Winter is setting in.

Now that winter is set in, I have ice fishing and rabbit hunting to look forward to. I know that people have already been out on the ice fishing, with just a few inches of ice. When we a bunch of snow on the ground i really start looking forward to rabbit hunting. Every year im in a 3-man team rabbit hunting tournament that takes place in Ozaukee county. Every year we seem to have good luck, and it’s always a good time with friends. Ice fishing is always a good time as well, we usually don’t catch much, but that doesnt phase us. Fish seem to be an extra bonus when we go out.

Deer Hunting

Opening weekend is always a fun time for my family and I. We spend the weekend in an abandon farm-house that has been made livable. Every Friday night before opening day we enjoy a chilly dump along with a gigantic bon fire.

Opening day (Saturday) didn’t turn out as well as expected, since I only saw about 5 doe, compared to the usual 20 deer. Sunday turned out to be even worse, only seeing 3 deer all day. This year turned out to be a disappointment, but you can’t always have things fall your way. Out of my two bothers, dad, and I we were only able to bag one doe. Overall the deer camp company always will outweigh the crummy hunt.

Getting Kicked Out

I went home last weekend to visit my grandmother in the hospital. I managed to get out goose hunting on Friday morning. My buddy took us out to a new field that we have never used before. The morning was going alright untill about 8:00am when all of a sudden a truck come rallying through the field straight toward us.  We all kind of looked at each other wondering what was going on. When the guy got to us he starts laying into us, “what the f*** do you guys think you’re doing?” and so on.  So my buddy who said he got permission to hunt there talks to him for a little while. It turns out that my friend got permission from the farmer to hunt all of his fields, but this field was owned by someone else, and farmed by the farmer he got permission from. The landowner was more understanding when he heard this. We still had to leave, but at least we got three geese out of it.

Didn’t get out

I didn’t get out this week, since I had so much going on with school. My buddies say that there is a larger variety of ducks flying through now, instead of just the standard wood ducks and mallards. I’m hopeful to get out sunday afternoon because im off to MN for a wedding this weekend. I guess getting out will depend on how the Packer game is going.

10/8/2010 Duck Hunt

I went out duck hunting this morning before work, with little luck. My buddy and I tried out a new spot. There were tons of ducks, but they must have been shot at before, since they all sat right in the middle of the lake so no one could get them. I would say that we saw about 300 ducks this morning, but none of them came with in out shooting distance, That is none of the ones we were watching. We had plenty of, OH CRAP, moments when the ducks zipped by before we had any chance to react on them. There were probably about 6-8 groups of people on the lake and probably only about 20 shots were fired, (not a lot of shooting for that many people) so no one out there really had great luck. Over all It was a great day to be outside with the warm weather and the nice temperatures.

Duck Hunt 9/20/2010

I just got back from the marsh. Today I got out on the water around 4:45a.m. with my roommate Brentan. There were tons of ducks flying around, but they didn’t want to swing in close enough to us for a good shot. We managed to down two birds this morning, a Ringneck and a Green Wing Teal. I was surprised that there weren’t many geese flying around, but there where enough ducks to make up fo the lack of geese.

When we got back to the truck we were approached by someone from Ohio State. She asked us if she collect swab samples from our ducks anus. The samples provide the researches with information about diseases that ducks carry. She was telling us that they are in the process of mapping out where these diseases/pathogens originate, as well as where the diseases may spread to other ducks in the flock, during the migration. We naturally had no problem letting them take the samples. She also went on to tell us how they have managed to find a way to take a single feather from a mallard duck, analyze it, and know the exact fly way that particular duck is from.

A regular morning out hunting turned out to be a very interesting and educational day.

Opening Duck Hunting (northern zone)

I went out duck hunting this past saturday. With all the rain we got in the past week the water levels were extremely high, making it difficult to get to my hunting spot. I went out to the George W. Mead wildlife area. We planned on traveling down the Little Eau Plaine river in order to reach our destination, but the water was so high that venturing down the river in a canoe would be too dangerous.

We got to the parking lot around 3:30a.m. and ended up dragging our canoe about a mile with all our gear before we could safely launch the boat next to they dyke, on the side opposite the river, and paddle another mile or so before reaching our destination. The morning flight, from about 6:00a.m.-8:00a.m. looked very promising for the opening day hunt. Despite the great looking morning flight, we hardly saw any waterfowl for the rest of the day, only ending up with three birds on the day.

Throughout the day the water levels continued to rise. When we finally got back to my vehicle, at about 8:30p.m. my car that was originally fifty feet away from the water in the flooded parking lot, was now sitting in four inches of water. Overall the hunt wasnt very succesful, but we had a great day with tons of fun.