fladuckdays

banded woodie

2009-09-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

got a nice surprise this morning for the early teal/wood duck opener.

girls gone fishin

2009-07-27T17:46:00.001-07:00

getting ready to head out

digging for worms

the snake egg we found while digging for worms

a couple of nice bluegills

fern and fish head

cleaning fish

surf and turf southern style. quail, bluegill (like grandmommy used to make it), cheese grits and baked beans

the girls enjoying their bounty

took the girls out bluegill fishing today in the neighborhood that i grew up in. we had a great time. they caught a mess of fish that they wanted to eat so i cleaned em up and took em back home to pair with some quail i had in the freezer. nothing special, just pan fried like gram used to make when i was their age. the snake egg came home as well. we will keep it to see what hatches, something else i used to do when i was young.

1st on toho

2009-07-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

fished a central florida bassmaster tournament and took 1st place honors with 25.5 pounds. missed big bass by 6 ounces. heres a pic of the two 7 pounders i had.

bfl prefish #1

2009-01-31T15:18:00.001-08:00

i have my first bfl tournament next week and vince and i went out yesterday to do some prefishing. we caught a ton of fish. several in the 4 pound range.

snipe rally 09

2009-01-25T09:05:00.000-08:00

attended the annual snipe rally yesterday which was held this year in gainesville florida. we had a great time. it was nice to shoot with old friends and new ones.

goodwin

2009-01-17T16:33:00.001-08:00

went over to the tm goodwin reservoir this morning with old fat slow and one of his boys, jim. i was going to "walk on" at broadmoor but they were kind enough to share their permit with me. ofs and i shot eight ducks between us including a fulvous whistling duck each. the fulvous was a first for me so that was an extra special treat. jim forgot his license and was unable to hunt but seemed to have a good time despite the fact. thanks guys for a great time in the marsh!

more bbwds

2009-01-12T17:59:00.000-08:00

should have known this was going straight to the mouth. had to snatch it up before finn got a mouth full of feathers.

fern was not sad for the death of a duck but mad that lyla had one of "her" ducks.

decided to stick close to home today since i had to be at work in the afternoon. the three hour drives and all nighters are taking a toll on me. met a new duck hunting friend, klint from right here in lakeland florida. we ended the day with a nice bag. klint got two bwt hens and i shot 4 bwt (3 drakes, 1 hen) and two black belly whistling ducks. had a great time!

black bellies

2009-01-10T17:52:00.000-08:00

i went to sta 1 this morning with caretaker. neither one of us had ever shot a black belly whistling duck before so that was the target. caretaker had scouted a spot and it payed off. what a fun bird to shoot. it is amazing how well they respond to a whistle. the total bag for the day was 9 bbwds and 3 drake blue wings. after the shoot we had breakfast at the local taco stand. thanks for the invite caretaker! i had a blast.

duck weekend

2009-01-05T20:32:00.000-08:00

quackbob and i had a duck hunting filled weekend. saturday morning we drove over to broadmoor for a morning permit hunt. we meet up with oldfatslow and his oldest son craig. we had a successful hunt shooting blue wing teal and a mottled. its always a pleasure shooting with oldfatslow and his boys. after that bob and i headed north to the st johns to shoot snipe. we didnt have much time but we managed a few snipe and watched a beautiful sunset in the marsh. after we loaded up in the dark we headed down to clewiston and found a roach motel for the night. the next morning we grabbed breakfast and headed down to sta5 for an afternoon hunt. we managed a nice mixed bag of blue wing teal, green wing teal, mottled, ringers and my first ever widgeon. sta5 was a real treat. what an amazing place to hunt and what an awesome weekend of duck hunting.

alabama gadwalls

2008-12-28T19:33:00.000-08:00

today i joined the scearce brothers and crew for an alabama gadwall hunt. what a show! we had lots of birds working the spread early but only few committed to the decoys. these were my first gadwalls so it was a real treat. we ended the day with seven gadwall which we took home and ate for dinner. the chattanooga crew are first rate and i had a blast with them in the blind. thanks again daniel for the invite!

foggy hunt

2008-12-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

lots of fog but no ducks

cold front

2008-12-16T13:48:00.000-08:00

good for the ducks not so good for the fish. vince and i took my boat out for its first real fishing trip on kissimmee. vince was a punk and caught the first bass on MY boat! it was the only fish we caught.

st johns snipe

2008-12-14T07:12:00.000-08:00

bob and i went over to the st. johns river yesterday to do a bit of duck hunting. we each shot our mottled duck but that was about all we saw flying. so we decided to make a snipe hunt out of the trip. bob had never been snipe shooting before but he proved up to the task. he not only shot his first snipe but he got his first limit. nice job bob. we had a great time and i think bob is gonna be a sniper for life.

bacon wrapped blue cheese bbq duck

2008-12-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

8 duck breasts
1 bottle of everglades wild orange marinade
1 block of blue cheese
2 packs of bacon
1 jar of bbq sauce ( I prefer cattleman’s)

cut duck breasts into bite size pieces and marinate in everglades wild orange marinade for 24 hours. wrap duck and a small slice of blue cheese in a half piece of bacon. use a toothpick (soak in water so they wont burn in oven) to hold the ingredients together. spray a cookie sheet with pam oil and place duck on top. cook at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 45 mins or until bacon is crispy. dab bbq sauce on duck and put back in oven for 3 mins.

mirrored citrus vinaigrette salad

mixed greens
roasted pine nuts
dried cranberries
diced star fruit
blue cheese crumbles
bacon crumbles
everglades wild orange marinade mixed with olive oil

wine

mac murray ranch pinot noir wine

new ride

2008-12-07T15:31:00.000-08:00

took the family out for a test drive the other day and had a picnic in the middle of lake hunter. of course i couldnt resist taking a few casts.

merritt island pinners

2008-12-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

i got to go hunting with "shotgun ed" and "notaduck" today over at merritt island. we were covered up in pintails all day. at first light we had about 200 land in our decoys. an amazing sight! ive never seen anything like it before. we must have seen 500 total throughout the morning. we didnt see any other ducks but we all shot a pinner each and enjoyed the show. it was great to watch notaducks dog, lucas, retrieve the ducks. it was the first time i had ever duck hunted with a dog. sure makes you want to own a good bird dog.

thanksgiving mallards

2008-11-27T16:12:00.001-08:00

went out this morning for my second annual thanksgiving duck hunt. got my first real triple and my first green head. three shots and three dead mallards. one of the hens definitely had some mottled in her back and beak but also had two white stripes on her speculum. doing my part to control the feral duck population. they must of wandered off of a golf course somewhere. well, they wont be returning. picked up the decoys by 8 a.m. and headed home to help the wife with the thanksgiving celebration preparations. so many things to be thankful for.

broadmoor band

2008-11-25T20:13:00.001-08:00

old fat slow invited me to share a permit on broadmoor this morning. ive only hunted there twice but it is by far my favorite place to duck hunt. today it became even more special. i shot my first banded duck to complete my limit. a mottled duck that was banded earlier this year in florida. not a huge migration but just as special as if it had come from canada. we finished both of our limits right as the sun was coming up. thanks again scott for another amazing hunt!

quail 08

2008-11-24T12:27:00.001-08:00

bob butterfield was kind enough to take dustin and i out for a quail hunt. a good time was had by all. we ended the day with 27 birds between the 3 of us.

united waterfowlers of florida

2008-11-02T06:44:00.001-08:00

i did not fully understand what united waterfowlers of florida do for duck hunters. i have met some great members and even hunted with a few. i put joining on my "to do at some point list." after attending the meeting yesterday at the circle b ranch bar and seeing exactly what the organization does i went directly to the UW table and signed up. i want to be able to hunt these marshes but most importantly, i want my kids to be able to hunt these lands when i am long gone. UW is making sure that will happen. i am a long time member of DU and now i will be a long time member of UW. thank you guys for all that you have done for us on the florida waterfowling front! if you are a duck hunter in florida you should seriously consider joining up. its only $25. these are the guys who are responsible for getting goose season opened in florida.

1st and "big bass"

2008-09-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

last night we took 1st place and "big bass" due to a large part to this 8 pond pig that vince caught.

fern's 4th

2008-08-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

fern had her 4th birthday today. i figured it was time for her first gun. well a bb gun that is. didnt have any glasses today so we kept it at one pump to avoid any major ricochet. she was very excited and shot like a pro. lyla jane even got in on the action.

1st again

2008-08-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

last thursday vince and i took 1st place at ron's again due mostly to this little finesse worm made by netbaits. sorry, no pictures too busy catching bass.

brushy mcbrush-brush

2008-08-12T13:50:00.001-07:00

went out with vince again on his secret stash the other night. here are a few of the fish

a new blog in town

2008-08-04T08:53:00.001-07:00

i am contributing on a new blog tackle review site. big fish outfitters review. you may want to check it out and add it to your favorites. its a bit different than most review blogs that there are three contributers with strong opinions that rarely match up so you get a balanced review of the product and the banter is usually pretty comical.