End of a not so great season

Nothing like leaving a bad taste in your mouth for the end of the season.

I’d be pretty chapped at my buddy for putting me in that situation. But at the same time should a guy really be running a section of River you haven’t prescouted with brand new untested equipment?

 

People hunt ducks in Southern Ohio???

 

Usually when everything can go wrong does go wrong but alot of time its a decent hunt.

 

About a mile. Muddy the whole way.

 

If you aint tearing **** up, you are probably doing wrong!

 

My strap count for the year sucks overall (around 20 birds), but I had a very memorable season. I duck hunted with three different Fuge members in two different states (along with a really cool September get together). Hopefully next year will bring me more ducks, but it’s gonna be hard to top the memories I’ve made this 2020-2021 season. That doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try though... Wisconsin is on the menu next year and I hear there’s another shindig in the works.

 

This was my worst season by far not in the wood duck department in the beginning of the season... but after November I've killed 2 mallards and 4 canada geese since... I've killed probably 15 wood ducks in october... this was the worst year I've seen for mallards not due to lack of scouting cause I did more of that than hunt... even my buddies didnt kill much... canada geese been plenty but got a new crowd goin around guiding and paying off farmers on land me and my buddies hunted geese on for years... so that's been the biggest kick to the nadz we had this season

 

Do you stay in touch with the land owners?

For 20 years, I had permission to hunt 5000 acres of bottom ground, just south of St. Louis. It could be good for ducks and geese whenever it flooded, which was about every 3rd of 4th year. It was also a decent spot for doves depending on crop rotation, and harvest time.....so, I never really hunted it a lot. One year I called the farmer the eve before the dove opener to let him know that i would be hunting the next morning. He said that he was sorry, but he had leased the farm to 4 guys for deer hunting, but they also had the right to hunt doves and waterfowl.... I was shocked. I asked him how much he leased it to them for, and he said "$2000". I said, Mike, I could get you $25,000 for an annual deer lease from a couple of guys i know ( They were execs from GE, and strictly trophy/ archery hunted with clients ). So I hooked him up with them the next year. They didn't care about doves, or waterfowl, so I actually got my permission back. a year later I hooked him up with a guy that mills cottonwood for caskets. He sells him a few trees each year, with is decent income for him as well....

Bottom line........if you have relationships with the landowners, make sure you keep them. Find out what they need for you to keep access.