dawsonscreek

They are so gluttonous, I caught one in July that was STUFFED! Had 16 alewives in his stomach and still inhaled the jig!

Southern Steuben county. Finally had a fresh snow so I took the day off and headed to my lease. Started by tracking a spike buck burn bumped him, wouldn’t have shot him anyway. Later in the morning I filled a set of tracks that I knew was does/dawns. Caught up to them after a half mile or so just as I was about to take my gaiters off because hey were too noises and I saw one bedded down. Watched her for a while and then the three of them got up and walked right to me. Had her dead to rights at 25 yards but didn’t shoot, have one in the freezer already and wasn’t really thrilled about the 900 yard drag back to the truck. I won without pulling the trigger. Hunted my neighbors property for the evening and saw some really cool “2nd rut” activity. I was about 5 seconds from shooting a doe when a unicorn, a spike and a 4 pt showed up and chased her off. Those bucks chased small does and fawns around until after shooting time. I’ll be back in that blind tomorrow for sure just hopefully the does (or a nice buck) show up a bit sooner. I am so grateful for my neighbor allowing me to hunt his land!

Now that's some good surf and turf!!

My, now fiancé, and I wrapped up our annual Fall trip to Allegany State Park. One morning of the trip is always dedicated to a pheasant hunt. She likes to follow me around and take pictures while the dog works and I try not to disappoint him, so as someone who usually hunts alone, it's great to have some cool photos. The first bird was picture perfect, the dog got birdy and hit the brakes on a nice point! Just as I caught up to him the bird flushed, and I made a great shot. The second bird actually crossed the road behind us as I was standing by the car removing ticks. We made a plan and connected on the bird! It was a great weekend, the best time of the year is finally here!

Except for the salmon everything was jigged off bottom

Long and skinny. 23-24” if I remember right but super skinny. Nothing in the stomach, she had eggs that wee braking down inside her too and the flesh was pure white

I don’t like to keep the bigger fish but this one (also wild) took a spoon deep into the gills so He had to go in the cooler. I was amazed to find 16 sawbellies in his belly!

Thanks for steering me in the right direction. Was a nice morning out there. Got off the water by 10 to avoid the heat, caught 3 lakers and a salmon.

Thank you everbody!

Just wondering where the best area/launch on cayuga is with kayak access to lakers. I want to get out this weekend and was thinking of hitting Canadice since it is more friendly to kayaks, but I feel as though I have better odds of solid action on cayuga. I have a very stable 12’ sit on top kayak and electronics and am familiar with how to find/jig fish I just would like to not have to paddle incredibly far from a launch. Right now the wind forecast looks promising for a smooth lake. I’ll ditch the plan of it looks like it’s going to kick up. Honestly a good morning to me will be one for the cooler and a couple more to toss back and I’ll call it a day. If anybody has any info they’re willing to give up I appreciate it very much. Thanks!

I have yet to try these lakes on the ice, hope to get out this year. I fished canadice twice by kayak/canoe for the first time last year and only managed one laker each trip. Had plenty of chasers and lookers too on the graph, but indeed the fish seemed lazy. Tons of bait too! I just found this site, nice interactive maps of all the lakes and waterways... https://usa.fishermap.org/depth-map/canadice-lake-ny/

I have a brittany as well and am very familiar with that run around for an hour to burn energy thing He doesn't really find sheds unless he just happens onto one though.

Got out for a clusterf*** of a solo hunt today. Didn’t really plan on going but woke up early and couldn’t fall back to sleep. Was running behind a little already and got stuck behind a salt truck going 20 all the way down my hill, so it took me almost twice as long to get to the river. Start unloading the truck and realize I left my blind bag with all my ammo sitting in my garage….I did have some 2 3/4” steel 6’s in the truck but figured they would be less than ideal for big late season mallards. Back to the house, grab the bag, back to the river. Well after legal shooting at this point, flushed a bunch of birds from the spot on my way in. Tossed out the decoys and laid out the blind and tucked in. Quite a while went by without even seeing a bird, but around 8:30 a quick little flurry of action gave me my limit. Waited around for black ducks but all I saw were mallards.

Certainly is unfortunate, but what matters the most is that you made the effort to search. Unfortunately, losing ducks is part of the deal in waterfowl hunting.