I've been depressed for a while now. I started stripping stuff off my duck boat today. It was sad. I'm going to redo some things on my blind and I want to get my grass mats I have on it put up for the year if I can get them dry enough. I think I'm going to weld a set of pods on my boat to. I've also been working on rigging up some more decoys today. My plan is to have about 200 mallards rigged up on texas rigs. Going to work on rigging some divers next. I've got about 200 of them rigged up texas style but I want to be able to long line some next year. I didn't like the way I did it this year. Picked up a marsh style layout boat about two weeks ago for a good deal and now my son wants one. Lots of stuff to do. 173 days till sept 1st!
Yep... 172 days to go... unless i get lucky and score a snow goose hunt on the eastern shore... We have a decoy cleaning get together scheduled for may 2nd.... grilling... beer... bonfire... maybe some boat work.. decoy painting... good stuff. Need to start figuring out what trips i'm going to make next year. TX is a gimmie... Would love to swing by your way for a few days and wack some ducks on our way to TX and maybe you could join us in TX.
I got out of the car today and heard a goose in the work pond... what a let down. I got all excited then realized I'm walking into work... Have any of you painted any of your decoys? I have some geese that still float great but are ages old and look terrible. Also, I have been completely redesigning my toneboard on my calls. I sent some to a well known callmaker out east who had a bunch of tips, but in doing so, basically had to start from the ground up on my tone board. I'm so much happier with this design. This afternoon a buddy of mine is going to give them a run, then I'm gonig to send them to my callmaker buddy to see what he has to say. I'm sure there will be some adjustments to be made, but overall should be pretty positive. Here's my latest. It's a lava acrylic barrel, polished stainless band, smoke acrylic/lava insert and it's single reed.
That's a slick looking call! I want one in a double reed. You really cant paint decoys, might as well just give them to me when you send me that call! I'm kidding. I've painted lots of decoys. I really like to keep the black and white on my goose floaters bright. I also repaint my mallard heads darker, I don't like the way they come they always paint them to green. Go to the refuge and in the decoy section search for painting decoys. Lots of good tips and you'll see some sharp decoys painted with rattle can paints. Here is a link if you're not familiar with the refuge. Decoy Forum - Refuge Forums
Dinged up and dull decoys can make for a bad season... we have a nice little airbrush kit used for doing models and crap like that.
The one on the right is my new hybrid short reed goose call. The other one is a 100% acrylic short reed goose call that i got donated to our DU Dinner on march 28th. Thanks to Swamp Stud Nation!!
Came home last week to four doz Dakota Mallard floaters. My wife is good to me. I can't wait to use them now. Me and a buddy went crappie fishing this past Saturday. My usual Mallard killing whole was chalked full!
I picked up this final attack for a steal a couple weeks ago. Looking for another one for my son. This is a slick little boat, its like a field blind that floats. Has a transom on it for a small engine.
Guys I hunt with turned into ******s end of fall season so unfortunately I haven't and probably won't go this year...
that sucks... I wasn't able to make it out anywhere this year either. All good though, was able to wack big resident honkers into march.
Sure does so I'm going to start building a full body snow spread for next year and find new hunting buddies!
Ouch! That is some major cash setting up a full body snow goose spread. Those full body spreads look good but I think I'd still rather have a spread of windsocks because of ease of set up/take down and hauling to/from the field. Over the years I've added back supports, fiberglass stakes and mylar bags to some and I've also added a lot more headed decoys than some guys run.
With the other guys we were running ~1000 sillosocks. Worked just fine but I want something I can leave out for days on end sometimes and not have to worry about them getting ripped to shreds in sleet or wind. Using a four wheeler, I am pretty certain I can get around 5 dozen out at a time in seed bags so setting up and getting out might be even easier than socks. It all sounds good in my head but we'll see. I for sure want a spread for my flooded pasture each spring.
