Bird Watcher

Nice one Donna. Really pretty fish.

I can't believe how relieved I am see this rain fall across the watershed. It's a little weird.

Wait until it freezes. Single digits overnight at least. Take a canoe or small jon boat and stay in it. Don't stand on the bank or in the river bed unless you have permission from the landowner to hunt the private property.

If you'll keep your eye on www.steapandcheap.com, you'll find a deal on them. I've had two pairs and haven't paid over 80$ yet.

I really need to start imposing a "no posting after 11pm" rule on myself.

Thanks for all the reports Marty. It's been a fun season. Glad you and Mrs. had another good hunt. Don't be suprised if you see me up in your country sooner than later. Spring rains willing, that is.

How lucrative is it for you to jump around to forums you've been to before trying to get people to "like" your videos on youtube and facebook. Seems like I"m seeing a lot of this on the internet these days. I guess it's the new way of self promotion. Hope you have some luck with it and get to become a deer superstar.

Hey guys, I've been picking up money by the sack full every day. It's been kind of crazy, picked up 5 grand the other day. It was kind of crazy. Just thought you guys might want to know that I've been tearing it up. I know where they've been catching those crappie....right in the corner of the mouth.

Who is Marcus? It's just the internet man. It's not real life. Don't sweat. However, I wouldn't go around in real life telling complete strangers saying "flock you guys" either. I usually reserve that type of language for close friends that know I'm just kidding and not in the presence of women, children, or elders.

I'm visiting Show me Birds on Feb. 18th. It will be my first experience at one of these type operations. I really don't know what to expect. I don't have a lot of pheasant hunting experience. I've probably been 10 times in my life and those were all wild birds. I'm curious how these stack up. All the folks at show me birds guarantee you cannot tell the difference.

And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. Thump, Thump, Thump. Good job Marty.

It is something to see that's for sure. I'm still not ready to go again and I haven't been in 6-7 years. Maybe if I hired a guide service. It would be worth the money just to show up, walk out, sit down and shoot.

Fry that. No offense Scott, but I'd rather have someone give me a vasectomy but go down through my nose instead.

Drag. You have to let them run. You almost can't find a hook that will hold them if you don't let them run. I've had 65# braid popped and a zara spook broke completely in half while learning this lesson. On the other hand, I've also caught them up to 12# on a 1/4 ounce light wire lead head and 6# test mono. From the minute I set the hook on one until I land it, I am constantly adjusting my drag.

My buddies down on Black River around Cord and Elgin keep journals at their hunting camp. They have one for 22', one for 23', one for 24',...etc. When the river hits each of these levels, they pull out the corresponding journal and read past hunt logs to see what the birds were doing on each of the river levels. after 30 years of it, it's pretty much on the money.

This is my opinion too.

There ya go. course, I'd say you can't hide money with that rig. I guess it's all relative though. Prolly still a drop in the bucket compared to a new glitter boat.

They won't eat them here unless everything is frozen either. It's key to the pattern. I'm convinced it's their avenue of last resort when they can't dabble because all the shallow water is frozen. Once they start keeping a hole open out in the middle of larger reservoirs, it's time to start looking for it. Usually, it's something that happens when everyone else thinks you need to be on the river or creek. That's when I start looking for ducks using corn fields. You also probably won't see them unless you are there at 4 pm til dark. They will sit and conserve energy all day then fly for the last hour of light gorging as much in calories as possible, often flying back and forth to their roost for water. You'll here a lot of "it's all froze up, all the ducks already flew south". I'm telling you from first hand experience, they don't fly South unless their food gets covered in snow. As long as they can find grain in an ag field, they will find water or keep it open. This is primarily mallards though. There are a few other ducks that will stay with them, but it's 99% mallards. An old duck hunting buddy used to always say, "ice brings mallards" it's always proved true to me.

I need to call him. I hope everything is ok with him. Glad you guys caught some. FWIW, some of the biggest stringers of hybrids I've seen come out of Grand that I haven't caught were caught in February up Spring River. I think a lot of that super early bite is dependent on some big snow melts though. Maybe we'll still get some of that before February is over. Lord knows we need it. I can't take a repeat of last summer.

Bill, did you go with Robert?

thanks. 95% of it was. we did have a little loafing pond that the ducks would use during the middle of the day that we hunted twice and did decent on.

Thanks Fellas. I actually felt like it was a great season, but I also only hunted about half of it. I found myself just sitting at the house week after week while it was warm and birdless. It was definitely quality over quantity for me. Marty, our phone visits were a lot of fun during the season. You kept me abreast of the bird patterns and made me think about shooting birds. There was more than once you made me remember a trick I'd forgotten. Good times.

Thanks Scott.

See ya later duck season. Finished up on the last night of the season with a 4 man mallard limit at LST. It was a good one for us, by that I mean we had 3 weeks of stellar duck hunting. Well, I should say three weeks of stellar mallard hunting. I'm a mallard junkie though and I'm ok with a straight mallard shoot. Very few scratch ducks. It was mostly 4 mallards and you're out...but we did it over and over again. I'll try to put up a thread at the end of the season with a bunch of tailgate photos if anyone is interested in that kind of thing. A lot of people don't care to see them, but until I get a good camera, it's mostly going to be post hunt pics of bird piles with my cell phone for my photodocumentation purposes I have two more goose hunts to do next weekend and them I'm done. It's that bittersweet time of year when you are thankful for what you we able to experience, a little sad you can't keep doing it, and ready to move on to other interests.

Dang! Another place I've been told no that you get to hunt. Awesome!