anna maria island fishing

i had a wedding to shoot this past weekend on anna maria island. my buddy dubs was the hired musician for the wedding so we devised a plan to do a little fishing the morning after. dubs towed his boat down and despite staying up till 4 am we pulled ourselves out of bed at 7 am and hit the water. chris boll also joined us. we had a great time and caught a ton of trout.

Birdie gets a visit

birdie and i went over to meet up with amanda, the owner of birdies parents, in orlando. she was in town at a conference. im so glad we were able to connect. her and birdie had a great time playing outside of bass pro shop. thanks for meeting with us, amanda!

its really coming together

well yesterday it really came together for birdie. she looked like a pro out there. she found birds quickly. she held rock solid point for long periods of time. on fetch she went straight to the bird and came straight back and delivered the bird to hand. i cant tell you how proud i am of her. after the hunt she got to spend lots of time running and playing with her friends.

"birdie" by Janie Koch

an artist from biloxi, mississippi that is related to my mothers best friend saw a picture of birdie and it inspired her to do a painting.

upland training

birdie and i went to do some upland bird training yesterday. she is coming along nicely. it felt like fall for the first time out there. the cooler weather makes it easier on everyone. feels like hunting season.

First duck

birdies first duck retrieve



a bonus moorhen that swam too close to the blind

birdie's first duck hunt

birdie went on her first duck hunt this morning. it is the early season so you can only shoot teal and wood ducks. we managed one hen wood duck. it was a long shot and she did not see the bird go down. i pulled out of the duck blind within birdies retrieving range. i sent her out on a "blind" retrieve and she found the duck. i missed my second woodie but shot a moorhen from the duck blind to give her another retrieve. she marked it and brought it back to hand like a pro. i will post videos of the retrieves later. congrats on your first duck birdie girl!

quail again

went out to train birdie again today over quail. she did great! she picks sent up so fast. shes holding point and whoaing much better than last time. spent most of the day with her on the check cord to hold on wing and shot. she also backed ritter for about 5 birds. she found one bird that had snuck out on us. we turned around and saw birdie on point about 20 feet away. ritter picked up and backed birdie. that was very cool! she does a great job retrieving to hand. my favorite of the day was when she marked a bird that flew off next to a pond and pointed it with half her body in the water and half out.

retrieve from friday

more moorhen

friday i took a former student to shoot moorhen. he has been asking for years to go hunting with me. he is now in college and finally got his hunter safety and hunting license. i told him that moorhens were not very sporting but he still wanted to go. he plans to go duck hunting with me this season. he shot 13 moorhen with one really nice shot on the wing. birdie did great. my highlight of the morning was when she marked a bird down jumped in without a push and retrieved the bird. last time i had to show her where the birds were and give her an extra push out of the boat. seems she is putting together gun shot with bird down. she made two retrieves like that and several more that i tossed for her. she loves watching all the birds fly in the morning.