thejigger

I got word today that counting/banding will take place this year on the breeding grounds for the first time since 2019. 120 GPS collars will be fitted on geese to track their migration. I will have more info in July/August.

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We fished Sandy yesterday. We boated 11 kings. Kept 3 between 11 and 18lbs, 1 shaker that came in dead and released 7 shakers that swam away healthy. Riggers were at 90 to 105 ft, dipseys out 250 at 2 setting, had 1 fish on 300 copper with 12oz torpedo in front of it. All on spoons, Magnums seemed to do it the best. Good luck!

Goose decoys are sold

The goose decoys are sold

I have 2 Lucky Duck goose flappers and a Cabelas Instinct mallard flapper. All come with remotes, chargers, stands and bags. They might need new batteries. $150 for all 3, $50 a piece. Pick up only. PM me for contact info.

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This is a great deal. I have a new PSE EVO NXT and it is a machine. Set up, with arrows, this is a no brainer

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I have 2 Lucky Duck goose flappers and a Cabelas Instinct mallard flapper for sale. All with remotes, chargers, stand and bags. They might need new batteries. $150 for all 3, $50 a piece. Pick up only. PM me for contact info only.
 
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So I am going to suggest something that we have been doing for years that might be of some help. Maybe you already know this trick. A big, deep net is helpful when you decide you are going to keep whatever fish you have at the back of the boat.  We all have probably  seen it where the fish is almost in the net and has other ideas and swims into the excess net, getting the hooks caught in it. Sometimes you get the fish, other times you lose it and possibly lose some gear. We take a heavy rubber band and slide it up the handle to the loop and pull the extra netting through the rubber band. This holds it out of the way and when the fish gets in the net it pulls it out of the rubber band. Good luck.

10 to 12 FOW, trying to stay on the edge of the colored/clear water

The spoon was fine. It came out of her mouth in the net, breaking one of the treble hooks. It had a welded ring holding the hook on so I had to replace it with a split ring and new treble. I caught a brown and the smallmouth on it after. I would have landed the second king if there was someone with me. It was just about in the net when it turned and ran.

Fished solo today from 7 to 11. My brother and I fished a week ago Tuesday and had 38°water and I had 44°today. Landed 5 browns, lost 2, landed a pike, smallmouth and a 12 lb king. I lost another king right behind the boat. One king came on a Sutton 44 and the one I lost hit a Halloween Rapala shadow rap. The other fish came on a silver Alpena Diamond, #9 jointed black and silver Rapala and a pink lemonade thunderstick jr.

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Unfortunately the federal guidelines were changed, ending the season that ran into March. I would be surprised if that was change again, allowing us to hunt into March, but you never know.

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The 1,100 GPS units are being placed on hen mallards across the Atlantic flyway. 

Yes. There was a season proposed like that, along with 9 others, during the new season setting process that was implemented 3 years ago. There will be another  one proposed during the next process in 2 years.

We had our task force meeting last night and here are the proposed season dates:

Duck-Oct 15 thru Nov 6,Nov 26 thru Jan 1

Youth-Oct 1 & 2

Veteran-Nov 11 & 12

2 scaup season-Dec 13 thru Jan 1

brant - Oct 1 thru Nov 19

Western goose-Oct 22 thru Nov 6

Dec 19 thru Jan 1

South goose-Oct 22 thru Nov 18

Nov 26 thru Jan 16

Western limit is still 1 bird, south is 5

AP goose population are trending the right way for a possible increased bag limit next year, staying at 30 days. Banding and counts should take place this year in Canada. GPS telemetry will follow 450 AP geese which could possibly result in a season targeting resident geese in January. A GPS study of up to 1,100 hen mallards monitoring reproduction, breeding, survival, migration and productivity of hatches is taking place.

They are updating contamination levels in waterfowl seeing the levels that have been used were established in the early 90's.

This will be year #4 of 5 years of duck season dates and the expectation is to review new data and establish a possible new set of dates to run another 5 years after next year. Bag limits are the same except for sea ducks, 4 total, and hooded mergansers, 6 total.

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Fish where the river runs in and out of Cross lake for walleye, jigs tipped with worms and blades

I started using a product called Mushers secret on Hank's pads and found it helped a lot. It did nothing to stop the burrs but helped his pads to not get as tore up because of them. I recommend Lewis boots for dogs. They are expensive and kind of a pain  to put on but protect the dogs feet better than anything else I have tried. If you buy a set, pay for an extra, it sucks if one comes off and you only have 3. Kansas sounds like a great place to hunt. Hope you have a good time. Good luck!

Killed my first Mule deer last weekend in Nebraska. My son killed a Mule deer doe the same morning. Got to know a rancher 2 years ago and was able to hunt private property. 

Had a great trip to Nebraska. Got into some pheasants, ducks and geese. Hank held up good considering the sand burrs and goat head burrs. We ended up putting his boots on for the last day of hunting. The sand burrs even stuck to the Lewis boots he was wearing. We hunted pheasants Thursday, Friday and got a field at the CO OP today and killed 2. The number of ducks and geese we saw in Nebraska was incredible. I am retiring somewhere closer to the central flyway. Good lucks and safe hunting.

Hunted pheasants in Nebraska today. Rolled into town yesterday morning and it was too hot to run Hank. We didn't have any luck but found roosted pheasant sign in every field we were in. Hank is hunting great. Hunting a pit blind on the Platte tomorrow. 

Had a chance to hunt Thursday mid morning. Hank and I got an area that had been hunted already. We killed 1 rooster and saw another. The wind and sun were at my back and Hank was running right to left 20 yards in front of me when he turned and came right at me with his tail going 90 mph. The bird got up between Hank and I and I killed him. Today we killed 2 roosters in a half flooded field. Hank was going down a hedgerow and put a bird up. When I shot that bird, another got up and I killed him. It was my first double in a while. Good luck and safe hunting.

Hunted Savannah yesterday with a one of my best friends. We killed 3 roosters and should have had the fourth. Hank did his part, there was some missing going on on our part. I make it a point to rinse Hank's eyes with saline after hunting and was glad I did yesterday. We washed several seeds out and also a small piece of leaf. Hank looks like he's been through a war. He has scabs on his eyelids, nose, lips, ears and is missing hair on his front and back legs. He has 3 days to rest before hunting again this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, then 5 days to rest before South Dakota.

It has been a busy couple of days off. I hunted pheasants with Hank on Monday. Had one bird get up 20 yds in front of the dog. He was a poke, I shot twice and never cut a feather. Yesterday we killed 4 roosters. Hank had another dog hunting with us and he was terrible. I think its a competition thing. He put up a bird wild and chased it to the woods. He did it again and I put him in his kennel, after having a heart to heart, and hunted with my brothers lab. This morning Hank was back to his usual self. We killed 2 roosters in a half an hour. He worked great. A guy I met a couple of weeks ago is in South Dakota and sent me some pics. They aren't shooting limits, but are killing birds everyday. 2 weeks, 1 day, 18 hours till I am out there, but who's counting.

I was able to get a area on the CO OP yesterday morning. I took a friend from work who has never shot a pheasant before. Must say, I have never hunted anything in that kind of rain, it was unreal. We put up six birds, shot 2 and Hank caught one. Hank put one of the birds up wild and knew he had done wrong immediately. The last bird we shot went in with just a broken wing. Hank was on the spot instantly but could not find the bird. He eventually tracked it down 15 yards from where it went down, burrowed in thick grass. We would have never found that bird without the dog. Good luck and safe hunting.