Wolf propaganda heats up in Wyoming where there is consideration wolf hunting in the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway.
Writer Cory Hatch of the Jackson Hole News & Guide gives us the inside.
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With October coming to an end, the unseasonably warm days have led to blue bird days here in the wetlands of the Great Salt Lake valley. With the severe storm pattern that brought cold winds and driving rain to the valley just in time for the Youth Hunt, local waterfowlers were given a sense of hope that this would lead to a perfect “Fowl Weather” season.
While early forecasts were boasting of Waterfowl Management Areas holding great numbers of ducks and geese, an early cold snap in September pushed many of the birds out, and given the storms approach and direction of the jet stream, there would be no dramatic temperature change to the north to drive new birds into the valley. The current effects of warm days will have birds loafing through the days, and feeding under clear sky nights. While there has been a few days that have had wind in the decoys, these conditions have no doubt taken it’s toll on the overall success here in the Great Salt Lake region.
Tips To Success
Hunting early morning on blue bird days will have the hunters catching a chance at these fare weathered fowl on their way back from feeding in the grain fields to their loafing areas. With the colder nights, the metabolism of ducks and geese will be on the rise, forcing them to seek out higher portions of carbs in their diets. Early mornings will have them feeding in the grain fields, and returning to the wetlands extremely thirsty and easily deceived. A quick check of the craw will help you to identify your trophies breakfast choice of champions. Once the temperatures begin to drop up north (Canada) fresh birds will begin to trickle down. Once the Great Falls area begins to freeze, the valley will then begin to see the real push of those old red legs of the north.
Mid-season mallards harvested in the company of good friends on a Blue Bird Day.
An early winter storm on Friday night brought a foot of snow to the high country in northern Utah. The effects from this storm made traveling the back roads to Willard peak impossible by 4wheel drive, allowing only a few ATV’s to make their way to the top, only to spend the day in a white out. While the fresh snow made for perfect conditions to find and locate the elk, the spotty cloud cover took it’s toll, forcing many hunters to return to camp for the day.
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California resident George R. Orduno, A.K.A. Bobby, was successful in drawing the non-resident tag for the Willard Peak Rocky Mountain Goat tag. On September 10, Bobby sealed the deal when he took this mature billy.
View the full story here on Hooked On Utah
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A day on the pond yields some monster Bear Lake Mac’s! I recently teamed up with the hottest hands on Bear Lake, the Orduno’s, and their fishing vessel Big Red. Nothing short of a spectacular day catching Mac’s, Native Cutthroats and Bonneville…what a trip. Enjoy!!
There is something magical that takes place between a father and his children when he takes them hunting. I have had the pleasure of spending time with these two in the blinds over the past few years and it is always obvious that they share quite a unique bond between them. True, there maybe more to life than hunting but increasing quality time where all the noise from a hectic life is removed and opportunity for us to reflect on the good things of life helps to keep us all walking the right paths in life.
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In a recent outing with Journalist Brett Prettyman and Salt Lake tribune photographer Chris Detrick, the question was asked “so whats with all the jingle things around your neck”? Well Sir, i replied as I took my call lanyard from around my neck, this here is a duck hunters scrap book. Problem is, you can’t see the memories that i see as i look at each one of these bands. I guess it is just a personal thing i said. Looking at the bands and showing him a specific section, I told him the story of a man’s first goose; this man had been hunting waterfowl for 8 years and had never successfully bagged a goose and my new task was to change that fate.
Salt Lake Tribune: Full Story>>> Click Here
A Man’s First Band: Full Story>>> CLICK HERE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLVZ0bJx_ec
I pulled into the clubhouse at 5:30 am and began the usual task of grabbing the members lunch box, thermos, collecting the appropriate fowling piece and needed shot for the day afield. This trip would have me taking a member’s son-in-law to the cornfield after geese. In the gun room after being introduced, the boss man had quite a time announcing that my job was to get this man his first goose. Problem with this scenario was that i knew this was not the best setting for me. Times were tough in the corn field; it had been shot so heavily that no one wanted to go there and now i was being set up to accomplish this task? My character loves a challenge and i new i had my hands full on this one, even so i couldn’t help but give them all a little extra lip service on the way out the door exclaiming that we would not only return with geese, but that we would also help the local biologist out by returning with some hardware (bands) to phone in…everyone in the gun-room laughed. So did I as the door shut.
Every now and again, as hunters we will encounter a day where we ask ourselves why we even got up that day. It seemed as though nothing was going right. It was late November and the fields were extremely wet, to soft to pull the truck and trailer into them. In those days my trailer was setup such that all the BigFoot decoys were loose in the trailer, all ten dozen. Avery had not yet attacked the market with there decoys and bagging system. so the only way to get them into the field was about 8 to 10 at a time piled in a little garden trailer pulled with a quad. The real problem was that the quad was flipping mud all over the decoys, it was a disaster. There were a few birds loafing in on of the hay fields, so about a week prior they had dug a make-shift blind in the middle, which now stuck out like a sore thumb. They had placed a piece of plywood in the bottom for a floor which had soaked up the rain and became very slick to stand on. after placing 5-6 doz goose decoys, it was time to start the wait.
Time seemed to fly with this gentleman, as he owned and operated a beer pub/dance hall in Montana, language of choice was that of a sailor. We both shared stories of success, but his attention was drawn to my lanyard holding my calls around my neck. That infamous question they will ask “so whats with the trinkets”…On days like this, it was a conversation piece. I gave him my spill about the memories, to which i must not have connected because he asked me “so all birds have them”? No, I laughed!
The story was interrupted by the distant sound of a flock of geese. I sent out a few greeter calls, to which they gave a faint response coming in our direct. Problem was they just would lose any altitude and come in for a closer look. There was a snow goose in the flock, to which i through in a couple snow goose calls in the mix, the snow goose responded by cutting out and swinging by close enough that i felt my shooter had a fare chance at hitting and the fact that the canada’s just would respond, so i cut him loose to shoot. Shooting a ten gauge, he smoked the snow like it was no problem and began to celebrate his first goose. I hadn’t thought of that, but he had and i simply wasn’t ready to face the boys back at the clubhouse with a single snow goose story for his members to tease him over. You see, many of the members come from California where they attitude towards snow geese is such that they don’t waste their time shooting them. I could already hear the laughter. After recovering from his excitement, again in the distance came a honk, another flock of canada’s headed our way. normally, a flock of 10-12 birds is a sure ticket to decoying geese, but this flock circled and circle, eventually landing 150 yards wide, so i got out of the blind and walked them out. They didnt seem to spooked by the process so i got back on the call to see if they would respond. Sure enough, the circled and came by for a look, two and then three passes, i knew that they just didn’t feel comfortable enough to come in and land so i gave him the go ahead again. The ten gauge rang out and the lead bird fell like a stone. I went to work myself, dropping one, two and then three birds…in this process, i had a 275 pound grown man celebrating like a hungry native; He had become so excited that he dropped his gun on the floor of the blind. I was aware of the gun, his dancing and yelling and the fact that birds were falling every time i shot; what a site it had to be. when the smoke cleared, my retrieving partner named Shooter was in the process of being out ran to the first goose down. What a sight! As Shooter returned with the first goose, i could see a band dangling, so I told him “hey you shot a banded goose for your first goose”, he snagged that goose out of my hand as i was lining shooter up for the second retrieve…and sent him on his way. I turned to see why the noise had ceased, and there was the goose belly down and it’s feathers being preened for a photo, camera in hand. I figured i would just leave him in the moment to celebrate, as long as i knew where his gun was. Shooter had now returned with the second bird and as i reached down to receive the bird from his hold, BAND! I was pretty happy, Shooter lined up for the third bird which was maybe an 80 yard retrieve and shipped him off. The second bird with the band was again taken from my hand, to which i wasn’t to happy about on the inside, we both knew he had only shot the one shot and in my mind was now taking the bird for the band. He placed it on the ground, belly down next to the other bird and repeated the same preening process as before. In the moment, i heard Shooter’s mouth-full-o-down snort as he strolled up by my side, tail a wagging, i looked down and BAND. At this point humor took over and i asked shooter if he was banding birds while we weren’t looking. The last bird down had sailed quite a distance into the neighboring pasture. a solid 300 yard blind with one serious obstacle, a barbed wire fence. as I was taking my time to line Shooter up, the third bird was yanked from my hand, I was furious inside at this point. I shipped Shooter off, ready too whistle-sit him just before the fence so he wouldn’t tear himself up on the barbed wire, i gave him an “easy” back and off he went. Shooter was the kind of dog that you could handle like a remote control car and had many birds through his mouth. This one should have been a walk in the park as we had a good line. For what ever reason, he wouldn’t take a few of the hand signals, he want to do his own thing. The wind was blowing and he wouldn’t take the cast into the wind…it became a wrestling match, so i shorten up the distance by running out there towards him about a hundred yards. A couple more whistles and growls from the handler, Shooter finally got the bird. I wasn’t to happy about the hacked up blind, nor the bands that i figured that the member was taking of my birds. I was mumbling to myself as i walked back to the scene of the crime and along the way, i hear that old familiar muffled snort as Shooter proudly trots up along side his master, he walked along side me snorting as if to say “HEY BOSS”, i looked down and BANG…BAND #4!!! At this point,I was in awe!!! 4 shots fire, 4 Birds fell, 4 Geese with bands!!!
Later, after getting out of the field and taking the gear to the car wash, we stopped for a burger at the world famous Mim’s of Corinne, Utah. After returning from washing my hands, i returned to the table and pulled the 4 bands out of my pocket that i had later removed from the geese. Placing them on the table between us, i asked him, how would you like to separate the bands? He looked at me and said, i have no interest in that band, i got my trophy he said…you keep that one for your scrap book and winked at me.
Now’a days, when i look at those bands, a series of mental pictures flow through my mind, but the fun part is revisiting the look on the boys faces when we walked back in the gun room with those bands and that story. Certainly one to remember.