Blind Ambitions

Satuday August 4th, is Ducks Unlimited Volunteer Appreciation Day. They will be hosting celebrations across the nation for the thousands of folks who volunteer time to support Ducks Unlimited.  These events are free and offer a lot of good insight as to what Ducks Unlimited doing across the nation, and in your home state. You can sheck out www.ducks.org and click the banner add for Volunteer Appreciation Day to find locations in your state. if you are not DU member you should still consider checking these events out and learning more about Ducks Unlimited. Remember, if we want to continue the great sport of waterfowl hunting, we must work with groups like DU and Delta Waterfowl, to support duck habitat and predator control.

As the dog days of summer continue and Labor Weekend gets closer and closer, here in the south, Labor Day means one thing, the opening of dove season. Here in North Carolina we are lucky, again this year we get resident goose and dove openers on the same day. This means September 1st will be a full day. Often times Septemeber goose and dove season means 80-90 degree days, hunting in shorts and T-shirts and getting a sunburn. An early morning on the river or in a layout blind shooting honkers, some good ‘ol NC BBQ around 11:00 and a comfy dove stool that afternoon has the making for a great day. However, one thing many folks don’t think about is the toll a day like that will take on a dog. Those hot temperatures and running through fields fetching up birds all day can be tough on a dog, and without precautions, may wind up being fatal.

There are a few things to remember on those hot, double duty days. First thing is bring along plenty of water for your dog. It doesn’t take too much room to pack a few gallon jugs of water on the truck. Also don’t give the dog ice water, just use cool water. I have also heard folks say they don’t feed their dog before hunts. I disagree, the dog needs the calories to perform throughout the day, just be sure and get up early to feed the dog before the hunt. When you stop for lunch and have the dog on the truck, park your truck where the dog box or crate is in the shade and facing away from the sun; even if it means a longer walk to get lunch (also the cooling fans on the box or crate are a great idea here). Feed the dog something at lunch time. I will usually give a cup of food at this point to replinish some of the calories burned in the morning, so the dog is ready for the afternoon, and again provide plenty of water. When you head out for the hot afternoon hunt, if possible set up in the shade, and again bring plenty of water. If the dog is panting hard, and getting hot, rub cool, not cold, but cool, water on it ears, armpits and belly to help aid in cooling the dog down. If the dog shows any effects of overheating, get it cooled down quickly and get to a vet. One thing I do is have my vet’s phone number programmed in my cell phone, along with a 24 emergency center. if I am huntign out of town, I google local vet offices for where I will be and print their numbers and directions and put these in a notebook in my truck.

A few simple precautionary measures will keep your dog running hard after birds all day.

Squirting some cool water on the dog during a hot or training session is always a good idea, and the dogs like it too.

Over the last few years, besides my gun, the single most important piece of gear I take on a goose hunt is my flag. Flagging is something we started trying a couple of seasons ago. I bought a manufactured goose flag, and started flapping it around when the geese were in sight. The results were immediate. Nowadays, I use a very simple homeade flag, made by taking black mesh football jersey material and cutting a 2′ by 2′ square, and zip tying it to a 2′ long dowel rod. I keep two or three in my layout blind so I can loan them out. I was sold on flagging during the 2005 opening weekend of the September season. We were invited to hunt a piece of property with a couple guys that had never goose hunted before. The morning was slow, but we finally saw some geese way off in the distance, and they were not heading for us. Two of us jumped up and started waving the flags and calling loud, the geese began to turn. We hunkered back down, kept flagging and started calling softer. The geese locked up and a few guys killed their first Canadas that morning out of that flock.

The key to flagging is to know when to do it. Geese that are a good ways off are prime to flag. I start out waving the flag very hard and fast, making a lot of motion, but once they are tuned and coming towards the blinds, it’s time to back off and just flip the flag; kind of like a goose stretching it’s wings a bit. These subtle movements add movement and realism to the spread, and will help geese finish into the hole.

If you have never tried flagging before, I would encourage you to try it this year, it doesn’t always work, but when you can turn some far off honkers and put them on the ground, it is worth the few dollars and effort of doing it.

Okay, so know we have our decoy spread all set, it’s time to look at how to make it come to life. An important fact to remember is that live geese are rarely dead still, but our plastic decoys are. We need to add some motion to the spread and make the decoys seem more lifelike.

This is easy to do on the water, because even the slightest wind will make a few ripples and the floaters will move a bit. If not you can add jerk string line. Making a jerk string rig is easy and cheap.  Here is how. Take an old coffe can, empty gallon paint can or something similar. Buy a bag of quickcrete (a couple bucks) a large eye bolt, some weed trimmer line or a tangle free line, some large brass barrell swivels and a rubber bungee cord. Fill your can with the wet quickcrete, then put the eye bolt in the concrete leaving the eye sticking up a few inches and let dry. The take the bungee cord and attach it to the eye of the eyebolt. Use pliers to mash the “S” hook on the bungee so it will not come loose. At the other end of the bungee cord take the “S” hook out and attach the tangle free line. I like clear weed trimmer line instead, but either will work. Either tie the line off to the bungee cord or use small crimps. Then slide your swivels down the line leaving a few feet between each one. Now all you have to do is attach the decoy line on the decoys to the swivels. Drop the weighted can in the water to act as an anchor, spread the decoys out and run the line all the way to your blind. Then as the birds approach, a few quick tugs on the line and you have decoys moving and water rippling. Instant motion.

 For land sets, adding motion is just as simple with shell decoys. You can either buy commercially made decoy motion stakes, or make them yourself. I buy 3/16″ round rod, and cut them into 12″ sections. Then buy a bunch of rubber sink washers that fit tight on the rod. Add some duct tape under the washer so it will not move (I like orange duct tape so we can see it when we take the decoys down at the end of the hunt and we won’t leave a piece of steel rod in the ground), and add some reflective tape to the rod so I can see it with the flashlight while setting the decoys. Drill a 3/16″ whole in the back of the decoy. Drive the motion stakes into the ground (a rubber mallet in the layout blind helps on hard ground) and set the decoy on the stake so it is resting on the rubber washer. Now the slightest breeze makes the shells bob around and adds tons of movement to the spread.

These are a couple quick and easy ways to add motion to your goose spreads, and put more geese cupped up, feet down over your blind. If you have questions about these ideas or want to see pictures, leave a comment here, and I’ll try and get some pictures of my jerk string and motion stakes posted up. Tomorrow we will talk a little about flagging.

Hunting geese over water can be just as, and sometimes more productive, than hunting them in fields. There are just a few things to remember about hunting gesse over water. First, geese will come to the water after feeding in the fields in the morning, so don’t expect action at first light. You can also use water sets to catch geese coming to water in the evening, but if you shoot up a roost spot, expect the geese to relocate. Personally I don’t like shooting roost areas, but may the last few days of the season. Setting a spread in the water is very similar to land sets. You need to leave a hole in front of the boat or blind and make your set up so the birds can land into the wind. I use the typical “J” or “U” set, where you set the blocks so they form a J or a U with the open area in front of the blind. I also like to try and set some shells or full bodies on the bank or a sand bar to give a more realistic look. Be sure to put enough weight on the blocks so they do not float away with the current.  In dead calm water, it is important that you either use a jerk string or some other method to move water and create movement. Geese do not sit perfectly still on the water. Also get decoys that provide several different head positions for realism. The last thing, and this goes for both land and water sets, be sure the sentry head decoys are not looking directly at you. Below is another diagram on a typical water set.

There is always more than one way to skin a cat, so what I am writing is not the gospel on setting decoy spreads, but it is what has worked for me and the guys I have hunted with in the past. Whether we are sitting on the “X” or trying to run traffic, the overall scheme of the spread is the same. My way of setting decoys has evolved from the way Sean mann sets spreads. First I determine exactly where each layout blind will go, taking into account wind direction, sunrise direction and where I expect the geese to come from. Once the blinds are set, then I (we) take 4 decoys and walk out from the blinds at a 45 degree angle, count off about 50-60 yards and drop a decoy, essentially making a large X with the blinds dead center of the X.  From this point we work back towards the blinds filling in with decoys. I want to leave a large hole in front of the blinds for the geese to land (12:00), and leave smaller holes at 9:00, 3:00 and 6:00. If you were to look at the spread from the air it would look somewhat like a large X. When doing land sets, I mostly use shells on motion stakes, because they are easier to carry than full bodies, but we will put full bodies around the blinds and drop one here and there in the spread. The diagram below will show the idea behind the spread. The rectangles are blinds, the black squares are shells on motion stakes and the brown circles are the full bodies and there is one large landing zone out front and three smaller ones to each 90 degree andgle. This spread consists of 5 dozen shells and a dozen full bodies, and is a typical set up we run.

Last week the US Fish and Wildlife released their preliminary numbers on breeding and nesting surveys. Overall there was a 14% increase in breeding numbers, showing an estimated 41.2 billion breeding ducks.  Northern pintails were the only species to have lower numbers than last year. The full story can be found at on the DU web page

With the official announcement of the residential goose season in North Carolina, it’s time to start thinking about your opening morning set up. Goose decoys seem to be an area that many people debate. From which decoy brand is the best, to full bodies vs shells, the debates go on. Regardless of what brand and type of decoy you use, there are a few things that are universal. First thing, in the early resident season, you do not need huge spreads. A dozen or so decoys set in family groups of 3 or 4 will work. Always set up to your spread with the wind to your back, and if possible with the sun behind you as well. I like to use the best looking decoys I have closest to the layout blind or boat. Keep your decoys clean, you don’t see geese with orange mud on their backs in a field or on the water. Throughout this week we will be discussing decoy strategies and tips so you can be ready for opening morning.

Could be a lot will have to wait and see what the impact of extending hunting hours by 30 minutes after Sundown during the residential September Season. Historically waterfowl hunting ends at sundown but a relaxing of the rules to help harvest the overabundance of residential geese during the September season will be in effect this year. Often time’s waterfowl seem to pitch in to bodies of water just after the sundown and the end of shooting. We will also have a fairly liberal bag limit with 8 a day that I can almost taste the BBQ goose breast as I sit here and write this.

The following open dates and bag limits for the 2007-2008 hunting season were established:
• dove — Sept. 1-Oct. 6, Nov.19-24 and Dec. 17-Jan. 12; daily bag of 12 and possession limit of 24. (Shooting hours for doves are noon to sunset Sept. 1-8 and one half-hour before sunrise until sunset thereafter.)
• rails (king and clapper) — Sept. 1-Nov. 9; daily bag of 15 and possession limit of 30.
• rails (sora and Virginia) — Sept. 1-Nov. 9; daily bag and possession limit of 25.
• gallinule and moorhens — Sept. 1-Nov. 9; daily bag 15 and possession 30.
• woodcock — Dec. 14-Jan. 12; daily bag 3 and possession 6.
• common snipe — Nov. 14-Feb. 28; daily bag 8 and possession 16.
• early season Canada goose — Sept. 1-30; daily bag 8 and possession 16, except in portions of Dare County on and around Roanoke Island, where the daily bag limit is 2 and possession limit is 4. (When west of U.S. Highway 17, shooting hours for Canada goose extend to ½ hour after sunset during September only.)
• early season teal blue-winged, green-winged and cinnamon — Sept. 13-22 east of U.S. Highway 17 only; daily bag 4 and possession 8.

Get the dogs & decoys ready hunting season be here before you know of it.

Well, I have a confession, last night, while having my in-laws and neighbors over for a cookout to celebrtate the 4th of July, I had to show off some. Everyone was out in the yard and someone asked me how my dog’s training was coming along. At that point, I rushed in the house, grabbed her e-collar, a few bumpers and my whistle lanyard. Got the dog and proceded to have people plant bumpers in various locations and handle the dog to them. We are at the point where she is really starting to understand the concepts of running blinds, and it was cool to show off a little bit. Handling a dog to a blind retrieve, to me, is the ultimate in teamwork between handler and dog. However, one you get to this point in training, it is tempting to focus on difficult blinds too often and not run enough marks. Running marks is, besides obedience, the most important aspect of training, in my opinion. We want our dogs to see as many falling birds in the field as possible. I don’t want to spend half the hunt blowing whistles and handling the dog all morning; I want her focused on the birds as they come in and marking as many as possible. So remember, although now and again it is fun to show off your handling skills, and the dogs ability to take direction. Don’t forget the cornerstone of duck dog training, marking dead birds.