snipe rally

well, i made the 4 1/2 hour drive to tallahassee for the 3rd annual "snipe rally" friday morning.

started out hunting with skip and dick friday morning where we shot plenty of birds







then it was off to skips house where barry met us for an amazing dinner (prepared by skips lovely wife), desserts, drink, smoke and some of barrys famous duck sausage.


the next morning i went out with barry on a different lake where he was very gracious to pole my fat butt around and search for snipe. we bagged a few birds and had a great time.






after that we met back up at skips for more great food and then skip, dick and i headed south for gainesville to meet up with scott for some of the prettiest land and best damn grouper, scallops, shrimp and smoked wahoo dip that youll ever have. we shot plenty of birds and had a wonderful time lazing around after the hunt flapjawing it up










i cant speak for everyone but i had an awesome time and cant wait till next years rally. it was great to meet everyone and shoot some new places. a big thanks to skip, scott and barry for hosting the hunts and feeding/housing this lowly duck hunter!

shooting snipe

busy shooting snipe. will post later.

not with a bang

this is the way the duck season ends
this is the way the duck season ends
this is the way the duck season ends
not with a bang but a whimper

went out with oldfatslow (scott) to the st johns river for the close of the season. didnt see many birds in the air and none in our decoys. we finally decided to try and walk up some snipe and instead of snipe i found a duck. i ended the day with 1 mottled drake and scott with a snipe. we had a good time and the 2 hour boat drive up the river to scotts spot is a beautiful sight.

second to last duck hunt

florida duck season ends on sunday and since i will be at church, it ends on saturday for me. went out today with "pirouge" on lake toho. started the day off slow with only one mottled shot by dwight. i didnt take a shot until noon when we moved to the north end of the lake. there i shot 3 drake ringers and dwight shot 2 ringers (1 drake & 1 hen) and a hen blue wing teal. had a great time. one more hunt to go then nothing but fishing for the next nine months.

richies first of 07/08

richie finally got his first duck of the 07/08 season. a hen blue wing teal. she came down on his first shot of the morning. after that it was all down hill for ol richie boy. he took several more shots but that was the only duck to fall. i bagged a nice woodie drake and stoned a mottled but couldnt find the bird despite looking for about 30 mins. im sure we could have gotten a few more birds if we could have seen through the fog for the first 3 hours of shooting. not a huge day on the lake but we sure had fun and plenty of laughs.

gator bait

fished the xtreme kissimmee bass tournament today. we did okay considering the trolling motor was out of commission the entire day. we ended up in 10th place with 11 pounds 10 ounces.

the exciting part of the day was when a small gator came over to the boat a foot away from me and tried to eat my hand(reference pictures above). sorry the second pic is out of focus but i was too busy trying to keep all of my digits.

extreme prefish

went out today on lake kissimmee with vince to do a little prefishing for our up coming extreme tourney. we found some fish but they were all on the small side. hopefully we will be able to find some bigger ones during the tourney. vince got a little too excited about one fish and pulled a "bill dance" close up on it.

a new link

putting up a new link over on the side bar of an amazing decoy carver that i found through "nogoodguitarpickers" site. check em out from time to time and if you have the money then order one. hauser decoys

just another duck hunting adventure

when i got in the jeep this morning the temp read 38 degrees. "good, i like it cold!" i got to the lake about an hour and a half before legal shooting. unloaded the pirogue and all my stuff just to realize that i had forgotten my paddle. "stupid!!!" the house was 45 mins away and i had just enough time to get to my spot as it was so i decided to use my 12' wooden push pole as my paddle working it like a two bladed kayak paddle. making the mile long trek out wasnt too bad because i had the wind at my back. “coming back is gonna be a killer but maybe the wind will die down.” wrong! got to my spot and set up just before legal. passed on two wood ducks early because i couldnt make out the drake in the low light and figured i would have plenty of opportunities to get my two woodies late. wrong again! didnt see another one all day. throughout the day i shot at 4 ducks and bagged 3 (2 bwt and 1 mottled) of them. could of had a limit of blue wings if i had been more comfortable with the pirogue but 3 is not bad for the first time out in a new boat. the crowning achievement of the day was a modification i made to the boat late last night. i put two “u” bolts on both sides and painted two 5' pieces of conduit so I could push them down into the muck and keep the boat more stable while shooting. it worked like a charm. i could even stand up and pee out of the boat which i wouldnt have attempted in a million years without the "muck poles." i knew heading back wasnt going to be fun but i also wasnt expecting the wind to pick up as much as it did. i decided to head straight across the middle of the lake (i had avoided this in the morning for fear of tipping the boat in deep water) to shorten my path and take the wind head on. the mile long "paddle" seemed to take forever. “i would give my left XXX for a paddle right now!” i was barely moving with the little water resistance from the push pole and the 15 mph winds that pushed constantly in my face. i couldnt stop and rest for more than a second or two because the pirogue would get pushed around and i would loose any progress that i had made. things got very interesting when i hit the heavy chop in the middle of the lake being that it was only my second time in a pirogue which sits all of 2" off the water with my fat butt in it. im not sure how many paddle strokes i made because i only started counting about half way across the lake. i was yelling out numbers as i paddled to give me motivation and a goal to reach. "if i can only get to 100, then i can take a brake of a second." when i finally hit ground the count was up to 574 so i would say somewhere around 1200 for the mile long trek. i laid in the boat for about 10 mins trying to recover. my arms have never burned like that before. i will never forget the paddle again! and if i do, i will be getting a late start hunting that day cause im going back home for it!

merry christmas to me

yesterday i got my christmas present and even though it was a little late, i was still very excited. it is a used pirogue. i took it out today to see if i could keep from tipping. of course i picked the coldest day of the year to try it out. i felt very comfortable in it and only felt a little unsure when i would switch from my knees to my butt which i did several times to try and get use to. the boat has a few small leaks which i plan to fix in the next few weeks with a friend who does fiberglass work. im thinking of trying a hunting trip tomorrow morning on a small locale lake. what do you guys think? now or never? or should i have a few more practice trips?

should have brought along my pellet gun to take out some of the local feral ducks.

a first

today quackbob and i decided to forgo his ocklawaha permit to try and bag a pintail or widgeon at merritt island. bad choice! we got there early and set up. 20 mins before "legal" teal were everywhere. we thought we were on our way to limitsville for sure. 5 mins before "legal" the birds completely disappeared. for the whole day i fired 4 shots at 2 birds. i did bag a young drake northern shoveler (spoonbill) which is a bird that i have never harvested before. its a good thing it wasnt a full plume drake because my taxidermy bill is starting to get up there. bob shot a hen green wing teal. live and learn. next time we will stick with the original plan. still had a ton of fun.

new years duck

i was invited to a friends house for a new years eve party tonight and was asked to bring a finger food dish. i figured it was a perfect time to bust out some of the duck in the freezer. made some bacon wrapped duck and pineapple with a honey lime dipping sauce. it was delicious and by the end of the night there was none left.

8 teal breasts
1 bottle of mojo marinade
2 cans of chunked pineapple
2 packs of bacon
1 jar of gray poupon savory honey mustard
1/4 fresh lime

cut duck breasts into bite size pieces and marinate in mojo marinade for 3 hours. wrap i piece of duck and a piece of pineapple in half a 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. squeeze lime into honey mustard and stir for dipping.