It's opening day!

Scott Farris

Scott Farris

Well-known member
I'm not sure it could be much less of a waterfowling day weather wise, but I get to go, so I'm going!

May everyone heading out have a safe, fun & productive day! And for those of you stuck working, I hope your in air conditioning.

Best,
Scott

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The weather pattern here is about the same only a little bit hotter ..... sucks. Bring on the cold weather!!!
 
Scott mate
I will not be shooting this season due to Amber not be ready as she is only a pup yet but her training is coming on fine and she is showing a lot of promise for a 51/2 month old pup and is already putting the dummy in my hand without having to resort to any force fetch. we dont use E collers over hear in the UK but take a bit longer on the training. She will be ready for next year and that will be the year I will be looking forward too, so all you guys over there have a good season and may your freezers be always full.
Take care and God Bless
Eddie and Amber
Its all about Building that Bond.
 
Scott ,

I am never talking to you again !!!! Just kidding or coarse , have a great time and be safe , oh ya hsow us some action pics of the new boat !!



Dave
 
Opening day here in Jersey for rails and resident geese. I took my dog out for a little walk in the salt marsh this morning looking for a geese. I have a little spot I get them sometimes in the regular season but it's hit or miss this time of year. It was a miss this morning, didn't see any. I didn't stay out very long, there was no wind at all so the bugs were bad and I had to get home and get to work. I did hear and see a few clapper rails. Hopefully we'll get some high tides this week from the passing hurricane. That should make for some good conditions for chasing rails. Good luck to everyone else in these early seasons. And good luck to all the east coasters with the coming storm. Hopefully it will stay off shore. Luke Berkey
 
Good luck Scott. Did you ever get those goose decoys into the hands of some kids? they could put them to use this weekend.
 
Have fun sweating your nuts off! I can't even think about hunting for another 4-6 weeks. We have early goose in about a week and I can't imagine humping all my gear out in 85 degree heat, sitting in the sun with skeeters are all around, and then humping it back to my truck in 90+ degree temps. Yuck! Hope you have some luck. Bring water.....lots of it!



Nate
 
Trip
I would,nt dream of going waterfowling without a dog and Amber is,nt ready yet, also its not fair to the birds I shoot and not being able to retrieve them.
Where I shoot is the river running into the etuary and there are some fast flowing tides so you need a dog.
Take care and God Bless
Eddie and Amber
Its all about Building that Bond.
 
I survived the heat. Thanks for all the well wishes it was great being back out on the water. Al, it is opening day for geese here in CT. They don't let us gun the bird of peace so we're stuck shooting at the big guys. As normal for me I hunted a water set where I used the 14 -ft to bring 4 doz decoys out. The pocket bags I switched to last year has made this so much easier and quicker than the old assemble on site method I used to use. I wasn't on the "X" but still managed to get Marsh some swimming. My training didn't prepare him for the first retrieve of the season, 3 down in current, a floater, a flail-er and a swimmer. By the time he corralled them and picked one to return with it was obvious the other two would be long swept away if I didn't lunch the boat and give chase. The other two retrieves were much smoother as they were singles. I know I'm spoiled when I take 5 geese and am disappointed that I didn't get any bands :^)

Dealing with the heat was fun, whenever I got hot I'd simply wade out and adjust the decoys. I did have to resort to dipping my tee shirt in the water when it started getting really hot. I'll have to remember that trick in Jan if I start over heating. I called it quits at 11:30.

A cell phone boat picture to make the post legit. Decoys out and the boats stashed up around the corner.

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Your post reminds me of a funny experience I had with Doc Dunaway.

It was about 10 years back and we were hunting Geese in early spring on an unusually warm day.
Was a bloody hot day towards the end.

We walked around the island to see if we could jump shoot a few birds, and on the way around a long horseshoe of a cove, Doc Dunaway just couldn't stand the heat any longer.

He took off his hat and jacket and left them on a stump about 50 yards across the top of the cove from the opposite bank where we started our long slog. We got a couple of Honkers and soon it was mid day on a bluebird day, so we decided to call it.

It was about a mile of walking along the cove back to where we started. with our gear and our geese it was a hard tromp through the muck.

Doc stops and says, "dog gone it" he forgot his coat and gear.

We could see it across the cove. It was sitting right there where he left it.
I said, "well, I'll wait for you, better get moving"

He stripped down to nothing and swam across the cove and was back before I had a chance to gut the birds.

He does that, the swimming thing (alot).

He ran into a family of water skiers as he swam across part of the big river out where he lives in Oklahoma.
Doc Dunaway, buck naked, floating a dead pig across the river to the other side where he first shot it.

Apparently the family got quite a shock out of it.

So if you ever run into a buck naked guy swimming across a river with a freshly killed pig, you'll know who it is.
 
Holy crap Scott! I thought it was too hot here to hunt (but did it anyway)... that's just crazy!

I'll post up a report in a separte thread rather than hijack yours. Congrats on a successful hunt and just plain surviving it too!

Chuck
 
Scott,

I was just as crazy as you... unfortunately, I came back with zip! Although I did work on my tan a bit. It got so hot sitting in the boat, I had to take breaks sitting in the sun. Drank least 3 gallons of water (I actually had to go back to the car for more!). I almost had a shot, but they were just a bit out of range... it was my own fault, really. I rigged up my decoy lines and guessed wrongly at the depth of the water in that new place I wanted to hunt.

Since I was getting nowhere, I decided to move to a place where normally I hunt ducks, and only sometimes see geese; they usually hang out in the park across the river, but have been known to fly into the WMA. Nothing but seagulls, several swimming turtles, three cormorants, and a muskrat. I decided to get out while there was still light at sunset (we can hunt them 1/2 hr past sunset in Sep here in NJ). Wouldn't you know it? As I'm hosing down my boat at the boat launch, two groups of about a dozen geese fly from the park, over the river to the WMA, not TWO minutes before 1/2 past sunset... it was dark man...

Hope the rest of the season goes well for everyone!

Anthony
 
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