Passing Time In The Off Season

Clean Up Those Old Decoys

Every couple of years I will wash my decoys. It is a great way to make your spread more life like. Most decoy manufacturers are using life like iridescent paints, these paint patterns look and work great if they are not covered up with mud. The simplest way that I have found is to get a five gallon bucket and fill it with water and dish soap. Then with a stiff brush simply scrub them down with the soapy water. You will be amazed at how this simple task will bring new life to your decoys. One other important part of decoy maintenance is checking the anchor lines, and the knots that bind the weight and the keel. Depending on what type of line you use, over time it will become frayed or rot out, and knots weaken. No one likes chasing loose decoys in the middle of a hunt. So keep those decoy lines in good shape. And remember a little super glue on your knots will go a long way.

Start Your Preseason Dog Training

I am sure you have a system in place for your dog's training needs, but if you don't there is an almost limitless amount of literature out there for the dog owner. Now, everyone has different hunting styles and they need their dog to fit the need of their particular situation. For me, I like to look back on last seasons hunts and try to put a strategy in place for what I feel my dogs need work on. If you make a list and try to pin point these areas of training, in combination with general maintenance training, you will be well on tour way to having a top notch retriever.

Tune Up Your Shotgun Skills

Shooting trap, sporting clays, or just having a buddy throw clays with a hand thrower can improve your shooting skills in the field dramatically. The ability to mount and point a shotgun may seem easy, but in actuality it is fine tuned motor muscle memory. Without practice and repetition your shot to kill ratio may be much lower then that of an individual who has spent time practicing in the off season. I don't know about you, but I am not an exhibition shooter by any means, so if a little practice will put a few more birds in the bag I will do it. As a bonus you get to put more rounds through that old duck gun. Every waterfowl hunter I have ever met likes to shoot a shotgun, so get out there this summer and break some clays. I know that my dog wishes I would practice a little more.

I know that there is no substitute for the duck season, but maybe some of these activities will help keep your mind off the fact that we still have to wait four or five months till the opener. It seems like a long way off but the season will be here before you know it. So take some time to improve your odds next season.

Dan Scanlon

Duck Junkie Pro Staff

Southern Wisconsin

Down Time in NW Wisconsin

So it's mid February and there is not a whole lot goin' on... Or is there?
While many people sink down and don't come out during out our cold weather, us diehards are out and about sitting on water or chasing rabbits or predators. These activities can be a good way to maintain your adrenaline and fill the freezer with some other types of tasty game!
The rabbit population is way down this year so I have been spending my free time out on the ice. The fishing has been slow but it is starting to pick up again. The perch are starting to head shallow and the crappies and gills are getting a little more aggressive. Work the weed lines an breaks for crappies/gills and the sand/rock flats for some big perch.
Other than that, we are in need of a lot more snow up here or we are going to have even less water in the lakes/rivers/ponds! And that does not sit well with us waterfowl fanatics. But all we can do is pray for precipitation.
See ya on the water and in the woods!!!

Bear DeNucci
Duck Junkies Pro Staff
NW WI

SEASON'S RECAP

Well, I had the fortunate pleasure of closing out the season hunting with one of the only few other hunters I've hunted with, that has duck hunting boiling in their blood. My Nephew Ry, (and capt'n Junkie). We did not have a fantastic shoot, but enough to keep it interesting! And as always, there were the memorable moments that you can keep looking back on during the off season. Some of them were mentioned in a previous post, so I won't repeat the details, but thought I would make a list:

Drew's first Drake Woodie

Smell of the grilling duck breast out in the marsh

Four shooters-not a goose fell?? what just happened??

Drew… "Its got jewelry"

Setting up the big blue awning out on the line

The sunken pram, hoping our gear all floats

I've never been so wet in all my life

6 duck limit on my B-day

A second blown opportunity on a bull Pintail this year. Could it get any more frustrating?

The Bald Eagle Retriever

Got my groove back on the last day of the season by shooting well, and also getting my first (and only) goose of the year.

Duck season ended on the right day. Monday morning almost everything was iced in. Unfortunately the last big migration did not make it here before the season closed. Hopefully that means more around next year!!

Matt

The WI season is now over

Had the great opportunity to squeeze in one more weekend with the southern WI zone closing tonight. I got a 2-3 degree sprain on my left ankle Friday morning but tape and Advil and determination made the weekend bearable. now at home my ankle has blown up like a balloon and is all purple. I need ice and sleep so check back this Mon or Tues for the full report of the hunt and the stories we will never forget. By the way the "black foots" are majorly on the move. Between the morning hunt and the drive home I saw about 5-6 thousand flying south today alone.

Duck Season come and gone!

After a year of major ups and downs in NW WI of duck huntin it has sadly come to an end! The 60 days are always way to short. Especially this year with the heat wave to end the year! The ducks were very few and far between. That is for sure! And to top it all off the deer numbers were way down too. But I can't complain. Any excuse I have to hunt, I am gonna jump on it. Now it is back to goose huntin and bow huntin. Good luck to all those huntin down south. Save a few to migrate North next year!

Took The Day Off

After yesterdays frustrating morning and the extreme lack of birds and over abundance of warm weather, I slept in and went to church with the family. Talked with a buddy that hunted a field in Hugo MN down by the cities that had a 3 man limit of birds by 8:00 and was waiting on geese.
Cleaning the shop today and gearing up for the last weekend of hunting in MN and hopefully in 2 weeks the water is still open in SW Wisconsin for their season ending weekend.

Junkie Trip to SW Wisconsin

My brother and I drove 3 1/2 hrs straight to the landing for an evening shoot on Sunday. We arrived around 12:00 and after having a little trouble finding a spot we were set up to miss every bird we shot at. There wasn't many but we missed everything we shot at.
Saturday morning started out wrong for us. Now with my uncle aboard the Junkies cruise ship it meant we had to tow the 10ft boat with the gear. We woke up on time but left a little late and when we arrived at the landing there was 4 trucks there! On a Monday morning? I thought that Obama's stimulus plan was going to put everyone back to work?
We anticipated getting on the line but now the plan was for the horse shoe. As we were puttin out dragging the boat I could see a boat coming up the channel, FAST! about 60yds from the turn to the horse shoe they past us and we watched as they made the turn into our spot! So on to plan c.
My uncle had a spot he's been wanting to hunt all season and hasn't been able to so we gave it a whirl. It wasn't too far from where we were the night before and the birds seemed to like the area. At sun up the slaughter began. Only one other time this season had we had birds work like this. Feet down and wings cupped. A couple times we passed on 25yd shots to bring them around for a 15yd shot. We also picked up a goose and left around 10:00 with having the only shooting on the prairie.
Monday night was a bust and we "twisted" my uncles arm into coming out on Tues morning a as long as I ran him back to the launch to go to work at 8:00. Unfortunately he had parent teacher conferences that night so he had to go to work early. Family before everything! So my brother and I headed back out for one last hunt before driving home. What a joke!
As we pulled into our spot there was ducks flushing from everywhere! I had to turn off the boat lights because King was going nuts. We were very excited and had plenty of time to burry the blinds and boat so well we couldn't even see it.
At sun up we saw nothing like the day before. very few birds, nothing wanting to work, and 3 missed shots left us with no birds and a long ride home.
The excitement came though as we pulled into my driveway. I was backing up my boat and in my mirrors everything looked good bu I was worried about my mail box. I stopped and asked my brother to look out his window and tell me if I was clear. He said yes and I continued to back up. I made it 12inches and backed over my mail box! snapped off the pole and pulled the concrete out and broke the taillight off my trailer. When I asked him what the hell he was looking at he said, "I thought it would clear."
Its going to be a warm weekend again but right in time for thanksgiving the temps take a huge turn. Highs at the freezing mark and strong north winds will surely push the birds through just ion time for the close of the season! Hopefully I get a chance to build one more prototype decoy seeing as how the first test run worked so well on Mon!

Picking the right spot

I have a tradition of hunting Nov. 13th from sun-up to sun-down. I bow hunt 'til noon and then duck hunt the rest of the day. No matter how busy it is at work, this is always my day to myself. Bow hunting was non-productive, but did see a few does. Busted up a flock of turkeys on my way out, so I exchanged weapons back at the truck to my Benelli. Sat on a ridge above where the birds flew off to but could not get a response. In the afternoon it was out to do what I look forward to the most. An evening hunt on the marsh. Bird numbers are down for this time of the year, so I knew if this was going to work I needed to make a good decision where and how I was going to set-up. Factoring the wind, the dark sky and where I knew other hunters would be I put myself in an area with little pockets of open water and filled a few with decoys and a shaker in each. I figured the ducks would be coming out of the refuge high enough to see the scattered spreads I had. Worked like a charm! FINALLY got these educated ducks to work and commit. Before shooting hour ended I had my 6 and then just watched the show of ducks dumping into my spot.

Matt

SW wisconsin trip

We had a great slaughter this morning of birds. Every duck but one was shot with wings cupped and feet down. Went out tonight with no luck but saw a great bird show after shooting. Heading out in the morning than heading home so look for a full update on wed night of the trip!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Evening Hunt - SW Wisconsin

After a 4 hour drive south we have made it to Onalaska WI. Stopped along the way to drop off some gear for one of our members and now we sit and wait for some ducks.
There is a lot less grass than 4 weeks ago and because of that we beached the boat in the wrong channel. 2 spots we wanted to be there was already people but our third choice looks pretty good here in mallard bay. Hope the GPS works when we leave tonight because its going to be hard to find our way out. Maybe we will just sleep out here! Hahaha
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Go Away Warm Weather (WI)

With the recent warm weather the duck huntin in NW WI has really slowed down. The duck season is getting close to over and we are looking for the big numbers to start comin down. The geese are around but we are still looking for the duck numbers to increase. Hopefully they show up before we go into our deer season. Which is when our duck season ends up here.

But I do have a gripe to post from this warm weekend. I just do not understand waterfowlers who are so desperate that they trespass! We do a lot of hunting on others' land and we have the common courtesy to ask for permission. There is enough people out there already that do not like hunting and hunters, so there is no need to trespass and make even more people dislike hunters! So please always have the courtesy to ask for permission and never ever assume that you have permission. It never hurts to double and triple check with the landowner. Plus talking with the landowners is an incredible way to scout.

Made the right choice… (WI)

It was a good idea not to come down to Onalaska this weekend! This is going to be the weekend to rake leaves, hunt turkey's and keep the decoys in the garage. Sunny, balmy and warm! Checked out a spot yesterday morning and never fired a shot. Refuges are almost void of ducks right now. This is what I call the "calm before the storm". Next weekend things will be looking much better!

Matt

Plan B (SW Wisconsin)

Sat. started out perfect. Weather looked good (lots of wind), I got started early, got to the landing without forgetting anything, motor started second pull… I was off made the turn out of the no wake zone right into the 20mph west wind; motor killed. Started drifting down the lake. Got the 10 horse running again for about another 100 yrds. Killed again and drifting off the channel. Started up again and headed back to the landing (ended up rowing in). Trailered-up and decided I needed a plan B. There is a place in the Winona pool that is easy access and trolling motors only, with a fully charged battery I headed north. Got there just in time to troll-it to the far end, set decoys and load my gun. Birds were moving around but my set was out to far in the wind. After a half an hour I pulled a dozen mallards back into the calmer water. Stuck it out until 9am. Dropped all three singles that came in to inspect my decoy spread. Hoodie, Redhead and a Greenwing. all three were as perfect a specimen as one could get! The Delta south of Winona had about half the birds it was holding a week ago, and the amount of shooting I heard Sat and Sun afternoon from the Onalaska prairie tells me that the strong winds have moved alot of birds out. Weeks forcast looks rather balmy. Change in time will give me a chance to hunt mornings before work some so let's see what happens during the week.

Matt

"Great weather for a duck" doesn't always mean lots of ducks!

Wisconsin
Friday morning (10/29) we set out on one of our favorite little Polk County rivers. Could not have asked for a better morning weather wise for huntin ducks. Slight mist, a little breeze, and cloudy! The only thing is it was a little warm. (54 degrees at shootin light). But all in all, not too bad!
Our hopes were pretty high as we had been seeing a few northern birds around and this spot has been pretty good to us this year. And it usually gets better and better as the fall goes on. But for some reason this morning wasn't meant to be. First, we show up and are ready to set out and my brother realizes he had left his gun at home! I know, How do you forget your gun? It happens to the best of us! So Steven and I set up and I have to hand it to my bro, he made it back and out to us by ten min after shootin light. As far as the duck numbers... We seen approx 15 divers cruise by us about 5 minutes in to the morning and they kept goin. Sat there til 9:30 and only seen one more duck! Oh well. A day huntin is better than doin anything else.

But not all was lost... Doin some road scouting, we found a new spot. It looked very promising as it was holding approx 200 birds (ducks & geese) when we stopped to ask permission. The landowner was extremely happy to have someone come hunt the birds. So stay tuned for updates!

Couple of photos from the weekend

Mark, Shane and Ryan "Junkie"

Plenty of Ducks (in the refuge)

SW Wisconsin
After a unproductive Saturday morning, but lots of migration, one would have thought that things would turn around Sunday. Contrare– I think it was worse. Had a good set-up in the "birthday blind", but only fired twice just to let that high flying Mallard know we were there. Watched a crippled goose take refuge in a neighboring bay, so spent a half hour working Maverick around the area to see if he could find it. No luck. After packing it in I took to straightening out the garage, keeping an ear to the west to listen for shooting, and the other on the Packers game. (found an aweful nice goose flute, Ry?) Heard a lot more action coming from the east!

We'll keep an eye to the sky, and hope to see my nephews in a few weeks for another junkie hunt!

Matt

WEEKEND REVIEW (SW Wisconsin)

And there he is, the great King. What a good dog he was through the SW Wisconsin trip. He got to spend time playing with his girlfriend Gypsy on the trip. He made every retrieve I sent him on. He did great on most of the redirects and blind retrieves, and all of this with injury and sickness. By the last day he was so tired I think that he was happy to get home to recover.
On Sunday I was going to take him out for a short morning hunt but my kids were up so many times over the night that I got almost no sleep. Between that and the rain, I decided to sleep in and run errands but I had a friend wake me up to tell me he was hunting were I wanted to go and had 6 ducks in 20 minutes. Just figures!
All and all it was tough coming home because even though we didn't do so well the last 2 days, it was a great trip. Many ducks, not a single goose. Lots of stories, one memorable experience of a sinking boat, and great home cooked meals. A huge thanks to Matt, Penny and Maggie for the great hospitality, awesome home cooked food, and great dancing with the tap shoes. Keep it up Maggie! With lots of practice you will get the timing down and one day when you make it pro I will take my daughters to come see you perform! Looking forward for the November hunt if we can get it worked out!

THE LAST MORNING

Well, the last morning in SW Wisconsin started out great but that didn't last long.

Last night we passed on the evening shoot and sat around drinking beer, telling stories, and laughing so hard I thought my sides would split. Although a hunt may have been fun, I can guarantee we had more fun doing this than sitting in the rain. We even came up with a commercial idea we may pursue.

In the early morning on the marsh we did see some pretty amazing sights. The "4:00 rush" was a sight to see. From our blind we could see the main channel, and it looked like I-35w during rush hour! All you saw were lights and herd boats. It was bow to stern.

After the rush was over and we were set up we sat and listened to "wings". They were everywhere! All of us were very excited, but that would soon turn to frustration. We didn't fire a shot for the first 25 minutes and then 1 hooded merganser. Matt's superstition is that good days start with no shooting, so this should have played out.

There was almost nothing working the marsh but over head we watched a part of a migration for about 1 hour. Everywhere we looked there were huge "V's" of birds way high heading for the marsh. We picked off one wood duck. When everyone else from the marsh headed in at 9:00 we didn't even get any birds flying by that had been kicked up. We did get burned by a few that flew by in the sun and escaped easily, and we picked up at 11:00. No geese. At least we were dry!

(SW WI) A great start for the junkies...

------ SMS Text ------
From: 6513368388
Sent: Oct 24, 2009 5:32 AM
Subject: A great start for the junkies this...

A great start for the junkies this morning. After a great meal and a good nights sleep we got up early and made it to our plan "a" spot without a problem. Already has some great blinds to work with. All we are hearing are boats and hundreds of birds flying. Good north wind at our back . Cutting grass and blinding up for what should be a good hunt!
Ryan
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Rain Rain Go Away!

SW Wisconsin
On Friday morning we woke up after a great home cooked meal and a short sleep with the intention of getting on the "Strip". We started out late because we lost one of our wallets. We spent 20 minutes looking for it only to find it in a gear mix up. We showed up at the landing late and now in a rush we hurried out into the main channel.
With it still raining and no end in sight, Matt wanted to take a short cut to shave about 15 minutes off our ride. He was looking for 2 specific trees that marked the channel we needed. When he found what we were looking for he told me to" turn in here". We didn't make it far until the boat was stuck. We shouldn't have gotten stuck, even towing the 10ft boat, but the whole way out I knew something didn't feel right the way the motor was running. It seemed to be loosing power as the ride went on... we would soon find why.
Once in the main channel in this bay my uncle seemed confused. We had missed the 2 trees we needed. We got out of the boat and pushed it back toward the main channel the whole way trying to figure out where the turn was that we missed. We made it back and decided to take the long way around and continued on. It only took a few minutes until we encountered our next problem. I herd a loud snap and felt the boat jerk. I looked back and "OH MY GOD"! The 10ft boat was under water and our gear was floating down the channel. It had been taking on water (which was why we felt like we were losing power).
We quickly turned around and I yelled out "nobody miss the bags on the first pass"! I knew if we did not grab them the wake from the motor would sink them. My brothers bag is the only one designed to float so as I motored up to them I decided if I had to miss one on the first pass it would be his.
We managed all the gear bags in one pass! Now we had to get the cooler then the thermoses. After that it was the decoys and then the boat. We dragged all the gear to nearby shore as the channel is way too deep to get out. The guns were in our boat as I have never ever trusted something so expensive not right by my side, even though my case is a floating one. My uncles isn't, I think its designed to absorb water and sink, not sure because the tag is missing. After dumping the water out of the little boat and repacking we were on our way for the 3rd time.
We managed to find a spot in badger bay that we thought would work even though the wind was not right. We had to carry our wet heavy gear a ways to our spot and set up with just a little time to spare.
It was still pouring rain when shooting started and we jumped on a nice drake mallard right away. Shortly after that a green wing teal came 20 yds right over the decoys. My uncle and I stood up and almost at the exact same time powdered this teal. All that was left was a falling carcass and a floating cloud of feathers.
After this short burst we sat in the rain for awhile. All our gear was soaked right to the skin. We had birds work the bay but with the wind just not right it was hard. We managed one more hen Gadwall and decided to go in early and dry out our gear and hope for an evening shoot.