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Post by featherduster on Oct 24, 2015 4:44:41 GMT -5
But you wonder which season Regular duck or Teal.
There has been no rain to speak of around here for weeks and it's beginning to show.
There are quite a few geese around but it won't take long for them to find the city limits and as far as the ducks are concerned after this weekends Wood duck shoot there won't be to much left hanging around.
It has been a very warm and dry fall so far and the extended forecast looks like a lot more of the same.
For those of you going out this weekend STAY SAFE AND DON'T FORGET IT'S ONLY OPENING WEEKEND.
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Post by duff on Oct 24, 2015 14:49:56 GMT -5
Lol, my buddies got a good draw at tri county. Nailed some woodies, saw a few greenheads and blew an opportunity on a few geese. They had fun.
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Post by featherduster on Oct 25, 2015 5:20:10 GMT -5
It was the kind of opening day I could repeat anytime.
I sat on a bar stool in some pine trees alongside my marsh, the wind was howling, the trees were swaying and the temperature was about 55 degrees with dark rolling clouds.
I only put out 5 duck and 3 goose decoys because there aren't many birds in my area yet.
I heard a total of 3 shots during the 3 hours I was out there and I only saw about 20 geese along with about 50 ducks.
I had one Wood Duck dive right in and he came back to the house with me,the dog worked perfectly so all in all it was a great opener.
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Post by duff on Oct 25, 2015 7:49:53 GMT -5
2 of my brother in laws chased some geese but picked the wrong field. Maybe next time
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Post by featherduster on Oct 25, 2015 9:20:29 GMT -5
2 of my brother in laws chased some geese but picked the wrong field. Maybe next time Wild Goose chase? |
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Post by chubwub on Oct 25, 2015 10:45:11 GMT -5
We took one of the nephews out and he got a couple wood ducks. Geese gave him excellent pass shot opportunities but he did not connect, got too excited, lol. 2 teal also should have died if he had been on his A game. We regret that we did not bring more goose floaters and shells, more than likely that would have sealed the deal, the flocks were much larger than anticipated. Husband had issues with the heavy winds muting his call but switching to a higher pitch helped tremendously.
I have a feeling this season is going to be challenging and husband agrees. Low water, failed crops and not much to hold them. Like the cold weather this will be the type of season that finds out who is a dedicated waterfowler. I feel sorry for any poor fools in our area who thought this would be the year they take up duck hunting.
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Post by featherduster on Oct 25, 2015 10:50:45 GMT -5
chubwub said:I have a feeling this season is going to be challenging and husband agrees. Low water, failed crops and not much to hold them. Like the cold weather this will be the type of season that finds out who is a dedicated waterfowler. I feel sorry for any poor fools in our area who thought this would be the year they take up duck hunting.
That is exactly the way I feel about this season the farmers around here are just about done with the harvest and have begun to disc under the fields not leaving much grain for the migrating birds also small pond and sloughs are very dry.
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Post by duff on Oct 25, 2015 12:44:05 GMT -5
Like we ever have great conditions. You have to like waterfowl hunting to get into it and stay in it if you are hunting Indiana.
I recall someone would say, ducks hate indiana :-)
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Post by moose1am on Nov 6, 2015 20:31:34 GMT -5
We took one of the nephews out and he got a couple wood ducks. Geese gave him excellent pass shot opportunities but he did not connect, got too excited, lol. 2 teal also should have died if he had been on his A game. We regret that we did not bring more goose floaters and shells, more than likely that would have sealed the deal, the flocks were much larger than anticipated. Husband had issues with the heavy winds muting his call but switching to a higher pitch helped tremendously. I have a feeling this season is going to be challenging and husband agrees. Low water, failed crops and not much to hold them. Like the cold weather this will be the type of season that finds out who is a dedicated waterfowler. I feel sorry for any poor fools in our area who thought this would be the year they take up duck hunting. I was under the impression that lower frequency sounds travel farther than higher frequency sound waves. Elephants communicate with sound frequencies so low that the human ear can't hear them. I know that longer sound waves travel further though the water when using sonar than higher frequency waves. But the shorter distance higher frequency sound waves show more detail of the bottom on sonar.
I have a Shockwave Electronic Digital Caller and could put some Geese call sounds on it. I'd have to check to see if it's legal in IN to use something like that to call in geese or ducks. If not then I need to practice more on my mallard feeding duck calls. 
I have not gone waterfowl hunting since I got out of college back in 1976 May. But I went a lot when I was in College and home for the holidays. My neighbor was an avid water fowl hunter and would be still if he didn't have colon cancer now. The cancer treatment with chemotherapy drugs is taking it's toll on him from what I've heard. I miss going waterfowl hunting with him back in the good old days. I'm afraid those days are gone for ever for us. It's sad to get older and get sick. I too have cancer. So I guess it's going around more these days. I'm lucky in that my cancer is very slow growing at this time. I'm just watching it with the doctor to see if I will need any treatments. I'm able to treat my cancer with prescription drugs that have few side effects so that's why I consider myself lucky. I can still do things that I want to right now. My heart disease is slowing me down more than the cancer. I can still dream of getting out in a float boat and sneaking up one some ducks somewhere in a local bayou.
I understand that the early duck season is upon us. Sure wish that I still had access to my friends Remington Model 870 wingmaster 12 gage shotgun and that my camo clothing would still fit me properly. All those new camo outfits that I bought back in 2010 are getting a little too tight to fit me anymore. Too much good food and eating out too often I guess.
To those that are still able to get out and pursue some ducks and geese in the fields I wish you good luck.
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Post by moose1am on Nov 6, 2015 20:45:45 GMT -5
Like we ever have great conditions. You have to like waterfowl hunting to get into it and stay in it if you are hunting Indiana. I recall someone would say, ducks hate indiana :-) My first duck hunt with my neighbor was down in Union Township in Vanderburgh County, IN. We were there before sun up and it was foggy and not too cold that early morning but there was a fog covering the farm land and the slough we were putting the decoys into. My neighbor had the bib waders and some decoys that he was spreading out onto the water's surface. The slough was not very wide across and not more than 100 or 200 yard long. Maybe 40 yard across and only 1 or 2 ft deep. I can still remember the wood ducks coming in while we were still putting the decoys on the water. We managed to down a couple of them. Man that was sure suspense and fun. I had read a lot of stories about waterfowl hunting in the magazines that my father use to buy. Field and Stream and Outdoor Life were the two main ones. And I thought that one needed to have a well camouflaged blind to duck hunt properly. But that's not really need when the fog is so thick that you can cut it with a knife The wood ducks had been coming into this farmers field for a while before we got there and nothing was going to stop them until the saw us shooting at them. We caught them totally by surprise as some of them landed right in among our decoys and my friend. I got hooked on waterfowl hunting that day and we went hunting at Hovey's lake a few more times after that day. Actually we hunted together for about 4 years during or college days. Those were good times.
If you have never given waterfowl hunting a chance you should try it some day. I was lucky in that my friend/neighbor's dad taught him how to hunt ducks and geese and he was able to teach me the trade. And he had most all the duck decoys. I did go buy some Geese Shell Decoys (Dozen) and we used them a few times. I finally ended up giving those shell goose decoys to my neighbor on the other side of me. He went waterfowl hunting with his brothers too. Everyone in the neighborhood where I grew up were hunters and we all had guns of various types. We would shoot clay pigeon in the back yards as there was nothing but a give wide open field behind our houses. The nearest road behind our house was a major highway about 2 miles South of our back yard. Between our house was the corn field and a big woods. We hunted rabbits, squirrels, and crows back in those fields and woods for many years until it was developed and houses were built in the field. That put the end of our hunting grounds for good.
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Post by duff on Nov 6, 2015 21:18:01 GMT -5
waterfowl is definitely fun, addictive and expensive...but if no birds are around it is hard to stay motivated.
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Post by chubwub on Nov 6, 2015 21:24:15 GMT -5
I wish I could call like my husband. I struggle to produce an even remotely passable quack on his calls. I'm pushing air through with my diaphragm and everything but nothing seems to work.
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Post by sakorifle on Nov 8, 2015 4:50:51 GMT -5
I wish I could call like my husband. I struggle to produce an even remotely passable quack on his calls. I'm pushing air through with my diaphragm and everything but nothing seems to work. WELL now he is your husband there must be no secrets, so he has to learn you how to call. I suggest every tuesday and friday night is chubwub learning to call night. lol Just warn the neighbours first, lol Joking aside my younger brother i am sure is half goose , he can turn a skeen from miles away. He took an old mate of mine eighty years old for a flight and the old boy came back and said man your brother can bring geese in i have never seen the like of it before. So i got him to learn me, but it was only one night a week , and he tried to charge me. lol regards Billy. |
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Post by chubwub on Nov 8, 2015 8:00:58 GMT -5
I wish I could call like my husband. I struggle to produce an even remotely passable quack on his calls. I'm pushing air through with my diaphragm and everything but nothing seems to work. WELL now he is your husband there must be no secrets, so he has to learn you how to call. I suggest every tuesday and friday night is chubwub learning to call night. lol Just warn the neighbours first, lol Joking aside my younger brother i am sure is half goose , he can turn a skeen from miles away. He took an old mate of mine eighty years old for a flight and the old boy came back and said man your brother can bring geese in i have never seen the like of it before. So i got him to learn me, but it was only one night a week , and he tried to charge me. lol regards Billy. I'm sure one of these days he'll set me down and try again. The biggest issue with him is that asking him how he calls is like asking him how do you breathe. In the meantime, I've at least gotten a decent grasp of when to call, what call to use and when to just shut-up. He is also a freak of nature on the goose call, only person I've ever seen getting geese to spin back around for another shot after they've already been shot at by us and other parties skybusting. He must sound like some seductive siren from the Odyessy to them. It's probably a good thing he and your brother can't get together, I'd imagine there wouldn't be a goose left in the entire UK if they had their way. |
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Post by duff on Nov 8, 2015 10:12:00 GMT -5
It isn't uncommon to shoot some birds out of a flock and have the rest circle and get shot again. Seen it happen lots of times. I recall one group came in 3 times but I think that was early season and that doesn't count :-)
One of my buddies can't blow a duck call to save his life. Pretty funny. He can goose call using a flute call but not a short reed.
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Post by chubwub on Nov 8, 2015 11:37:16 GMT -5
Divers don't count either according to my husband, lol
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Post by duff on Nov 8, 2015 12:35:41 GMT -5
Yea, I was talking geese. I was primarily a goose hunter, ducks were usually but not always just target of opportunity.
I loved putting out goose dekes to hunt ducks. Really confused some guys. I will say nothing beat a black tornado of ducks circling into the field full of goose decoys. That is fun. Second to that is a line of geese on the death glide from 200 yards away just about 10 feet off the stubble. I miss that.
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Post by sakorifle on Nov 8, 2015 13:51:16 GMT -5
Yea, I was talking geese. I was primarily a goose hunter, ducks were usually but not always just target of opportunity. I loved putting out goose dekes to hunt ducks. Really confused some guys. I will say nothing beat a black tornado of ducks circling into the field full of goose decoys. That is fun. Second to that is a line of geese on the death glide from 200 yards away just about 10 feet off the stubble. I miss that. Oh man you got me wanting to go goose shooting now, and tomorrow its monday and a very wet deer day coming, lol regards Billy |
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Post by moose1am on Nov 8, 2015 20:33:55 GMT -5
Yea, I was talking geese. I was primarily a goose hunter, ducks were usually but not always just target of opportunity. I loved putting out goose dekes to hunt ducks. Really confused some guys. I will say nothing beat a black tornado of ducks circling into the field full of goose decoys. That is fun. Second to that is a line of geese on the death glide from 200 yards away just about 10 feet off the stubble. I miss that. I loved it when they set their wings out and start gliding to land and you can see the orange feet and their eye's really good. That's the time to rise up and shoot. They are so committed to landing that it takes them a while to change their minds about landing and start to flap their wings again to take back off. But that time if you are a good shot you will have them for dinner. Just don't everyone one shoot at the same goose in the same flock. Then you will be bickering over who actually shot the goose. LOL Been there done that. I hunted with two brothers who were always fighting over the dead ducks and geese. Unless you use different types of colored BB or something like that it's nearly impossible to tell who really shot the goose and killed it. That's why we were calling out which one we were shooting at or trying to. |
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Post by duff on Nov 8, 2015 21:05:39 GMT -5
That is as good as it gets, those honkers gliding in!
We always tried to make sure we all shot at different birds but too many times they wouldn't come in exactly how we expect them to. At that point all bets are off and especially after the first shots rang out.
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