New friend for Bama

We got a new pup this past weekend and her name is Isabella and she's a boxer pit bull terrier mix. We call her Bella and the folks at the rescue shelter thought she was about a year old. Sweet disposition, potty trained and Bama gets along really well with her.

I love this time of year

College football, Major League Baseball, NFL games and bird hunting. Life is good! Got a late start dove hunting today because rain was predicted for pretty much all of today. I got up and did a few house projects but kept one eye on the weather. I finally decided what the heck let's just go and see if I can get a few birds before the rain hits. Bama and I hit a new spot today and ended up with 10 birds over about 2 hours. Then went home ate some bar-b-que and watched the end of Auburn vs Mississippi State, Alabama vs Penn State and now Notre Dame/Michigan. What's not to love about that!

Patience, I must learn patience

Yesterday I left work a little early to get a couple hours in of hunting at the farm. I decided on a location further into the property where there are a few out buildings and sunflowers are planted between them. The spot is probably about a half acre in size and surrounded on all sides by a barbed-wire fence. There are some electrical lines hanging across one section which is perfect for hanging a couple decoys. I spooked a few doves that were on the ground when I first walked up (a good sign) and so I proceeded to put out my two mojo's and decoys. In all I have two motorized mojo's, one wind driven mojo, two decoys with fishing line attached for the wire and eight clip on decoys for the fence. I decided I wouldn't use my rotating ground decoys that day because frankly I was tired of setting everything up.

I quickly had two dove come in about five minutes apart. Two doves, two shots. Good start. Well another 45 minutes goes by and nothing. I decide to pick everything up and move down by the slough for the last hour. No sooner do I grab the last decoy off the fence when four dove come in. Soon followed by five more, then another three. Damn! So I set everything back up again. Patience is something I should have brought with me. I ended up getting three more dove and missing about four.

Not a bad couple of hours but it could have been better.

Labor Day means...another dove shoot

Labor Day today so we headed out to the farm for another morning hunt. A cold front came through late Sunday afternoon and dropped the day time temperatures from a high Saturday of 101 to 75 for todays high. The low's this morning were in the low to mid 50's. The cooler weather felt great but it pushed a lot of our doves out and not many have arrived from north of us. Well either they haven't arrived or they kept on going south, I'm hoping for the former. Bama and I only got five birds this morning and they were tough shots. The wind is a steady 15 mph and gusting to 20 which made those doves like little grey rockets. I set up in the same spot I hunted Saturday by the slough. Bama only had one mud retrieve this time because the wind carried the birds away from the muck and out into the field. I may head back out later this afternoon since I start back to work tomorrow.

Should be tasty!

I got out my Food Saver and bags yesterday afternoon after I cleaned a mess of doves from the morning shoot. My son Dylan is coming home from college this morning so I'll probably grill a batch of the dove breasts for us later this afternoon. Dylan and I are the only ones in the family that appreciate how good dove breasts are.

Thank you Lord for retrievers!

Saturday morning dawned bright, sunny and a little cooler so I decided to take Bama with me for the first time this season. Smart move on my part. Yeah well with me sometimes luck and smart can be the same thing but I'm sure glad I had him this morning. I set up just inside the property next to a slough with a canal running through it that carries over to the Mississippi River about a mile or so away. I posted a photo here of the slough that shows a tree line on the other side to the left of the photo. That's where Bama and I set up. I had my decoys and mojo's out about 20 yards in the cut corn field. It proved to be a great spot but had one problem and that was when I shot the birds that were coming towards me they landed in the slough behind me. That's where Bama came in. The first two birds of the morning came in. I shot as the first crossed over my right shoulder and hit him but damn I could see that he was going to go into the water and mud behind me. I swung on the second bird that veered left and knocked him down out in the field. Suddenly behind me I hear splashing and a kind of sucking sound. I turn and see Bama going after the first bird through the mud and muck as I started out into the field for the second bird. Bama emerged from the slough covered in mud up to his chin which clinched the first dove I'd shot. Damn I love retrievers! Bama and I got 14 birds today of which five or six were mud retrieves. He did a great job but it sure wore his butt out, he's laying on the floor beside me right now snoring and no doubt dreaming of his next retrieve.

Humble pie

The day after the opener found me back at Lindhorst farm bright and early again. Feeling a little cocky having gotten my 15 bird limit the previous morning in roughly 45 minutes I decided to take my 20 gauge side by side. Well things were a little tougher and I only got 10 birds that morning. The birds were there but they were flying further out and I had a tough time reaching out and knocking them down like I had the previous morning. Still lots of fun though and I'll take 25 birds for two days hunting anytime!

We opened the season with a bang!

The dove season opened this past thursday and it was a ton of fun. Attached is a video showing the view from my blind which consisted of a stand of corn that measured roughly 10'x10' . In front of me is a gravel drive that leads into the property and it's bordered on one side by a barbed wire fence. I placed about six decoys on the fence and one of my mojo doves on the post, another mojo on the side of the drive in the cut corn along with another ground mojo that consists of three rotating feeding decoys. The doves didn't have a prayer. My set up looked so good I could barely stop grinning. There were six of us hunting the field that morning. The Roberts brothers, Mark Illig, a friend of the Roberts, Jimmy and one of the Lidhorst's that own the farm. Everyone got their 15 bird limit pretty quickly. I was finished hunting in less than an hour. I went back the next morning as well. More on that later.