Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs i pick my lab up tonight

Hey buddy!
Where are you now?

Hope all is well.

Yeah, its our first.
Drake mallard, banded on 8-17-12 in Brooks, Alberta, Canada.

We up and gettin ready to head out.
Gonna try another spot this morning.

Good stuff!

Ive got feet on the ground over here. Still in billeting b/c they're out of room in other places. Quite alright since I get the room cleaned for me and the trash taken out and a few dollars in per diem daily.

Tired of living out of a suit case, but I'll get my things delivered soon enough. Congrats on the band again! Excellent achievement!!

Glad you made it safe and sound.
Enjoy your time and shotgun shopping!
Thanks for staying in and your service.
Tried a new spot yesterday late afternoon.
Took another permit holder with me.


Josh got 5 ducks and a goose, and I got 4.

He really liked Trap.
Even insulted me by asking if I would sell him.
Then chuckled, knowing the answer.
He said Trap was awesome.

We had a great morning!

I'd say so. Birds are really starting to move in. NAPI?

Yeah.
We had hundreds of ducks working us.
Mostly mallards.
Geese are everywhere.
We think this was our last good hunt on this pond. Its gonna freeze over with this next temperature drop. The deeper middle was open, but the flooded grassy side were froze.
We busted up a good sized hole and put decoys and a lucky duck in it.
Birds were pouring into it. They seemed to want to be there instead of the open water.
Awesome time, had hundreds and hundreds of ducks working.

So do they flood up areas on the NAPI, or are those all natural ponds/sloughs? Looks like you need a Momarsh boat so you can hunt some of that deeper stuff when the shallow stuff freezes.

Not sure where the water in this pond comes from?
There is another, but fenced in, up hill and to the side, that has a little water in, that I think is fed by the canal system.

If the larger center stays open, we can always hunt the grown up edges of it.
Traps legs are swollen from busting ice yesterday. Vet says r&r for a few days.
soaked me/him in Epson salt in the tub last night. They look a little better today.

Beware of ice guys!
It'll hurt their legs. Didn't even dawn on me.....
I feel bad.

Eat your hearts out!
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...;current=20131207_143337_zpsc7652777.mp4

Keep up the good work! Very jealous.

Ponds are frozen, so time to move to the fields with layout blinds.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...;current=20131209_132421_zpsee9b66bc.mp4
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...;current=20131209_133307_zps40d0d22a.mp4
Going thru my usfws survey card, total as of today, Trap has retrieved 146 ducks and 47 geese so far.

146 ducks just this season? Not too shabby at all.

I didn't shoot all of them.
Here's some a guys borrowed show lab wouldn't retrieve.
Trap cleaned them up for him.
He sent me this pic of Trap posing for the trophy pic.

I hunt with a few guys who don't have dogs.
I just keep track of how many retrieves Trap makes.

3 of us got our limit of 12 this morning.

Been watching ducks feeding in a corn field.
Trap and I set up yesterday late afternoon.
We found a deep tire track from the irrigation line and we sat down in it and covered up in corn stalks.

When I took the pic, I thought Trap was looking at a cow nearby. I looked up and he was alert on a flock of incoming ducks.

My decoy spread.

Trap and I had a great evening.
7 ducks and 4 geese.



Im getting blue boxes. The pics showing?
Updated photobucket and it's changed. Guess I gotta figure out the new update?

That is a good night.

Copper and Trap were a great team this afternoon.

Not posting many pics anymore due to lack of feedback, but I wanted to share this one with you all.
6 geese down this morning.

Trap and I are having a phenomenal season this year.
He is doing awesome.
Just a few flying around!

Yeah baby!

It just keeps getting better and better here.
Hunted with 2 other guys this evening in layout blinds.
Traps first time in a dog blind. He did great.

21 bird, 3 man limit in under an hour.
There were thousands of birds swarming us. We were picky on what birds we wanted.

I got my top trophy bird too. Actually 2!
The back one goes to the taxidermist tomorrow.

Trap was tired and slept most of the way home.
Man, I really love my dog. He's such a good boy.