fladuckdays

last of 2011/2012

2012-01-28T22:04:00.009-05:00

ended the season with my buddy jed today. he was the fourth to harvest his first duck out of my boat this season. we finished the day with five ringers each. now the depression sets in that we have 8 months till early teal season. planning to get out for a few snipe hunts before february 15th.

sunrise to sunset

2012-01-25T22:54:00.012-05:00

we went out yesterday to shoot some more ringers. since it is the end of the season we decided to make an all day event out of it. we literally hunted from sunrise to sunset. it took awhile but we finally figured out what the ducks wanted. much of the day was slow hunting but we had a great time just hanging out in the blind. i'm trying to go out on saturday for my last hunt but not sure yet if that will happen. if i don't get back out this was a great way to end the season.

5 boys and a lady

2012-01-23T18:52:00.012-05:00

johnny and i went out on another ringer shoot today. we ended the day with 5 drakes and a hen. not as many ducks in the area we have been hunting but think we found a new hole that was holding some tree ducks. we are gonna try it out tomorrow morning. it may be my last hunt of the season. hopefully the ducks will show up. this post brought to you by wendy's :p

p.s. there is a new duck blog in town. check it out waders & wings

weekend with friends

2012-01-16T11:49:00.028-05:00

this past weekend some buddies and i went down to a friend's lake house to do some duck hunting. the problem was there were no ducks on the lake. we saw a few mottled ducks but none came in range. we found some snipe on the last day and finally did some killing.

"one shot" joe

2012-01-09T18:08:00.011-05:00

it was a slow morning. the fog was thick and the birds were holding tight. the fog lifted around 10 am and the ducks finally started flying. johnny dropped the first two ducks of the day. "one shot" joe bagged his first ever duck, a stud drake ringneck. we ended the day with 4 ringers, a bluewing teal and a new quack addict. i think it is safe to say joe will be back in the marsh before too long.

"waterbird" phil

2012-01-03T12:36:00.018-05:00

took another new hunter out yesterday. phil got to experience the crazy addictiveness that is duck hunting. went to a lake that i hadn't hunted yet this season so we were going a bit blind. we set up in a spot that was good last season. we waited there till about 8 am and saw very few ducks. fortunately a front was moving in and it was a very overcast day. i decided to make a move to a different location. we found a good number of ringers, set out the decoys and blinded up. it didn't take long for the birds to start coming back. we had ducks landing in our dekes before we could even load our guns. birdie made a beautiful retrieve on the first duck down. she is holding well on shot which makes me very happy. phil got his first duck and johnny got his first ringer. the sun didn't come out till about noon which kept the ducks moving and made for a fun shoot. no limits but an awesome hunt on a public body of water.

i got a new hunting camera so pictures should be much better from here on out.

johnny bluewings

2011-12-19T11:22:00.015-05:00

sunday johnny b joined bob and me for another afternoon hunt. we spent some time scouting and found some nice potholes in the cattails that the bluewings were stacking up in. the birds worked the decoys great. cupped up and feet down all day long. johnny shot his first duck, a drake bluewing teal and followed it up with five more drake bluewings. not bad for a first time duck hunter! i shot a limit of drake bluewings and bob shot five bluewings and a stud drake ringer. johnny wanted a duck for the wall but all the birds are still early in their plume so he will have to wait for a late season duck. the highlight of the day was watching johnny wide eyed as hundreds of ducks worked our area. couldnt have asked for a better hunt with better people.

widgeon down south

2011-12-19T11:18:00.009-05:00

first off let me apologize for the low quality pictures. my hunting camera is out of commission so all photos were taken with my phone. low light and phone photos dont mix well.

bob and i went to south florida for our annual sta weekend. saturday we had an afternoon hunt. we had a ton of widgeon working our spread but had a hard time getting them to commit. we were competing with a huge raft of coots in the middle of our cell that the widgeon kept landing in. we did manage a few shots and bagged two nice widgeon. not a ton of ducks but quality ones.

thanksgiving birdie

2011-11-25T11:47:00.006-05:00

johnny b joined me on my annual thanksgiving hunt. we didnt see a ton of ducks but its always nice to be on the marsh with friends. birdie got the chance to make a few retrieves and did an excellent job. she wanted us to shoot everything that flew by.

johnny b and the black bellies

2011-11-23T11:44:00.012-05:00

took my buddy johnny and his friend joe on their first duck hunt monday morning. we saw a few birds and got some shots on a group of black belly whistling ducks. johnny also slayed a few coots. this might be an all iphone picture season so brace yourself.

2011

2011-11-20T09:22:00.009-05:00

went out in my buddy, darren's boat yesterday for the 2011 opener. plenty of ducks out there but we were in the wrong spot.

golf course fishing part II

2011-07-13T23:43:00.007-04:00

i went fishing again with dino tonight. we caught some real pigs and this time the gators stayed away. i didnt take my camera so phone pictures will have to do. thanks again for another great golf course fishing trip! this is my kinda water hazard.

duck hunting tattoo

2011-07-11T13:03:00.014-04:00

ive been wanting to get a duck hunting tattoo for some time now. i wanted something original and unique. came up with a skull and crossing double barrel shotguns. i spent a lot of time figuring out exactly what i wanted it to look like, mocking it up in photoshop, and talking to my tattooist, alex eisenberg. i think he did a great job! if your looking to get something done, check him out at black swan tattoo (southside). the other ribs are reserved for a fishing tattoo.

veteto cat fishing

2011-06-27T11:13:00.002-04:00

i went catfish fishing with the veteto boys last night. cy caught this nice 3 pound blue. sorry for the phone pic but i didnt have my regular camera at hand.

golf course fishing

2011-06-14T23:17:00.015-04:00

a buddy of mine, dino, lives on a golf course in town. i have fished one of the pits in the neighborhood but never on the actual course. dino took me to a few ponds that held some nice bass. we caught around ten most in the 2 to 4 pound range. while landing one good size bass we had a gator follow it in and make it his dinner. i wouldnt suggest chasing any "water balls" on this course. thanks for the invite dino. i had a blast!

kids, critters, and the creek

2011-06-07T22:18:00.019-04:00

the kids spent most of their days playing in the creek behind the cabin. they caught all types of critters including crawfish, salamanders and newts, minnows, mud skippers, butterflies and other bugs. what a great place to be a kid.

no animals were harmed in the making of this blog post. all critters returned to their homes at the end of each day.

nc trout fishing day 7

2011-06-06T22:31:00.013-04:00

went back to snowbird creek this afternoon for my last day of fly fishing. i finally landed a brown. its small but i was glad to have it. i also caught a creek chub and saw a few large mouth and small mouth bass. i caught several rainbows, all around the same size. this was the year of the rainbows. still no brook trout which is a first for me in this area. all in all a great vacation full of wonderful fishing.

nc trout fishing day 6

2011-06-05T22:07:00.005-04:00

decided to try my luck at snowbird creek, hoping that the crowd would be smaller. it was great. only saw two other fly fisherman all day. i caught some small rainbows and one good size rainbow that i wasn’t able to get a good picture of. i think that is where i will spend my day tomorrow. it’s a bit more of a drive but i enjoyed the change of scenery and the lack of pressure is well worth it.

nc trout fishing day 5

2011-06-04T21:54:00.002-04:00

went down to "the tuck" today to see some of the madness. literally hundreds of people down there. i found a small ripple with few people on it and made a couple of casts.

nc trout fishing day 4

2011-06-03T20:51:00.007-04:00

today was a frustrating day of fishing. the first four trout i hooked came unglued. the fifth was a small rainbow that i landed. the sixth was a monster brown for the area. i would say around 16 inches. as i was lifting him for the net the hook came loose. i tried to scoop him up and broke my landing net on a rock. after that i decided to hit up a spot that is usually good for dry flies. i had three trout hit my elks hair caddis fly but none of them stuck. today was the last day of the catch and release season which means that tomorrow everyone and their mother will be out there with their push buttons and spinning tackle cleaning out the river of trout. i will probably skip tomorrows madness but plan to be back out on sunday.

nc trout fishing day 3

2011-06-02T21:32:00.016-04:00

this morning I decided to stop "ghost fishing" and to limit myself to one small stretch of water rather than running from spot to spot like ive been doing. with the water being low, my old spots are not producing fish. the plan paid off. i caught some real nice rainbows. it was nice to feel some weight on the other end of the rod. the larger fish seem to be sticking to the fastest water. still no brooks or browns which is very strange. i don’t see many browns in this area but brookies are usually the staple. it was a beautiful day on the river and the fishing matched. cant wait till the morning!

nc trout fishing day 2

2011-06-01T20:54:00.009-04:00

still have not found the mother load of trout. i did catch some very pretty rainbows today. nothing huge but i am thankful for something. its great to be fly fishing again and catching trout no matter how small. havent landed a brook or brown but there are several days left. im hoping for a few afternoon showers in the next couple days to bring the water level up. the kids are having a blast playing in the creek catching crawfish and picking cherries from the trees in the front yard.

nc trout fishing day 1

2011-05-31T22:28:00.003-04:00

Got out this afternoon for a couple of hours after we arrived. The water is very low which makes for tough fishing. My usual holes a very shallow and the deep holes are barely moving. I did find a few trout but hope to find many more in the morning.

bustn bream

2011-05-19T23:25:00.016-04:00

vince was kind enough to take me along with he and his kids fishing for bream on lake kissimmee. the wind was kicking around 18 mph which made it hard to fish but we caught some bream and had a blast.

basic bass

2011-05-13T15:22:00.020-04:00

i went bass fishing today for the first time since i sold my bass boat last summer. since i no longer have a boat and vince couldnt fish till after "yard sale duty," i decided to hit up the shore early this morning. i packed light and only took two rods. one rigged with an okeechobee colored zoom trick worm and one rigged with an arkansas shiner zoom fluke. there have been large schools of shad in the lake and the bass have been active. i caught several bass early. nothing huge but it sure was nice to fight some large mouths. i tried to grab some action shots but its not easy fighting a fish and taking photos at the same time. vince and his son, henry, joined me mid morning for a few casts but the fish had stopped biting for the most part because of the heat.

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cobia on the coast

2011-03-31T12:06:00.026-04:00

i was invited by a duck hunting buddy of mine, nick, to go cobia fishing over on the coast yesterday. my friend johnny went out with us. i havent done much off shore fishing and had never caught a cobia so this was an entirely new experience for me. nick was a top notch guide and put us on the fish. the manta rays we fished under were amazing. ive never been that close to rays that size. these things are huge and if you accidentally hook one, hold on to your seat! we had a great time. big thanks to nick for taking us out.

back to the basics

2011-02-27T10:00:00.008-05:00

yesterday i saw a friends post on facebook of a mess of catfish. it brought back a couple memories. as a 4 or 5 year old child growing up on estero island, i spent most of my time on the condo dock fishing for whiting and sailcats. that was my first real experience fishing and still remains my fondest memories of childhood. in jr. high and high school we spent a lot of time fishing for freshwater cats from the tiedgen's dock in our neighborhood. granted, it was mainly a reason to stay up late, smoke cigarettes, and drink an occasional beer. last night i went back to my roots. same neighborhood, different dock. i caught two catfish and lost two in the sticks. if i hadnt caught a single fish, i would have had a great time. dont get me wrong, we always wanted to catch fish back in the day but it wasnt about catching fish. it was about the whole experience.

searching for bob

2011-02-26T18:50:00.004-05:00

went out looking for some wild quail today at three lakes WMA. we were unsuccessful but had a lot of fun trying. birdie did pick up one old sent and put up a nice point before she realized there was nothing there. didnt get a picture of it.

bluegills on the fly

2011-02-24T17:46:00.012-05:00

i went out today and did a little fly fishing for bluegills. i caught several nice fish with some very nice color. all were caught on a small standard popper. i have been fishing only once since i sold my bass boat last summer. hopefully this marks the start of some nice spring fishing. i have set up the duck boat so i can run a tolling motor from the bow, i just need to find the time to get out.

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fellsmere marsh

2011-01-31T09:06:00.002-05:00

when i hunt with andrew higginbotham its always an adventure. finally made it out to fellsmere marsh this season. andrew had hunted it the day before and had crushed the teal. i think the best way to describe it is like taking a leisurely 8 mile bike ride through hell. i think i will be recovering from that bike ride for about a week. we didnt crush the ducks but had a great time and a lot of laughs. not a bad way to end the season. big thanks to brian jones for letting me borrow his bike.

and the birds disappear

2011-01-29T17:50:00.007-05:00

well the day started with heavy fog and the birds never came. it ended with blue bird skies and the birds never came. in the end benders lucky donuts only produced this one drake ringer. maybe it was my fault for not eating any but then again im the one that shot the ringer.

solo hunt

2011-01-27T23:00:00.006-05:00

had a nice solo hunt this morning. plenty of ringnecks working. probably could have had a limit of them if i had set up early for ringers but i stayed shallow most of the morning to get my mottled. all the ducks worked the decoys nicely. had a lot of fun watching all the mottleds decoy while waiting/hoping for a greenhead to come in to the spread. finally went out on the main lake around 11 and set up for ringers. all-in-all a pretty good hunt on a public lake considering i have had less than a stellar season on public water.

bluewings by the bucket

2011-01-23T21:12:00.027-05:00

hooked up with bob and derek this weekend for a couple of shoots. we shot 3 limits of bluewing teal. all drakes save one hen that bob couldnt help doubling on. we put out about 100 decoys and the birds worked them so well. we had plenty to pick and choose drakes and all the birds we shot were over the decoys cupped up and feet down. after we finished our limits we stood there and watched the birds light in till the sun went down. what a great time and it couldnt have been spent with two better guys.

ringer shoot

2011-01-23T21:06:00.007-05:00

bob and i got into the ringers today. boy were they decoying like crazy. wings cupped and feet out. we got out about 8 am and finished our limits about 9 am. i shot one mottled as well

fern on duck hunting

2011-01-21T11:11:00.001-05:00

best hunt of the season...

2011-01-20T00:31:00.000-05:00

and i never even fired a shot

all photos below by fern

fern has been wanting to go duck hunting since she could talk. this season i promised her i would take her. i made sure she knew that we would be getting up earlier than she had ever gotten up before. when i woke her up at 4 am, i was immediately greeted by a huge grin and a question. "are we going duck hunting daddy." those might be the best words i have ever heard. we got set up about 45 mins before legal which gave us lots of time to talk and listen to the birds. i set up on the edge of the cattails rather than in them so fern would get a good look at all the birds even though i knew that would be less shooting. we were about 50 yards away from where i thought i was setting up and sure enough all the ducks piled into the intended spot. i never fired a shot but we sure enjoyed watching the birds work the area. i gave fern free reign of the camera and was proud to find a few self portraits when i uploaded the pics to my computer. my favorite quote of the day after telling her about all the birds she pointed out to me was; "daddy, there sure are a lot of birds we cant shoot." by far the best hunt of my water fowling career. i cant wait till she can handle a gun.

twins on the marsh

2011-01-15T19:48:00.001-05:00

took the fullgraf twins out on their first ever duck hunt this morning. we started the day of with a big group of mottleds that gave us all shots. kurt dropped a beautiful drake mottled and i shot a nice looking drake mallard out of the group. later in the morning we picked up a drake bluewing teal. not a bad day considering the lake has been pretty void of ducks on my last few trips out. kurt and alec seemed to have a good time. i caught alec checking out all the retention ponds on the way home. think we might have a couple more addicts.

good eats

2011-01-12T21:08:00.000-05:00

barry sent home some oysters and a red snapper. been eating real well the last few days!

seafood special

2011-01-10T21:05:00.001-05:00

this past weekend i went up to the panhandle to stay and hunt with my friend barry. he has been shooting redheads and buffleheads all season long and i have never shot either. he invited me up for a couple days to hunt. i havent shot many ducks this season and that curse seemed to follow me to north florida. the large number of ducks he had been shooting disappeared the day i showed up. despite only shooting a few ducks i had a great time. i was able to check two ducks off of my bucket list, a beautiful full plumed drake bufflehead and a common merganser. i also shot a nice drake scaup, saw barry shoot a full plumed redhead that decoyed perfectly, hunt in the salt for the first time, harvest fresh oysters while hunting then grill and eat them that same night, eat delicious meals cooked by barrys wife jesse and best of all spend a lot of time with a good friend that i hadnt seen in a few years. big thanks to barry and jesse for putting me up for the weekend and feeding me so well!

new(old) split cane

2010-12-29T18:39:00.000-05:00

bobby gave me another split cane fly rod he refurbished for christmas this year. very nice of him. i cant wait to try it out on the north carolina trout. i used the last one he gave me this past spring the entire time we were in NC. thanks again, bobby!

christmas eve snipe

2010-12-24T12:13:00.000-05:00

andrew and i went out this morning hoping to kill a duck or two but it wasnt in the cards. we settled for a few snipe. andrew and abirdie were pretty cold so they did a little cozying. after we finished i let birdie run around and chase swallows. think shes having fun? merry christmas everyone! we saw doug and his buddy out there. they only shot snipe as well.

the great white squirrel

2010-12-23T21:16:00.001-05:00

well, i had another "one duck" day with a mottled that went down hard next to the weeds at first light but i could not find it. the real story is the white squirrel that dwight shot. i drove he and his pirogue out so that he wouldnt have to fight the wind. he shot 3 nice ducks and a very strange but beautiful piebald squirrel. it helps to be mobile! birdie and i had fun watching all the mottled ducks work. she wanted me to shoot another one but i was sure i would find the one when the sun came up. i looked forever but no luck.

just one

2010-12-20T21:45:00.000-05:00

well they sprayed the lake so no more hydrilla, which means no more ducks. i did manage to get this one blue wing hen. i took a long shot at a pair of wigeon but no dice.

2 little 2 late

2010-12-13T17:26:00.000-05:00

went out yesterday morning with bob and dwight. we got some nice birds including a nice hen pintail that dwight shot. i only shot 2 bluewings because i was waiting till the sun came up to choose quality birds despite having plenty of opportunities to shoot birds early. when the sun came up the wind shut off and the birds stopped flying. oh well, you live and learn. still had a great day in the marsh with two good friends.

still jumping the gun

2010-12-05T22:09:00.001-05:00

it was a beautiful day to run the dogs on some quail. perfect temperature and a nice wind for the dogs to catch sent. birdie is doing great. she finds the birds fast, holds point like a champ, holds on wing, and retrieves to hand. she is not holding on shot. i think she did it once today. i need to focus most of my training with her on that one issue. ritter was fun to shoot over as always. the two dogs even ran together on a couple of birds. we ended the day with about 7 quail and a beautiful sunset.

duck of a life time

2010-11-29T09:03:00.000-05:00

bob, ben, birdie, and i went down to sta 5 yesterday. we had tons of ducks working all morning. we didnt fire a shot till well after the sun was up trying to wait for big ducks. for some reason we couldnt get the big ducks to come near our spread although we had wigeon and pintails working all day. birdie did awesome and retrieved 8 of the 12 ducks we shot. she is breaking on the shot about 70% of the time and i need to break her of that. the highlight of the day was that bob shot a cinnamon teal drake. it was not full plumed but still a beautiful bird. we typically do not get cinnamon here on the east coast. they use the western flyway and show up mostly in mexico and california. most likely neither one of us will ever see another in our life time.

birdie on snipe

2010-11-26T13:07:00.000-05:00

went back out to see if the ducks would show up and to put birdie on her first snipe. the ducks did not show but its good training for birdie to have to sit in the blind. after we saw that the ducks were a lost cause we walked up a few snipe. her first snipe retrieve was beautiful. she held after the shot and went straight to the bird when i sent her out. she brought it straight back and dropped it into my hand. the retrieve i caught on video was not as pretty but still not bad. she tried to take the bird to andrew who was to my left. she had such a great time out there bounding through the water and looking for birds.

thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-25T21:39:00.001-05:00

today i went on my annual thanksgiving day hunt. my buddy andrew came along which was a fun change because every year previous i have hunted alone. we did not shoot any ducks but like many other times, it was not the ducks fault. we had no ducks at first light come into our spread. after the sun came up i decided to break out the big camera and get some close up shots of the hand carved decoys i had floated in our spread. thinking the morning was a bust i did not even bother to take my gun with me."beside, i would be standing in the middle of my decoys. what are the chances of ducks coming in?" wrong! while i was photographing my last decoy i heard a whistle. then another and another. i looked up from my viewfinder to see 10 black belly whistling ducks headed straight for me. if i had reached up i probably could have grabbed a few by the legs. i looked back at andrew and said "black bellies. shoot!" they slowly circled his head as he raised his gun. "CLICK!" he looked at his gun and chambered another round. "CLICK!" i heard a few unmentionable words from the blind. he ejected another live shell and "CLICK!" at this point i was almost running to the blind for my gun as the birds slowly flew off in the direction of another group of hunters. "BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM!" i saw 4 our 5 birds fall from the sky. i looked over at andrew who was dumbfounded. we looked his gun over and noticed that the firing pin had fallen out at some point. what a bust! i walked up a few snipe. could have shot a limit but i was tearing them up with the number 4 duck shot i had brought. tomorrow i will have number 7 with me and no hand carved decoys.

i used 3 different cameras to shoot the pics above. my iphone, my canon point and shoot, and my nikon slr. that was a first for me. can you tell which ones were shot with which camera?

10/11 opening weekend

2010-11-22T22:35:00.001-05:00

well opening weekend has come and gone. i scouted thursday and friday. found thousands of ringers and a few puddle ducks. saturday the wind died and the ringers were nowhere to be found. shot a few ducks and should have hit more. tons of woodies working on saturday and plenty of ringers working the decoys on sunday but always about 80 yards out. got to hunt with two friends, dwight and ed. had a blast with both of them!

anna maria island fishing

2010-10-25T13:05:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-21T22:24:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-18T10:07:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-09T11:46:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-04T10:26:00.000-04:00

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

2010-09-27T21:15:00.000-04:00

birdies first duck retrieve

a bonus moorhen that swam too close to the blind

birdie's first duck hunt

2010-09-26T13:56:00.000-04:00

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

2010-09-18T20:53:00.000-04:00

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

2010-09-13T23:27:00.000-04:00

more moorhen

2010-09-12T11:59:00.000-04:00

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.

videos from toho

2010-09-06T22:18:00.000-04:00

birdie on toho

2010-09-06T14:05:00.000-04:00

waiting for the action to start

birdie checking out a purple gallinule and wondering why we cant shoot it

taken with my canon camera after my dive in the lake

birdie looking at me as if im crazy

took birdie out to toho this morning to watch and listen to birds. she did great. her eyes were almost always on the sky which is a good thing. she sat still (for the most part) and didnt whine (until i t was time to get in the water). it is moorhen season which i usually do not hunt for but i thought it would be a good waterfowl intro for birdie. after sitting for about an hour i decided to shoot a few to see if birdie would retrieve it. she is not comfortable with jumping out of the boat yet even though she loves to swim. the next moorhen that came by died and i polled over to show it to birdie. she wanted it but was unwilling to jump. i picked it up and showed it to her then tossed it back out. she whined and paced the boat but would not go in. when she started pawing at the water i decided to give her a little help into the water. she swam straight to the bird and retrieved to hand. we did this about 4 times. i polled around looking for a few more birds to take and use for training at home. somehow during this i lost my balance and fell into the water, lost my glasses and submerged my iphone that was in my pocket. since i was already wet i decided to take the opportunity to cox birdie into a few jumps on her own. after the first one i began to throw the moorhen for her to fetch and she jumped of her own will and retrieved to hand about 6 more times. i decided to pack it up and call it a day. in spite of the accident we had a great morning that turned out to be another good training session. i took my phone apart and dried everything off and it seems to be working fine.

birdie on quail

2010-09-05T17:44:00.000-04:00

the video as promised. it is in chronological order. you can see her get better as they go along. i missed a few good points but got a good amount of footage. she is 4 months old now.

first live birds

2010-09-04T17:34:00.001-04:00

took birdie out today with a friend (clay wilson) that also has and trains gsp for quail hunting. birdie had so much fun. she did great with her first live birds. she found all the ones we placed out for her and pointed and whoaed great for a 4 month old. clay was especially impressed by her nose and ability to fetch birds and deliver to hand. i didnt get a lot of pics while training because i was busy with birdie but here are a few pics of her pointing and playing with his two dogs (ritter and lexi). i have a few videos that i will be posting soon.

on point

2010-08-30T00:47:00.000-04:00

a pic of birdie on point. it is from a video so very low quality. we will be training with live quail on saturday. really looking forward to it.

cooling off

2010-08-29T21:34:00.001-04:00

some water play pictures. after training i always take birdie over to the neighbor hood i grew up in to cool off and do some water fetching.

whistle with some distance

2010-08-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

working on whistle commands from a distance. she has a tendency to want to come with the sit command but she is getting it.

training at the lakehouse

2010-08-11T23:28:00.000-04:00

we stayed at a friends lakehouse while our house being tented this week. birdie loved all the open space for running around and the lake has a very gradual slope into the water which made it an ideal place for water retrieval training. birdie has been swimming many times but i have never been able to get her to retrieve a dummy while in the water. first toss at the lakehouse and she looked like a pro. there is some marshy area that she loved tromping around in which is a very good thing because she will be doing a lot of retrieves in that type of cover. she also enjoyed hunting and pointing at dragon flies. what a great pup!

hunt em up and fetch em up

2010-08-07T16:46:00.001-04:00

sorry about the camera quality. it was shot and uploaded to youtube with my phone. it was hard to handle birdie and the camera at the same time. i took birdie out today and hid three duck wings in an open field while i left her in the car. she found all three very quickly. its fun to watch her pick up the sent and narrow it down. this was the first time hiding wings for her. the second video is just sit, stay, fetch, come and heel with a duck wing. not too bad for a 14 week old pup. im very pleased with her progress.

jump birdie jump

2010-08-04T23:47:00.000-04:00

took birdie out on the boat again the other day. wanted to see if i could get her to jump out of the boat and swim. i tried throwing in a few of her dummies and though she acted like she wanted to get them she was not going to jump in. finally i got out of the boat to give her some encouragement. it took a little while but she finally jumped in for me and swam around. she jumped in about 5 times total. we called it a day and went for a joy ride to find some birds to look at. she especially enjoyed the moorhens and all the noise they were making.

2nd test drive

2010-07-31T16:27:00.001-04:00

i took the boat out for the second test drive. it runs great with the adjustments that we made. im very pleased!

finishing the boat

2010-07-30T23:30:00.000-04:00

Birdie and I went to the shop today to finish up the "to do" list on the boat. Finished all the wiring, installed the bilge pump and fixed the kill switch. Gonna try to take it out for a spin tomorrow and see if the weight redistribution helped. I sure hope so. The really nice thing is that if I get thrown out of the boat I won't get chopped up and if water rushes over the transom the boat won't sink. Two very important features in my opinion.

boat work

2010-07-28T23:15:00.000-04:00

took the boat into the shop today. we bent the tiller back into place, ran new wiring, added head lights and moved batteries and gas tank to the front of the boat to distribute weight better. tomorrow we fix the kill switch and add a bilge pump.

birdies on a boat

2010-07-26T23:00:00.001-04:00

i took the boat out for a test run today. it doesnt handle so well with only one person in the back of the boat. i need to move some weight to the front. didnt have time for a lot of pictures but snapped a couple of birdie. she enjoyed the ride and a swim afterwards.

good girl

2010-07-22T21:18:00.001-04:00

a birdie day

2010-07-19T15:53:00.000-04:00

took birdie out today to run around in some thicker brush than she is used to. i hid a duck wing and let her sniff it out. she also enjoyed pointing at grasshoppers. we then played fetch with the duck wing and birdie found what appeared to be a boar skin. we then went swimming to cool off. birdie is swimming out further and flatter. shes doing great!

camo inside and out

2010-07-15T18:33:00.000-04:00

finished the camo job on the boat today. boy was it hot today. birdie was kind enough to pose for a photo.

whistle commands

2010-07-14T15:10:00.000-04:00

birdie update

2010-07-12T17:53:00.001-04:00

birdie is doing great with "sit stay come." i have started doing more structured retrieves with her. shes even done a few blind retrieves. trying to get as much socialization in with other dogs and people. lots of rides in the car on errands and a very tired pup at the end of every day.

new stencil

2010-07-10T16:28:00.001-04:00

wasnt liking the other stencil very much so i drew and cut my own last night. its much more clean and not as busy. im pretty happy with it.

painting

2010-07-09T18:04:00.000-04:00

today i finished all the base paint on the boat except the floor. still havent decided if im going to put plywood down or not. im also trying out some of the camo patterns. trying to get the right coloring for florida duck hunting. still too much light brown but i will figure it out.

back from the welders

2010-07-07T23:50:00.001-04:00

just got the boat back from the welders and i am very happy with their work. i had the deck and back bench covered with aluminum diamond plate. there where several large holes from seats, trolling motor, switch panal and other things that had been removed in the past. there was also a large crack in the back bench where the tiller had smashed into it. i had that reenforced with double diamond plate so that it wont happen again. i had all the ribs welded where the rivets had popped out. that should add plenty of needed strength. the biggest up grade is the removable stand up grab ("oh shit") bar that i had fabricated. hopefully this will keep me on my feet when i hit logs and such. the guy that owned it before me drove the boat sitting on the poling platform with the tiller between his legs and seemed to think that was the best way to drive the boat. he also told me he had been thrown off several times. i do not plan to drive the boat in that manner. i plan to paint the new work tomorrow. at some point i am going to paint the whole thing and give it a fresh camo job.

boat project

2010-07-02T17:47:00.001-04:00

i had to sell the bass boat. i took some of the money and purchased a duck boat. it is a 14 ft tracker with a 25hp go devil. i am having a few things added and repaired as i type. i am looking forward to getting it the way i want it. i will post new pics as i work on it.

fetch

2010-06-28T22:27:00.001-04:00

fetch with the duck dummy

socializing & more swimming

2010-06-27T21:17:00.001-04:00

trying to get birdie out every day so she can get socialized with as many dogs and people as possible in these early stages. she did some more swimming today and i fired some more .22 blanks over her. shes doing great and very tired at the end of the day.

birdie swims

2010-06-26T19:23:00.000-04:00

over the last few days we have been doing a lot of swimming and fun retrieves

training with birdie

2010-06-24T14:55:00.001-04:00

went out today for birdies 2nd day under gun shot. i use a dummy launcher that fires a .22 blank so she can get used to the gun sound. i didnt expect any retrieves today because i didnt think she would be able to fit the dummy in her mouth. once again she proves me wrong. i tossed the dummy by hand and birdie happily retrieved for me. the launcher fires to far for her at this age but she had fun chasing me as i ran for the dummy. i always let her pick it up. shes still a champ with the gun fire. she is unfazed by loud noises. good girl birdie!

meet birdie

2010-06-19T12:16:00.000-04:00

thursday morning i drove to raleigh, nc to pick up our new dog, birdie. we got back home late last night. she is a beautiful german shorthaired pointer. cant wait to get her out in the marsh this season for a ride along on a few hunts. as soon as she settles in at her new home we will start our training. a big thanks to the robertson family for letting us be a part of the gsp family. they have a wonderful blog, German Shorthaired Pointers of Raleigh

also, a big thanks to chris boll for riding up and back with me to help handle birdie on the ride and to will and ellie campbell for letting us crash at their house for the night.

crawfish hunters

2010-06-05T01:04:00.000-04:00

fern and lyla had a great time hunting for crawfish in the creek

nc trout final day

2010-06-02T16:05:00.000-04:00

went out early yesterday caught two nice brookies before the rain started. had a blast in north carolina this year.

nc trout day 5

2010-05-31T09:21:00.000-04:00

took a day off from fishing yesterday. went out this morning and it was pretty crowded. found a few small streams out of the way and caught a few nice trout including the second brown trout of the trip.

nc trout day 3

2010-05-29T09:54:00.001-04:00

got to the river around 9 yesterday morning. caught about 15 trout today and all were brook trout. fished dry flies early, which produced small fish, then switched to a weighted san juan worm to get down into the deeper holes. caught all my best fish that way. a couple of friends drove their motorcycles over from chattanooga and met me around noon. a few mins after they arrived the skies opened up. we waited about 3 hours for the lightening to let up but it never did. it was good to get to fish with them even though it was only for a little while.

nc trout day 2

2010-05-27T20:33:00.001-04:00

day two produced some nice trout. a mixed bag of rainbows, browns and brooks. plenty of flies in the air and on the water and the trout are willing to take a dry fly which is always fun. most were caught on an elks hair caddis dry fly. the best trout of the day was on a san juan blood worm. the weather up here is so nice and the kids are having fun playing in the creek next to the cabin.

north carolina trout

2010-05-26T21:54:00.000-04:00

got to the cabin this afternoon. made it out for about an hour to fish. managed two brookies. had a few more risers but they did not take. first one was caught on an olive woolly bugger and the second on an elk hair caddisfly. weather is awesome. cant wait to get back out on the water tomorrow.

goodbye bailey heidegger kirby

2010-05-17T22:14:00.000-04:00

we had to let our sweet bailey boy go this morning. the whole family is having a tough time but it was the best decision. bailey was a great family dog and we loved him very much! this photo is from a little less than a year ago.

birthday decoys

2010-05-14T17:30:00.001-04:00

im posting these a bit late but better late than never. these are the decoys i had carved and received for my birthday. bender did a great job. cant wait to float them next season!

birthday surprise

2010-04-08T01:32:00.001-04:00

my wife and my mother were helping clean out my grandmothers house today because she has to move into a nursing home. my grandmother told us if there was anything in the house that we wanted we should take it because the rest would be going to goodwill. the only item i decided to take was a duck lamp. i didnt care for the lamp too much but figured i could take the duck off and put it on a shelf in my hunting/fishing room. when i unscrewed the duck i noticed it was a wooden decoy made by "hornick bros. stoney point decoys" and signed by raymond e. hornick in 1982. i did some research on the web and found some like it that have sold for around $50-$75. not a huge deal or major collectors item but it made my night or rather birthday morning since i took it off the lamp after midnight. i ran a bath and it floats great. i will add it to my spread next season when i hunt lakes with feral mallards. ive been wanting a drake mallard for this very purpose. hunting over a decoy that has been sitting in my grandparents living room for the last 20+ years is much more special to me than a used plastic that i had planned to buy on ebay for a few dollars.

fishing with bob

2010-02-06T20:09:00.000-05:00

bob and i went out to try and catch a few specs this morning. didnt do much but we had fun.

broadmoor with a bang

2010-01-31T09:46:00.001-05:00

dani was nice enough to invite me on to her permit for broadmoor. had the mayor hunting with us and thats always a good thing when picking a spot tried to shoot all drakes but ended up with a rut double hen. joe had the same thing but his was banded. hes always got to one up you :P i love broadmoor!!! didnt see dani after the hunt but she shot 4 bwt and a drake ringer. andy shot a limit of bwt. thanks again joe for putting us in a good spot and thanks so much to dani for allowing me to end my season with a bang!