dawsonscreek

That is awesome LongSpurs!! I would love to find a flooded field some day, don't get much flooding here in the hills though. Lots of corn in my river valley so ill just hope it keeps raining

It is rather tedious, I use a propane torch to get the stubborn feathers and the hair-like ones. Hank Shaw is a great wild game chef and has a method I will try next time (hopefully next weekend). He boils water and melts a hunk of paraffin wax in it, dips the roughly plucked duck in that and then cools it in cold water. The wax hardens and peels off like a scab taking all feathers with it.

I wish I could get the day off for weather, especially when said weather is good for ducks. Nice shoot! Can't wait to get back out there myself. Got a beautiful mallard and a HY drake woodie on opening day.

Beat me to it! Good luck all, stay safe and have fun. Looking forward to seeing some pictures.

Looks like things are starting to heat up. Saw 3 does and two fawns last night, heard a buck grunting and chasing as I was walking out in the dark. Will be in the blind in about 3 hours. The work day drags on.....

Slow weekend for me. Hunted both mornings till around 11 with no deer sightings. However, on Saturday morning right at first light I had a nice bear come through right under my stand and actually sniff my ladder steps. Too dark for the phone to record and I have no interest in killing a bear. Was a cool experience though!

Woops, I meant to say Western Zone...musta had geese on my mind Been seeing lots of woodies, just gotta get permission on the spot I find them or do some hoof work on public land...

As a new waterfowl addict I guess I will have to make this Northern trek sometime, by the time the Southern Zone opens I feel like a good majority of the woodies are gone, yet no mallards have moved in yet.

You'll have to really do something spectacular to beat a morning like that! Congrats on two great bucks (and a perfect shot too, nothing better than seeing pink bubbly blood!)

Get Sawyer Permetherin and use it! It is a clothes treatment, not to be worn on the skin, that kills and repels ticks. It works great though, the first two days of turkey season I didn't use it and picked several ticks off of me. I got it after that and treated my clothes and never found another, actually watched one crawl up my boot and fall off dead. It is cheap and available right at Walmart or Field of Dreams. Just make sure to follow the directions, it is potent stuff and you don't want it to contact skin.

I had a very similar experience to that last flock you spoke of last weekend. Took my dad on his first field hunt, my first time actually successfully decoying geese too. But we had a flock of 30 or so stat land, I called the shot and nothing fell out of the sky. Thankfully a few stuck around through the shooting and we were able to take 4 out of that group. Ended up with 12 geese total that day.

Finally got permission on a field I'd been watching all season. Got out for my first time successfully being able to decoy geese and was very pleased with the results (though not as pleased with our shooting). Bird dropped right into the decoys, some even landed after we shot....guess that's early season geese. Me and my old man ended up with 11, but could have definitely had more of we shot better or had stayed longer. We even had birds wanting the field as we were picking up. 22 goose breasts is enough for now anyways though! Was a lot of fun and great to spend time with the man who got me into hunting!

It was great fun, and they were actually really good eating, I was pleasantly surprised. Marinated the breast meat and stuffed in a jalapeno with cheddar and bacon, grilled till the meat was medium rare. It was tender and delicious! Ill have to try those decoys out, just have to find some feeding birds.

Off season fun Well I couldn't get on any goose fields this weekend so I had to resort to another feathered foe. Tried decoying them in but they wanted no part of the spread. Flushed a barn in the evening and hung out by the silos and traded shots while they came back. The 3 of us shot 16 birds. Each one was loaded with chopped corn, they should be good eating!

Nice! I am struggling to find birds too. Only field I patterned I could not get permission on. Hoping to find some tonight for the morning. Great shooting!

awesome!

smoked lake trout is the best!

I heard something about it too. A friend of mine at the Ithaca wegmans works with either the guy that caught it or somebody who knows him. Supposedly it was from shore...