chowder

2 does down w/ one arrow and the same Slick Trick broadhead (no, it was not a twofer). One Fri pm, then put on a heck of a goose hunt this morning and took another doe this afternoon. Jeez I'm whipped-it's tough getting old! -Andy

There's nothing wrong with Otters, I have a pair I use for winter fishing in my 165 Alumacraft but if you want a really awesome pair of boards check out the Auroralites regular size boards. For pulling copper ,core and multiple flat lines for browns these boards cannot be beat. They make the Otters look sick in comparison. http://www.auroralitestackle.com/planerboards.html Make sure you go down the page and look at the "regular original size boards".

Good to hear Captain Fletcher! I love my 16 but I did open my squeaky wallet and put some canvas on her this fall. Are you gonna trailer her around to Treman/TFalls or Watkins or is there some way to get her in from your place after the deep freeze sets in? -Andy

Scott, what are you cooking up in the 16' department? Looking forward to seeing you out with the rest of the 'ice patrol'. -Andy

Congrats to all! Surely an amazing day on the water. -Andy

7 does & a 4pt Sat am - skipped sat pm. Sun am 4 does. Sat pm 7 does and the 4 pt again.I did not carry- training junior. Had him draw & back off on 2 does at 35 yds to get the wobblies out of him. I want his first arrow at a deer to be 15-20 tops and that did not come together but he is totally pumped! -Andy

I'm up for a Hudson striper run next season & so is my boat. -Andy

You can run spoons just fine w/ a high quality swivel. When you retrieve to change out just make sure you apply some decent pressure to the line by running it thru your pressed together index and thumb starting as soon as you start sensing that there isn't much resistance on the line. If you get a kink then just untwist the kink right then and smooth out the kinked section by rubbing the copper section with the kink on something curved (I like to use a Bert's rod holder). If you follow this procedure and run your copper out on the big boards you should have relatively few problems with running copper. -Andy

I set up my son's arrows with the red Nockturnals. Make sure you get the correct ones for your arrows!

Most 2 1/2 yr old bucks that live within active ag settings will be thin to med diameter 8s w/ spreads of 12-16+ and they will have very significant body size & muscling. If this is a farm land buck I would bet it's only 2 1/2. -Andy

Kind of a slow day for us up in Earlville yesterday . Dropped a few Mallards and a few Wood Ducks on what was unfortunately a very warm morning.My buddy's 1st season retriever was pretty hilarious to watch getting her first duck so that was cool. Probably had a 1,000 geese or better all over us, so we're hoping for a strong 2cd season on them starting in a couple weeks! I saw 'Irish Knot's' pickup pulling out of D&D's while we were having breakfast. Do you live around here? -Andy

Now I'm wishing my little boat wasn't up getting her winter canvas job done. I could use a few buck$ towards the AP!

Thank you for delving into such detail in your report on the ichthyology field work & good for you for getting involved. Sturgeon sure are pretty cool! -Andy

I'll be back out there after waterfowl/turkey/bow season,etc winds down with my little 165 Alumacraft which will be sporting a new full canvas enclosure and a new Raymarine AP.Till then happy trails to all! -Andy

Med size lakers from the Fingers are very tasty IF they have been kept cold from start to finish. I smoke the larger lakers , and all L.O. lakers & they are awesome that way! There are several different strains of lakers and this does impact the flavor some but the biggest way to insure good eating is to gill and gut and ice promptly and to remove the mudline after filleting or pick up your blade a hair when doing the skin side so you leave the dark meat w/ the skin. -Andy

Sorry for your loss Ray. I know how you feel because we lost our awesome dog also named Riley last May 3rd. Here is what I wrote for our Riley to celebrate his life: A lament for Riley Riley has died and I buried him under the new,fresh grass of this morning, the third day of May. I buried him next to the old cow bones he so loved to paw through and roll in. All Riley asked of us in life was to be allowed to run carelessly across the street to smell deer at twilight and bark at the moon.

Get a couple Daiwa Excelers. I have multiple spools for these reels and use them for everything from river fishing to small mouths. The Excelers have an excellent drag and they have held up very well.

Way to go!

I'm 6'2" 220lbs & the eliminator just seemed too short but we'll do some revamping before ducks, next weekend it's turkey time anyway!

Didn't hit em quite as good today but still wound up with a nice bunch. We got a pair of the Final Approach Eliminator blinds on sale for $90 bucks last week and although they certainly made things much drier and more comfortable we need to do some work to get them right for us. Ours are 'Prairie' which will work nice w/ stalks once we get onto the corn pieces but for grass the way we rigged our burlap covers made it take to long to reset so our best flock wound up not committing. I need another one and I do want another light weight unit so I'm looking at the Avery Power Hunter. The Power Hunter looks like it has a better head cover for taller,bigger people which would be good for me. -Andy

Sorry to hear about the motor issues Ken. Good to hear you are back on the water! -Andy

Great pic!

It seems a bit hard for me to accept that we really need to divide the state into one set of regions for geese and another totally different set of regions for ducks.

Never shot this stuff before but wow, it's AWESOME! 2 man limit in 1 1/2 hours this morning.Took a while to find the last two but overall we found these loads in BB to shoot well out of these 'I-drive' auto loaders thru a a mod. choke for field geese.Getting the smoker ready now! -Andy