Stache's Blog

Hdog and Rags Come to Town

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:31:00 +0000

Half way through December Huston and Rags flew up from Atlanta to hunt with me at the marsh. When I picked them up at the airport it was 63 degrees and by the time we got to the cabin at about 10:00 it was still above 60. I have never in my life been down there when it was that warm. The stink bugs and wasps were out in big #'s and we had to open all the windows and the front door just so we could have the fire going and not be sweating. We got there on Thursday night and fortunately a little bit of a front rolled in and we had some decent weather in terms of wind and cloud cover. The first day we hunted # 4 and managed to get a handfull of mallards to do it right and Huston "HairyHead" Green laid the smack down on at least 3 mergansers. We were all pretty hungry for blood since it was early in the season, and there were a handfull of very effective water swats dolled out. The next day we moved to # 2 and put out a big spread. We hunted all day with a steady wind at our back and ended up killing 8 greenheads and one handsome drake gadwall. We all thought the hunting was going to stink because it has been so warm, so we were pretty psyched about the final tally.

Big Red

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 02:29:00 +0000

Was down in New Orleans for a conference in October and stuck around afterwords to do some red fishing. I fished with Christian Yergens from Shallow Water Expeditions. The first day was one of the best days of fishing I have ever had. The conditions were perfect and the fish were cooperating. I am itching to get back down there and give them a go.

Christmas Eve River Swat

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 02:13:00 +0000

On Christmas Eve I ran down to the James River with the Gar Hole crew. The King brothers and I hunted one hole and Scotty, Martin, and Will ran further up river. At first light we had two mallards work the spread but it was super dark and as soon as they dropped below the horizon we lost them. About 20 min later we had two black ducks that only gave us one pass before they sucked into our laps. One of them literally landed at my feet and unfortunately almost got ripped in half. Should have waited on the shot a bit longer. While Stu was in the boat picking up our ducks another black duck showed up, and to Carrington and I's surprise got in the elevator and dropped right in. We had one more green head do it just right before things shut down, and Chester had an impressive retrieve in fast water. The river was charging and we all thought it was going to be super slow so we were pumped about our morning. The group upriver ended up having a good morning too.

Opening Day of Duck Season 11-12

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:16:00 +0000

Taylor and I headed down to the duck marsh for opening day. We had pretty much everything going against us as far as the conditions were concerned. We had wind out of the south (sets up crappy for most of our blinds), falling tide, full moon, and a balmy 55 degrees. Despite the lousy conditions we managed to scrape out 5 ducks including a canvasback, which was a first for Taylor and I at our marsh. About 20 minutes after shooting time, we had a group of what we thought was about 7 ringnecks dump into the decoys and we killed 3. The last duck Dex brought us out of the three was the canvas back. Next we had a lone ringneck sneak up on us and then we had a pair of wary mallards work us and we reached out and touched the greenhead. Taylor brought Cash who started off a little shaky but ended up settling in nicely after watching Dex go and do his thing.

The Mighty Shenadoah

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:41:00 +0000

Time to play catch up. It has been way too long.

This summer Taylor and I went fishing with our buddy George Cox on the Shendoah. The flow was good and we did not catch that many fish but we caught a handful of really nice fish. All the big fish we caught were large mouth which is kind of crazy for river fishing in VA.

Notice we are pimping lots of cool gear from our friend Mase Dog's company Howler Bros. Check them out they have lot of great products for those of you that like to be outdoors.

Spring Gobblers in South Cakalacky

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:57:00 +0000

Blogger has a new format that I am trying to figure out so please bare with me. I need to get this whole new layout worked out. It has been a while but I am back with a bang.

Here are two pretty incredible hunts from last spring. Will James from The GarHole was generous enough to help us with editing the video footage we sent him and putting together these clips. Will has a really impressive blog, along with some other buddies of mine, that gets updated much more frequently than this one. Be sure to check them out. You can subscribe to their blog on the right hand side just below the goose if you click on the hyper link above.

This was the first hunt on the first morning of a three day turkey hunting marathon. I drove down on Thursday evening from Richmond to meet Ragsdale and Huston at Ragsdale's family plantation near Georgetown, SC. I got there about 12:30 AM and Rags and Hus got in from Atlanta at about 2 AM. We got up after a couple hours sleep and Rags took us over to a spot they call the 700 acres. We set up near where Rags had seen a big bird go to roost the week before. Right after we sat down Rags let out an owl hoot, and we heard two birds gobble off the roost way off to our left. We sat tight for about 15 minutes and listened to the birds gobble a couple more times before Rags decided he knew exactly where the birds were, and where they were headed. We jumped up and literally sprinted through the woods to be sure we got to the spot before they did. This video starts pretty much right as we sat down. It only took about 15 minutes for these two gobblers to come in and they were talking the whole way. We have it condensed here down to two minutes. I won't name names, but I think the camera man had a little accident in his pants, when I pulled the trigger. I think he was expecting me to let this bird hang out for a while, but I had an itchy trigger finger because I was in the middle of a multiple year slump without dropping a bird. Fortunately for me and Rags the cameraman did not document the excessive man hugging that took place after the shot. Notice also I let that other long beard go so we could chase him another day. I would like to pretend I let that bird go because I am a true sportsman, but it is really because I was fully aware of the beat down I would have received.

Click on the bottom right hand corner of the video to expand to full screen.

After the first hunt we ran to the store, grabbed some breakfast, and got right back in the woods. This time I was on the camera and Huston was the gunner, while Rags called them in. The video pretty much tells the story, but the jist of it was that Huston's gun misfired twice and I could not stand to wait for a third click. Fortunately it was really windy out and we had good cover so the birds did not spook at either misfire and they did not see me reach for my gun. This hunt took a bit longer, we sat for a good while and I was settling in for a nice mid morning nap when the first bird gobbled behind us. It took about 30 minutes, which seemed like forever at the time for these birds to come around the corner and work into range. Fortunately, Will cut the footage down so the video below gets right into the action.

Huston and I are glad this concludes all the action that was caught on film. We came out of the gates hot but the turkey's ended up getting the better of us for the rest of the weekend. We had a great time, and I would like to give special thanks to Thomas, Smith, and Charles Ragsdale for creating such awesome turkey habitat and sharing it with Huston and I.

Last Hunt of the Season

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:34:00 +0000

Oakey and I wrapped up the season with a bang. We got to the marsh on Friday afternoon with only about an hour and a half to hunt and #1 creek which is right out in front of our shack was totally jammed with geese that were trying to stay out of the wind. I have seen them sit in the mouth of this creed a bunch but never pile in all the way up in the marsh like they were this time. We decided to hunt double ought which is the oldest blind in the marsh and named that because my grandfather once dropped a deer with double ought buck shot from the same blind. This was the first time we hunted this blind all season and we were not sorry. We quickly killed our limit of geese and swatted 3 wood ducks which was a total surprise. We usually only see woodies in the first part of the season. I sky busted one goose but everything else had its feet down. The next morning we hunted #4 and it was pretty much the same story. We had a group of about 4o geese do it just right and we dropped our limit out of that one group. We ended up scraping out 4 mallards and probably could have dropped a couple more if we were on our game at first light but I think we were both over served the night before and not firing on all cylinders at first light.

Dex did great as usual but he let one cripple get away that he definitely would have caught up to two years ago. The old man is starting to slow down a little bit but is still no softy as you can tell by the ice in his coat. He still has the fire in his belly

2nd to last hunt of 2010/2011 season

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 18:55:00 +0000

Bob, Dad, Taylor, and I all headed down to the marsh for the second to last weekend of the season. I was pretty psyched because it looked like the weather was going to cooperate. They were calling for 10-15 mph winds out of the west and the temperature was suppose to dip down in the twenties. The last time Bob came down it was bluebird and we only killed 1 goose and 1 scaup, so I was hoping we could show him a better hunt. Unfortunately the weather only cooperated partially. It got cold but as you can tell in the sunrise pic below it was dead still until about 1:30 in the afternoon. We also had a low ceiling which was nice but the wind would have helped a ton with the ducks. Dad and Taylor hunted the point blind and limited out on geese almost immediately. They had a big group do it just right and 3 birds did back flips, and then they filled their limit on a single. It took Bob and I hunted #4 and it took us a little longer but we had our limit of geese by about 9:30 and we snuck in one green head which was nice because he did it just right. We saw a bunch of ducks fly early but they did not even give us a look. The water was like a mirror and our dekes looked ridiculous. The whole crew left me after the morning hunt and I had to call in the reserves to hunt with me in the afternoon. Mase, Duncan, and Merrick joined me for an afternoon hunt and the wind finally showed up and the tide got full. We killed 4 more geese and 3 greenheads. All the ducks we killed and one of the geese decoyed perfectly. We had one green head drop straight down from at least a hundred yards up with his wing tips almost touching. All in all it was a good day I just wish that wind had showed up sooner. As is becoming pretty standard this season we all could have killed 10 geese per gun in the morning. They are every where.

Cash came down for his first trip to the marsh to get a lesson in Duck Doggin from Dex.

We had a beautiful sunrise those ripples are wake from our john boat. We had absolutely no wind

La Paloma Sola

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:44:00 +0000

Over new years we went to visit our family in Texas. We have been down to Austin a bunch of times now, but this was my first trip to the ranch in South Texas. The name of the ranch is La Paloma Sola(Lonesome Dove) and it is about 3,000 acres of white tail heaven about 3 hours south of San Antonio. Although I have been deer hunting a handful of times in my life I have never actually killed one, and my brother in law John is literally a pro so I was super excited to learn what it was all about. We got their pretty late on Thursday so we just had an evening cocktail cruise while spreading corn around the main loop. I was completely blown away. These deer were all substantially bigger then any other white tail I had ever seen in real life. I think this place is where Field and Stream comes to get those cover shots that I always assumed were fake. The next morning we hunted a blind they call pin wheel. There was heavy fog at first light but as soon as the fog lifted there were at least 20 deer within range. About 6-7 of those were all really impressive bucks. They were impressive to me anyway but I think most of them were pretty run of the mill for the ranch. Anyway the morning was action packed we saw two 10 point bucks fight until one got its butt whipped and took off. We also had a young (2.5 year old) 10 point walk right in front of the blind. I got some really cool video that I hope to post soon.

John explained that my first deer should be a doe so we waited for the action to slow down a little bit and then he picked a nice size doe that he wanted me to shoot. Fortunately despite my shaking I dropped it like a sack of potatoes which was kind of surprising. I just assumed it would run a little bit. That afternoon John and I went over to another part of the ranch where John had seen some cull bucks(4-5 year old dear with what Texans consider unimpressive antlers). The idea is that you get these guys out of the breeding population and leave the bigger deer to enhance the gene pool. That same afternoon we hunted a blind called W7 and there was a lot of action but John did not see the deer he wanted me to kill. I must admit that I was feeling pretty trigger happy and it was hard to lay off the handful of really nice deer that we saw. The next morning we went back to the same spot and to my relief one of the deer John wanted to take out of the population showed himself. Despite the fact this deer was only an 8 point(but with several tines broken off from fighting) he looked like a bruiser to me and had a much bigger body on him than a lot of the younger deer we saw with massive racks. He also was covered with scars from fighting and had a really pronounced dark red forehead. Here are some pics

This is Bob trying to help John get rid of his hiccups. We were all pretty well lubed up at this point. I think there is video of this as well.

This deer let us get pretty close in the truck and Bob got some great pictures.

This is a gang of 5 long beards all running away from us. We saw a gang of about 50 birds in another field and of course did not have the camera with us. We will have to go visit in spring sometime soon.

This is the whole crew

This shows most of the buildings on the ranch. We stayed in the white buildings off to the right.

The first night we got there we had an incredible sunset and Bob got these amazing pictures.

More from La Paloma Sola coming soon as soon as I can get my video editing software working again.

"I DON'T WANT NO GOOSE"

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 17:04:00 +0000

My Uncle Kelly and I got down the marsh just before all the snow showed up and did some damage despite the fact that we had absolutely no wind. Kelly killed a goose the afternoon before I got there and the next morning we limited out on geese and killed 3 gadwall, 3 mallards, and another drake pintail. None of the ducks decoyed just right because our spread looked pretty fishy after some junks of skim ice tangled up a bunch of our decoys and the tide took a couple away. Also Kelly stoned a goose at about 50 yards right above us that landed directly on my new robo d and smashed it. We got em to come in and take a good look though which ended up being good enough. For the most part we shot straight and Dex did a great job on a couple tough retrieves. We had one mallard sail on us and land on the other sided of the river and swim up in the marsh. Towards the end of the day we took Dex over to the other side to let him hunt the shore line even though we did not think there was much of a chance of finding the bird, but Dex found it within a couple minutes. All in all a good day in what is turning out to be a pretty solid season down at The Marsh.

I stopped at the Rayzway on my way home and one of the ladies behind the counter asked me if I had any ducks I could share with her. I quickly offered one of the 4 geese I had in the truck, and she looked at me like I had just offered her a fresh dog turd and exclaimed "I DONT WANT NO GOOSE!!!" :)

"Cash" Arrives

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:48:00 +0000

Yesterday Sarah and I drove down to south west VA with Taylor to pick up his puppy "Cash". These folks have some really good looking dogs and Taylor got the pick of the litter. He is a male with a black nose just like his daddy "Beau Brooks". "Brooks" is one of the best looking yellow labs I have ever seen. Here are some pics.

Sarah with one of Cash's cute little sisters. It was tough for us to get out of there with just one puppy, but cooler heads prevailed.

That's Cash on the far right catching a nap with two of his sisters.

Cash with his new Dad

Cash up close

This is Beau Brooks showing off in his pen. He looks to be about 80-85 lbs and handsome.

Brooks just hanging tight

He is a beef cake for sure

"I like DAT DUCK"

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:03:00 +0000

My brother Taylor and I had a pretty good swat yesterday morning. It is amazing how much difference a good cold front and a little breeze makes. We hunted two weeks ago on opening day and it was 60 degrees and dead still. We scraped out 1 goose and 1 ring neck but it was pretty slow. Yesterday we had a great mixed bag with 2 pintails, 2 mallards, 1 ring neck, 1 teale, and 3 geese. Here are some pics

My dad stole my chest waders and left them in the back of his car which is in the richmond airport parking lot so I borrowed his hip boots and ended up filling them which sucked!

Taylor with his new hunting dog

The first bull Pintail I ever remember killing down at our marsh. He did it just right with his girlfriend. Taylor and I both shot him in the face and then Taylor got sloppy and shot the lady in the ass

Me and Dex. Dex did a great job yesterday and he is still passed out. The old man is slowing down a bit unfortunately

Taylor and Dex in front of the blind

Our birds hung up at the cabin

New River Part Deux

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:22:00 +0000

Taylor, Mase and I went and did an overnight on The New the last weekend in July and despite the fact that it dumped on us for a solid 6 hours on Saturday we had a great trip. We did not catch a ton of fish but we caught a handful of really nice fish each day. I personally had been on a record setting dink streak so it was exciting to catch some good fish. We also caught every single one of these fish on the surface with big white popping bugs. Most of the fish except for Taylor's monster ate in real slow water near the banks and the takes were super slow and subtle just like a big ole trout.

This was the biggest fish of the trip. A solid 19" measured on the cooler. It ate in fast water and put up a hell of a fight. Taylor did a hell of a job just to land this fish. About 45 minutes after this fish I had a bigger one slurp my popping bug charge me, jump out of the water so we could see him, and spit it right back in the boat. He still haunts my dreams

Hard to see how fat this fish is but he is a hoss.

Honeymoon

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 01:44:00 +0000

We went down to Belize for our honeymoon and it was incredible. I have not done a ton of saltwater flyfishing, but I have fished The Keys, Mexico, and the Bahamas on several occasions. It is safe to say that Belize is now at the top of my list. Belize hosts more Grand Slams (Permit, Tarpon, and Bonefish) then any other country in the world, and after fishing here it is easy to see why. Our first morning we spent in the mangroves fishing for Tarpon and Snook, then when the sun came out we ran out to the bonefish flats and caught bonefish till the tide got right to chase Mr. P. That same day I caught a Tarpon(dink), Bonefish, Snook, and Barracuda all on the fly. My wife also landed 4 bonefish on her very first saltwater fly fishing expedition. We owe much of our success to Captain Eworth Garbut, who is the best guide I have ever fished with. Typically I end the day chomping at the bit and wishing we could stay out for a couple more hours but Eworth (pronounced Euort) had me begging for mercy at the end of both days. His passion for fishing, knowledge of the area, and ability to get the most out of his anglers with the perfect balance of optimism/encouragement and criticism/instruction are unparalleled. We can't wait to go back!!

Go Fish with Eworth and his Brothers!! also we stayed at Turtle Inn

New River Madness

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:41:00 +0000

For my bachelor party 10 of us headed west to do an overnight on the New River. We had an amazing time and while the fishing wasn't exactly red hot we ate and drank well and the scenery was spectacular. We also managed to catch a couple nice fish. Including probably the biggest fresh water fish any of us will ever see in real life again.

Dinner

My buddy Mcnair landed this 44 inch 24.6lb tiger muskie on a 5wt fly rod with 2x(9lb) tippet. It took him almost 30 minutes to land it and almost as long for us to revive it. The outfitter we were fishing with who has been guiding on this river for 28 years says there is no doubt in his mind that this fish was the largest muskie ever landed on such light tackle.

Last Two Weeks of the Season

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:46:00 +0000

We like to start em young in the commonwealth

2nd hunt back in VA

Last day of the season we hunted in a full on blizzard. I saw two accidents on the way to the duck hole

This pic does not doe it justice but Dex was completely coated in ice

My buddy Troy who hosted this mission with Dex and a lot of Green

Last Trip Out West and Virginia Come Back

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:50:00 +0000

Captain commander pooty tang with Boudreaux and Dex (behind him). This pic is from our first hunt in town. We killed our limit in about 2 hours. 13 wigeon and one green head.

Poot and I had an unreal hunt on our 3rd day. We set up in a new spot with a strong wind from right to left. When we first set up it was clear and sunny which is great for this section of river. It was slow for the first 45 minutes until we had a group of 40 mallards do it perfectly. 3 greenheads dropped in from about 200 yds up like they were coming down an elevator shaft. We let the 3 land and the rest of the group took one more pass and came in about the same time that the 3 green heads on the water spooked. Poot and I killed 5 out of the group. One of which was the double banded bird below with a $100 money band. It ended up getting really foggy which we thought would be a deal killer but we started calling alot to help the birds find us in the fog and it only took us about another hour to fill our limit of mallards.

This picture is from the boat ramp on the way out after hour last hunt of the trip. It was 33 and rainy with a 15mph wind all day. Unfortunately the hunting was good enough for us to fill our limit but it took us all day and we were soaked to the bone and miserable by the time we got out of there.
This pic is from my first duck hunt back in Virginia. My buddy invited me to a beaver swamp he has access to about 45 min from Charlottesville. We shot a green head that sailed into the woods beyond the swamp and we assumed it was lost, but at the end of the hunt I walked over to where I thought the bird went down and sent Dex on it and to all of our surprise he found it.

Oakey and I went down to the Marsh two weeks ago on a Thursday evening and the next morning we killed 10 mallards/blacks in about an hour and a half which is the best hunt I have ever had down at our marsh. The whole river was frozen up except for a chunk of open water in the middle of our marsh. We walked to the hole and tossed out a handfull of dekes and the birds worked perfectly. We ended up hunting the river in the afternoon as the ice moved out with the tide and killed 2 more ducks to fill our limit and 3 geese just one shy of a limit. This one is permantently burned in my mind. Pretty much everything was perfect. The ducks worked perfectly, we shot straight, and Dex was absolutely perfect. Without him we would not have been able to get to or find any of our ducks.
Dex was so tired he fell asleep in the fire. :)

Dex helping dad drive.

Dad and Taylor joined Oakey and I on Friday evening and on Saturday the ice made the hunting a lot tougher but we ended up scratching out 4 ducks in 4 shots. Taylor folded a black duck at shooting time followed up by a triple by Oakey later in the day.

Yesterday the King brothers treated us to a great goose hunt out at their place. Thanks Guys!!

Andrick, BVF, and Wyoming

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:39:00 +0000

We snuck up to Wyoming when that last cold front came through after Thanksgiving hoping that the weather would push some new birds down to the river but it was pretty slow. We hunted all day the first day and killed 9 mallards and two geese which we were pretty happy about but most of the action came in the last 30 minutes of the day and it was brutally cold. It was right at O when we set up and never got above 16. As you can see in the video I think the cold temps made two of my buddies delirious.

The Dirt Pig

It was real cold

Killed this beautiful drake green wing teal on Thanksgiving morning out at Andrick ponds. It was bluebird and we managed to scrape out 5 birds which we were happy about. I think this place will be great later in the season.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we ended up having an awesome hunt out at BVF. We killed a limit of geese and 11 ducks. I shot poorly but fortunately Grassman and Whit were there to pick up the slack and Dex did a great job except for breaking on the first group of geese that came in. I think this hunt ranked right up there with the best since I moved out here. I am very grateful that Matt Grassman, John Gable, John Moritz, and Mr. Culver have been so generous in sharing this special place with me. My water fowling experience in Colorado would have been pretty pathetic if it were not for Boulder Valley Farm.

Big Ole Goose

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:47:00 +0000

Grassman and I had a solid hunt at BVF on Sunday. Killed a hand full of ring necks, a monster goose, and a couple handsome bull chuckle heads. Once again the wind did not really cooperate but it worked out pretty well none the less. There are a bunch of geese using the farm and the plan is to set up for them next week, so hopefully we will have a good report.Dex retrieving a green brain with flatirons in the background.
A little flavor saver on his mug after the retrieve.
Got a goose that sailed on me and Dex made a ridiculously long retrieve. This bird landed over the embankment in the picture, and Dex had to hunt for a spot in the fence that was big enough for him and this huge honker to squeeze through.

Just Pictrues Wyoming, North Dakota, and Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:58:00 +0000

High five to the first person that identifies all the species in this pic correctly in the comments below.

These 3 are from a buddy of mine in North Dakota but some of the pics are from Canada. RIDICULOUS!!!!!

Barney Ford Hunt 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:07:00 +0000

We had another great hunt this year for the group that generously contributed to the Barney Ford diversity scholarship at the Leeds School. Thanks to Donal Culver, Matt Grassman, and John Gable of Boulder Valley Farm for making this hunt possible two years in a row.

Everything went smoothly besides Matt and I getting stuck in the mud when we were scouting the day before. Everybody shot straight and we killed 8 different species of ducks.

Bling Bling

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:51:00 +0000

Second week in a row with a banded bird. This bird was banded in Saskatchewan in 2004 and the one from last week was banded somewhere in Colorado in 2008. The certificates will not show up for a couple weeks.

This was definitely the coolest duck hunt I have had in Colorado thus far. Sarah and I scouted this spot the night before we hunted and we barely saw any ducks. We picked a spot on an island that had plenty of cover and some slack water and decided to book it because it was getting dark and a big front was rolling in from the north. To make a long story short the wind picked up by about 15 mph and the temp dropped from about 50 to about 25 in less than an hour. I also proceeded to get us lost in the dark and soaking wet. Fortunately Sarah has not called off the wedding yet.

Over the course of the night about 2 inches of snow fell and temperatures dropped down to 17 degrees. As we walked in we hoped that the cold front would bring a bunch of new ducks down and we were not disappointed. After a pretty major decoy adjustment at about 8:00 mallards just started dumping into our spread. We had a big group commit and dropped 3 green brains right in front of us and then I got one that sailed into the woods and thick brush on the opposite side of the river. We sent Dex on the 3 birds in the current before they were swept out of reach. The next 30 minutes were ridiculous because every time we were about to get settled and send Dex after the bird in the brush new ducks were showing up and dumping into our spread. 4 more greenheads died before I got a chance to send Dex over to the other bank. I was worried that we might have lost the bird because the cover was really thick and the duck looked like it might have had a little life in it when it went down. Dex made me sweat it out for about 5 minutes as he charged around with no results but then he came trotting out of the woods with a big ole bull chuckle head jewelry and all.

Opening Day O9

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:16:00 +0000

Dex standing proud. He made a couple really long retrieves on cripples.

Banded Gadwall. What a way to start the season. Will post info when it comes in.

Blue bird day until around 10:30 and the wind showed up finally.

Part of our spread. We had 11 dozen dekes and 3 robos rockin.

I can't remember a hunt with such a diverse bag. We killed 2 drake red heads, 2 drake mallards, 5 widgeon, 2 greenwing teal, 1 bluewing teal, 1 pintail, and 9 gadwall. We hunted till 2:30 in the afternoon so it was by no means hot and heavy but a solid day. A lot less work was involved this year thanks to Chris McReynolds and his drift boat. In my experience opening day is always a comedy of errors but this year things went pretty smooth. There was some minor hiccups with the motor on friday, the snail inspection by DOW, and the fact that Winchester and I both forgot our calls. Fortunately for the ducks we remembered our calls on Sunday and scared everything away before it could get in shooting distance.

Bucket Face and Fat Daddy part deux

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:02:00 +0000

Another Thug from the Colorado River

Average Fish At the driving club

gotta love top water action

Diddy needs to learn how to show off a fish

Both of these places are aquariums.

Worst Blogger Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:48:00 +0000

I am officially the worst blogger ever and to top it off I shaved my mustache which crushes the credibility of this blog. My main excuse is that I have been working non-stop on CW.com and as a result I have not been doing as much cool stuff to talk about. (this is kind of BS) So in my attempt to record a personal journal I am going to dump as much info here about the last 4 months before I forget it all.

Music

Ryan Bingham - Sarah, Sheats, and I all went and saw him play in Denver at this little hole in the wall bar and it was incredible. I highly recommend his new album Road House Sun.

Chatauqua - Sarah and I saw Neko Case and Lucinda Williams here and both shows were solid, but I would have to give Neko the upper hand. Lucinda is getting old but still rocks

Telluride Bluegrass Festival - I hope to make this a tradition. I could write all day about how cool this was. Ran into a bunch of old friends and some long lost cousins plus we saw Emmy Lou Harris in a shop downtown which made Sarah's year

Fishing

Had a great couple of days up on the Northe Platte in Wyoming pre-run off. All deep nymph rigs but all nice fish. The wind up there is the worst I have ever experienced.

Go to go back to the Lazy 7 with Morgan, Blair and Crabtree and this time we brought the ladies and go to stay in the new ranch house which was awesome. Maybe a little too awesome as we were all so comfortable we did not fish quite as hard. Still caught a ton of nice fish on streamers despite the fact that the water was a little off. I caught another super thug but Blair is a slacker and has not sent me the pics/video yet. Here are some pics of a pig blair caught and Sarah caught a bunch of nice fish too.

Couple weeks later Chris and Travis and I lowered Travis's boat over a cliff into the Blue River Canyon and had an epic day of catching really nice fish almost exclusively on dry flies. We did not catch any monsters but a bunch of nice fish. Actually got to the point where I was sick of catching fish

Travis and his friend Ben make unbelievable fishing movies. Check them out at http://feltsoulmedia.com/main.html

Just recently we slayed some nice king salmon up in Leland with our buddy captain Bill Crandell of http://cworthy.wordpress.com/

I am sure I left something out time to get back to work!!!!!!