Far Beyond Driven

Early season is 5. Regular season is 2. Managed areas are 2, I think. Some may be one, but I think all are 2 now. Late season is 5. Todd Farm being a managed bit the limit is 2 each. It used to be one - one day I wasn't even done setting my decoys and had a loner come in, stuffed a round in the chamber and dropped him - was back in the HQ within 20 minutes of shooting hours starting.

Hit the Todd Farm, my hunting place of last resort, as I had one more vacation day to burn. Buddy with 4 hours comp time decided to join me. We set way too many decoys (like 300) and only had one three pack of geese work us, but 15 yards is 15 yards and none made it out. Nice day, the ducks flying at sunset were amazing.....

Now I'm going to have to go out - can't let you end your season after I do. My latest trip is 12/31 and my earliest is 2/19 - maybe we can get January this year? Good job.

Steelies were in about 6-8' on the second sand bar, went out to about 12-15' on the trip back north and that's where we found the lakers. Mac was 41 degrees, should have some time before the ice kicks in.

Will make it worth more when they win, and build some character in the process. My buddy spent years on the Pro Rally series, ending with a Lancer IV putting over 400 Hp to the ground. When it was done, he told me "coke and whores would have been cheaper and safer for me". I can't wait to hear the stories of your kids scaring the crap out of their driver's ed instructors.

I need two red ones for sure, but to make it worth the time 3 reds and one green would be nice.....

Hit a private field Friday morning quickly before my buddy had to get to work. Shot 4 times and killed 4 mallards, 2 each, and then bailed with birds working to let the field rest for today, when there would be better weather and we could stay longer. This morning nothing early, and then the ducks started bombing the spread. I decided to shoot the 20 pump and told my friend that we'd have a bunch of 40-50 yard shots and he would be busy backing me up. First flock I dumped two drakes DOA at 25 yards - sweet - my first double of the year and it's with my old school Mossy 20. A goose did come in right at 40 yards straight up after that. He hit it, so I tried (shooting back up with a 20!) and then he dumped it clean. Left a huge crater in the field. We dropped two more ducks, then the geese really started moving, and shunning us, again. Finally had a group look hard and broke 4 off, got them feet dragging on the ground at 15 yards. I love having big geese fooled and just waiting to throw the blind open on them. Ducks are cool, but they seem to come easier, so they are not as special for me. Throw open the blind and miss, @#$@#, don't get too many late season chances on close geese especially with the little pop gun. Pull up on a different bird and rocked him clean, then missed again. See 2 on the ground so my buddy is done on geese. Had another flock of mallards come in, I got one, then he hit one that sailed and I managed to drop it clean at 50 yards. So I can't hit ducks at my feet, can't hit geese at my feet, but can stone a sailing duck. Interesting. Truck was not making it back through the now slimy and covering everything clay, and not wanting to sit for one maybe goose, we started hiking out through the gumbo, only to watch ducks work the spread and two geese glide right over. Oh well.....

2/5 out of Holland this afternoon. Trolled for about half an hour, missing a steelie, until Wild at Heart was kind enough to bugger out of work and get to the end of the pier to join me. He picked up where I left off by losing another steelie, then I lost something that pulled back a 1 color for a little bit, but didn't pull the board back very hard. After that we ended up catching two really nice ~ 10 pound lakers, both on a J-11 orange rapala at 3.0 mph SOG. Weird. Nice day, 2-3' dying rollers and very pleasant until the sun went down. Also, no line at the launch......

Will you split up the yellow birds? I seem to keep losing ones from the port side.....

Had a WSP all to myself last night. One of these days I'm going to slow troll the river with the heater on fro walleye instead of freezing my nads on the pier. Started on the upwind side of the pier with one possible hit; got sick of looking into the wind and moved to the lee side. No one warned me whitefish will fight. After many bumps / rocks / logs / corpses I had a hit and then whatever it was took off like a bat out of hell and I never turned that one. Didn't land that one, but I did the next 4, one going back due to being hooked amid ships. The other three were all hooked in the face. With 13# of fish in the bag, I decided enough was enough and headed home to thaw.

Went past the launch at M-89 and saw 9 rigs parked in the lot, kept right on going to another spot. Really need some cold weather to get the river cleared out - had six trips in a row last year without seeing another boat. I'll be back when I need to hack the launch open with a pick axe.

I'm kind of a cat person myself - no time to care for a dog more less train one.

Quick trip on the 'zoo yesterday afternoon, only got to work three spots, but chugged up a 6# brown that fought like a 10" small mouth, and a 9# steelie that fought like a 22# king. Had 6 lines outand he found all but one of them, a log jam, and even was in front of the boat for a while. Both released unharmed, although I thought about taking the devil fish out of the gene pool.

Finally got to a field we hold until the end of the year, letting the ducks build up on the ponds around it. Sometimes this leads to monster hunts, sometimes it bites us. Today it worked, other than all the geese showing up at once. While having 100 birds milling around the field is pretty cool, we didn't shoot as we didn't want to burn them all, and let them slide to a pond about 1/2 a mile away. Ended up with a two man limit of all drake mallards, and one goose from a later group that sort of worked. Had three geese come in over the trees right on the deck fully set up, but of course we were all out looking for a triple of mallards we dropped out of the last flock. Doh. Got some time off next week, hope to get one more crack at this field.

You're killing me - I pulled the big boat last week and it's been too heavy for the 14' every time I have a chance. Fished the pier in Holland last night for two hours and caught a trophy Zebra mussel. Last time we were in tight and the water was stained, it seemed they wanted thin fish more than rapalas and spoons.

Hit a small pond buried in a corn field that hadn't been hunted all year. Good news - ducks pop in before they can see you. Bad news - ducks are right there before you can see them. Left with 2 drakes and a hen and could have shot 20 some odd more hens, half of which landed in the decoys without circling. Headed up north and took the scull boat out - got a red head and a buffy. Could have filled my limit with another red head, but they were all hens and I didn't need to kill more hens than I already had. Lots of work but a fun day.

Is this close enough to shore? Went 7/9 this day, limit of browns and a laker, and all but one of the hits was on the shore side of the boat.

Spinnies and flies didn't do much this year, other than a few kings on a 10" double white glow spinny with a purple mirage fly 40" behind it looking for lakers on a wire diver in the bottom 5'. Plugs: the red back gold side thin fish took over 30 coho and steelies this year. Green back silver nailer plug was great in August. Stick baits in the channel took over 30 fish this year too. Spoons: mag moonshine bloody nose and atomic melon, from late July up until the zombie fish were all through the channel. 150' down on a rigger in July, 25' back on a diver in September. Blue dolphin DW standard in April and May up high on a rigger....

Went up solo today and picked a sleeper zone after the main draw. Had to work fast to get set up at hours, but it was worth it. For giggles I brought the old 20 pump with 2 3/4" 2 steel and an open choke. Shot 4 mallards, a black, and a goose. Missed a goose as well - came in over the shoulder. All shots but one at less than 20 yards, shot the goose at 12 paces and one of the mallards at 7. Needless to say they are not very photogenic but I didn't have to do much chasing after the shots.

Two man limit of mallards, bonus drake pintail, and a pair of geese this morning. Should have had a two man limit of geese but the last flock that came in came while the wind was down and landed on the other side of the decoys behind and off to the side. Longest shot of the day was maybe 25 yards. Several times right after hours started we had birds walking between us and the spinnies, and they've got 30' of cable to them. Before we could pick out drakes we probably landed 100 ducks, landed at least a dozen more after we were limited on mallards.

8 years / 1000+ hours on Big Papa bags. Would buy again in a second.

I ran small ones this year 24-26" behind the dodgers. Somedays they liked this, somedays they liked flies, and every day they liked a 10" white spinny with a purple mirage fly 36" behind it. Cranking up a 22" laker, if you know it's there, on a 2# ball 300' back SUCKS!

I was up over 80% until a 6 for 16 on steelies, a 3 for 11 on mature kings, and a 4 for 11 in the WMFL. Think I ended up closer to 70% for the year. I never had the monster king trips you did, other than the harbor trips.

4 greenheads and a black last time up, went up north and got my geese after that. Corn is down; just need a front to move in more ducks.

Good year, not done yet. 195/273, not bad considering my 4th trip out in the Four Winns was the the fourth of July weekend. I worked 34 days straight in May / June. 28 trips logged to date. We pretty much fished every chance we could and ended up fishing some really fun weather this year (B4K!). 12 browns. Only two good browns trips. After 40+ last year this was kind of sad. 85 coho. Had a week off in March with great weather, took the 14' out and limited 5 trips in a row. Only three matures around the piers this year, but there were 7.7 - 9.4#. 67 kings, including lots of 18-19, a couple 21's, a 23.5 and a 25.9#. We had twice this year quads on mature kings, both times in rough water with 3 people in the boat. 27 lakers, which I actually targetted on some trips this year. Andrea took a boat records 13.2# (I catch about 3 a year most years) 160' down on a rigger. 29 steelies. Had a couple good trips targeting them in the surf in the spring and even last week. And two walleye we stumbled into salmon fishing, 9.4 and 10.4#. Hoping to push that up to about 225 or so before we get iced in.