Summary with stories and pictures from my recent two week hunting road trip.
Day 1
Started in Texas on the 10th hunting wood ducks and squirrels on a creek. About 2 miles from the Brazos, the Ducks fly in down the creek bed in groups of 5 to 10 making every turn of the creek. Was a fun combo hunt with the bonus squirrels. Mesquite grilled squirrel was on the lunch menu.

Then went on to hunt quail, but found none. Not much area I could hunt due to deer season, but I found three covies last year in the same small areas. Did pick up a snipe on a stock tank.


Then headed for Oklahoma to one of the North Eastern most units of Black Kettle Grasslands. Slept in the truck on a hilltop overlooking a valley.

Day 2 will be in the Upland forum.
Click here for day two.

Again Day 2 being a quail hunt is in the Upland forum.

Day 3
Met Jim Christy at the gate into the Goose hunting area of Washita NWR. Only about half the hunters that had drawn and paid for blinds showed, so maybe only 5 of the 11 pit blinds were hunted. Carted in Jim's Goose Shells on a long hard walk across a wet wheat field to the blind. We had blind #9 backed up to the woods and overlooking a large green wheat field. Foss Lake was beyond the trees. Geese so loud it stood the hair on my back. Jim is 65 years old and had goose hunted the area for over 17 years. I found him to be an expert caller. He tried to teach me to use a goose call, but I need a lot more practice. I learned a lot from him about how to set up spreads, calling, goose habits, etc. My first goose hunt. He let me have the first shot. I missed a goose maybe 35 yards out. Looked like it was floating to me, but Jim said it was probably flying 50 miles and hour. We both dropped a goose from the next group he called over the decoys. Was a great morning. We were checked by Federal Fish and Wildlife on the way out. I asked them about recommendations of where I could hunt the next day "for any kind of game". A very pretty young Fish and Wildlife girl tipped me about an area she had been doing some waterfowl counts. They were very nice. Even though the office was closed for the weekend, they let me follow them there to unlock it to get me maps of some public hunting areas. Jim headed back to Tulsa and I hit the road to scout the area I was tipped off about from the nice Fish and Wildlife girl. After scouting I went to Foss State Park to set up my one man tent for the night. For supper I ate teriyaki goose cooked over a fire. A cold night, the dog somehow ended up IN the sleeping bag with me by morning.

Nice reports and pics...keep'em coming.

Nice Woodies!!

Great pic's.
That combo wood duck squirrel hunt looked
like a heck of a good time to me.
Thanks for sharing.

PK

Day 4
Up at 4:00 am to drive, then unload the kayak. Took about three dozen mixed decoys and 5 goose shells. Some of the used Goose shells bought from forum member honkhntr a month ago. Thank you again! Not knowing what to expect I shot a teal early because it was easy to identify. Then I stayed in my layout blind and watched group after group of ducks come and go for maybe two hours. I did not fire a shot during this time. Just had fun watching. I had ducks walking around my feet much of the time. Started picking out mostly greenheads when I did start. Then the geese came. Dropped one and then a second went sailing into the hillside behind me. Took-off with Blaze, but found head high weeds and bushes so started zig zagging up the hill fighting the brush. Blaze caught a scent and went crashing up the hill. I could hear all kinds of honking going on. I found the Goose in a clearing under a tree with the dog working back and forth trying to make a charge. The goose looking bigger than Blaze was doing the famous Karate Kid move with it's head up, standing tall, and wings all the way out. I saw Blaze charge and the goose get hold of Blaze on her flank just at the back edge of her vest. After a tussle they did mutually let go of each other. I called Blaze back and when she finally, reluctantly, did so, I finished the goose. Blaze ran back to the goose for a bite and a growl to get the last punch in. As of this post, Blaze still has a small welt from the Goose.


Calling it a day, I went back to pick up decoys. I had pulled the kayak out of the woods, put the gun up, and was just picking up decoys and looking for a duck I had left in the water. Then more geese came. They landed in my decoys with me. I sat/stayed Blaze, dropped to my knees, pulled my elbows in to look like a stump, then got my camera out. Actually glad I did not have my gun or I might not have got the pictures. While this was going on, a hawk that had been harassing ducks on the point earlier, flew down the bank and picked up my duck in the water behind me. What a neat day.


After loading up again, I headed on to Sylvan Grove Kansas where I had rented a house to stay for the next four nights.

Picture of Kayak with the lucky hood ornaments! BTW, Snipe did fly to, land, and walk around the two Snipe decoys during the morning. Unfortunately not listed as legal game on the public area I was hunting.


Continued with Day 5 is in the Open Hunting Discussion forum.
Click here for Day 5

SniperJohn

I sent you a PM. Marsh is looking good for snipe .

Day 8 and 9 is in the Upland Forum.

Day 10.
Day 10 started as another day to look for Priarie Chickens and Pheasant, but turned into a Duck day. The only group of Priarie Chickens we saw flew across just outside of the WIHA we started on, so unable to chase them. A Whitetail did pose for us.

We moved on to a WIHA area we had flushed three Prairie Chicken before that season opened and to hunt the half section of private land we got permission for earlier in the week. Being firefighters we naturally stopped to make sure everyone was ok on the road when a motorhome caught fire. Was fun to see the volunteers arrive and put it out, only to have the propane tanks vent and ignite sending those guys running.




Back to hunting. Not a lot of Pheasant found this day. We saw groups of hunters on Saturday and Sunday, sometimes several truckloads of guys. They would completely drive every pheasant from a WIHA hunting unit. We could tell from the foot traffic that our areas had been hit hard the day before, including the private land we had permission for. We did spot some Mallards on a tank within one WIHA area and planned a jump on them. Hiked way around along a fence line past several Lamas. There was a long dam and we knew the ducks were on one end of the tank. I love this kind of hunting! We stalked up the dam, said "ok, on three", "one, two, three". Off we go over the dam like charging out of a trench in war. NO DUCKS! "AHHHHHHHG, they moved to the other side, go back, go back!!!". They did not fly. We ran down the base of the dam, gathered ourselves and did it again. Dublo-Dublo!. What fun with the lamas making angry noises at us the entire time.

We then decided to take a look at Glen Elder WMA for Pheasant. Met some friendly local goose hunters there and coordinated with them so as to not conflict with them. The uncut maize field we walked had no birds, but we saw hundreds of teal on the lake near the refuge portion.

The day almost over, we made a mad dash for the decoys and layout blind and headed to the lake. Blaze ran off into the ducks against my will. They did not fly and she actually pointed one. SteveTexas suggested we make a charge. Before emptying my gun we both yelled we better stop or too many will fall, considering we already had part of a limit in the truck. We did put out the decoys and some goose shells, but mostly just watched birds fly by and hoped a straggler goose would stop by. Fun day.

Day 11.
This morning SteveTexas left for Texas and I slept late due to too much Wild Turkey at "The Duck Blind" the night before. I loaded up and moved on to Glen Elder again to find a spot to set up my tent on the Wildlife Area. I started out on a Pheasant hunt, but with Bismuth, so I could jump the ducks again while I was out walking. After making a stalk and shooting a teal, I found I had just beat out another hunter Mark, and his 18 year old son Rory who had the same idea. They were from Colorado and in Kansas to Pheasant hunt. With them was another Vizsla. Small World! Ultimately we learned we had read each others posts before on the Yahoo group Vizslahunt.

100s of Teal.

Rory walking up for a look at them.

I also learned this was Rory's last hunting trip before boot camp. I invited him to duck hunt with me that evening. I let him have pretty much most of the shots and there was a lot of shooting. I had some High Density BB left from my Goose hunt and tried on one group of Canada Geese that came over what I thought low enough, but no luck. Just after Sunset, the three of us stood on the mudflat and watched wave after wave of low flying teal fly by us. Thousands of them! Like Blackbirds all moving together only faster. It was a rush! I found my self yelling as one group wooshed by. What a blast!


Marks son sure looked to have fun, so I invited him to hunt again in the morning and he did. Mark showed later.
I stayed on the down side and had a blast watching Rory split the waves of teal, I picked a couple up when they flew wide around him and tried to land in my decoys. The lake was very low due to the drought and this was probably the muddiest duck hunt of my life, but man what fun.


Day 12 will continue in the Upland forum. Once there you will have to scroll down to day 12.
Link to day 12.

Day12 was continued in the Upland forum. Now for Day 13, the final day of my road trip.

Day 13.
I did not arrive at Cheyenne Bottoms until after dark, so set up my one man tent in the designated camping area by the headlights of my truck and visited with some other hunters camping there. Having never been there before, unable to scout, and not wanted to mess up anyone elses hunt, I decided to sleep in. Maybe do a mid day snipe hunt while scouting and then an evening duck hunt. Cheyenne Bottoms was both suggested to me by the ex game warden on the forum and also the Kansas game warden that I visited with on this trip. I had no idea. I paddled for two or three hours into marsh without seeing another hunter. I did see thousands of Ducks. Every opening in the marsh I came to looked like this.



I am sure it is not always like that, but as the Kansas Game Warden informed me, it was the week to be there. And being Thanksgiving eve, there were very few hunters.

Those pictures above are from within a hunting area. You think that was something, see the refuge side. Those are geese out there.



I went out in the kayak with Blaze and a few decoys for an evening hunt. Considering the numbers and kinds of different ducks, I had thought it fun to try and make each of my 5 ducks a different species. I could have easily done it, but watching that sun get lower and thinking about the 8 hour drive home ahead of me, I settled on a second "spoonie". Camera started acting up on me, too much dust, mud, and water exposure over the two weeks, but I did manage to get the lens to come out one last time for this picture of a pintail on top of the kayak.


Hope you guys enjoyed the pictures and stories. I hope to do this again each year, only maybe drive a different direction or try a different part of the country each time.

I finished my Hunting in Kansas with a slow paddle into the sunset, dog standing proud on my bow, parting hundreds of rafted ducks the entire way.

Cool pictures and good job!

Wow

Bravo Bravo John. Said it before and I'll say it again, that was one hellva trip.

Congrat's on yer Safari

I still think you should rename this thread "The Odyssey - Illustrated"

That is some good reading and pics. What an awesome trip to plan and go on.

Luckily the wonderful world of technology has brought me this BlackBerry device so I was able to read all of the stories while sitting in my deer blind Friday and Sat. It helps pass the time. Even most of the pics show up on it.

You should really consider sending some of your photos and stories to a magazine for publishing.

Great reading. I love hunting in different places, meeting new folks and hunting different game!!!!!

Thanks for allowing us to be apart of your experience.

GO REBS

That ,gentlemen, is what truly enjoying the outdoors is all about. I can only hope and dream to have a hunting safari like that some day. Thank you for the pictures and stories. I also agree that you should send that in to a magazine and get published. You and your beautiful dog deserve it. Heck...they might even finance your trip next year

John,

Glad to see you are putting those Honker dekes to good use!!!

Honk

Hey John, great pictures and stories. THANKS. Did you ever have any luck with the pheasants up there?