Going on my 1st woodcock hunt tomorrow. Any suggestions?

Shoot straight! Good luck

Watch for deer hunters

Wait till they "top out" on their flight. Best chance for a good shot. I am going this week too.

Good luck!

Warning is probably late if he was hunting public forest land. He posted yesterday going today. I bet there were a bunch of deer hunters too as there traditionally are on weekends each side of Christmas. It might have been difficult avoiding them.

Looking forward to a report.

Too early for my pocket of woodcock out west. When they are on my lease or have been there I always see the holes from them feeding poked in the moist sandy ground along the wheat field edges up against our thick creek bottom woods. No holes seen and the dog found no birds.

Skipped the Woodcock hunt today. Got a late start to working the dogs on Quail. Glad based on the number of deer hunters that must have been out. Look forward to trying it in the upcoming week.

Interesting. Photo would be nice if/when you get a chance.

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You have to be kidding. Well, I guess not. I posted a picture of a quail roost on here and some people didn't know what it was.

You have to be kidding. Well, I guess not. I posted a picture of a quail roost on here and some people didn't know what it was. [/quote

Being a smart a$$, how do you distinguish the Woodcock holes from the Mileormore bird holes? LOL

Woodcock holes have a woodcock standing over them.

Tracking and reading animal sign must be a lost art today. Only an indian could do something like that. Good thing I am part Indian.

I hope this comment made you feel good. But I suspect you lost credibility with most of us who read it.

That's what bird dogs are for

Did younger Indians learn by receiving guidance from experienced elders?
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Even the boy scouts deemed reading animal sign not important having discontinued the tracking merit badge in the 1950s. And I understand most birdmen not knowing much about the bird being that woodcock are region specific, but I am surprised Bill has not seen woodcock probe or drill holes before considering his bird hunting experience and living within a half day of the biggest winter concentration of woodcock.

Though I don't hunt woodcock very often, collectively over 30 years I have probably done more of it than most people. I once had a runt walker hound that I trained as a flushing dog for daytime quail in grayson county and had used her for woodcock on a lease near Waskom. At the lease we burned off a small field in our woods and planted a foodplot. At night we could walk the edge of that field and walk up on feeding woodcock that you almost had to kick to make fly. Made me wonder if 100 years ago there may have been some truth to the "snipe hunt" as it would have been easy to club and sack a few of them under the flashlight. During the day you could see large areas of the holes left behind from feeding and a few small splashes of white. It is very distinctive if you have ever seen it. But I have found these areas are usually nighttime feeding areas. The birds will not be there during the day, but right at dark you will see birds flying into the field edge. Back when I hunted with that walker hound near the Louisiana line years ago and on the wheat field edge on my young county lease more recently, if the feeding holes are there, the birds are probably in the area nearby somewhere in the thick woods. Though I don't have pictures, fortunately several people have put them online. A simple search had these at the top.

http://www.talltimberadventures.com/tall-timber-grouse-hunting-blog/files/tag-woodcock.php
"The woodcock that we've encountered have mostly been in close proximity of each other, in appropriate cover for them. Today I was able to take this picture of woodcock drillings in a freshly created woods road that was pretty muddy and hadn't set up much yet. Apparently they must have liked it, because there was lots of splash and a lot of these drillings around. And what of the woodcock, you may ask? We never saw one, so they must have only been using this area exclusively for feeding."


This sight has some really cool pictures of woodcock actively feeding. The ground is very similar to the field edge I posted about in my original post.
http://www.birdingisfun.com/2012/07/photographing-american-woodcocks-and.html


Another picture of woodcock drill holes
http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Scolopax_minor/pictures/


Here is a really good picture. When you see large groups of these in a feeding area, it is obvious woodcock have been there.
http://www.braquepyrenees.com/season.htm


And more
http://www.treknature.com/gallery/photo248906.htm



http://eataweed.blogspot.com/p/previous-forays-photos-plants-and.html
"Look closely and see if you can interpret the forager that left its sign behind. This animal specializes in listening to underground movements under moist soil. It bobs its body to-and-fro to try and get the earthworms to move, then it sticks its beak into the soil and listens, for its ears are in between it's eye and beak!! With forcep-like pincers on the end of its long bill, it can pinch and pull at the earthworms which compose up to 90% of it's diet. Can you see the footprints and the holes made by it's underground beak probing? "

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Thanks for the informative reply. We're happy Mohicans (or in my case, Choctaw/Creek) now.

Plenty of things are simple and obvious . . . once a body knows.

Where I've jumped woodcocks has tended to have leaf litter or pine straw, so the worm-bobbing dodos are covering their tracks in those environments.

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swellcat,
Though they do probe for earthworms and whatever else in the leaf litter and pine straw, the feeding they do in the fields and meadows is nocturnal when they do most of their feeding. I think that has a lot to do with the flights everyone sees just before dusk.

Well I finally got to go on the Woodcock hunt today. My wife has been teasing the dog that I was taking him on a "Snipe Hunt" and that he should take a pillow case and stick. Turns out that would have been more productive. We cover 10 miles (circled back many times) without even hint of a Woodcock. On a positive note had a great time with a new hunting buddy and his dog. My dog is now crashed on the couch awaiting the next preserve hunt.

I went today at my place too. 2 1/2 hours of following my GSP Jenny-she was really working hard and well. Just no birds to be found. At one of the final spots she locked on point and a beautiful big woodcock flushed. Of course, I missed him.
Here is Jenny's "My Daddy can't hit the broadside of a barn" look:

Shock. Awe. Rust. Evasive aerial maneuvers. Woodcock are uncanny about putting trees between them and you.

Jenny is pretty. I'd like to borrow her for a little visit to Deep-East Texas.

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Thank you. Yes all of the above. I honestly felt like I let her down. But a few snacks and swim in the pond brought her back around. Here she is last year in happier times when I actually hit one.

Hunted woodcock every day since A week ago Sunday solely on National Forest. Have a 2 yr old Vizsla. Limits every day and ate em bacon wrapped every night. Hunted about 1.5 to 2 hrs each hunt, 6 to 8 points per hunt. I purposely targeted areas w a lot do yaupon holly. After the 1st 4 days I started hunting unfamiliar areas that just had some new growth pines and yaupon holly. Birds every time.
Dogs getting good. I was in east texas bordering Louisiana
Walked out to my jeep this morning and flushed one sitting on the driveway 2 feet behind the jeep. Go figure.

Some of our 9 days of fun!

You the man MBK.

That's great!