CouesPursuit

Yeah but you get to work in the field! I know, I am very lucky. Wasn't able to capture a photo, but also saw a group of nice mule bucks in one of the lake bottom's filled with 4 foot high cocklebur, that was a first. There was a big 4x that was plowing through and after 50 yards his antlers were filled with green vegetation dragging longer than his body! Thanks! I do have a great job although the majority of the time I'm trapped in the office. I don't fly very often myself, I model/map various characteristics of the reservoirs on the computer and fly to "ground-truth" them, get out in the air about twice a year.

Very cool.

Maybe I'm lost here but after I punched in my department ID and birth date my current license # automatically generated and I clicked continue. Worked perfectly and contrary to years past, I didn't even have to take my license out of my wallet.

HBD!

The search tool works wonders, this topic has been discussed here many times, here are two places to start. http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/50769-salt/ http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/50065-salt/

How thorough my answer is depends on the person asking. Anti-hunters, extreme liberals, those I rarely associate with, might not even get a response as some people are looking for a debate right out of the gate and I know they aren't smart enough to be talked sense into. If a friend or acquaintance who doesn't hunt is genuinely interested, I would say I hunt for the way it makes me feel: the solitude nature provides with a serious and challenging task at hand, being outsmarted, frequently, the ability to harvest and process organic meat myself, leading to the fact I haven't purchased red meat at the store in years, the time spent and memories made with family, friends and my lab, the way 'life' can free from the mind in a matter of minutes once you hit the mountains or get up in that tree. I then tell that person if they are interested in seeing what I mean, let me know and we can get you and earth formally introduced. I've never had an intelligent person not respect my response, or at least they didn't tell me so.

One of the most important items for our upriver camping weekends at Lees Ferry. The only liquids that get packed in the boat are alcoholic or gasoline. The Katadyn does the rest. Great family trip, thanks for sharing!

Caribou skull and antlers hanging of the left wing at the very end = awesome. Great video, thanks for sharing!

Great looking parents and pups! These are the type of litters that make both great family pets and hunting companions.

Both. Depends on the area, what you are after, and how much you know about what you are after in that area. I have killed small bucks by moving to different glassing points throughout the day and I have bumped out big bucks I was after because I wasn't patient enough sitting in one spot. Experience will decide. I don't think you can go wrong in your first few rifle hunts, do whichever you feel is right and see what works for you.

Agreed. It was the least number of ducks I have seen and the most mosquitoes in October. Actually it was the first time I remember mosquitos at all. I had to bug out of our spot opening morning at 9AM because the dog was absolutely covered in them. The next day I elected to hunt a small but open body of shallow water. Although I hardly got any bird traffic, I obviously was blinded in well with a good looking spread because I had 3 guys approach from behind me with the sound of loading guns at about 100 yards. Luckily the dog started growling and I waved them off. A couple things about them make me wonder like the fact I purposely had a mojo running for people to see it, or the time it took for them to realize, 'hey that's a guy and his dog' (about 2 full minutes before they turned around and unloaded their guns). They did scare me a bit but it's all good. There weren't too many yahoos but apparently still a few. It was a really good weekend other than the lack of birds! Good luck on that Moose, we'll be in touch. And you know I can't take off weekdays to hunt this year man don't tease me like that!

I think I saw less than a hundred ducks total this weekend, it was very slow in a usually good area. I did formally meet some great people that I've run into the last few years and I started with the first shot of the season on a decoyed greenhead. It ended up deep in the cattails and the dog made a great retrieve on it. Had evidence of BB's from his head to his feet. I didn't shoot many birds but that one mallard and a couple hen teal but I had a fantastic time with the dog and the elk bugling like crazy in between the few shells fired. The anticipation of the season was easily fulfilled even with mostly empty skies.

stares at me from beside the bed, the entire night, with intermittent whimpers. waits outside the shower, the bathroom, the kitchen, you name it. spins in circles at my feet every time I move an inch from the task at hand. ever since he's been watching me prep the decoys, the layouts, and calls. Just one more day of me leaving early for work buddy, one more day. This is a sick and twisted addiction for both of us. Anybody else getting out this weekend?

We are still working on the delayed shake command, it's not the waders it's the soaked dog after that first retrieve at 5:53AM! Haha hopefully thanks bud

The closer it came the harder it was to deal with missing it. Rearranged some time off for later in the year, like I said I have low expectations for the number of birds but with just me and the dog, I don't need many! Can't wait to be sitting wet in the cold!

I was expecting to see post 1

Summit Viper SD, my only issue with the climber is drawing my bow and hitting the front rail. It's tough to sit and draw but it can be done.

That really sucks. That's all I have been hearing from guys that I know shoot birds, they just haven't made it down yet. I think we'll have a different story after the full moon a week from today. I just looked at my duck diary and my best opening day shoot was in 2012 just a few days after a Sept. 30th full moon.

My go to for the opener had more pressure last year than ever before, don't know if its a function of the dynasty times or what. I'm still undecided.

Every duck report I have heard of has been poor. I'm going out with low expectations but I'd rather be in that layout blind on Friday than anywhere else in the state.

Setting up under a game trail is going to take a lot of shovel work! I used a climber this last January and I will be using one again January 1st. I have set up just off steep game trails in a nice flat area with lots of cover, gives them an opportunity to get comfortable, works for me.

Should be posted here sometime today http://www.azdeer.org/event/winners/

I'm not an expert in shotgun ballistics and never jump shoot but I shoot a Remington 870 SuperMag with 3" Kent Fasteel in BB or 2's and I am effective to 50 yards max. I usually bring my rangefinder and will put my farthest decoy at this distance and only shoot if the birds are on my side of it. Whatever it takes to get a couple pellets in their head, I shoot with huge leads and let the birds fly themselves into the shot. Until this year, in a layout session, the vest/parka in the photo above was the most camo he had. If he is in my bass tracker's blind or we build a brush blind, I make a 'place' for him. This year, for various reasons, I have been training him in a layout blind of his own. I have heard a lot from both sides of the debate, that 1) ducks don't care about the dog they see animals all the time in areas they frequent and 2) the ducks are shot over dogs all the time of course they flare from them. I would lean towards the birds don't care until my dog's tail starts wagging like crazy and then they cue in on any weaknesses I have in/near the blind. I'll find out soon enough which side of the debate fence I'm on, the start of my hypothesis testing commences this Friday!

In areas surrounding the Hudson Bay, polar bears are shifting diets from seals to geese eggs and goslings. Snow geese numbers in recent decades have skyrocketed and their summer breeding habitat in the arctic has been decimated. Bear predation on the eggs and goslings probably won't make a dent but there are still lots of interesting unknowns with this one! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/science/for-polar-bears-a-climate-change-twist.html?_r=1

Entirely dependent on where the birds are and what the wind is doing. I use a layout blind anytime it's possible, they can conceal everything in 360 degrees except your face and I usually don't leave a trace of my existence when I'm done for the day. They can also be warm and comfortable when it's freezing. My dogs first limit at 9 months on a local reservoir, I was in a layout blind and I was stacking my ducks on the log beside me, shot the limit by 8am. The layout blind concealed me so well while I was waiting for my buddies to finish their limits a quarter mile away, I had a red-tailed hawk start to circle my ducks on the log and eventually he swooped down incredibly fast. I waited as long as I could until I was literally a bit scared and I jumped out of my blind and watched him crap as he hit the brakes! It was an amazing experience! I also had a group of turkeys approach a white mountain marsh from behind me in 2012. The dog turned around and scared the crap out of the turkeys when they were only 20 yards away! Point is, layout blinds conceal everything. If it isn't possible, build the best brush blind you can by getting in early. The better your blind the closer the ducks will get before they flare, or better yet, they will land in your decoys. It's an awesome feeling to fool a wily 'ol greenhead or sprig into landing in your spread, watch their "uh oh" face and then drop them on their way out!