One for the Books

History was made at Burbenska Farms on Sunday November 27th, 2011.  Surprisingly, a canada goose has never been shot since the property was first purchased and developed for waterfowl 25 years ago.  We see our fair share each year, and have had them flutter over our duck decoys but always when they are out of season.  For some reason or another though, we've never taken the effort to purchase and put out any goose decoys.  Some friends of ours provided decoys to use this year and that's all it took.

Had six passing over our pool, and as soon as they got downwind of our calling they made a hard turn to take a closer look.  They were nearly motionless as they glided into the 20+ mph winds toward our spread for what seemed like minutes to cover only 50 yards.  The group left on the second pass but this fellow glided on in and gave us a gimme shot just above the decoys.

Back to My Roots

Like the past few years, I sat out this rifle season due to my residence just on the other side of the state line and the high cost of out-of-state tags for a short season.  I was anxious to get back in the stand the first day bow season re-opened in pursuit of a few nice bucks that are still showing up on the trail cams.  I found myself 20 feet up with a bow in hand as the sun came up to a foggy morning, while the rest of the crew sat in the duck blinds with shotguns in hand.

I had high hopes for the area I was sitting in given some recent trail cam pictures, but it wasn't long before I started hearing mallards chuckling as they flew overhead and I found myself looking up in the sky more than on the ground.  I could hear the guys in the closest blind to me calling, and could picture by the tone of their calling how the ducks were working them.  It seemed like volley after volley started ringing out from the two blinds, and I couldn't take it anymore!  I did have a button buck pass by at 30 yds about midway through the hunt that kept my attention, but that quickly faded.

I only made it until about 9 am in the stand before I traded Bowtech for the Benelli.  Had a little action of the duck blind before we packed it up for the day.  Didn't see a whole lot for ducks, but what we did see decoyed well.  Sunny skies and the right winds made for some good belly shots.

We assessed the water situation after the hunt.  Had started letting water in the timber pools but then decided the river was getting low enough that we were best off just holding the water in the fields and shutting the pump off.  We need a timely rain to put a little flow back in the river if we are going to have any timber hunting this year, and it better happen soon.

 

Duck Season Underway...

...and we are still without a drop of water in each of our four pools.  We had some extensive dirt work done this summer that will allow us to better manage the water levels in our pools, to better manage crops and moist-soil vegetation, and ultimately allow us to hold more water.  The hope this year was that we could get some corn put in one of the fields after the dirt work was done, however we got a late start on the work due to the wet spring conditions. 

Once it began drying out though, it really dried out!  Dad, Jason, and I spent the better part of a day planting about 15 acres in Japanese millet after the work was completed in August.  From that point on, the weather pattern changed to a ~3 month drought.  Japanese millet doesn't take much to grow, just a little rain here and there to keep it moist, but even it didn't stand a chance in the dry weather we've had.  Most of it never even germinated, and what did germinate is a only a few inches tall when it should be a few feet.  Essentially, we have no duck food in our fields this year.  But the dirt work we got done is well worth a year with less than ideal food conditions.  We've killed plenty of ducks in the past without any food in our fields, so we are not too concerned about that. 

Things are starting to change in our favor though...with a 1 inch soaking last week and another 2 inches of rain forecasted in the next few days.  That should be enough to put a little flow in the river and we should be pumping later this week.

And here was our desperate attempt to get a little corn established as the dirt work was wrapping up.  Needless to say, neither the corn nor the water lasted much longer after this picture was taken.

Live from the Stand (11/04/2011)

4:30 - Jason and I are headed out for a long sit today. Going to play it by ear, but we may sit it out from sun up to sun down. Hoping to catch some of the mature bucks up on their feet cruising with the younger bucks we saw last week. I set a trail camera on a heavy trail intersection last week near where I will be set up in my climber today. Going to try and remember to swap memory cards on my way in this morning and will look through the pictures once I get all settled in. Updates to follow...

7:08 - been set up in the stand for about 20 mins now. Just checked the trail camera and the big boy had worked a scrape yesterday morning about 20 yds from my stand...was at 6:15 am though. Good to know he's still in the area. Also been getting pictures of him close to where Jason is sitting. Just starting to get light....only a few more minutes til shooting time.

7:48 - one of our local turkey flocks kept me entertained this morning as they got off the roost. No deer sightings yet...

7:55 - two does passed by at about 80 yds

8:52 - yaaaawwwwnnnnnnnn....

9:18 - had a small 8 pt working his way toward me. He either winded me or spotted me through the brush reaching for my camera 50 yds out. Ended up going back the way he came...no more camera shots from here on out. Jason has had a forkhorn and a doe and her dawns pass by so far, plus a few jakes.

9:55 - watched a small buck trailing a doe. He was about 60 yds behind her and both were walking along slow. When I first seen the doe though, I could tell by her body language that a something had probably been doggin' her...all hunkered down low and timid and sneaking through downed treetops.

11:17 - still 20 feet up...no action for the past hour.

11:45 - climbing down to rendezvous at the truck and switch to our evening stands.

1:45 - back in the stands again, different spots this time. I have a feeling it is gonna be slow for awhile, and don't have too high of hopes for this evening but anything can happen this time of year....

Well, as mentioned, I didn't have a good feeling about the afternoon/evening portion of the hunt for some reason...and my suspicions held true.  Sat until dark and didn't see a single deer from the stand.  The only entertainment that I had was watching a group of 6 toms passing through...I passed some time by mouth calling and pulling them towards me, but had no intentions of shooting one thinking a deer could still come through at any moment.  Jason saw the same forkhorn he saw in the morning on the other side of the property, but other than that his hunt was just as uneventful as mine.  I thought that the hunting would be prime and the mature bucks would be on the move cruising for does.  Surprisingly, I think it has yet to pick up in full force based on what we saw.