PHEASANT FARMS TO DEVELOP YOUR BIRD DOG

We pulled into the parking lot. I could hear the gravel under the tires and the cackling of pheasants in the nearby pens. The noise of the gravel was quickly drowned out by the excitement of the 106-pound yellow lab, Gunner. He was anxiously anticipating a chance to stalk a rooster pheasant. The cold December air immediately hit my face as I stepped out of the warm Ford Expedition. My friend Jordan and I both reached for our heavy orange hunting coats on the back seat for the walk to the lodge door.

The freshly fallen snow was barely stomped off of my hunting boots when the aroma of freshly brewed coffee activated the olfactory senses. The proprietor of Lone Oak Pheasant Farm, Bill Oman, was feeding hickory into the wood stove. All of these stimuli were accented by the smell of pipe tobacco.  The lodge is a perfectly decorated cabin with multiple duck mounts, old duck decoys and seven monster bucks. We can’t forget the pheasant mount! As you enter, there is a beautifully finished long wooden table with every magazine you would want to read about shooting and hunting. Bill keeps a refrigerator by the front counter stocked with soft drinks, water bottles, and candy bars. The adjacent room is the sitting room with more mounts and living room furniture.   There always seems to be a least one small group of hunters drinking coffee and laughing at the ineptitude of their shooting prowess!

Bill has a list of safety rules posted at check-in. All hunters are required to wear hunter orange, and vests are available if needed. The owner also insists on the use of shooting or safety glasses. There are safety glasses available as well. Another point made on the list of safety rules is a shot size limit. No hunter is permitted to use shot larger than six shot. A sign reads that number four shot can travel two hundred yards.

We signed in and received our field assignment. After gathering our guns, ammo, and dog, we headed for the field. The fresh snow was the reason we called Lone Oak that day. New snow makes the birds hold their position which is better for pointing dogs. If we get a runner or a crippled pheasant, we can track it easily in the white powder. My pointing lab wasted no time working the field. He was back and forth on the prowl. No commands were necessary. He knew why we were there. He worked in front of us about 20 to 25 yards. His walk was more of a bounce with a quick trotting pace. He lifted his head and sniffed the air occasionally then back to the snow, head working side to side. Suddenly, his head jerked to the left, and his entire body fell in line! His tail went up, neck stretched out, and he froze like a statue!

“Point,” I yelled over to my companion.

I let him get into position. Gunner "held point" as I walked into the brush. A robust male pheasant erupted into the air with a cackle! One thunderous response from the smoothbore of my orange-clad hunting partner and Gunner made his first retrieve of the day.

We released eight birds that afternoon, shot 9 and had 11 flushes. Gunner worked the field magnificently. The birds held for him and yes he held point! He is a “pointing lab.” I am told that some labs have a genetic predisposition for pointing. I am not here to argue that point (no pun intended), but I know his father and grandfather do not point. I can tell you that as a ten-month-old pup, I took Gunner pheasant hunting with my friend’s English Setter. The setter was a seasoned pheasant dog. We took the dogs on two public land hunts. Both times Gunner followed the setter for 4 hours when Apollo would go “on point,” Gunner would stop and sniff what was ahead. The bird would flush, we shoot it, and Gunner would retrieve it. This sequence went on for two state land hunts and one pheasant farm hunt.  We thought we had a good team. Apollo would point the birds and Gunner fetched. For some reason, Apollo would not retrieve. The fourth time out I got the surprise of my life. Gunner went on point! He has been pointing ever since. The second remarkable thing was that by the end of the pheasant farm season, Apollo was fetching birds!

I have no idea if this was bred in him and Apollo just brought it out, or if Gunner just learned it from Apollo. Two weeks before we were on Buckeye Lake duck hunting. I spent quite a bit of time training him to hunt waterfowl. Gunner jumped in the water with skim ice on it and retrieved five ducks. I tried to keep him dry off, but he had icicles hanging from his vest and fur. He didn’t care. The next week we went goose hunting. We couldn’t find a goose field, so we walked out on the ice.  He loved it, and we appreciated the dog making the long retrieves across the slippery frozen lake water!

Most of the training that Gunner has received for pheasant hunting has been through his pheasant farm experiences with Apollo. You could call it "on the job training."  There is no substitute for experience. Now when we take the dogs on state ground, or wild pheasant hunts out west, they are well-seasoned veterans. In our state, it would take longer than the average dog's working life to gain that much upland game experience.

The bottom line is, if you want to develop a versatile bird dog in Ohio, you need to hunt bird farms. There are some such farms in our state that have pheasants, chukar, partridge, and quail. Simple obedience training and basic whistle commands are a good start.

Lone Oak is located on Panhandle Road just east of Route 23- -north of Delaware, Ohio. Bill Oman can be reached at 740-363-7219. He has September hunts where he will set out a few "flagged" hens. The remainder of the season there is a three bird minimum, any combination of roosters and hens.

When Turkey Hunting Becomes Coyote Hunting

Larry and I walked very carefully over 200 yards to set up our turkey ambush. We set up our decoys in the "perfect location"  on the coal fines on Chuck's property. Our goal was to be 100 yards from the big gobbler's roosting tree. We quietly chose a hiding spot and hunkered down among the small pines. As the sun began to rise we were shocked to hear the old bird right in front of us! He had roosted across from us less than 70 yards away. Hens flew out of the trees and landed to our left. Larry was slightly to my right and back. He was doing the calling. My old college roommate has been hunting turkeys for over 30 years, and he can really make those calls sing! This is not the least bit surprising from a Quaker Boy Pro Staffer!

The big bird finally flew down but stayed in the woods. The hens made their way to the opposite end of the coal fines. Our situation was looking bleak. As Larry was whispering sweet purrs to no avail, I noticed movement off to my right. "Is that a bobcat" I whispered? Soon after the question, I could clearly see a coyote putting a stalk on our decoys. "Are you going to shoot?" I heard Larry whisper. My first thought was that I really did not want to ruin a really good turkey spot by shooting at a coyote.

A little background information should be presented here. The last time my old buddy came into town to hunt turkeys, we were set up in the same place when a coyote sneaked in for an easy meal. We both unloaded on that creature causing it to roll over several times. Ultimately, the animal ran off, and so did the turkeys. Another fact that did not escape my memory, was that there were no turkeys to be found on those coal fines during the following two weeks.

As the thoughts were rolling around in my mind, I heard "Kaboom!" I followed Larry's shot with one of my own as we unloaded on the coyote.

Larry and his coyote

The next day Larry and I took our talents to a different Doug's property. We set up on some birds that were a few hundred yards from us. The birds answered our calls while in the tree, but quieted down considerably after fly down. We waited patiently while making periodic calls only to be answered by an occasional crow. After an hour of silence, a gobbler answered Larry's diaphragm call. That grabbed my attention! I waited a few minutes and followed up with a soft purr. The bird was probably 150 yards away. He gobbled at every purr for twenty minutes. I continued to offer soft purrs, but his responses were less frequent. After what would be the last purr, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. It was a coyote. He was only 15 yards and closing in without making a sound. I froze as stealthily tiptoed through the forest floor scanning the woods with his eyes and twitching his nose. At ten yards I saw enough, one shot from my 3 1/2 number five shotshell and the fur-bearing hunter was knocked off his feet. Our second coyote in as many days.
"Wow!" I said to my hunting partner, "I have been doing this coyote hunting all wrong!"
We always placed a twitching tail in a field with a speaker playing squealing rabbit noises. We were not successful very often, but it was fun. This turkey hunting was the best coyote draw I have ever seen!

Author with a Coyote

Duck Wraps

Deer Wraps

There are many venison recipes that my wife and I love! This one I first tried with duck. I loved it! Now we make Deer Wraps with either tenderloin or rump roast meat. Here is How it is done. You cut a strip of bacon in half, then cut a thin piece of meat (Duck or Deer) that is half the size of the bacon strip. Next place one teaspoon of Philadelphia Cream Cheese on the meat. Push a jalapeno pepper slice into the cream cheese, roll it up and stick a toothpick through it! Place two dozen on a cookie sheet. Set the wraps in the oven at 350 degrees for forty minutes. If you are on a Weight Watchers diet, one wrap is worth one point, about 50 calories. .Absolutely awesome!

Waterfowl Decoy Placement

I sat in a makeshift blind made of sticks, leaves, and grasses. As the dawn began to creep into the mostly flooded woodland, I noticed the first breeze of the morning. It was a cold wind straight into my face. I hiked in that morning with eight mallard decoys. They were now in the water directly in front of me. I could smell the backwater from the nearby creek, and the distinct autumn aroma of disintegrating leaves. All I needed next were the ducks!

Without warning a flock wood ducks screamed in over the decoys from behind me. A few moments later, a flock of teal surprised me from the same direction. When the pair of mallards followed the same flight path, I decided to turn around. It was not long before the wind shifted and was blowing in my face again, but now stronger! I was a young lad, but I was not naive enough to think that the wind was doing this on purpose. I turned away and pulled my coat up to protect my neck. I turned around just in time to see a flock of teal coming straight at me into the wind. The birds were cupped and committed to landing!

What I learned that day was that ducks like to land into the wind! This is true of all waterfowl. One of five fundamental tenets of decoy placement! As I hunted with more experienced hunters over the years, I learned quite a bit more about this chess match with waterfowl.  Another basic principle is, whenever possible, you should position yourself so that you are not staring into the rising or setting sun. Looking into the sun makes it difficult for a hunter to see the targets. The sun on your face also makes concealment more difficult by reflecting light off of you and your gear. Any movement by hunters may alarm the avian adversary. Along that same line of thought, it is advantageous to locate yourself in shadows to better conceal yourself against wary prey. On one occasion, I was able to position my boat next to a blow down. The root structure of the large oak created a shadow that covered my boat. We were invisible to the ducks.

This leads us to the third axiom of deploying your spread, maintaining concealment. Although this has much to do with camouflage, the position of your decoys is a factor. For example, if none of the locations that you have to choose from allow you to hide well, you are better off positioning yourself so that the birds are not staring at you on approach. "Play the wind," so that the birds will approach from the side. They will not be staring at you, but the decoys.

A fourth rule taught in decoy dispersal 101, is that the birds must have a safe approach and place to land. For example, with a stiff wind, you do not want to place your decoy spread in such a way that the birds would have to navigate power lines or tall trees to approach your fakes. There are "exceptions to every rule," and wood ducks blow this one out of the water! They fly between trees like a child playing a video game. Also, I have seen big ducks spiral down into flooded timber. Understand that flooded timber commonly has no foliage and few branches.

The next aspect of this principle is that if you want birds to come in close enough for a good shot, you need to have a place for them to land. I prefer to have space in front of me where there are no decoys to entice them in close. Some hunters will argue that if you space your decoys out, the birds will land in between the blocks (or decoys) I am not a proponent of this tactic. I have seen many flocks flare from such a spread. I will admit that I have seen singles approach this style of decoy placement unabated, but you will be more successful using a hole or landing zone for the birds.

Before expanding this thought any further, I should tell you that hunters have their own styles. There is more than one way to "cook a goose" as the saying goes. Some hunters prefer to hunt in small out of the way places with one or two dozen decoys. There are other hunters who exclusively hunt big water and deploy one hundred decoys or more. Neither side is wrong or better. It is simply a personal preference. There are just about as many variations as there are hunters. For this article, however, I will lump hunters into two categories, big and small spread hunters.

Small spread hunters have to be especially conscious of the fifth principle, decoy visibility. Visibility can be accomplished by using magnum decoys, bright colors, and possibly with motion. By using fakes with a high percentage of white or light colors, the decoys will be visible at a greater distance. For this reason, more drakes than hen mallard blocks are commonly used for visibility. A few canvasback drake decoys can also allow the birds to see your spread.

There are various ways to produce motion. One way is, if there is wind, to have at least some decoys out in the moving water to make the blocks more life-like. Today it is common to see goose hunters flagging birds to create motion. However, this technique was developed by market gunners to attract flocks of ducks. Flagging can still be a useful tool for duck and goose hunters alike. Another way to legally create motion in the great state of Ohio is to use mechanical decoys. Spinners are very effective. Swimmers and divers are also effective means of producing movement, but they can be expensive.

Large spread hunters have a visibility advantage. By the size of the spread, it is easier to see their decoys. However, the disadvantage is that the hunters must be careful not to have a gigantic collection of lifeless fakes. The birds will not be fooled, especially in the late season. Strategically placed mechanical decoys can help tremendously!

Regardless of the size of your arrangement of fake waterfowl, the mechanicals should be set near where you want the birds to attempt to land. For successful shooting, this landing zone should be close to your blind.

Another factor in proper decoy placement is the species of prey that you wish to target. Canada geese and puddle ducks behave similarly in that they will attempt to land into the wind just short of the birds already on the ground or water. Both snow geese and diving ducks will follow a line of birds to the main group and try to land on the upwind side. There are two things to take note of here. One is that these birds commonly behave in such a way that there is a line leading to the main group. The other noteworthy fact is that diving ducks do not like land because their feet are set too far back on their bodies to walk. So do not expect them to fly over land to approach your position. If you must hunt on land for divers, choose a point that projects out into the water. That will afford the most likely chance of success.

My friends and I have a favorite lake for waterfowl hunting, Buckeye Lake, and a favorite spot on that lake. The wind blows from the west most of the time, but for the purpose of my diagram, we will assume an easterly wind. We have the option of facing east or west, but we usually face south.

My favorite decoy arrangement for hunting in the second season is a "J" shape or "hook." Facing south with an easterly wind, we place the curve of the hook to our left and set three or four concentric curves behind it so that most of the decoys are to our left. The fakes in the "J" include exclusively puddle duck decoys. The inside bend in the hook will only be 25 yards from our location. We place a single file line of decoys close to shore from left to right in front of our boat. A gap is left to be able to get the boat in and out without running over the decoys. Downwind we commonly extend the line with Canada goose blocks and include a small group at the end 25 to 30 yards away. To cover all bases, we will use a straight line of diving duck decoys that extends from the opening of the hook out into the lake. We place one or two mechanical ducks in the curve of the "J" and one on either side of the boat. Adjusting this spread over many years, we have found this to be the most effective means of harvesting a variety of species.  We have bagged Canada geese, divers, and puddle ducks during the same hunt on many occasions using this set up.

My favorite arrangement for light and variable wind conditions can also be used for situations where the wind is at your back. I place the decoys in a square shape on either side of my blind. A wide hole or landing zone is left in between the two squares. It is important that you make each square small enough so that you can shoot to your furthest decoy.  A diver line can also be stretched out from the landing zone. Diver lines do not have to be in range.

A friend of mine created an "S" shaped path in his decoy spread in light variable wind conditions. I was amazed as I watched the ducks maneuver through the "S" shape. One advantage to that pattern is that it kept their attention away from us!

Another excellent decoy pattern is a simple "V." I sometimes use this arrangement when the wind is at my back. I have found that this spread can be very efficient and produce easy shots if you are well concealed. If your concealment is a problem try setting up so that you are not at the apex of the "V." Being offset just 15 to 20 feet can increase your success.

A "V" shaped spread can be a successful tool in shooting diving ducks. My first duck hunting experiences were just that. My good friend and his father took me to Lake Erie where we used a boat anchor and a 50-foot rope to anchor a spreader that held two 50 foot lines. Each decoy line carried 12 to 15 decoys. The opposite ends were anchored, and a dozen singles were placed near the apex. In 35 feet of water, you have to make wise use of your available decoy lines. 

In smaller bodies of water, we use straight lines into a group of singles that makes a teardrop shape. The decoy pattern is such that the diving ducks follow the decoy line to the flock. The birds try to land on the upwind side, as previously discussed. When layout shooting, we found that it is best to have the line on one side so as not to draw attention to the boat. It is difficult for a right hander to turn and shoot to their right, and conversely left handers have difficulty turning left. Since my friend Larry is left handed and I am right handed, we had a problem hunting from a two-man layout boat. We had to put out two lines of decoys, one line on each side of the boat. I sat on the left and shot to the left.

Layout shooting is difficult because you lower body cannot turn, but it is loads of fun. It offers the same challenges as shooting from a layout blind in a field. Setting your decoys for goose hunting on water is the same as setting up to hunt puddle ducks. The five tenets of decoy placement discussed earlier still apply. Most hunters will place their layout blinds in their decoy spread. That usually works, but if concealment becomes an issue late in the season, wait for snow. Wearing all white makes you invisible! If the geese flare from your decoys, you can hide downwind of your decoys. When the birds are about to flare, you will be in position for a shot.

The opposite is true of hunting snow geese. Their behavior is similar to that of diving ducks. If you are wondering how birds can see snow goose decoys in the snow, it is not a problem. If there is snow, there will probably not be any snow geese. Snow geese do not like snow! As with diving ducks, snow geese fly over their kind and land on the other side of the flock. Snow goose hunters move upwind, because that is where the geese want to land. The pattern of decoys for snows is similar to that of diving duck decoys. The teardrop is a popular decoy pattern.

There are a variety of ways to arrange your decoys. All of them follow the same basic principles.  These are the decoy spreads that I have had success using. Good hunting!

September Walleyes

We were still deciding at the bait store if we were perch or walleye fishing. The reports were excellent for both. I found that surprising for this the first day of autumn. The perch fishing can be good, but walleye in late September? So we stood at the bait store realizing that we forgot a minnow bucket! Among the four of us, Matt, Jerry, Derek and myself, nobody brought a bucket. Matt volunteered his cooler, problem solved.

The bait store smelled like a mixture of night crawlers and minnows, as one would expect. The humming sounds of the refrigerators and aerators created a perfect background noise for all the fish stories being shared by various customers. I was paying careful attention to two men talking quietly about perch fishing.

“You need to have your perch by 1:00. They seem to shut off about then.” I heard the elder fisherman explain.

This information seemed to make fishing for both a poor option today. Meanwhile, my partners had procured their minnows and were deciding on how many worms to purchase.

“The reports are that they are hitting on spoons and cranks. We don’t need any worms!” Matt advised.

Not having fished for walleye without worms, they purchased two dozen.

The group loaded the poles and plethora of assorted coolers and gear. We were on the water by 9:00 AM. The collective decision was to troll for walleyes. Matt suggested that we head for Huron. I grabbed the steering wheel as the group readied the poles, dipsy divers, jet divers, planer boards, and lures. I set a course for a position north of “The Dumping Grounds”.

We fished the area earlier this year. Walleye were caught, but as most people reported this summer, there were many two-year-old fish. The problem is that two-year-old fish are fourteen to fourteen and a half inches long. The ODNR appropriately set the walleye length limit at fifteen inches. As a result, fishermen were throwing back three walleyes to every one they could keep. The smaller fish are more active. That means the fish you cannot keep are more likely to bite your hook. Our boat did a little better than most this summer. We kept nine and threw back eight.

As we approached our marks on the GPS unit, I could see a pack of boats.

“This is it!” I slowed the boat down short of the pack.

We immediately began seeing good marks on the fish finder at twenty-four feet in forty feet of water. I adjusted out speed to 2.3 miles per hour. This speed is fast for worm harnesses but just right for plugs and spoons.

We only had two lines out when someone yelled, “Fish On!”

One of the dipsy divers was tripped open. Matt reeled in a nice nineteen inch walleye. Derek netted it, and in the live well it went. It was only five minutes later when one of the planer boards pulled back.

Jerry grabbed the rod, “This is a nice one!”

The nice one Jerry described managed to escape the cooler as it approached the boat.

“Way to knock it off Jerry!” We each took turns ribbing Jerry. It was all in fun.

Jerry tried his hand at the next fish that pulled a planer board. It trolled a realistic minnow looking jerk bait as did the first one. A walleye it was.

“This one might be close. I am not sure. It is plump though!” Matt described the fish in his hand.

I turn around to see Matt measuring a sixteen-inch walleye.

“Good enough!” Matt threw it in the live well.

Eventually, the walleyes made it into the cooler. Someone shared with us several years ago that the fish are better eating if allowed to bleed out before putting them on ice. A carefully made incision through both gill regions then ventrally gets the job done.

The dipsy tripped again. Matt grabbed the pole. This tooth-clad Pisces was putting up quite a tussle. Jerry grabbed the net. I watched as he attempted to scoop the walleye. Somehow Jerry managed to miss the fish but get two treble hooks in the outside of the net. He lifted the net and fish out of the water.

“Get it in the boat! Get it in the boat!” Matt repeated excitedly.

Jerry swung the net back into the boat with the fish still attached.

“Well first you knocked a fish off with your pole, now you try to knock Matt’s fish off!” I teased.

“Hey, did I get it in the boat?” Was all Jerry could muster for his defense!

We laughed. The fish measured twenty-four inches. A very respectable fish.

We trolled for ten more minutes without a bite. Matt suggested that we make a wide swing and go back through that area. A wide swing is imperative as we had seven lines in the water. Trying to turn too sharply would result in tangled lines.

I began my turn and realized that we were less than one mile north of where we fished on our last trip together. The “Dumping Grounds” were less than five miles to our south. The stretch of water that we trolled was approximately a mile and a half long. We caught fish slightly less than one mile of our traverse.

Upon return to our “hot spot”, I began marking fish at twenty-four feet.

“Here they are twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-four…” My markings report was cut short by the attack of two fish on our lures.

Fish at twenty-four feet was our target. It proved to be consistent throughout the day. Matt reeled in a fish on a dipsy pole on the starboard side while Derek hauled one in from a planer board in the port side. Jerry stood ready with the landing net. As Matt’s fish reached the surface, Jerry scooped in for the fish. Like before, the treble hooks buried themselves into the outside of the net and Jerry swung the fish into the boat. A plump fifteen and three-quarter inch walleye was added to the box. Laughter ensued!

“You are supposed to put the fish IN the net, Jerry!” I chuckled.

“Anybody can do that!” I heard Jerry say.

Matt was laughing but worked quickly to open the snap swivel on his jerk bait. With the plug still embedded in the outside of the net, Matt landed Derek’s eighteen-inch walleye. In Jerry’s defense, he had very little experience with a landing net. He did get the hang of it.

By the time the lines were back out, we had another one on. It too turned out to be sixteen inches. At this point, we surmised that the fourteen and one-half inch two-year-olds that we caught earlier are now older fifteen plus inch fish. We did not keep all of our fish that qualified in length. We kept twenty-four walleyes. We threw back six that were thirteen inches and four that were legal length.

I never thought that September was a walleye month, but we had a blast. Do not put your walleye gear away too soon. The first day of autumn can be hot!

Planar boards in line

Middle planer board back equals fish on!

Matt with big fish

Group photo