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John Kelley

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Everything posted by John Kelley

  1. Went out hunting around the Aberdeen, SD area yesterday with the wife, and ended up getting 5 nice roosters, which was one shy of our 2 person limit, but it was a good time anyways!
  2. Oh yeah, coyotes, foxes, coons, possums and skunks all get blasted quite regularly out here. You can even shoot coyotes and other vermin without having to get out of the vehicle. Kind of nice to see a skunk in a ditch and be able to shoot from the relative safety of your truck!!LOL I dare say that many a rancher has also been known to kill hawks on sight. Especially bird preserve ranchers!
  3. That and the fact that there are thousands and thousands and thousands of acres of cropland and CRP land, and not very many people in South Dakota. Most fields in the middle portion of the state are a full section, that's 640 acres, or 1 square mile. Below is a picture of a normal cut corn field. When you get on a section line between fields of the same crop, it looks like a sea of crops!!
  4. Here are some birds from this past week. Hope you enjoy the pics
  5. Great results, and sounds like fun was had by all!!
  6. Yeah, and from what I have seen over the years, labs do about the best out here on the prairie, over most other species, because they don't stop until the bird is airborne. Pointers tend to lock up on the scent of birds that have run, and these birds are runners, out here. Parkston area is fine, but don't be afraid to work your way west of there, as well. Remember, you can legally get out and shoot birds flying over the roadways out here as well. Keep an eye out along the ditches for roosters, too. Yeah, you ought to have no trouble getting your limits. I like the area around Pierre, myself, because it does not get as much pressure, and you can see flocks of hundreds of birds around there. Plus, the closer to the river you get, the higher chance of getting some bonus sharptails and prairie chickens, as well. You can bag 3 of the grouse per day, as well. Good luck!
  7. Game, Fish and Parks just put out their official bird count @ 42% higher pheasant population than last year, statewide!! This is going to be a good year for pheasant hunting!!
  8. In case any of my NY friends like to make pheasant hunting trips out west, the birds are going to be pretty thick out here this year. Nothing official has come out yet, from the Game, Fish and Parks people, but my sources tell me they are seeing way more birds than last year. My sources are ranchers, farmers, and resort owners in the bird hunting areas. Thought I would pass along this information. :yes:
  9. Hahahahaha, if I got a dollar for every time I have done that, I would be a very wealthy guy right now. I love how that one hit, not necessarily even a fish in the boat, spurs on another good 2 hours of fishing!! Fantastic Laker, by the way!
  10. Absolutely they will hit walleye lures. I used to troll the deep diving Reef Runners for spring kings on the Missouri river, and caught quite a few on them. I caught quite a few steelhead and lakers on them in Lake Ontario, as well as cohos. Rapala Husky jerks work well off the riggers too. I think we fishermen get so locked into fishing only certain things for certain types of fish, that we sometimes miss out on good lures. A good lure catches fish, plain and simple, of many different species. I catch all kinds of Missouri river walleyes on my salmon gear, too. Last year I caught a 28" walleye 100' down on a meat rig and paddle over 160' of water while salmon fishing, for instance. Good luck and don't be afraid to experiment. Maybe you will accidentally invent the next salmon lure craze!!
  11. I have fished both, and have a mast on my bow, but have found that with a smaller boat like mine, that the TX44 boards work much better, and I don't have to worry about that irritating rope swinging around and catching my other rods, etc., in higher winds. The big boards are fine when it is calm, but I still hate the rope off the reels on my sized boat off the bow. Pain the ass, really. I have just started using the TX44's this year, but seem to like them just fine. It took some time getting used to having to take the line off the board, and then fight the fish, but nothing huge to get used to. So, i usually run 200 and 300 off the boards, and longer coppers, like 400-500 right down the chute. Good luck to you!
  12. I picked up my cousin Greg and our old buddy Dano, from just north of the Twin Cities, and we made the remaining 5 hour trip to Kewaunee, WI together, to fish a new port town for all of us. I usually fish out of the port of Sheboygan, and kind of know my way around the water there, but they were hosting the PGA there last weekend, and the room rates were ridiculous, so we tried a port 30 miles north of there. Greg and Dano had never boated Kings any bigger than 12 pounds on a couple of charter trips they had both been on, and are both primarily walleye hunters from way back. Neither one had ever used copper line, meat rigs or wire diver rods. I had fun just showing them how everything went together and how we fish with all of that gear. We arrived last Thursday afternoon, got our room, got the boys all licensed up, bought some herring, and hit the water. Trolled around for about 5 hours the first night, but didn't see much at all. I had us rigged up with 2 dipsies with spin doctors and flies, 2 downriggers pulling meat and paddles, 2 riggers pulling spoons, and 3 coppers pulling 2 j-plugs and 1 meat rig. I put the 200 and 300 coppers with J-plugs on the boards, and ran the 400 copper with meat and a paddle, right down the chute. We had one lake trout hit on the port side diver near dusk, that Dano missed, and I reeled in a baby, releaser king that evening, and that was the only action we would see the first night. Friday morning we were up at 2:30 a.m., because the locals claim there is a really good super early bite, but we didn't find that to be the case. We got on the water at 3:30 a.m. with a bunch of locals, played combat fishing until 5:30 a.m. when I decided to check the port side meat rig. I popped it off the rigger and instantly felt a king grab it. I set the hook hard and gave the rod to my cousin to reel in. That was a nice 13 pound king, and his new PB king. A couple of hours later one of my in-line boards with a 3 color leadcore rod and Orange moonshine spoon fired hard, and Dano landed a beautiful 12 pound, 32" long steelhead. Neither guy had ever seen a bow that big before, so that was cool. We wen tin for a couple of hors around 2:00 p.m., knifed our fish, re-iced the coolers in the sweltering heat, and headed back out around 4:00 p.m. Pretty much washed a bunch of different lures the rest of Friday afternoon and evening until right after the sun sank below the horizon. Then my starboard diver rod, with the old trusty white with green dots spin doctor and fly fired hard. Greg eventually landed a nice 36", 18 pound hen king, and increrased his new PB king. Then we had a crazy hit on the starboard planer board rod, which broke the line right past the knot on the backing. we chased that board down, and recovered the 3 color leadcore and the spoon, but the fish had escaped by then. We called it quits about an hour after dark, zig zagging our way back between boats. The next morning we decided to sleep in until 4:00, since nothing happened until first light the previous morning. The parking lot at the ramp was almost full of trailers by the time arrived at the dock at 4:30 a.m. We had to play bumper boats that morning, until around 7:00 a.m., when the boats all thinned out. Then we moved offshore and put out a steelhead program, and caught 3 nice steelies, and one lake trout and missed a big lake trout on the 450 copper and carbon 14 spoon 10 feet behind the boat, and a huge, leaping steelhead off the port planer board. We caught a skippy, 2 pound king right at sunset, which we threw back in, and that was it for the weekend. We ended up keeping 7 fish, but most boats were lucky to catch a fish, it sounded like, so we were happy. Especially for our first time at this port. Here are some pics from our trip
  13. Man I wished I lived there, because I would already own that boat!!!!! Very jealous of my NY friends right now!!! Beautiful boat!!
  14. Get with Ed Ball if you want to hit Erie. He has been killing them out of Dunkirk!!
  15. Kenny, you finally found this site, my good man!! Best site in NY for fishing, bar none. Guys here are very sharing with their information!! Good site to find gear, and guys to fish with you, as well!!
  16. Probably about at least an 18-22 hour drive for you boys, but it could be worth it if you did it in the fall, and were able to make it a "cast and blast" trip for walleyes and pheasants!
  17. Incredible fish, right there. Kudos to you for releasing it. Pretty sure I would not have been that strong!!
  18. Nice fish. Looks like around the 8 pound mark, or so!
  19. Hahaha, who cares, they are cheap and disposable for that reason. If one breaks, you simply replace it for next to nothing. That's what I like about my $20 Okuma downrigger rods. If one breaks, I just replace it with another one. Easy and cheap.
  20. I concur, Carl will be a big loss for the "OAK", and I wish him well in his new teaching and fish guiding adventure in Florida!! He was always fun to text messages to on the big lake, while trolling!!
  21. Yeah,that table is the fish cleaning station that many of the state parks have near their boat ramps. They come with big grinders in the middle, for disposing of the head & guts, etc., too, and have electrical outlets for your electric fillet knives. Makes it handy for cleaning the catch before heading home. I always carry ziploc bags with me, for just that purpose! Walleye fishing is pretty easy out here, because the lakes don't get all that much pressure. Come on out, and I can even put you on some good pheasant hunting in the fall, as well!
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