my weekend recap (wind, pheasants, wind and more wind)

[rundrave]

My weekend recap:

Saturday turned out to be some what of a nice day, warmed up to about 60 almost too warm if you ask me, and a nice south wind of 40mph lol.

Early Saturday met up with Muleshack and his 2 dogs. Took a gamble on some public land that I was completely unfamiliar with. First place yielded a handful of hens and lots of wind

The 2nd place we walked was way to large and thick for just 2 guys and 4 dogs. We worked the best we could trying to incorporate some strategy into the 40 mph winds. We basically made a big horse shoe pass to start. About 3/4 of the way through our initial pass we finally got into a bunch of birds. I knocked down my first rooster of the day which took me 2 shots. Unfortunately for the first time in a long time I regretted shooting an O/U. As I broke open to reload another bird got up at my feet....bummer. With one bird on the ground we slowed our pace only to have a mess of birds scatter way out ahead of us. I tried to mark and keep track where they went and fortunately these birds didn't travel far.

We made one last pass right down the middle and produced birds but only one rooster. Now I have hunted in windy conditions before but I have never hunted in 40+mph winds. I was about to find out that it makes the birds do some very strange things. I had a bird flush only to immediately go right back to the ground. It was very strange. We were never able to get a good track on it or flush any more birds.

The later part of our morning was spent scouting and trying to find some areas that were not currently being hunted. Wasted a lot of time trying to find some open ground and only ended up seeing more hens.

As I made my way back home for the day I hunted some public areas I was more familiar with. In one area I again had a both dogs on point only to have a rooster show us his head and duck down. I eventually flushed it into the wind only to have it leave a couple feet off the ground and dart back down and disappear and put the move on us. Very frustrating.

For the rest of the day with the wind I struggled hearing my dogs beepers while they were on point. That resulted in several missed opportunities. It seemed like no matter where I went I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time. The wind was so strong it made it nearly impossible to hear birds flush.

I was able to pin point several birds by hunting the down wind sides of cat tails. It was almost as if the birds were out sunning themselves out of the wind. The wind actually helped in that you could literally walk up to these edges undetected. I was able to get one more rooster for the day and should have easily had a limit had I paid more attention and put my self in better positions.

Sundays weather was much like Saturday, same gusty wind still in full force but this time out of the West.

I began my day hunting the same property from Saturday that I hunted with Muleshack where I got my first bird. Taking into consideration the change in the wind and the lessons learned from Saturday my 2 GSP's and I took on this massive property all by our selves. We zig zagged best we could only to never really get right on top of any birds. Seeing that we were moving birds out ahead I opted to get back back to the vehicle for a quick water break. When we restarted we were walking a mowed section with barely any cover working our way to some thicker areas. My youngest dog about 30 yards to my right went on one of the most intense points I have ever seen from him. He was locked up but his head was so low his belly was almost touching the ground. There was literally no cover there that should hold any birds. Sure enough I see a rooster pop his head up about 5 yards in front of my dog. I readied my gun and waited for what seemed forever for the flush. I let the dogs hold point and just watched the bird as my heart raced. When he finally flushed I got him on the first shot. Was one of those moments where it all just came together and in a spot I least expected it to.

I hunted some other areas I was familiar with but again had the same troubles with the wind as I did on Saturday with not hearing the dogs beepers while they were on point or just hearing birds flush in general. It was again more scenarios of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I was able to get one more bird that day but shot poorly to keep me from limiting out.

All and all it was a great weekend. Was really the first time all year I have been able to get out and hunt all day. All birds bagged were really really young. I bet I didn't have a tail feather over 10" inches of the 4 birds I got. I really don't think a lot of these young birds will make it through the winter if the snow and cold get here early. Also noticed that the north central part of the state was much wetter than the SE area where I live.

Bring on the cold and snow, and get these small sloughs frozen so I can get out to those birds. The best hunting is yet to come folks! Good luck

[reddog]

Excellent report rundrave!

The only rules roosters know is there is no rules.

Im headed out Wed again. Gonna try a new area for me.

[MuleShack]

Yea my head was on a swivel on that WPA i stopped at on the way back north. wind was a blazin and if you didnt see the bird get up, you missed it all together.

I still find it amazing how a bird can elude a dog in light cover. In that same WPA when I was in the back corner watching over the cat tails to see if anything is getting up. I noticed some movement to me left, and saw a wounded hen jump thru the wire fence. My lab saw this and followed the bird thru the fence and tried to locate it. I didn't pursue it, because I didn't want anything to do with a hen but I was watching her with amusement. The bird basically went into a narrow patch of weeds and hunkered down and basically disappeared. She couldn't get a scent on it after a short while and lost interest. I could see all around the little patch of weeds and knew (or I though I knew) she was still in there. They are Houdini like sometimes.

It was nice to meet you Dustin and fun to watch your dogs work. I just wish my GSP would have felt better and put on a better performance. He had never hunted with other dogs before, so I think that was part of it.