[Guest]

Well the 2013-2014 season is done. It sure was a good one! Now its time to gear up for the snows. However, I have to take some time to reflect on what was my best season to date for birds, meeting new people, going new places, and gaining some incredible experiences. I get longwinded so bear with me.

with transferring to a new university and not really knowing the name of the game, i missed out on the early goose season and some of the opportunities there. so my first hunt of the year came in iowa with the worst teal opener i have had. we finished with 21 birds on the weekend.
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then, it was back to south dakota the following weekend for my first south dakota opener. it was a good one! knocked down a 4 man limit with the highlight of the hunt being shooting pintails and redheads in september.
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a couple weekends later it was off to aberdeen with Chesadore to hunt with IowaFowlFever. The first night there was the best hunt in which we ended up with a 3 man limit. It sure would have been a great night to have some layout boats, but we finished up just fine. Too bad chesadore had to go separating his shoulder! i wish i had a good excuse for missing
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the following weekend, a few friends and I found a good spot that ended up producing a great hunt in the rain. with a couple inches of rain and a five man limit of pintails plus a great mixed bag of teal, mallards, wigeon, redheads, wood ducks, and gadwall, it was one to remember.
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[Guest]

October really was good to us, as we scratched out two more quality hunts before the end of the month
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In november, I then trekked up to webster for a weekend with IowaFowlFever, Chesadore, and Kruger. On saturday it took us awhile to scratch out the birds, but we managed to find our way to a 4 man limit, of which I only have the pictures of the morning. IowaFowlFever's dog deuce is one of the best dogs I have hunted over, and his pose with a gorgeous cotton top was one of my favorite pictures of the season. sunday was a flop even with lots of birds around, so we won't talk about that :lol:
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Then we went through a tough stretch only scratching out a few here or there with some farmers making permission really tough until armistice day weekend when the snow rolled through and we got into the honkers in Northwest Iowa with NWIADuckhunter, quackman, and goose thumps. Brady went black and hasn't gone back.

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Late november, the hunting because to heat up in south dakota again. we had our most banner day of the season, scratching out a seven man limit of mallards and a bonus pintail on my favorite type of hunt: a small water hunt.
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[Guest]

The rest of november and early december proved to be both very irritating and very productive. It seemed that our average rate of gaining permission on fields with birds was around 1 in 11, with some days being as bad as 1 in 28. The birds were easy to find but lacked a real consistent pattern, or their pattern seemed to be where we couldn't hunt. got burned a couple times by birds changing patterns and water freezing up, but still scratched out a few quality hunts. The reckless decoying mallards finally came december 3rd and 4th when south dakota got heavy snow through the night and following morning, with around 5-6 inches of total snow fall.
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we froze up quickly, the birds were gone within two days of snow falling and finals were over so it was back to iowa. We managed a couple good days of goose hunting, and my first band so Iowa isn't too bad after all. also got some decent pictures of mallards in iowa in december :lol:
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[Guest]

then the cold really came, seasons began to close, and so it was time for missouri and oklahoma. It was a great time, met some awesome people, experienced some unforgettable things like taking a duck for the first time with my great grandfather's shotgun, and got to be with my younger brother Matthew on his first out of state duck hunting experience. His smile says it all!

Unfortunately my cash was dried up and so it was time for me to call the season quits. Would have liked to have gotten down south with some fellas one more time in january, but tough luck. Thanks to all who have helped me in anyway this past season from calling routines to inviting me out on hunts. Now lets gear up for Michael's Mr. Whiteys and mix a sick beat. :cheers:

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[goosethumps]

Brady went black and hasn't gone back.

This is no surprise....

 

[UIUhunter4]

Nice pics and write up Sean. Looks like your first year in Sodak was a great one!

 

[Guest]

It was a good season for sure.