Corrosion

Took the boat home from storage. Found some major issues of corrosion in the anchor box. It's bad enough that there is a hole now. Had Steve Ericsson take a look at it to formulate a plan to fix. I just totally forgot about the anchor stuff and now I'm paying for it. I've had the boat for 6 years and she has been terrific. Things happen and you just have to deal with it.

My First Turkey!

Funny how things work out. We found this bird at 8 in the morning during our scouting day. We heard him gobble and backed off the area. I thought for sure he would be bumped by the other hunters scouting the area. We returned on opening morning and luckily got in the area first. As we were setting up a truck drives through and my heart sank thinking this would surely bump any birds in the area. I guess it was meant to be because as soon as the truck left, the bird gobbled.

I actually set up Matt as the designated shooter. Tom sat with him and the plan was for me to call. I sat 20 ft. behind them not expecting to shoot at all. I didn't even try to conceal myself since I was way off in their view. The bird however came in the other way and walked towards me and the DSD decoy that I put 25 yards in front of me.

The bird came from about 300 yards from a ridge walked down the road answered my purrs and clucks and soft yelps until he appeared within my view. It didn't take long for the jake to reach the decoy and when he turned and faced me I shot.

Bird down!! Matt and I started hunting LPO since 2010. It's been a total of 9 days of hard hunting and it finally happened. We will be working hard next time to get Matt his bird and then Tom.

Retriever Training at Full Blast

Been a while since I posted something. We've been spending a lot of time training. Maggie is 4 months old now and she's doing great with her training. It is non-stop, but I will have a great dog at the end.