Wednesday, October 17, 2012

NoDak 10/03/12 - The Ohio Hunt

I called this hunt the Ohio hunt because it was a reminder of what we face from time to time hunting in the highly pressured areas back home. It seems at times like no matter how early you wake up, how diligent you try to be getting to the spot first, how hard you try to do everything the right way, somebody is still gonna pull up and hunt right next to you.

That's pretty much exactly what happened to us on our Wednesday morning hunt. After scouting the field the night before and seeing good numbers of birds feeding in the corn, then dropping back down into the roost pond a few hundred yards away, we left for the night feeling like we'd have another solid hunt the next morning.

The alarm rings, and the routine begins again. With our field set up methods working like a well oiled machine we were out in the cool morning air putting the plan in place to kill some more mallards. Then it happened... A truck carrying two other hunters pulls right into the same field we're in. Now there's no way they didn't see us. We had a truck & trailer with parking lights glowing, then the four of us turn on the head lamps and start flashing the guys. Still they proceed to drive straight at the roost pond! Choosing to set up there for their morning hunt. Are you kidding me!?!?

Now, these guys had just as much right to hunt that spot as we did to hunt where we were. Nothing was done that morning illegally. However, it was certainly an instance that questions the "sportsmanship" of the other hunters. They way our group approaches those situations, is that if somebody beats us to a spot, we then move to plan B, rather than screw their hunt up. Why? Because we wouldn't want somebody coming in and screwing our hunt up either. Simple as that. Too bad not everybody looks at it that way. We would all have more success in the field.

The birds were obviously bumped off the roost in the early morning darkness, and while we did see birds as the sun rose, not a shot was sent skyward. Even the roost hunters had marginal shooting, only dropping a few birds from what we saw. At least we had a nice sunrise, and after a while, a good sense of humor about the whole ordeal.


Oh yeah.... we ate pretty good too.


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