live birds.  I see Remi get birdy and about 10 feet above her a grouse was sitting in a tree. I again yelled for my wife to get in to the bushes. She yells back and says she is on her way. She gets back to me, shoots the grouse, and I tell her I will get the bird and she can work the 70 yards back to the Jeep and kids. I retrieve her 4th and final bird of her limit. Remi flushes up another bird and I see the general area it went to. I have to crawl under some of the thick brush to get to it. I drop it with one shot and with 8 birds our day is done.

So peration get the wife her limit is complete. We sit on the side of the road and feather all of our birds. Maddy dances and plays in the falling feathers as part of a perfect grouse hunting morning.

R-Dub Outdoors Going Green, The Video

So here is the first video I have ever filmed, edited and published by myself. Luckily hunting was really good. I missed some shots of the kills but that is what happens when your filming by yourself.

R-Dub Outdoors Went Green

So the past couple trips down to the duck hunting spot The Runway have only produced a few wigeon or teal each time. It seemed as though three was the lucky number. Although I have not been skunked yet this year, which is good.

  For those of your who don't know Wednesday is my hunting day.  It is a day I have off of work and my daughter goes to daycare which leaves me to do what I want and 99% of the time that is hunting. Wednesday is also good because no one else is out hunting the spots I like to hunt. So I can get up a 8 AM and start the fire for the family feed all the animals and take my time to get to my hunting spot which is only 2 miles from my house.

So I load Remi up in the Jeep and we get going after all the chores are done.  We get into the area of the first jump hole we are going to shoot and I can see a swan looking at me over the top of all the grass and brush.  It is 50/50 when it comes to a swan whether its going to scare early scaring all the ducks as it takes off or if it will just sit there and watch even when all the shooting happens.  I figure the ducks will be close by the swan so I choose to jump that position instead of my normal. As I am sneaking down the trail I can see clear as day a big green head in the water. I freeze and then slide to my right so I can't see it any more behind the brush. I continue to sneak and I like to get to the point of where I think the ducks are about to see me and then run to get as close as possible. I stop and drop the first Green head out of the sky. Now there was only to green heads next to the swan. Where I normally jump about 100 ducks get up. I took a shot at the second green head by the swan and did not bring it down. I was able to turn towards my normal jump hole and pick out a mallard drake that was close enough and I dropped it. Remi did her thing and easily brought back the two Green heads.

I then got to a point where I could see way down the waterway. I thought I could see some movement in the water at about 400 yards down the way. I walked way around and snuck  in to where I thought the birds were. I belly crawled oer a little grassy hill and jumped up......No ducks. Then about 30 yards to my left a group of green heads got up. I was able to get off one shot and dropped one of the drakes.

Now  I had the magical number of ducks 3. I was determined to break out and get at least 4 for the day.  Now there are 4 different blinds on this 3/4 of a mile water channel. Blind one is closest to the river. Blind 2 is about 70 up channel from #1. Blind 3 is about 200 yards further and blind 4 is across the water from blind 3.

The first blind I sat in was #4, while in #4 I could see ducks circling #1 and #2. So I moved down to #1. While in #1 i thought I should move to #2 and as i thought about it a bunch of mallards came and flew right over #2. So I moved to #2. After I got bored there I decided to move back up to #3. Right after I did the ducks swooped into #2. I got to #3 and decided to go home. As I turned my back a group of ducks flew over but didn't come in, so I decided to stay around. A few minutes later a lone green head flew down the channel. As I reached for my gun he flared up and I thought he was gone fr good. He then dropped down into the water about 100 yards up the water way. Remi and I left the blind to put a sneak on this drake. I got above the duck and decided where I was going to attack from. When I got about 30 yards from where I was going to try and take a shot I put Remi in a sit and stay. I belly crawled up to the tree line so I could try and gt a better location on this duck. There he was about 15 yards away but behind some trees. As I got into a better position guess who freaking laid down next to me, my good buddy Remi. I was not very happy that Remi took it upon herself to join me. I looked at the duck and he put his head way up in the air. I was in no position to shoot this duck on the fly. I put my bead right on his head and pulled the trigger. The drake never stood a chance. Remi brought it back up the bank and I rewarded her with some play time.

Four green heads for the day I am happy. That's how we go Green. HAHAHA

Quail at the house

The last time I saw quail at my house was three years ago when I found a few of them down by the creek.

Tonight I was going outside to grab some wood from the wood shed. as soon as I opened my front door the yard exploded with the sound of quail wings.  They all got up and flew across the street.  I ran around the house tyring to figure out which gun to grab, to be honest I was caught a little off guard. I finally ended up with my 20 gauge 1187 and ran out the door. I didn' even get Remi to help find the quail. I went across the road and saw my first one, it was aways off but I still shot and missed. The next one I dropped. I walked up the draw and a few more flushed that I did not get shots at. Then two in a row got up and I dumped them both. I then went back to the house and got Remi to help my find my downed birds.

As soon as Remi got outside she knew it was time to go to work.  She went into the brush and found the first one I shot and returned it. She then went back into the brush and I lost her. I had no idea where she was or what she was doing. I then realized that she was on point somewhere. I gave her the release command "Get it" I heard her hit the brush and wings start to flush. By the time I picked up the bird it was too far to shoot.  Remi then went off and found the second bird I shot.  I then had her work the area where my third bird went down. She went on a hard lock point.  I could see my downed bird about a foot in front of her in a bush.  She then saw it and returned it.

Remi flushed one more bird but by that time it was too dark to shoot anymore. We made out way back to the house with our bounty, both hoping the quail stick around the house.

Last Trip To Duck Camp

What the lakes normally look like this time of year.

So this year the weather has been very warm for the season. Okanogan county had two weeks of rain and above freezing temps. Normally the lakes I hunt at duck camp are frozen thick with ice. But the day before Thanksgiving I figured I would drive over there for the day and see what I could get into. The worst case scenario was the lakes would be frozen and I would go do some upland hunting.

I get up into camp and lucky me the lakes are free of ice. I get up above Long Lake and see a group of widgeon swim into a corner of the lake where I can make a sneak on them. I follow the same little draw I always do to the lake. It is harder to get down to the lake in the draw later in the year because all the leaves have fallen off of the trees making you more visible to the ducks. I get down to the lake edge behind some cattails and know I have to make my way around the bottom of the lake behind the cattails to get to where I think the ducks are. I notice that the cattails are not giving me as much cover as they usually do because the water has risen a few inches from all the rain. I get about as close to where I think the ducks are as I think possible. I stand up and nothing happened, I find a rock and throw it into the water and nothing. I’m starting to get upset thinking the ducks left before I got down there. Then one lone widgeon drake gets up and I dump it. After I shot the water beneath me exploded with ducks. I picked out two more ducks which turned out to be another widgeon and a teal and dumped both of them. The dogs were still at the top of the hill in the jeep. As I started walking back to get the dogs another teal jumped out of the cattails and I dropped it. And again another teal got up and I dropped it. Now I am at 5 ducks out of my limit of 7 and I just started hunting. I told me self I was going to stop shooting at this lake so I could continue to hunt the rest of the day. As I walk back to the jeep ducks keep flying right over me but I resist and don’t shoot.

I get to the jeep and drive down to the lake. I let the dogs out and leave my Winchester SX3 in the jeep. I take Lily over to where she can get a clear shot at a teal out in the water. But Lily being Lily, she would not go that far out to it. Remi came over and went out right away without hesitation and retrieved it. Then we went over the where the other 4 ducks were. I was standing on some wet slippery logs trying to guide the dogs to where the ducks were at the edge of the cattails. Lily caught a scent of one of the ducks and was trying to stand as far out on the logs as she could without getting in the water sniffing the air. After she fell into the water a few times she swam through the cattails and got the duck and swam back. I was very proud of her. Remi then settled down and went to work. She got the two widgeon without any issues. I knew I had one more down but couldn't see it anywhere. I figured it must have buried itself in the tall weeds. I threw a rock into the cattails where I figured the duck must be and Remi jumped in. I know when Remi gets quiet she is close. A second later she came out with the 5th duck of the lake. Of course while all of this is happening ducks are flying over and landing in front of us. But sense we did so well on this lake I set a greenhead only rule for the rest of the day.

We got back into the jeep and went to the next hole. Again it was full of teal and widgeon which flew right over us but we let them go since no greenheads were in the groups. I checked Rock Lake and didn’t see anything worth putting a sneak on. I check some other private lakes with nothing I was to pursue on them. Then I checked the pan lake at the Y.

I normally drive by and see what is in it and then sneak back to it if there is ducks, but it was full of geese and swans. I knew there was no way to crawl into that lake with all those eye balls watching for me. So I loaded up with 3 1/2 BB's and just ran over the edge of the road till they started to fly and cut loose on them. One goose folded out of the sky and they rest left without saying goodbye. The goose that was down seemed dazed but definitely not dead. I again ran back to the jeep and got the dogs. we got back down to the water’s edge and I sat Remi down pointed at the bird and gave her command of "Dead Bird" which sends her into work mode, not that she was ever out of that mode. Remi swam out to the goose and of course it tries to dive on her. After a few misses Remi finally locks her jaws onto the tail of the goose. As Remi is swimming holding onto the butt of this goose it is still trying to dive pulling Remi down in the water every now and then. I tried to run back and get the camera before Remi got to shore but Remi beat me back. Once Remi got it to shore she was having a hard time picking it up due to its size and weight.

I drove up the road and saw some mallards in a lake that I normally don't hunt due to its proximity to a ranch about 1/4 mile away. I got to the ranch house and speak with the property owner who I know. I explained to her that in October I kicked some deer hunters off her land that did not have permission to be there. I also told her that I found her fences open a few times but I closed them up for her so her cows would not get out. The I asked her if I could hunt the lake, which she gave me the OK like she always does when I want to hunt that lake once or so a year. So I drive around the lake and get into position for my sneak. The mallard were in a group of spoonies. The wind was also howling over the lake. I get close enough to where I think I can get my shot off and stand up. The ducks get up into the wind and I pick out my greenhead. I shoot threes times and all the ducks left. When they got about 70 yards out a duck dropped out of the sky into the middle of the lake. I went and got Lily out of the jeep and got her downwind of the duck. After throwing a few rocks and a few attempts of going out into the water Lily swam out and got the greenhead.

I then went to some lakes I thought would hold some geese. I was right and out in the middle of cut wheat fields there is a lake shaped like an exclamation point. In the period of the lake sat a group of geese. There is no cover around the lake except for some tall grass at the edge of the lake. I walked round to get behind the birds and walked as close as I could till I could start to see water. I didn't think there was any way I could get close enough to the birds to get a shot, but I was going to try anyway. I used the lay of the land to my advantage and crawled around rocks and small hills for what seemed like forever. I would take breaks every now and then. I was able to get behind the grass, but then the geese started to move around and get nervous. I was able to get to the last clump of grass between me and the geese. At this point I got very confident. I stood up and realized that the geese were still about 35 yards out and they weren’t getting any closer. So I pulled the trigger and watch handfuls of feathers come off of the bird I was shooting at, but nothing came down. It was a long disappointing walk back to the jeep.

After only seeing widgeon and teal the rest of the day and running out of I took off my greenhead rule and went back to long lake where walked up the other end of the lake and shot a widgeon to finish off my day.

It was a great day at duck camp and I am sure these lakes will be solid in the next week or so. So till next year I will be dreaming of duck camp.

Maps from Google Maps.

Dog 1 and Dog 2

So earlier in the month I spoke about the difference I have seen in hunting dog #1 and Dog #2. The main premise is that hunting dog #2 being younger with hunting dog #1 always around can afford to be lazy. So I am going to jump into this idea and see what other hunters think about it.  

Sage

I got Remi my German Wire Haired Pointing Griffon (Griff) in December of 2006 after my first hunting dog Sage a German wire haired Pointer was killed by a car.  I trained Remi just like I trained Sage though the school of hard knocks.  I would definitely say I am strict with my dogs.  

Now for those of you who don’t know all that much about pointers, they are not like labs when it comes to water.  They need some coaxing/training/ butt kicking to get in when young.  Sage hated the water as a young puppy. She was kind of a princess and didn’t like to get her feet on cold water. I found that just throwing her into the cold water worked great. Since she was already wet she swam for anything. Through a summer of swimming together she got the hang of it and I didn’t have to throw her in anymore.  Remi was the exact same way at first. Although she started to like the water way faster and didn’t take to many times of getting thrown in to make her realize she is going in no matter what. Now Remi won’t get out of the water. She will swim miles after a wounded duck of goose and will spend hour swimming around a bunch of cattails trying to find a duck. So Remi is dog #1 in the premise.

Now enter dog #2 Lily another Griff, who became a family member around July of 2009. I figured since I now had a wife who was getting into hunting I should get another dog so we each can have a dog to hunt behind.  PS my wife was also pregnant with Maddy when we got Lily.  Now I am a huge supporter of getting puppies hunting as early as possible once away from the mother.  So Lily was hunting that September for grouse. Lily has a great nose for birds.

Remi

Now at Lily’s 2nd year hunting I started to notice something. When grouse hunting I would give Remi and Lily hand signs to run up or down a hill in search of grouse. Remi would run way up on the hillside but Lily would just get a few yards off of the road. When it came to duck hunting Remi would swim out after any duck in the water and Lily would just wait in about knee deep water for Remi to bring the bird in close enough for her to steal it.  So for a couple holes I would leave Remi in the truck and send lily out for ducks in the water. At the beginning of the season Lily would only wade up to her knees to get a duck and by the end of the season she would swim maybe 20 yards for a duck.  But she would always give you that look like “can’t we just get Remi to go get it” first.  But if there were any weeds or grasses in the water forget it she wasn’t going. This was very frustrating for me.

So 2011 came around year three and same thing I felt like I had to train Lily all over again going to get ducks, even though I spent a summer swimming with her in lakes around the house. Lily will swim as far as she needs to get that bumper in the water if it is 80 degrees out.   2012 is turning out to be the same thing. This year there was a teal off the bank at about 10 yards in deep water.  I had Remi in the truck and Lily would go out to her knees and come back. So I tried the good ol’ stand by and threw her in. Well that didn’t work she basically flipped me the bid and left the area. Remi came out and got it without any direction. 

Lily as a puppy

 Now my brother also had 2 Griffs. The same thing with them Dog #1 is a swimming Champ, and Dog #2 who is at 6 years will not swim for birds. My brother’s dog #2 is also Remi’s litter sister.  I know that my brother has put in just as much time with dog 2 as dog 1.

So is it that the #2 dogs are allowed to be lazy because dog #1 is always there for the save.  I thought maybe with Maddy being born I didn’t get enough time training Lily. But that doesn’t make sense because Lily has been with Remi and should have learned to be a water dog. Or is it that we just happen to get two dogs that don’t like water?

All I know is I will keep trying to get Lily to become a swimmer because I know one day Remi will not be around to clean up after her.

Lil's lone hunt

So when I go out hunting I either just take my dog Remi pr both hunting dogs which includes Lily. Bother are German Wired Hair Point Griffons, Remi is 6 years old Lily is 3 years old.  I have this theory that when you have a really good dog at swimming for ducks and you get another dog. The second dog wont be as good at it because the good dog is always there to get the ducks. The theory is deeper than that but that is the gist of it, but I will get deeper into it on another post.

So I decided to just take Lily duck hunting with me for the first time ever. I was nervous that she would not swim out and get any ducks I shoot in the water. We get down to the hunting area the Run Way and sneak into our first spot. It is a spot where the ducks will be in one of two spots and you just have to guess which one. Well today I was wrong and I guessed the spot where the ducks weren't and a group of mallards got up off of the other spot.  A look down the canal I saw three swans. I have never seen swans in this area before.  After they saw me they took off like 747's with their wing tips slapping the water as the fought to gain altitude.

Lily

So I went to the next spot down the canal. It doesn't provide much cover for sneaking but usually enough.  Except when there are more swans and their three foot necks see you coming. Again when the swans busted me a small group of mallards left eh hole.

So far Lily has been doing a decent job staying in heal and listen to me. So we walk up to the upper holes and check them for ducks. I am beginning to think this day was going to be a bust. Then at about 200 yards I see a duck stretch it wings. Lil and I go way around and come from a direction so the tall grass would give us better cover.  I come up over the little hill blocking the ducks view of me and a Widgeon gets up and I drop it, then a teal and I drop it when another widgeon comes around my gun jammed and I did not get a shot off on it.

Lily jumps into the water and the Teal is swimming / running wounded in front of her at about 10 yards. I know she sees it and I yell "Get That Bird" and Lily just watches it run into the tall grass. I make sure the Widgeon is dead and make my way over to where Lily is. After searching for the Teal for about 10 minutes we give up. I was not happy I do not like losing wounded animals. I don't like losing anything I have shot. Anyway we go over to the widgeon and Lil walks out into the watch and retrieves it with no problem.

So we left the run way with one little ducks, hardly worth the trip. But it was nice to get out and get Lily some work. On the drive home which takes about 5 minutes I decided to pick up Remi and see if we could go get some grouse above the house. With the 4 inches of new snow we had it was a great walk through the snowy woods. But we did not find any grouse, although we did see a huge mule deer buck. He just looked at me and I got within about 10 yards of him trying to get a picture of him. 

Spontanous hunting trip.

So on Tuesdays I stay at home with Maddy. This Tuesday we were outside feeding the animals and I asked her if she wanted to go hunting. Her response was a simple yes. Her only request was that we bring her water, which was fine with me. So I packed her day bag with some crackers and duck jerky to snack on.

We set off to a spot I know grouse like to winter. I didn't want to be out long so I had a short trip in mind.

As soon as we get to where I think the grouse are one flushes into a tree. As i get out of the jeep another one flushes into a tree. As I load my gun a third flushes. Now I am trying to keep track were each one is. I find the first one that flushed and as I walked towards it it decides to leave and I dump it. I then went for the third one that flushed. As I see it in the tree I aim at it ready for it to flush as I get closer. While aiming at the third on About 10 feet away from me in my peripheral vision I see a the second one looking at me. I dump the third one and turn the the second still looking at me. I can only see his head and I know if it flushes out the back side of the tree I will not get another shot at it so I shoot it in the head  right out of the tree.

Remi jumped out of the jeep and went to work. She found the three big blue grouse right away. As I climbed back into the jeep a fourth grouse flushed about 40 yards up the hillside into the a tree. I load back up and walk up the hill. Just as I see it it flushes and I can not get a shot through the thick fir trees. Just then a fifth on flushes back down by the road. I try to see where it lands and I think I have a good line on it. As I am walking to where I think the grouse is two more flush out of a tree and I get one of them for my fourth and final grouse of my limit.

I walk back to the jeep which is about 30 yards with my four grouse. The smile on Maddy's face when I come back with birds is priceless. Maddy always asked for a tail feather or two to play with on the drive home.

This is my first limit of grouse in November.

We did stop by a lake up in the grouse woods to see if we could get some ducks but they did want to fly over me.

The next day I was up cutting wood. Driving home with my second trailer full of wood a ruffed grouse almost flew into the jeep. I watched it land in a tree I got out of the jeep and shot it and Lily went out a retrieved the bird.  When I got home my wife is has grouse envy with all the birds I have seen the past two days.

There is a first time for everything

So this year there have already been some firsts , like the $100 duck. But today will another first for me and my wife.

It all started the night before when my wife got home a little early so I decided to head down to the local duck hunting spot The Run Way and see what I could get.  I got to the first and best area to jump some ducks and I shot a triple in mallards. This area is a side channel of the Methow River and the area I hunt is the island it creates. After Remi retrieved all of my ducks we started to walk the loop of jump holes. I got to one of the bigger holes and to my surprise was a group of geese sitting on the bank. Now where I live in Washington State is Goose Management area 5. That means I can only shoot geese on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays during water fowl season. Since it was a Tuesday I was not able to shoot the geese. I went home with my three mallards and a plan.


The next morning Wednesday I got up early and got down to the hunting area before anyone else could. I sneaked into the area and sat down in some timber before day light in a light rain.  I was about 75 yards from where the geese were the night before. Luckily I had my phone on silent because my brother started texting me. I told him I was sneaking in on some geese and he told me he was making banana bread, which we both thought was funny.  At shooting hours I crawled in on the geese that happen to still be in the exact same spot. I didn't get as close as I wanted to but I was able to drop two out of the air with my first shot and missed with my second two shots.  As Remi was retrieving them from the water I heard a couple of geese calling. I turned around and two of them where flying just over the tree tops I knew it would be a long shot but I took it anyway. When I pulled the trigger one of them came crashing down to the ground with a big thud. I knew it was still alive with the way it came down so Remi and I got over to the other side of the channel as quick as we could. Remi Quickly found the goose trying to hid in a small clump of grass.

 I returned home to pack up the family for a over night trip of duck hunting over in another part of Okanogan County where our duck camp is. Lucky for us this involved driving over a dirt road where we hit about 6 inches of snow and snowing in the Jeep. WE love to play in the snow if our household. We got over to the hunting area with about 5 hours of hunting left. We got into camp and the wife wanted me to make lunch for her and Maddy. After lunch we got going to start hunting.


The first little pond produced a drake green winged teal. The second lake I shot at a green head but missed and hit a mallard hen and a pintail hen with the same shot. The third lake I shot triple on mallards because they were in a perfect spot for jumping.

The next little pond had a bunch of geese on it. I had my wife scare the pond and they flew remotely close to me. I knew I already had 3 of 4 for my limit of the day. So I picked out the last goose in the group and unloaded my gun on it. I could tell I hit it all three times I shot at it but it did not collapse. It struggled over the hill and into the lake about 1/2 mile away.

My wife, Maddy and I drove the jeep over to the lake while one of its friends joined the injured the goose in the lake.  A half hour later and a 3 mile swim around the lake for Remi chasing the wounded goose, I was able to get a shot on the injured goose so Remi could retrieve it and my wife killed her first Honker.

All I needed now was one more duck for my limit of ducks. I really only had one more option to hunt. A small jump pond just off of the main dirt road in the area. The problem with this pond is the ducks can see you coming as you drive up to it. As I pull up I can see a couple of mallards in the pond, one green head and one hen. I loaded up got behind a clump of tall grass and ran up to the lake. With my first shot I dumped the green head. This time Lily my 3 year old German Wire Haired Pointing Griffon went down and pulled the drake still alive out of the cattails. 

So lets review the firsts of the day: 1. Shooting geese at the Run Way below my house. 2. Shooting a limit of geese and ducks in the same day. 3. Wife killing her first goose.

It was an awesome day.

Weekend 2 of duck hunting

My family has been duck hunting the same area for around 65 years. This weekend something would happen that has never happened there before.

Friday after work I head up do duck camp like normal. My wife wasn’t feeling too well so she and Maddy decided to stay home. When I got into camp Dad and Ellen are already in camp with their new trailer AKA the castle. They have the fire burning which was great since the weekend before we couldn't have a fire due to an area burn ban. Later that night my sister E'lana and her kids and my little sister's (Ellary) boy friend (Caranza) with his little sister Jazmine showed up in camp.

The next morning we all got up and got ready to go like any other day hunting. The first couple lakes produced some Teal and Widgeon.

Caranza and his double banded Green Head

We get to the lake we call Rock Lake. E'lana goes around to scare the lake and I sneak into my spot. My dad and Caranza are a ways on the other side of the lake. While I am sitting in my hiding spot I can hear all the ducks splashing and talking in the water and I can tell they are mallards by the sounds they are making. Like a tornado they all get up as soon as E'lana shows herself. Just my luck they all go over Caranza and Dad. As I watch the Mallards start to fall I start walking their direction in case they need Remi my dog to help find the ducks. When I get there they have found all the ducks but one. They tell me the area where they think it fell and Remi goes to work. Remi get birdy a few times but isn't finding anything. Finally Caranza says he sees it in a mint bed about 75 yards away. When he picks it up he says it has two bands. Everyone gets excited; Caranza had never shot a banded bird let alone two bands. A two banded bird has never been shot in our group in this area; it only took 65 years and tens of thousands of ducks.


Day one results

Later sitting in the truck after a closer look at the band Caranza finds out that it is a "Reward Tag" worth $100. That has also never happened in a group I have been hunting with.

We continued to hunt and Remi had a stellar day. She was able to find numerous injured ducks in the thick cattails and bring them out. Remi even brought out a 100% healthy coot from the cattails.

At the end of the day we all had our limit of seven ducks and were happy. We returned to camp to clean the birds and tell the stories of past hunting trips around the campfire.



Day two results
 

Day two (Sunday) yielded 10 ducks. Sunday is a relaxed day where we don’t work as hard since everyone has a long drive home after hunting. It was a great weekend and can’t wait to be back at duck camp.

First Duck Hunt 2012

So duck hunting and deer hunting open up the same weekend in Washington State each year. Since I shot my deer on Saturday opening morning, I got to go duck hunting on Sunday. So I get into duck camp on Saturday night and I ask my Dad how many ducks they shot during the Saturday hunt and of course my Dad tells me that he limited out, which in Washington is 7 ducks. Talking to some of the other camp member later I found out that the whole camp with 4 shooters only shot 5 ducks. OOOO that DAD...

Chayse and his duck

But on a good note my 11 year old Nephew Chayse did shoot his first duck on Saturday which was a Hen mallard and we are all proud of him for that.

So we wake up Sunday later than normal and we get breakfast and fumble around camp for a while. We finally get out of camp to the first lake we hunt. I sneak down for the scare of the ducks and shoot two teal, as all the birds flew over the other hunters they were able to shoot one widgeon. One of my ducks was in the toolies and one was out in the water. My six year old German Wired Hair Pointing Griffon Remi made quick work of both ducks finding them and bringing them right to me. For my first shots at ducks for the year it was ok but I should of had more ducks.

We then had to go back to camp because one of my brothers had their vehicle battery dead and Dad had to jump them. As Dad went back to help them My little sisters boy friend (Caranza) and I went to hunt a lake next to camp. I told him where to go hide as I went to scare. The ducks got up off the lake and started to fly towards me at about 40 yards the turned and I tried to make a shot on them and missed and went right over Caranza who also missed.  Caranza they yelled to me that another duck was coming in at me as I stood up to shoot the duck flared and I dropped it. 

The next lake we drove up to had a group of teal and one lone mallard drake. I don't always shoot this lake although I do have permission to hunt it.  I pulled right up to the lake and leaned out the window and clapped my hands to get the ducks to fly. The teal took off but the mallard stayed there, which is unusual. So I figured if he wanted to get shot so be it. I got out of my vehicle and as I did the mallard took off, I loaded my gun brought it up and dropped the duck with one shot.

Remi

We drove through our loop of lakes with little success till we got near the end. There is one lake near the road that is hard to hunt especially when it was windy as it was.  I could see a big group of Spoonies sitting in the pond. I told my dad and Caranza to go to one side of the lake and I would scare from the other side. As I belly crawled to the lake side the ducks spooked and started  flying. I stood up and started to shoot and try and get the birds over the other hunters.  I hit one bird  as it glided back down to the lake and all the other birds flew out where there was not hunters. My ducks was wounded but to far in the middle of the pond to get a kill shot.  Remi was let out of the truck to go to work. AS she swam after the bird she was yelping and howling at the bird. Just as soon as she would get close enough to grab it the duck would fly about 10 feet. After this happened for about 5 minutes Caranza was able to get a kill shot off and Remi brought the bird to shore.

At thins point the rest of the family has 4-5 hour drives home to the westside of the state so they decided to head back to camp and pack up for the weekend.  Since I only have a 40 minute drive home I went to a few more lakes.

The first pond (Which is the same pond of the great goose jump of 2011.) I always peak over the sage brush to see if there are any ducks and where they are if they are there. I saw plenty of ducks and there was a small group of ducks right in front of where I normally jump them from.  I loaded my gun and walked the 5 minute walk to the other side of the pond. I camp up over the mound of dirt by the shore and of course in the 5 minutes all the ducks had moved to other parts of the pond. I took three long shots at the ducks and nothing dropped. Lucky for me I know because of the lay of the land  the ducks have to turn back towards me to get out of the hole the pond is in. When they did this I was able to drop a big Pintail Drake.

Now at this point I Only need one more duck for my limit. I also know I have one more lake to hunt with a little jump hole behind the lake.  The road we are on my wife hates due to the number of rocks on the road. We get to the big lake and all the ducks fly out the wrong direction due to the wind. So all I have left is the jump hole. I slowly walk over the hillside and don't see a darn thing. As I walk closer to the puddle of water the rock on the far side turned and looked at me. As I was like O a duck I am sure he was like Uh Oh a hunter.  The little teal got up and flew right at me and I dumped him in the deep grass.

Whew I was very happy to get my 7th duck on the last hole of the day. We made it back to camp before Dad left and went to feather and breast out the birds. My 2 year old daughter Maddy feathered one of the Teal all by her self. we then packed up and went home thinking about the next week when we all would be back. 

8 degrees and hunting

So the snow has finally arrived in the Methow Valley.

With the mercury saying 8 degrees outside and snow falling harder than it has all year, Remi and I set off to the "Runway" for some jump shooting for ducks.

We get to the parking area and we are the only vehicle, and there are no fresh tracks in the snow which is a good sign that no one has already been in the area hunting earlier in the morning. 

As we walk to the side channel there is just enough wind to blow the snow sideways. I have to walk with my head down only looking up every few yards to make sure I am still walking in a line to where I want to go.

We get to the berm with the channel just on the other side. I push the safety off my gun and slowly raise up. I see one wigeon, then another. With the heavy snow and their heads constantly in the water feeding they had no idea I was there. I take aim at the first one and dump it right there on the water. The second one got up and I pull the trigger and nothing happens. I rack the chamber myself to clear the spent shell just as a green head flies from the bank in front of me, and I dump him dead. I see another wigeon and luckily I had a 3 1/2 shell as my third shot and I dumped him at a distance. Now Remi gets to work retrieving all the ducks from the snowy, icy water.

We get all the ducks to shore and continue our way down the channel. A ways up I see the shape of a duck in an open area of water. I move back into the woods to get a better angle at the duck. Remi and I crawl into an old blind and as I stand up to shoot Remi leaves the blind scaring the duck. I got off a shot and broke the wing and again Remi went out through the ice to get what turned out to be a golden eye.

We get on our way again and I can see a dark silhouette of a duck flying through the snow coming right for us. As I sit down so does Remi, and the green head flies right over us. I warn him on the first shot and drop him with the second.  This one dropped out in the deep snow and was found without much fuss.

We walk to the upper end of the channel, and scare the ducks from the areas that are not safe to hunt due to the proximity of the highway, hoping they will fly to areas we can hunt.

We walk to the complete opposite side of the channel where it meets the main river, blowing two sneaks on the way that I don't really want to talk about. We get to the main river and I have to take a short break, walking all that way in knee-deep fresh snow sitting on top of crusty snow while carrying 5 ducks just takes it out of me.

After our short intermission I go take a peek at the main river, and I can see a big duck on the opposite side of the river. It looks like a mallard drake but I'm not positive. The only problem is he is on the other side of the river and I will have to crawl about 60 yards to get behind a pile of river debris to get a reasonable shot.  So I belly crawl through knee deep snow, trying to keep the tip of my gun out of the snow. I get to the pile of drift wood, check my barrel, and find that it is clear. I peek over the pile of wood and see the duck with its head as high as it could get it to see what I was. I figured I did not have much time before it flew. I knew it was a long shot but it was standing on ice which I thought would make it a better shot then if it was sitting lower in the water.

I pulled up and shot. As a second duck flew off from the deep snow, the one I shot stayed put. Then it started to move and Remi caught sight of it and took off across the river for it. Just then I realize that the river had ice and clumps of slush drifting in the current. Remi gets about half way across the river and the duck realizes Remi is coming for it. The duck slides into the water. Remi is trying to swim up river, and seeing the duck swimming faster, she starts to whine and howl at the duck.  I run up river while breaking through the ice I was standing on. Luckily for me the water under the ice was only about three inches deep.  I get off another shot on the duck to kill it, and it drifts down right to Remi. Then Remi fights the icebergs and slush back across to me.

After I give Remi lots of affection letting her know how good she did getting that duck, we figure out what our next step is. I realize I only have one more duck to get before I get my limit of 7. Then I realize I only have one shell left.

I walk over  and look at the Channel again and see one drake sitting and feeding. I take my time and slowly crawl again through the snow to a tree. As I try to arrange to get a shot, I keep breaking branches. Each time I think the duck will fly. But it doesn't fly and I get a shot on it. After I shoot and I see it still in the water with its wing stuck up over its head, I can't help myself but to yell "HELL YA" as Remi goes and retrieves the duck. 

Again we have a long walk back to the truck with 7 ducks and the snow is getting deeper and deeper. The snow is falling so hard at this point it is hard to breathe because walking into the wind every time you breathe you breathe in snow flakes. We just put our heads down and follow the fence line to the truck.



The northern has rich orange feet (left) and the local has dull faded orange feet. (right)



When I get back to the truck I notice two of my four mallard drakes were northerns. I can tell the difference between the locals and northerns by the color of their feet and the size of their bodies and heads.

I love hunting in the snow and to shoot my limit of ducks for the first time at this location makes this one of the best days of hunting this year.

Hunting the Indian Dan Wildlife Area

So I have been trying to get away from my normal hunting spots and venture out to find new places within a days drive from home. I decided a while ago that I wanted to try a few different wildlife areas, one on my list was the Indian Dan wildlife area near Pateros Washington.

I finally had a day where it worked out for me to go hunting, so I loaded up the dogs Remi and Lily took Maddy to daycare and we were off to Indian Dan.

On the way there I checked a few spots along the highway to see if I could jump some ducks in the river. I tried to put a sneak on a few ducks along the bank but could not find good enough cover to get close enough for a shot.

We arrived to the wildlife area and it was the first spot I ever hunted where you had to register to hunt. I filled out the card put the top half in the drop box and kept the lower half with me.  I read all the info posted like the warning that the Sharp Tailed Grouse lived in this area and that all hunters should identify birds before shooting.  In Washington State you can not shoot Sharp Tailed Grouse although I have never seen one "they" say they look a lot like hen pheasants.

We got to a frozen lake and I decided this was as good of a spot as any to start hunting. There was a rancher there who was getting ready to go look for some of his cows and I decided to ask him to share any knowledge he might have about where the quail are in this area.  The rancher told me where to go, but told me that it was the same area he was going to be riding to look for his cows. I thanked him for the info and told him I would try that area another time.

I got the dogs out and we walked around the frozen lake, about half way around the lake Remi decided to disappear.  Then the battle in my brain starts. Is she locked on point and should I look for her or is she off dicking around in front of me scaring up what ever is out there and should I call her back risking calling her off a point.

After looking for her for a few minutes I decided to call her........No answer. A few more minutes had passed and you could tell how pissed I was getting by the sound of my voice.  Finally I see her about a half mile away and about 200 feet above me coming down a hill. I call her again to let her know where I was. Again the minutes start passing by. I start to think about all the horrible things I am going to do to her when she gets back. After a 1/4 mile hike in the wrong direction she catches up with me. I turned her over on her back and grabbed her snout and put my nose to hers and asked her "Where the HELL have you been?" Once she broke eye contact a few times I let her go. That will teach me to leave the Electric Collar at home.

As we continued to hunt I was keeping Remi at a close heal. I noticed Lily getting getting a bit  birdy. So I released Remi.  As the dogs worked the brush to my right a single quail got up from my left. Of course I was not ready and I missed. All I could think about was I just wont let my dad find out about this, or I will never hear the end of it.

We hiked up one ravine over the top and back down the main canyon. If my dogs found as many birds as they did cactus's we would of had a good day.  But we decided to spend most of our time removing cactus chunks from dog legs, paws and one human thumb. (PS just getting pricked by one of those things.....It doesn't tickle.)

Even though we did not shoot any birds or see much of anything at all we did find a huge hornets nest made in a clump of grass, a mouse nest made out of Doritos yes that's right I said Doritos, out int he middle of no where. I also slid down three to four hundred feet of canyon slop in the snow in the baseball slide position. I figured it was a lot safer then trying to walk down it.

Over all I had a great hike and found a nice area to hunt. I can't expect to find all the birds the first time hunting there.

Duck Hunting the runway with the Chief

So the plan is to meet at the spot at 6:30am and walk in for a 6:55 shooting time. I met Chief Paul and some other friends at the runway. (We call it the runway because it is a narrow side channel off the river that the ducks fly up and down.)

We get out to the blind and there are about 100 ducks waiting for us, but of course it is too dark to shoot and they mostly all fly away. We get the small group of decoys (3) out into the water and hunker down till it is light enough to shoot. My German Wire Haired Pointing Griffon Remi was anxiously waiting to do some work.




Now for those of you who don't know me, my dog Remi and I are not blind or decoy hunters, we specialize in jump shooting.  We don't like sitting still and freezing to death which normally happens when we attempt to decoy.




 

So it is finally light enough to to shoot and I look over to our left and see some ducks still sitting in the channel. So of course I sneak over and dump two mallard hens. Both ducks had broken wings and were still alive as well as swimming to the opposite side of the channel. Well Remi springs into action and goes after them, she did have a bit of trouble on the opposite shore. She would pick one up and the other one would run away  then she would drop the one she had and go after the running one, then of course the one she dropped would run away and so on. It was a big cycle of bird dog owner frustration. Finally she picked one brought it to me and then went back for the other.

For the rest of the day Remi was flawless, Chief Paul was turning the ducks to the blind like a pro and I was having a decent day shooting.

The best duck of the day was a Green head  flying over taking a look at the decoys, and I decided it was time to shoot it. I raised my gun took one shot and the bird folded and hit the water,  Remi went straight out a got it and brought it back to the blind. It was the best, I didn't even feel the gun go off, I didn't have to give any commands to the dog and I only used one shot. That was duck hunting bliss at its best. 


Like Chief Paul said there is nothing better than calling ducks and watching a good bird dog work. I can't say it any better. Just watching Remi chase ducks all day, even though it was 13 degrees with her hair all iced up really shows her dedication to please and her drive to hunt.

Thanks Chief Paul and friends I could not of asked for a better day out hunting. 

2011 grouse hunting

I originally posted this as a guest post over at The Unlucky Hunter.

So in my family September is Grouse hunting. We look forward to it for all 8 months once duck hunting is finished in late January. Grouse hunting is also my wife's favorite hunting season. She loves spending time with me, our daughter Maddy and the dogs. We love the mountain top hikes and the views while looking for blue grouse, as well as chasing the ruffed grouse in the creek bottoms where the grouse flush and you are lucky to get a clear shot. The good days are when we get to do both.



First two grouse of year



This year my wife was the lucky one who shot the first two grouse, and the first day ended slow my wife shot 2 and I shot one grouse and one rabbit.

Later in the year we decided to check out some roads we have never walked in past years. They did produce some grouse so we will add them into our routine of closed roads to hunt.

But the best day came one evening when my wife, Maddy and I decided to go for a hunt after work. we left the house at about 4pm. We first went to the 300 rd and I saw a quick glimpse of what I believed to be a grouse run from the road to the bushes.  So the breaks came on and we jumped out of my old jeep.  It always a great feeling when your standing in the bushes and can hear the grouse running on all the dry leaves around you, but you cant see them.

Maddy getting ready to go hunting

Finally the group of grouse erupts into the thick creek bottom. I could see one perched in a tree and as I was about to shoot it my wife yells I see one. Of course I think it is the same one I see, but being the good husband I am I tell her to shoot it. Bang, she shoots and says she got it, and lucky me my grouse is still in my tree so I shoot it. My wife gets into the creek bottom with the dogs to retrieve the grouse. While she was down there I saw a bee's nest in the tree that looks like a grouse. Of course right at that time my wife says she sees another one. I warn her of the nest and she is confident that what she sees is a grouse. When she shoots her grouse another one takes off right next to my head and flies up the hill behind me.

So I walk up to the top of the hill and it flushes.  Just as it is about to drop over the next hill I dump it. After I find it I walked back down to the road and I end up shooting one more out of a fir tree. So we got a total of 5 ruffed grouse out of this group. In Washington State a daily limit of grouse is 4 per person of ruffed or blue grouse only.

Next we decided to drive over to the next canyon over and hunt the ridge between the that canyon and the one we were in currently. We drive to the top of the road and walk up to the top of the ridge. My wife goes towards the top of the ridge and I walk low around the shaded backside of the ridge with our dogs Remi and Lily our German Wire Haired Pointing Griffons.

All of a sudden Remi gets birdy. Of course every dog is different but Remi gets low to the ground and her nose works back and forth quickly and stedily low to the ground making a heavy sniffing sound and her tail stays very parallel to the ground and wags back and forth. She continues to work through the tall grass and I have to walk at a fast pace to keep up with her. Then Lily come over and gets birdy as well. We work the hillside for about 60 yards, then both dogs stop and go on hard point. I look up and about 15 yards in front of them there is a big blue grouse sitting on a rock above the grass. As I shoot the grouse 3 or 4 more take off from the grass below it.

My wife come running over to see if she can get into the action but of course everything is gone by the time she gets there.

So we walk to the top of the ridge with my wife a little disapointed. But lucky her the dogs get birdy again. They work for about 20 yards and with out warning blue grouse after blue grouse start getting up out of the  sun dried grass. It was amazing so see them flush like this.  It was very hard for me not to start shooting but my limit was done.  My wife saw where some landed in a tree down the steep rocky hill. Like the determined hunter she is we hike our butts down the hill. She shot two of the grouse, and as usual when hunting steep terrain when the grouse fell they had to roll a few yards down the hill. Luckily we have our amazing dogs  who happily go down an bring them back up to us. We hiked back up over the top and back down to where the jeep was parked and took some pictures right as we were losing the light of the sun.

We drove home that night with the feeling of MAN THAT WAS AN  AWSOME HUNT!!! And a story we will tell for ever.

The Great Goose Jump of 2011

This is my submission for the Sportsman Channel Writing Contest for Hunters hosted by the Outdoor Blogger Network.

For my favorite outdoor memory I am going to go with one fresh in my head. As it just happened in late October.

 I was in Okanogan County WA hunting ducks, the lakes are starting to freeze and I know this will be my last day hunting in this area. It is a Wednesday and where we are hunting you can only shoot geese on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. My wife had gone home and my friend’s wife had stayed in camp to pack things up before their 7 hour drive home.

Most of the lakes we checked were frozen, the wind was blowing very cold air and we had only shot 2 little teal. It was a long hard day so far. We go to our last lake of the day a small spring lake out in the middle of the sage brush. I am 100% expecting this lake to be frozen and my friend asks "Should we even bother?" I tell him we are here we might as well check it out.

We drive over to the lake and park in the sage brush and like I always do  I check the lake to see where the ducks are by peeking up slowly over the sage brush to check the water a little at a time as too not scare off anything on the water. (Believe me if the ducks see you they will be gone.)  As I look to the far side of the lake I can see ICE!!!!!!  I can remember thinking crap this sucks. I stand up a little more and I see two goose heads, then four. I duck back down below the brush line and turn to my friend back at the truck and give him the goose sign. (Which consists of me flapping my arms all the out as if I were a goose.) I don’t think I have ever seen him get out of the truck so fast.



Puting on a sneak



We started our walk around to the "Jump Point" where we are going to implement our attack on these geese. We load up with 3 1/2 in BB's and BBB's. It is about 1/4 mile walk around to the best jump point on the small lake. I tell my friend ok I don’t know how many or how close but if we don’t end up with four or more geese we should retire from hunting for ever.

We get to the jump point which is a berm with the lake right on the other side of the berm. We give each other the ceremonial fist knock and we jump.

All I can say is there were geese everywhere, they took off in a tornado of birds and we unleashed hell upon them. Geese were dropping and splashing everywhere.

When the Shooting stopped there were 5 geese in the water. Before I was able to celebrate I noticed a small group of geese turned the wrong way and could not make it out over the hill the lake is tucked into. But I was too far for a shot at this point. I grabbed another 3 1/2 in shell from my vest and went into a dead sprint down the bank of the lake. (I felt like I was a car trying to beat a train across the train tracks.)  Just as the geese got parallel I stopped pulled up and BANG! Wouldn't you know one of those geese just peeled right out of that gray sky. I was in complete disbelief...... I mean I knew I had it the whole time.

Now the real work begins, as in get back to the truck, get the dogs and then get the dogs to break the ice. See these geese were sitting in the only part of the lake that was not frozen. No matter where you started from the dogs had at least 20 feet of ice to break.  I started gathering rocks to throw at the geese to get and keep my dogs attention.

At first my dog Remi was not having this whole ice thing. Finally I get her to break a path way through the ice for her to get two of the geese in the water and my friend’s lab was able to get the other three.

We had all six geese laying there on the beach and we felt like we had just won the super bowl or maybe the 2011 Goose Bowl. There were hugs for everyone even the cold wet dogs. Now we get to carry these six Canadian Honkers as well as guns back to the truck.

On the walk back we asked, what ones did you get? I don't know, which ones did you get? Screw it how about we both got three.... Sounds good to me.

We ended the hunt with another ceremonial fist knock and a memory that will last forever.