The Hunting Times

Me and RePhil hit his place Thursday evening on Sept. 10.  I think we drank more than we hunted, but we had a good time just being out.  We got one dove. Dove hunting at RePhil's Then on Friday evening, Sept 22, me and Krueger hunted his sunflower field.  Again, I think we drank more than we hunted, but this time we at least saw over 100 doves.  Not many in range.  So again, we got one lonely dove.  At this rate, we never will have enough doves for a meal for one person!  Oh well, we're having fun. New Glarus Spotted Cow was on tap for hunting the sunflowers at Krueger's

Davey brought out his deep fryer and some bait.  We used the bait to catch fish in the pond.  Then we cleaned them, breaded them, and deep fried them on the spot.  Shore lunch for sure. Our biggest problem was catching fish that were large enough to eat.  We were probably at 50% - for every one we caught we had to throw one back.  It did not take more than an hour, though.  The fish were a bittin'. Big ole bucket o' fish - ready to be cleaned & eaten Bass attacking Davey - they were feisty.   Enjoying the fresh, but still very hot, fish on the shore of the pond. Big shout out to our sponsor on this trip - Leinenkugel's October Fest beer!

But wait, you say, coyote hunting does not open until 15 OCT 2017 in Indiana.  So how can you be hunting them already and still be legal?  Great question.  According to the regulations, land owners may take coyotes at any time without a special permit or license - or, they may provide written permission for others to take coyotes on their behalf on land they own.  We fall into that latter category. We rolled out at 0500 Sunday morning and headed N at 0540.  Our target location was a farm along the Wabash River, between Delphi and Logansport.  We were on our first set by the time it was just barely light enough to see without artificial light.  All the crops are in and there was CRP grass on the other side, so visibility was tough.  We called until sunrise with no luck. We moved to the W edge of the property where we had longer shooting lanes.  We called again, with no luck.  I will add that the Mojo decoy was broken, so all we had was the call. Our morning ended in the field with

As per the norm, come Labor Day week-end, we host an annual dove hunt here on the Ranch.  The participants have changed over the years, and sometimes folks' schedules will just not let them attend.  Well, for the past two years in a row now, there have been less than adequate doves to call this a "hunt" by any stretch of the imagination.  Knowing this to be the case, Kruger borrowed Hester's auto-throwing trap for some entertainment.  And man did we have FUN! Most of the gang.  Missing are Davey & Pa Jerry (who left early), and MPK who took the photo. The morning started off with a breakfast of biscuits and gravy at 0700.  I changed up the recipe to use butter for the 'fat' instead of the meat fat for the gravy.  I must say, it was quite tasty.  We then broke up into four groups.  Davey, RePhil, and Aaron went to the pond.  Kathy, Pa Jerry, and Jon stayed at the house.  Nick, Eric, and Zach went to the prairie grass.  And, Alex, Tony, and I walked