LATE SEASON HUNTING
Many hunters put away the dog and shotgun when the cold temperatures start setting in and the ice starts showing up on ponds and lakes. This is one of my favorite times of year to hunt waterfowl, with the migration in full swing and with lots of birds hitting the small pockets of open water and streams the hunting can be fast and exciting! Just make sure that you and your loyal hunting companion or prepared for the icy cold conditions. A good neoprene vest never is a bad idea if your dog will be breaking ice while swimming, and for yourself always dress warm and remember those gloves! Frozen hands are never a good time! Good hunting this last week of the 2012 duck hunt!
Opening Day 2011/2012
Today was the opening day of the waterfowl hunt this year in Utah. With some good friends and great dog work we were able to take home a limit of birds. If you are new to waterfowl hunting, the best thing you can do to be successful hunting ducks and geese is to go scouting before the hunt starts. If you can find the birds consitantly using a certain area on land or water, you will be successful. Set up early where you have been seeing them with some decoys and you should have a great hunt. Most the time very little calling is needed. Good luck hunting this year to everyone and their bird dog!
Last Waterfowl Hunt of 2010/2011
The last week of the hunt three friends and I did a three day hunt up in northern Utah chasing big old Canadian Geese. We ended the hunt with a total of 17 geese and about a dozen ducks. We had some big blind retrieves across some big bodies of water and lots of good dog work. The geese had definately been hunted hard, but we were fortunate enough to still bring a handful of birds home. It was a great hunt with lots of good memories.
Recent 2010 Duck & Goose Hunt
A couple of weeks ago some friends and I were able to get a good half day of duck and goose hunting in. We ended up with 35 ducks, 3 canadian geese and one Ross snow goose. It was just one of those days when the birds decoyed perfect and you were shooting them right up in front of your face! Sweet! The dogs had some nice blind retrieves out across the ice on the lake and lots of retrieving action out of the decoys. Hope that everyone is getting their bird dog out having some good success. Only about a month left before the hunt is over. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a happy hunting new year!
Utah 2010 Pheasant Opener
Got to love the garage pics, but I guess it is better than nothing. This year was a great opening day! As you can see we had five good dogs and not many birds got passed us. Actually, only one got away because I forgot to put a shell in my gun. Lucky bird! We ended up with 17 roosters, 3 hungarian patridge, 10 ducks and we added one cotton tail rabbit to the mix. The dogs were beat. They hunted hard from sun up to sun down. When we were taking these pictures some of them were actually falling asleep sitting their. They really gave it their all and as you can see from the pic we were all rewarded with lots of birds. I can't imagine not having a good bird dog. We talked about it and we decided we would maybe have two roosters if we didn't have dogs. These birds were in thick cover that no human person would or even could walk through. Got to love bird dogs! Hope everyone else had a great hunt for the wiley rooster!
Short Jump Shoot Clip From 2010
2009/2010 Waterfowl Hunt
It looks like another waterfowl season is coming to a end here in the state of Utah. This year was a little slow for me and I did not get alot of good decoying action. Later in the season I was able to get some really good jump shooting and some decent decoying. The dogs did great this year with the jump shooting and had plenty of retrieves and opportunities for blind retrieves. Jump shooting requires a dog that is very obedient and will listen to you when things get exciting. The last thing you want is your dog to get to the pond or river before you do. This will only give your farther shots and less birds in the bag. Below are a few pics from this years waterfowl hunt!
Reeseeding In Process
Having a little fun with the cattails while the duck hunting was a little slow! We just want wetlands everywhere so we can have more birds and have more good times!
2009 Pheasant Hunt
This year we headed to Northern Utah for a little pheasant hunting on opening morning. After some serious brush busting on the dogs part we were able take these birds by noon that day. The dogs found every bird and without their help we would have had nothing to show for all of our walking. You can just see on the dogs face how hard they have worked. We let them take a break, get some food and then we were off for the rest of the day. We saw lots of birds and had a great time with friends and family chasing those good looking roosters. As a bonus we took a couple of mallards and two hungarian partridge. The pup to the right is the daughter of my female that is laying down in the middle. It was fun to see her work and get on some of her first wild pheasants!
Blue Grouse Hunt
This year was a great year for grouse hunting in most parts of the state. Grouse can be tricky to find but if you put in time like any hunting, sometimes it all comes together. Blue grouse are typically found at higher elevations early in the season and then later as the snow falls they seem to pair up and head for the pines. Blue grouse are excellent to eat and are fast flyers once they get up and going. If you get a chance I recommend you get out and hunt some of these high mountain birds. Good luck!
Sand Hill Crane Hunt
This past september 5th was the opener of the Sand Hill Crane hunt here in Utah. My friend Spencer and his dad were lucky enough to both draw tags and I was their guide since they did not know the area they were to hunt. The morning of the opener we were able to get in the birds line of flight and a nice pair came over and Spencer was able to take this nice young male. Later that day after many spot and stock failed attempts, Spencer's dad was able to connect on a nice old mature male. We did not take the dogs since those birds have huge beaks and could easily take a dogs eye out. Overall, it was a fun hunt and we made some great memories! Good shooting guys!
Spencer with the first bird of the morning
Spencer and his dad with both their birds
September 1st 2009 Opening Day of Dove Hunt
Today was the opening day of the Utah Dove hunt. The dove hunt is always a fun time of the year. It is a great time to get out the bird dog, your shotgun and see what kind of fun you can have. Dove action is exciting and they actually tast pretty good. It is a great way to let your bird dog get some retrieving and marking experience before the big upland and waterfowl hunts begin. This year the temperatures was perfect for Doves here in Utah. With little to no bad weather the doves stuck around and the numbers are up. Doves can be found around grain fields, waterholes and on gravel roads. The best time to hunt them is early morning and evening as that is when they are most active. If you have not tried hunting Doves I recommend you get out with your bird dog and have some fun. Good luck hunting!
Sam holding a nice Eurasion Dove
The migration stoppers!
JUMP SHOOTING CLIP FROM 2008
This was one of those hunting days that everything seems to work out. We had three limits within just a couple of hours. Can't wait for 2009!
POINTING LAB VIDEOS 6/12/09
These are some videos of our pointing labs that we we did some training with the other day. We are planning on taking all three of them out to Colorado in September to get them some more APLA pointing lab titles. We enjoy pointing labs because of the versatility that they offer. When hunting waterfowl they act just like your regular lab, but when you are hunting upland you get that nice point. If you want more info on pointing labs let us know. Hope you enjoy the videos and good hunting!
COLORADO APLA HUNT TEST 4/25/09
I own and raise pointing labs. They are incredible dogs and are extremely fun to hunt over. When hunting waterfowl they will retrieve just like your regular lab and then in the upland field they will point. The APLA stands for American Pointing Labrador Association. You can find out more about pointing labs a www.americanpointinglabs.com This years APLA hunt test was in Orchard Colorado. I decided to enter both of my pointing labs in the CPR (Certified Pointer Retreiver) hunt test. They both passed with almost perfect scores. Aspen passes with a score of 35/35 and Sam passed with a scor of 34/35. After hearing the test requirements for the APR (Advanced Pointer Retreiver) after we arrived I decided to enter Aspen and go for two titles in one weekend. After some intense moments and great dog work Aspen passed the test and recieved her APR title too. I could not have been happier with my dogs and they way they performed. The APLA put on a great hunt test and our many thanks go out to them. The people of Colorado were great and we are excited to go back and run Sam and Aspen for their Master titles this september! Hope you all enjoy the pictures!
UTAH SNOW GOOSE HUNT
This year the Utah fish and game had a late season snow goose hunt. I had never hunted snows before and really wanted to take one good bird to put on the wall. I arrived in south west utah at about 4:00AM to meet up with my buddy Ty Backer. After getting that good hunters breakfast at the gas station we pulled up to the field and started to unload the decoys. You could here all the snow geese in the distance on the lake and that got us real excited. We put out what snow decoys we had and covered all our Canadas with bags, along with our mojo decoys and got ready for the birds. At about 6:30AM the birds poured off the lake in one flock of over a thousand birds. The best thing is that the came right over us. I picked out one nice snow and pulled the trigger. That 3 1/2 inch T shot did its job and down came my first snow. Words can not describe how excited I was! The best thing about this hunt was that is continued on like this for the rest of the day. We ended up with 30 birds between the three of us, bruised shoulders and lots of memories. We had awesome dog work with lots of nice retrieves and not one lost bird that we shot down. Having a good bird dog is the best conservation tool you can have. If you do not have one, get one as it will be the best decision you have ever made. Hope you all enjoy the pics and good hunting!
