Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I don't feel like a winner, but...

In the west we'd call it a good water year and look forward to ample irrigation water for a change.

Kamo--this is why I left Rhode Island. (attended Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston)

Dayum it was weird here..almost 70

Rub it in.....

Did a summit today followed by a run across/down the ridge for around 8.5 miles. Layers are still a necessity.....never broke low 20s.

George

Global warming or an early spring for Wyoming.

very strange year

Yup.

Been averaging 87-89 here last several days, 65-68 nights. New moon. No wonder I'm edgy! 4 days of rain forecast next week, followed by big drop in the barometer. Should be lots of movement.
Gotta check water temps on the west coast. I'm guessing snoookies are probably restless for maybe a week or two already.
68F and rising usually starts gettin' their blood runnin' good.

That's a good thought, CFT. Thanks. One of my long time honey holes, now just a quarter mile from the house, is a swamp where lots of woodies can be had. I think I just might make a few and put them out. It's a win-win.

I don't play well with them, so unless an in-my-face type encounter happens upon me, I mostly just spit in their general direction, metaphorically and literally.

I've heard that the skiing in some of these parts has been epic, though I haven't strapped on skis in a few years. Coulda', woulda', shoulda'...

Hope your fire predictions fall flat. I can't even imagine dealing with some of the stuff I see on the idiot box, when tens of thousands++ acres ignite in a hell-like firestorm.

Snowing on the drive in today. Didn't amount to anything more'n a couple inches, but being that the first day of spring was yesterday, well, I gotta' hand it to Ma Nature. She sure can be a fickle old bitch. Hope she sees fit to give us as much good, or at least toss us a bone come the next three seasons as bad this winter past.

Darn, i was hoping you got some deer in the HL looks when you tripped them with critical thinking.

Neat. Haven't caught a snook, but they look like fun and I hear they eat very well. We need 55F for the bass to start running up here. It's gonna' be awhile...

Sheep such as those don't do critical thinking, sir. They just shuffle along en masse, oblivious and frightened of their own shadows. The only scary part is that they travel is such vast flocks up this way...

Yep. There should be a season. Btw, how was your duck hunting season on the east side?

Fair to middlin'. Winter took a long time to get here (though boy when she came through it was like a freight train), and when our deep freeze comes late, it can be tough. Thing is, if all the backwater beaver ponds, swamps, sloughs, lakes, rivers, etc., etc., don't freeze, as long as there is food available, the ducks won't move. It's when the freeze comes early, like mid-December, that we do particularly well on the coast and on the larger rivers, as the birds are forced to evacuate from the water bodies locking up and will head for the coast and/or open water. Or, head south, of course.

We of course will make it a point to find them, but since certain places with appropriate cover and food get thick with birds, if you shoot them too much they'll skedaddle.

Shot up some black ducks and hunted some local spots early, but by in large it wasn't a year to write home about. Looking forward to next season. Got a trip booked and paid for to finally get after my king eider and harlequin on some wee island off the AK coast. Will likely be adding a couple other flavors I'm missing in the collection in ID before making the leg west to AK, as well as some salmon and steelhead. A nice long season of local fishing in fresh and salt, and dreams of that trip will get me through the dreaded heat that is sure to come in summer. Ah, well... Cheers.

32 lows and 50 highs

St. Paul Island perchance? Had a buddy who went a few years ago. He's hunted ducks nearly everywhere. He said that's the best trip of his career. Sounds like a blast!

I'm probably Nodak bound, then maybe P.E.I. for blacks. Another buddy goes every year. Natives make decoys out of mud on the flats. Magnificent birds. Great shooting too.

FYI- Here's a link to the DU's woodduck box building plans. Love to see pictures of new fledglings this spring!

http://www.ducks.org/media/Conservation/GLARO/_documents/_library/_landowner/WoodDuck_NestBox.pdf

Aleutian Island Waterfowlers is the outfit. And I'm pretty psyched already, thanks. Amongst my waterfowling buddies here, there are about 300 collective years of duck hunting locally. Know how many kings out of those years have been taken? ONE. As such, I figured I'd have to travel if I wanted one for the collection. And so it shall be.

I've read about the straw and mud decoys used by natives, but my experiences over the years have all been with wood and plastic (fancy shcmancy! ). And a few dead birds too, but anyway I'm pretty sure the PEI/CAN limit on black ducks is two, double our one bird limit and that of Maine and NH as well. Also, if I'm not mistaken they still allow the use of sink boxes up there in Canada. Sounds like a great trip, but being that the black duck is a native duck here and seen all over, I'd not travel anywhere to specifically hunt them, except as an aside to chasing other species. Love to hear about your trip when back, and if passing through here en route, let me know.

Thanks for the woodie box link as well, friend.