Friday, September 21, 2012

Early Duck Season - Early Buck Season

Tomorrow marks the start of the early duck season here in Iowa and I cannot remember the last time I was this unexcited about it. Normally early duck season is one of my favorite times of year. My dog can get out and do what is clearly her favorite form of hunting, I get to fill my freezer with delicious little rockets (mostly shooting blue-winged teal and pin feathered local woodies in the early season) and it usually feels like this weekend is the starting off point for the fall hunting season.

Sadly Iowa is experiencing a drought that has left most of my usual ducks spots as dried up cracked mud beds. What little water there is will be lorded over by the many other duck hunters that will be out this weekend and quite frankly I am not expecting there to be many ducks. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve but I am not expecting anything like last year where we had four guys shoot limits in an hour and a half.

I have been very aware of the upcoming situation and have been focusing a lot more of my energy on preparing for deer season. Yesterday I setup my last set on my own property out in Warren County, placing my ground blind on an embankment  above our creek, one of the only water sources in the area that still holds a little water. Trail camera pictures have shown consistent early morning activity so I am pretty excited about the prospects.

This coming Tuesday I am kicking off my deer season by heading down to southeast Missouri to visit my parents and brother as well as partake in the already open Missouri archery season. Missouri allows for over-the-counter non-resident tag purchases so I am going to try and stick an early season buck down there. If I am not successful, I will be down there at least two more times during the season so there will be more opportunities.


No comments:

Post a Comment