Fishing

I have talked to many people about their favorite types of fishing spots.  One of my good friends only loves fishing salt or brackish water, although that is something i do not have a lot of experience in.

Most of my fishing is done in lakes, ponds, and rivers near my house.  My favorite would probably have to be ponds because of the ease of fishing them and the wide range of fish i can catch.  Right before dark or early in the mornings are my favorite times to get out and fish.  Comment back with your favorite kinds of fishing!

Turkey Hunting

Second favorite time of the year is right around the corner!  Turkey season is a great time to get back out in the woods and enjoy what our lord has blessed us with!  The early morning gobbles and the smell of gunpowder after the shot is all i need to wind down the school year.

Some of my favorite father son memories are with my dad, using turkey season as another excuse to get out of the house.  He taught me how to call turkeys and properly shoot at them.  I enjoyed all of the seasons me and my father got to spend together even to this day.

Post Season

So after season winds down and honey holes become vacant, work starts back and the fishing begins.  I can’t be too upset about the end of duck season while lugging in 8 pound bass and shouldering longbeards.  Either way the summers are always a good time while making money and fishing in your spare time.

 

We mostly fish in old farm ponds around where i live and we can usually get there an hour or so before dark and reel in a few nice largemouths.

My favorite type of fishing is topwater! Like most other anglers as well i love seeing the fish attack a frog or small popper and know that your movements outsmarted a fish.  Its almost that time again and i cannot wait!

Duck Depression

Many people will never experience the bitter pain of the “medical condition” known as Duck Depression.  I suffer from this disease from February 7th through October 1st of every year.  Its when duck season goes out and you know that you wont have the early mornings and the ringing ears from a day of smacking ducks for over 200 days.

There is always turkey season, rabbit season, and even fishing, but none come close to the joy of calling in late season ducks.

I know there are many more like me, who feel the same way as i do.  I have always been a huge fan of Walt Gabbard’s music.  He sings about duck depression as well as the joy of hunting many other types of animals.  I like to think he is one other person who understands how hunters feel while waiting for season to come around again next year.  I invite any who havent listened to his music to check out his songs online.

Curing “Gunshy” Dogs

A dog is very much like a person. Your fear of one thing can be so great, it outweighs your desire to do another thing.

In this instance, your dog would love to retrieve, but something about that loud noise (gunshot) has him so concerned, that the retrieve becomes secondary to his fear of the noise. This is a bad situation for a hunting dog o be in because it is hard to undo once your dog is scared of the shots.  A big thing is keeping the dog in a loving environment where he feels safe.

So how do we counter this? There are two ways really, one using birds and the other to just subject him to the loud noise in a pleasant surrounding over, and over, and over, and over until he learns not to fear the noise. Goose/stoli uses one method, I use the other. It doesn’t really matter how he was gunshyed, either method will eventually overcome his fear of it.

Types of Ducks

Most people don’t know this but there are over 50 types of ducks in America.  Although i have not shot at all 50 species, i would love to say i have that accomplishment one day.  We mostly kill buffleheads, widgeon, wood ducks, mallards, teal, ringnecks, mergansers, and bluebill.

 

I have to say that wood ducks and mallards are my favorite.  We can go to almost any pond or swamp in NC and shoot ample amounts of both kinds of these ducks.  With the occasional merganser or ringnecks flying over our spread.  I love watching ducks fly over us and trying to figure out what kind of ducks they are to hit the right call and make them commit.

Choosing the right ammo for the job!

Well, since last week i shared my fondest memories with you guys, this week I will try and go over how we choose what types of steel shot to use depending on where we hunt!  Since most days we hunt in small swamps off main lakes we prefer to use a 3″ 2 or 4 shot.  For those of you who don’t hunt i know this means little to you, but the larger the shot size the farther the pellets will travel when shot.  a 2 shot will travel further than a 4 shot and so on.  In turn, when hunting smaller areas it is wiser to have more and smaller pellets in each shell to scatter the pattern of pellets.

When hunting open water or shooting geese we use what is called BB or BBB shot which is much larger and can kill larger animals.  This helps us shoot at farther ranges and bag more birds.  So depending on the place you are hunting that will decide what shells for you to use in your gun.  Scouting where you will be hunting is also very important for knowing what type of shells to use and why.  So take this tip with you on your next hunt and bag more birds!

Stories

Its the little things in life that make the best memories.  Some of my fondest memories involve a few of my closest friends and i, sweating in the early season and freezing in late season, laughing and shooting geese in cut cornfields.  Watching the southern sunrise and feeling the sun hit your face as it tops the carolina pines.  There is nothing that beats it.

Some of my favorite hunts are from ground blinds early goose season near my house.  We get flocks of geese coming down from up north that stop in the huge cornfields for a quick bite.  Setting the decoys up just right and remaining hidden on the ground is always a challenge, but a well rewarding one.  Laughing at the misses and congratulating the hits as the geese fall towards the ground.  Some of my longest friendships are made in the blinds and its something ill always remember.

Decoy Spreads

Well, i figured this week i would take a break from telling stories and give my viewers an idea of how we set things up!  As you know if you read any of my other blog posts me and my friends usually hunt shallow swamps and holes off main lakes to catch ducks retreating from open water pressure and some places where ducks are not pressured at all. We like this method of hunting for close encounters with wood ducks and the all famous mallard ducks, but will occasionally shoot ringneck ducks, teal, buffleheads, and even geese coming in for an easy meal.

As season starts off we throw out a wide spread of decoys including a few mojo’s and a hefty flock of warn out mallards.  This is because in early season ducks flock together to find mates and love the company of fellow friends.  We have had good success with this in the past and will continue to use lots of decoys early season.

As the season winds down and temperatures drop below freezing we only carry one or two spinning wing decoys and a few pairs of mallards (hens and drakes) that are a little nicer in color/ larger and easier to see.  Late season ducks have paired up and we have better luck with a few scattered pairs of ducks.

Calling the swamps of North Carolina is how i grew up hunting and it still continues to surprise and amaze me when we get ducks to circle our decoys and come in just right.  It is a learned combination of placing the decoys just right to fool the ducks into thinking you are real and calling just soft enough to make them think your a duck.  Still cannot wait for season to roll around again next year!

Opening Day of Duck Season

Opening day of duck season might as well be my favorite holiday of the year.  I look forward to it all year, and when it comes I am like a little kid on Christmas Eve. For those of you who do not hunt, let me try to explain it first in terms that you may be able to relate to. Imagine your favorite hobby, activity, or sport. Got it? Okay, now think about someone telling you that you are not allowed to participate in that particular activity for most of the year and think about how excited you would be the night before it was the first day of the year that you were able to do the thing that you love. Now, multiply how happy you would be by about 20 and there you have Landon Williams on opening day of duck season.

 

The day does not start that morning, however, it begins days, even weeks in advance. First you have to make sure you are sitting in the right spot. If you don’t scout your hole many times to make sure there will be ducks flying overhead opening morning, there is a chance you will not see one duck. If that were the case for me, I would be more upset than when I found out Santa was not real.

After you scout your hole, then the shopping process begins. Women tend to think that men don’t do any shopping and hate buying clothes; those women have never seen a man in the wader department of Bass Pro Shops. We have to buy waders, shells, most likely a new camo jacket (even though we have plenty others – duck season is just an excuse to add to the collection), face paint, hand warmers, and decoys. And if you have a great girlfriend like I do, you will wake up to a new duck call to celebrate opening day. Somehow, spending hundreds of dollars to try to shoot a duck seems like the most logical thing to do with your money when you are a duck hunter.

One of the drake Mallards that we shot on opening day this year

Once all of the shopping is done, it is time to get everything set up. If you are hunting from a boat, you have to make sure the blind on the boat is secure and sightless to the eyes of ducks. If you’re just hunting from a blind on the bank then you will set it up once you get there in the morning. Getting the decoys set up is also crucial. Although it is time consuming, it is what will bring the ducks to you. Once they see the spread you can only hope that they will turn, cup up, and get ready to land on the swamp where the decoys are. With the decoys in the bed of the truck, waders by the door, guns clean and ready, and calls on the chain in the blind bag, you are finally ready to go to bed before the biggest morning of the year – if you can even get a wink of sleep.

One of the drake Wood ducks that we shot that morning as well!

Usually I cannot sleep. I sit up on Google Earth looking at the hole we are going to, waiting for my 3am alarm to go off so I can jump out of bed and into my waders. It is the most exciting day of the year for me; I cannot get out of bed faster. Once we are on the road I know that I am that much closer to shooting at ducks as they fly across the sky. We get to the blind and anxious does not even begin to explain how I am feeling. By law, you have to wait until a specific time for it to be shooting light. We sit in the blind watching the sunrise and the fog lift off of the swamp and count down the seconds until it is officially shooting light. If you are lucky, there will be ducks flying right as the clock strikes shooting light, but honestly that almost never happens. Whether there are 3 ducks that fly by or 300 ducks, it is still a magical morning. Since the day I started hunting, I have never missed an opening day of duck season; nor do I plan to any time in the future.