2011 MN Duck Opener....Just OK

The 2011 Minnesota Duck Season kicked off last weekend. Before Logan and I headed out to our property in Western MN I took in a morning of bow hunting. I had a nice cool morning with a temp of 37 degrees and a light 5-8 mph northwest wind. Since I hunted my core area the previous weekend I decided to hunt a new stand I set this summer. The stand sits about 60 yards south of a huge cattail marsh with thick bedding cover to my east. Other than a doe at first light my morning was very uneventful. The high note of my morning hunt was pulling my trail cameras and finding a huge 10 point was roaming the farm. This is a deer I haven't seen before. Below are 2 pictures of the big fella.


Opening morning Logan and I decided to setup in the field we had hunted during the early goose a few weeks ago. We had a temp around 42 degrees and a 10-15 mph south wind. Right before legal shooting time we had a flock of 6 mallards set into the decoys. The hunt went straight downhill from there. All we could muster into the spread over the next hour was a single goose that I called in from way up in the air. The goose took 3 full circles of the spread before finally putting down his landing gear and giving my a 5 yard shot.
With no ducks working the field Logan and I hustled down to Logan's Honey Hole with Oshie around 8 AM. Within seconds of getting set up we had a bluewing teal in the bag. Oshie also made her first official water retrieve on a duck.
The duck movement was really slow for an opener. We ended up killing 1 bluewing, 1 greenwing, and 2 drake mallards before calling it a day at 11:15 AM. I should have scratched a limit but I struggled shooting from the boat.....School Boy! I Also think the high water is starting to effect the puddle duck numbers in our area.

Sunday morning found Logan and I back in Logan's Honey Hole. We hunted with Joe Salato in the A.M. and had clear skies, temps in the low 50's and a light south breeze. Once again the duck movement was very slow. I killed a drake mallard the first minute of legal shooting time and we got to watch Oshie chase down her first wounded bird. After that things slowed right down. We ended the morning with 1 goose, 2 drake wood ducks, 3 drake mallards, 1 bluewing, and 1 greenwing teal. Not the greatest of openers but still a fun weekend. We will be back next weekend to see if things pick up!

On the Board Early - MN 2011 Season

The 2011 Minnesota deer season opened up on Saturday morning with perfect conditions. The temp was in the upper 40's, cloudy skies and a southwest wind at 10-15 mph. I started the season in my Money Set like I do every year if the wind is right for the set. A SW wind can be a little suspect if the wind swirls, but I decided to chance it because of all the acorns dropping back in the timber.

I made it to my set 30 minutes prior to legal shooting time. I did jump one deer from it's bed about 15 yards from my set, but it only ran 15 yards then walked off without much commotion. 20 minutes into the season I heard foot steps approaching. Seconds later a doe popped out of the understory directly in front of me. She angled right towards my set and offered me a quartering away shot at 14 yards; arrow #1 of the 2011 was touched off. The arrow hit home entering just in front of her back ribs and angling up through the heart and exited the opposite side. The nanny ran right down an open trail and dropped dead about 50 yards from the shot. The 2011 Minnesota archery season was off to a great start!

Throughout the remainder of the sit I had 5 separate bucks come with in 25 yards of my stand. One of them was a pretty nice 2 1/2 year old 8pnt. that really had me thinking about punching my buck tag. I talked myself into holding off because of the trail camera picks I have of more mature bucks on the farm. A great morning sit! Below are pics of the two bucks I plan to hold out for until later in the year.




Saturday evening I wasn't able to hunt any of the sets I have been getting the good pics from because of a SE wind, so I sat over looking the inner bean field. Nothing came by my set but I did watch a nice 2 1/2yr old 8pnt. get bullied around by a 130" 8pnt. Both deer exited the field directly under one of my other stands that I couldn't sit because of the wind. Either way it was a great opening day. I have fresh venison in the freezer, and got to watch 7 different bucks. Below is a view from my Saturday evening set.

2011 MN Goose Opener

Logan and I arrived at the shack around 8:00 PM on Friday evening in anticipation of the 2011 early MN goose season. This was also the official start of my hunting season. We arrived in just enough time to watch hundreds of wood ducks, teal and mallards buzz the top of our cabin on the way to their evening roost. A great way to start the weekend.

We woke at 4:30 AM on saturday morning and met up with Joe Salato of Wingwaver Decoys and his daughter Sierra. We set the decoys on the top of a small hill that sits between a small lake (north slough) and a small pond (Logan's Honey Hole). Our spread of 3 dozen flocked big foot decoys and 1 General Wingwaver decoy looked great in the cut wheat field. Minutes after the decoys had been set the wood ducks began to buzz the decoys. This took place all morning long. We must have honestly had 300 to 400 hundred wood duck in the decoys or buzz the decoys through out the morning. It was a fun way to pass the time between goose flights.

The temp was about 50 degrees at sunrise with a light west wind and some light drizzle off and on. The first groups of geese started flying early in the AM. We had our first pair work the spread about 30 minutes after legal shooting time. The birds locked up but landed on the far left side of the decoys. I made a kill shot on the closest bird just as his feet touched the field. The 2nd bird flew off at a sharp angle and I wasn't able to bring him down.

After that we saw flock after flock of geese working the far east end of our field and not pay any attention to our calling our spread. It wasn't helping matters that the wind picked up to almost 30 mph and switched to the north. Joe and I adjusted the spread for the wind change and quickly pulled in two separate singles. Both of which ended up in the bag. We called the hunt at 11 AM and headed in for lunch and a little dove hunting.

Logan, Oshie and I went southwest of the cabin a couple miles and found some doves working between some telephone wires and a picked wheat field. We set up in the ditch and waited. Minutes later I made a nice little 30 yard shot on a dove and dropped it into some thick grass. We walked down to the location the bird fell and seconds later Oshie came out of the thick grass with the dove in her mouth. Her first official retrieve and it was a bird we would have never found with out her. That was the only dove of the weekend.

We picked up our spread and moved it to the far east end of our field so it was closer to the flight pattern the geese where using in the AM. Joe added another single to our bag and that was it for the afternoon shoot. The move did put us in the birds flight path but they all wanted to roost on water. Things where looking up for the AM. We ended the day with 4 geese, 1 dove and a pigeon.

Sunday morning found us with temps in the low 40's and a northwest wind at 10-15. It truly felt like fall. We got into our blinds shortly before legal shooting time and minutes later our first single of the day came into the spread. I made an easy 10 yard shot on him just as he went to set his feet on the field. Minutes later another single made the same mistake with the only difference being Joe taking shot. Ten minutes later and Joe called another single into my side of the spread, with one shot we had three geese in the bag in the first 20 minutes of the day. Logan also put the finishing shot on the 3rd goose with his single shot 20 gauge.

Things slowed down until about 8:30 when the switch got thrown and the air filled with geese. We called in another single and Joe quickly dispatched of him with a nice little 20 yard chip shot. Minutes later we had a flock of 9 geese locked up and gliding into the spread. A five shot volley had 2 geese down on my side and one on Joe's side. As Logan scrambled to retrieve the geese Joe called in another pair. Joe and I knocked the pair down with Logan taking cover outside of his blind. With that my day was done and Joe needed 1 more bird for our 10 bird limit....and we wouldn't have to wait very long. Joe called in a single and missed after his gun got caught coming out of his blind. It didn't matter as literally 5 minutes later another goose was locked up with his feet down looking for a place to land in our spread. Joe put The 10th goose of the day on the field and Logan finished it off with a head shot from his 20 gauge. A great hunt and a perfect start to the 2011 hunting season.

MO Gobbler Down + VECtor Down

Brian had been scouting a local KC property we have permission to hunt for the last two weeks on his way into work, without spotting a single gobbler. We killed a couple birds off the property last year and had seen birds using it in the early spring, but nothing as of late. I got a call yesterday afternoon from Brian and he said he’d spotted a gobbler in the middle of three fields on the property, so I made plans to be late to work this morning.

I had the blind set up and was ready to rock by 5:30am, so I just sat back and waited for the first gobble of the morning; that never came. Last year the birds were pretty tight lipped on this particular farm also, so I just started softly calling every 15 minutes or so. I’d just finished an x-rated calling sequence on the VECtor slate when I spotted ol’ redhead coming through the timber 100yrds south of the setup. He popped into the field and as soon as he spotted the strutter decoy I could tell he wasn’t too excited to charge in and get a whopping. He stayed near the edge of the timber and continued to work closer to me, but when he was about 70yrds out he cut back into the timber and I lost sight of him. I figured I’d go for broke, so I fired off several excited yelps on a mouth call and followed it up with some very aggressive cutting on the VECtor slate. It took all of 3 seconds before I could see his red head charging towards the field.

He popped out of the timber at 50yrds and locked up; he was giving the strutter decoy a serious once over before he made another move. I jumped on the VECtor slate with several more loud cuts when I heard a drastic change in the tone of the call. I looked down and to my horror the entire slat had cracked from side to side. I hurriedly reached for VECtor #2, but by the time I got it sorted out the tom had turned and was headed back towards the timber again. I fired off a couple more excited yelps on the new VECtor glass slate and the bird swapped ends and was headed back into the setup.

My plan was shoot him with my bow, but when he finally got into 12yrds he was behind one of the closed windows in the blind, so no shot opportunity. I held at full draw for about 90 seconds waiting on him to take a few more steps, but he never did. He finally decided something wasn’t right and turned to walk away. I let down my draw and quickly swapped the Hoyt out for the Nelli. A quick kee-kee and his head popped up; just in time to catch a load of #6s in the beak.

20lbs., 10 ¼” beard, matching 1 1/8” spurs

RIP Mr. Redhead & SAS-A-FRASS (my VECtor Slate) – at least she went out on a good note…..

Time for Brian and I to get cracking on bird #2 for each of us.....to be continued

Public Enemies - MO 2011 Spring Turkey Season

After my new stepfather “The squirrel” burned down the family lake house at Stockton Lake early last spring, I was making weekly trips down there during the rebuilding process. I was seeing and hearing turkeys all over the lake, so Pete and I decided to change it up for the 2011 MO opener and give it a go on public land; if nothing else we’d catch some fish…..

-Saturday-

Waking up Saturday morning was a treat to say the least. Rain, wind, and cold temps were upon us again and after a fun boat ride that resembled an episode of Deadliest Catch we pulled into the first area we wanted to scout. Pete hit the VECtor crow call and boom Gobble, Gobble, Gobble about 100 yards to the east of us. It was a good start to our scouting effort. After checking several other locations in the same general area we had located six nice birds and our expectations were growing by the minute for the opening morning.

After a superb breakfast of biscuits, venison sausage gravy, and hash Browns cooked up my Master Chef Pete; we were off to try and catch some fish. The high winds made the boat ride more than enjoyable to say the least, but we finally found some quiet water and we ended up catching a few crappie and Pete caught his first white bass; it was one for the record books!!! Unfortunately our keeper fish all lived to see another day and we’re just gonna have to blame it on “The Squirrel”!! Some dummy decided to buy a keeper net that opened on the top and bottom. As I dropped my third 2.5lbs largemouth into the net all of the fish proceeded to exit out of the bottom opening. Apparently whatever device that was keeping the net closed on the bottom broke and all of our keepers safely returned to the depths of Stockton.

As evening approached the winds started to lay and while I was outside BBQ’n up some ribs I could hear gobbling from a nearby field. Knowing this was a honey hole that a neighbor hunted every year Pete and I decided to go talk him and find out what his plans were for opening day. As luck would have it he was going to be working in Iowa all week, so he said to get after them. After firing through two racks of BBQ ribs and cheesy taters Pete and I put the birds to bed and we ended up running into the neighbor who’s house backs up to the field. She said that there were three big gobblers she named “The Three Amigos” and they used the field every day. That was all Pete and I needed to hear to make our decision up on where to hunt for the opener!

-Sunday Morning-

Sunday morning was a 180 degree difference from Saturday; we had clear skies, zero wind and temps warming up into the high 60s. As the light started to fill the morning sky it didn’t take long to hear our first gobbles of the day and that was just the start of the show. We ended hearing roughly 15-17 different birds sound off and easily heard north of 170 gobbles. It’s the most gobbling either of us had ever experienced in one location. Then as if on cue at seven o’clock “The Three Amigos” came strutting around the south point of the field with eight hens in tow….Monday morning couldn’t get here soon enough! We headed out after that for a day of fishing unfortunately the winds picked back up and fishing was poor at best. We did sort the keeper basket out and by the evening we had a couple nice bass for our efforts.

-Opening Morning-

After a restless night of sleep it was finally time to see if we could make the “Three Amigos” famous. After a short boat ride and a quick set-up we sat patiently waiting for the morning light to crack the east horizon. At 5:50am the first bird of the morning sounded off in the distance and anticipation of having “The Three Amigos” in our decoy setup was at an all time high. Unfortunately for us the trio had some lady companionship and by 9:30am our patience was wearing thin. The Amigos never came out of the timber; we had several hens work into the field, but the boys stayed put and kept gobbling their heads off. We finally decided to make a move on them, so we headed west across the field and setup next to two large oaks right off the edge of timber the birds were in. Pete let out a few excited yelps and all three of the birds hammered back at him. The Trio was on fire gobbling, but after a couple of minutes we could tell the hens were leading them away from our location. The Amigos were literally gobbling every 30 seconds on their own as they moved away, so we put plan #3 into action.

Pete and I knew our only chance on these birds was to sneak around in front of them and cut them off. We took off on a mad dash through the timber. The Amigos kept hammering the entire time, so it was easy for us to pinpoint their movements. We finally made out in front of them and made our move down hill to intercept them. We literally got settled on a tree and no joke…thirty seconds later first hen passed us about 40 yards out. The dominant gobbler was the next bird through and stopped in a perfect opening 40yrds out in front of us. Both of us had the safeties off and pressure on the triggers, but we knew that the two less dominant birds were bringing up the rear. We could hear the two birds walking through the timber for what seemed like an eternity, but they finally came into view and Pete and I let the Benellis crack. After the initial shots both birds flopped over into a shallow ditch, but unfortunately one made it back its feet and took out before we could get another clean shot into it. I scrambled to catch up with him but he made it into the thick under brush and we never located any other sign of him.

As we celebrated another stellar ambush and our first public land bird, it became apparent neither of us was positive about which bird went down and which one made it out of there. After we shot the birds flopped into that shallow ditch and the underbrush exploded with leaves and branches from our patterns, so we couldn’t be sure which bird we actually had in the bag. We finally decided that I had the cleared shot, so I tagged the bird…..much appreciated, brother!!!

We estimated the bird’s weight around 18-20lbs with a 9.5” beard and 1” spurs

After getting some good photos down by the shoreline we tried to get on another bird for Pete, but unfortunately we ran out of legal shooting time and it was time to go clean up the house and head for home. Neither of us had any complaints and had a great weekend living the dream!!! With plenty of season left it’s time to get Pete on a bird and I hope he’s a giant!!

Stay tuned we’ve got 3 more tags to fill, and two Amigos still on the loose!!!

Mo Snagging 2011...Fish On!!!!!

Well it’s that time of year between deer hunting and the spring turkey season that gets Pete and I fired up... It’s spoonbill snagging time in Missouri.

We got a late start to the morning because Makenna was sick and decided it would be a good idea to puke on herself at the Dr’s office. Pete, Nick, and I finally got on the road to the Lake of the Ozarks around 10:45am. The temps were closing in on 80 degrees by mid-afternoon, but there were also high winds blowing from 20-30mph. After arriving at Levi’s lake house around 1:45pm we got our gear unpacked and put the boat in the water, and we were snagging by 2:30pm. Joe had been down fishing for two days already, so we were able to get into fish right away. Between the two boats (Joe/ Pete in Joe’s rig and Brian/Nick in the slaying rig) we ended up banging 14 spoonies the first day. Brian led the first day total by snagging 6 spoonies, but the majority of fish we caught were small males. Joe caught the biggest fish of the day when he landed a 70+lbsr. To highlight the first day Pete finished the night outing in style when he snagged a big 12lbs. flathead catfish (too bad Brian can’t tie a knot or else we would’ve had a couple of huge slabs for the frying pan!!!

















Friday morning greeted us with much colder temperatures with the highs in the lower 50’s and dropping throughout the day. Levi and the Marshall boys finally made it down that afternoon and it was time to seriously get after the hunt for monster spoonies. Unfortunately we found out real quick that the fish were hard to find and spread out everywhere. Nick put the hurt on Pete and me when he landed all 4 of the spoonies that came into our rig for the day. Between the twelve guys we only caught 18 on Friday, which was our slowest second day of snagging to date. The highlight of the day was getting buzzed by couple of A-10 Warthogs that flew over us; right on the deck!









The Saturday temps were even colder than Friday’s and with thunderstorms in the forecast for the early afternoon everyone hit the lake early. The action was a mirror image of Friday....speratic action at best! Everyone seemed to catch some fish but like the previous day the fish were smaller and few and far between. The biggest salvation of the day was Nick banging out a 23lbs flathead catfish; we tied this one properly. He was pretty fired up and it was his biggest cat to date on rod and reel. Unfortunately Saturday afternoon Mother Nature decided to unleash hell on us with strong thunderstorms, luckily our boat was safely under the dock cover before the brunt of the storm hit. Some of the other boats in our group were not so lucky!









Sunday morning we woke up to clear skies and much warmer temps, but with the fishing being so slow we decided to pack it up early and head home to please the woman folk. We’re making another trip down in a couple weeks, so hopefully the fish will have started stacking up by then.

OK Hog Hunt 2011

2/25/11 - The MN gang arrived at my place around 12:15am for a few short hours of rest before we packed back up and headed to OK around 4am. The snow and ice KC had Thursday evening made for an interesting drive, but we made down to the Addictive Hunting ranch without any major hiccups. Bob Berger met us at the front gate and the hunt was on.

After getting settled in and relaxing for a bit we got our gear together and headed for the stands. The forecast had called for mid 60s and sun all weekend, so the 28 degrees, overcast skies, and 15-25mph northeast wind Friday evening made for a long, cold sit. I drove around the ranch with Bob and dropped off Jason and Chad at their sets for the evening sit. Once they were situated we loaded up and Bob drove Scott, Lance, Logan, and me to the north end of the ranch. Logan and I hunted a set called "The Boneyard" that evening. Wee-man hung in there like a trooper with the cold and wind, but after 2 1/2 hours he'd had enough and I walked him back up to the rig were Scott met us. I headed back down to the set and around 4:55pm four nice sows moved into the bait site. They were grouped up devouring the sour corn I'd prepared and I couldn't get them to separate long enough for a clean shot. After about 10 minutes of waiting I decided to slide out of the blind and try to get a better angle on them. I snuck about 30yrds down the shooting lane and finally had a shot opportunity present itself. I was settled in and about half way through my trigger squeeze when the sows all looked up, then tore out of the bait sight. That's when I noticed a black blur tearing towards the feeder from the left. I could tell it was a bigger hog, so when it stopped broadside about 80yrds out I touched the shot off. I heard the bullet hit and the shot felt good, but the hog was instantly screaming through the tall grass towards the canyon. I saw the sows reach the canyon and drop over the lip, but when the hog I shot at reached the same trail I heard a bunch of crashing around and brush breaking. I was confident about the shot, so I slid back into the set and waited for nightfall.

Around 5:45pm I heard a shot from Scott's location, but unfortunately he missed a shot at a running hog about 250yrds out into the wheat field Logan and him had set up on.

We decided to let my hog sit overnight since the temps were dropping into the low twenties. I hunted "The Boneyard" again Saturday morning and after Scott, Logan, Bobby (guide), and Nathan arrived at my set around 9:15am we started the tracking job. We headed straight for the edge of the canyon were I heard all of the commotion the night before. After a short tracking job into the bottom of the canyon we found my boar piled up in the bottom of a deep draw. This is the biggest boar I've killed to date 190lbs with 2 1/2 inch cutters.
We all met back at camp for lunch and sorted out a game plan for a drive on the big canyon that ran through the ranch. I decided to stay back at camp and get my boar butchered up, but everyone else headed out for the drive. Unfortunately the drive only yielded hog sightings, but no kills....unless you count Logan cracking a dillo's ass and Chad smoking a trapped coon.

After they returned to camp we sorted out the evening sit and Chad and I decided to play a hunch and sit over a wheat field that Bobby had been seeing a big group of hogs in the past couple of nights. There weren't any sets in place to hunt that spot, so after putting out some sour corn I created a sweet ground blind about 160yrds north of the corner the pigs had been spotted on. It was nice to finally get to hunt with Chad again, because it had been about 6-7 years since we've hunted together. At 5pm sharp I spotted several hogs headed towards the field. There were 3 big sows and 8 piglets in the group and they had one thing on their mind "sour corn". Chad and I watched them for a couple minutes while we worked out a game plan to put a double on the ground. Chad was going to shoot the biggest sow and I was going to crack the next biggest sow's ass, but when one of us had a clean shot the other one didn't. After a couple minutes of waiting the opportunity finally presented itself. Our plan was to count to three, then shoot on a silent four count so Iwasn't talking and trying to shoot at the same time. I think the excitement might have gotten to Chad a bit, because when the word "three" left my lips I heard the report from his 300 mag, I got a shot off in short order and when the dust settled two sows where down. We're not sure if I actually hit the second pig or if Chad smoked both of them with one shot, but regardless we had pigs down and it was Chad's first hog ever. We took advantage of the remaining daylight and decided to get some photos taken before it was dark out.

Sunday morning was warm, but the wind and overcast skies remained and nobody saw any movement as far as hogs go. We all headed back to camp around 10am to get packed up and head home. All in all it was a great trip. We killed three nice hogs, Logan got to smoke an armadillo and a skunk and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It would have been nice to see/kill some more hogs, but when your hunting wild animals there is no guarantee. We're already talking about heading back down in June/July of 2012 for a summer time hunt.

Next up on the Minny-MO calender is the MO snagging season, followed up in short order by the spring turkey season....stay tuned, because we'll be laying down some more animals shortly.