JohnP

They were restocking the hooks this morning ;). The Booyah spinnerbaits were slim pickings tho but did pick up a few.

Good deals at BPS on Booyah spinnerbait (1.99 each) and Flicker Shad (45% off) as well as other deals but those were the 2 that jumped out at me and grabbed my wallet ;).

Looks like a fine way to wrap up the 2017-2018 duck season. Didn't get out near as much as I'd liked to but the times I did they were memorable. Time to put the gear up for the season and get into full on fishing mode ;).

Spotlock I'm finding out is worth is weight in gold. Never knew what I was missing out on til I upgraded to the Terrova on the new barge.

That's awsome Marty, congrats.

Hope the hard work pays off for you Marty.

All ramps, other than River Run due to bridge construction project, and the main lake is open. Shadowrock would be hard to put in due to the water level but Beaver Creek Ramp and K Dock Ramps were both open and accessible yesterday afternoon. The creeks were froze tho for the most part but id imagine that they are thawing pretty quick.

Reason why I carry drying towels in the truck and have a blanket covering the back seat. She rides in the cab of the truck most of time especially when it gets down below 20's. Use the dawg box to put wet/muddy waders in after the hunt ;).

-6 when I left the house at 0800 and warmed up to a balmy 18 when we left the creek at 1700. Seen very few birds but what we did see worked well and every bird shot had finished in the dekes and were jumped out of dekes.

Man I wish I would of seen this earlier, been thinking of pulling the trigger on a layout blind or 2, and I would of been up tomorrow to get them ;). If things don't work out with the sale I'd like to my name in the hat. Wily they are nice, well cared for, and very comfortable to hunt out of.

I had heard they were here last season but we couldn't find em.

Occasionally see some redheads but hardly ever see any Cans. Think the last cans I seen was 8 or so years ago down here.

That's it was. This is when I start seeing greenwing down here but still not seeing very many greenheads and gadwalls like we normally do on the big water or up tje creeks down here when the small and shallow waters ice up and hardly any divers, used to seeing rafts of ringnecks and have yet to see them. Been seeing a good group of hooded mergansers other than that.

Not complaining as I'd rather eat teal over mallards anyways, but will admit it's hard to beat watching mallards work and commit to a spread. Awsome day for a GWT shoot today even tho it was 0 degrees at sunrise (the small fire helped knock the chill off ). Took us literally all day to finish out our 4 man limit but it wouldn't of mattered if we did or didn't as the harvest is just the icing on the cake. One of the guys had to leave early so the pic is of a 3 person limit. Total count 22 GWT (21 drakes and 1 hen), 1 hen mallard, and 1 gaddie. Had a flock of 100 plus mallards work us good but just wouldn't come down below the tree tops especially with a bald eagle hovering over the field behind us. Shot a few early but the majority were taken after 10:30.

Pleasure to hunt with you and your son as well. Looks like Mike tore into an the next day ;).

Well done Marty. We were actually up in your neck of the woods yesterday, but to the west a bit. Ton of birds up there that's for sure. Didnt see the specs but we watched one big flock of snows bounce the field for several hours before a few broke off started working our way. Could of been ugly if the bulk of flock would of pulled with them. Looked like starlings or blackbirds out there zig zagging back and forth.

Don't think she's picked one up since then ;).

Took a lil coaxing to get her in the water for the first one, kind of like taking the first step into the pool but once she got in it was game on. Getting back in the truck didn't take much at all tho ;).

Driving around doing some scouting with the yella dawg and took advantage of doing a Indian sneak on a flock of honkin cheeto eaters ;). Think she was alil upset with me that I made her get out of the warm truck to swim across a cove for 2 stinkin geese tho ;).

Comment of the day during a hunt with old friends and new friends yesterday. Should of done better but shooting was subpar especially on my part, the whole hunting out of a layout blind takes me some getting used ;), and the birds just wanted to be somewhere else about 500 plus yds away and it's hard to compete with real birds. Still a fun hunt non the less, good to hunt with guys that will let birds work and we still managed to scratch out a few, 8 snows, 3 greenhenheads, and 3 gwt.

Seen this the other day and took the pic this afternoon. Hopefully nobodies rig was hit by the boulder when it fell. Looking at the hillside I'd expect there might be more that could breakloose before too long.

As am I.

As do I and if it wasn't for the gray ducks the yella dawg and I'd be lonely alot of times

Looks like it's a protected class so I'll keep my comments to my self ;).

Honestly I can't the tell the difference in taste between gaddies and mallets but that's me and probably the way I cook them. Guess if you threw them on a hot skillet side by side there might be. Here lately I've been on a smoking kick and have several people say they would of never guessed it was duck and/or goose if hadn't told them. Did 2 pounds of duck jerky, thinly sliced and hung in the smoker for approx 6 hour with hickory and it didn't last 2 hours at work a couple weeks ago. But mine and my wifes favorite is SP&G seasoned and bacon wrapped duck or goose breast smoked with cherrywood or applewood at 235 degrees for approx 1.5 to 2 hours till it reaches a internal temp of 150-155 degrees then wrapped in foil and rested for 15 min before serving.