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The Tale of Muck-Boy
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Muck
Boy Waterfowl Report Page |
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| Welcome to our waterfowl report page, on this page we will report on our waterfowl hunting trips. We will let you know in some detail what worked and of course what did not work, with plenty of pictures. | |
| Report |
Pictures |
| Jan
- 5 & 6 - 08
- Field Reporter Paul Smith's Update
- Genesee Co - Saturday, January 5, 2008. Southern Genesee Co. Buddy Bob said he had a few birds using a bubbler at a local Marina that he had permission to hunt. Couldn't hunt it til after 9 am but had a small flock in just after that and managed to drop three. Bob, a diver for one of the local law enforcement agencies, added a new twist to the hunt as he donned his dry suit and retrieved the ducks that had fell out on the thin ice. Sunday, January 6, 2008. Northern Genesee Co. Buddy Mark called while I was out hunting on Saturday and said a few birds had started working his fields, so Sunday morning we gave 'em a try. We spread 28 full body geese (shoulda brought the other 22 sittin' in my garage along with the 3 doz. shells in the shed) and 30 mallards in the field (forgot the Mojo), the birds were skittish (lot of shootin' nearby) and didn't offer many easy shots but we did manage to get 4 Geese, 4 Mallards, and a Black for the four of us. We must have had about 200 ducks over the field at one time but couldn't get 'em to commit into shooting range. It did get my old "Ticker" a poundin' pretty good though. Again the muddy chisel plowed field made us settle for less than an optimal set up, as we didn't set out 1/2 the decoys we should have. |
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| Nov
- 23- 07
- Field Reporter Paul Smith's Update
- Genesee Co -
My buddy Mark called on Thanksgiving and said he
had a few geese working his fields. So we hit it Friday, pretty disappointing
as nothing, absolutely nothing was flying in the morning, never saw a
goose in the air. We took a midday break and headed out for and afternoon
hunt, the wind had shifted 90 degrees but after the slow morning and being
just plain lazy we didn't adjust our set up. Well, the geese started flying
and we couldn't line 'em up for good shots and only ended up with one
for our efforts. Lessons
learned. We headed out for an afternoon hunt on Saturday, made sure
we were correctly set up for the wind. When the geese showed up we were
ready and had our three man limit in less than 20 minutes. A muddy chisel
plowed corn field isn't the easiest place to make necessary adjustments
when conditions change but if you don't it can make the difference between
a few birds or a limit. |
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| Nov
- 18- 07
- Field Reporter Paul Smith's Update
- Ogemaw Co-
My Oldest son Scott (3 Shell) and I went up to our cabin
to pull the dock and get other chores done, so we decided to mix in a
little duckin'. After a little scoutin' Sat. morning we weren't seein'
much. Till we hit a small (around 70 acres) lake on state land, it was
loaded with Buffies, only problem no launch and since I had the boat/blind
I couldn't use that there, didn't bring the Sportboat, only thing I had
we could get in on the lake was my little one-man Puddler. Well, I dropped
3Shells off with the Puddler while I went back to the cabin to get the
big boat ready for an afternoon hunt on another lake. Just him his shotgun
and 6 GHG bufflehead decoys, picked him up 2 hrs later and he had 4 buffies
and was a bit lighter in the shell department than he had been a couple
of hours before. Since we had no success at the "Bigger Lake"
Sat. afternoon, we decided to hunt the Puddler on the small lake Sunday
morning. 3Shells took the first shift starting at shootin' time he was
back at the Cabin with his limit of buffies by 8 am, so I finshed my coffee
and took a 9 am to 11 am hunt (cause we had to leave by noon or so). Well,
I was back at 11:30 with 5 more.
What'd I haul the boat/blind up and all them diver decoys All I needed was a 1/2 doz. buffie decoys and a little marshboat. Who said ya need big water and lots a decoys ta hunt divers. |
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Nov - 10- 07 - Fish point State Game Area - What a great day for November, but these kind of days are not made for good ducking in Michigan. These are the kind of days that dogs just love to run and explore. Our next trip here will be when the weather is more of a duck day and not a sun tan sort of a day. We
took zone 9 after drawing 23rd out of 24 parties in the draw. The good
news is, there is now about 6 inches of water in front of the blind
which was great for setting out decoys. The bad news was the ducks weren't
flying. |
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| Nov
- 03- 07
- Field Reporter Paul Smith's Update
- This was only my second trip there this year as conditions and hunting
has been poor. Nayanquing Point has hardly any cover and only about 50% of the area has "some" water. Hunting has been spotty with few birds being taken most days. Very few. You can get a canoe / small boat up the ditches but must carry gear into most fields as there is a lot of sheet water and dry spots. However, on the 31st, we did manage a good draw on a good day with a front coming through, heavy overcast, mist, and 20+ mph winds got the ducks flying off Saginaw Bay. It was very difficult to pick out the Drakes in those weather conditions for a couple of old guys with tired eyes and the ducks were real wary of the two blobs sitting in the sparse cover and didn't want to fully commit. We both had headaches from eye strain by the end of the hunt but we did manage to eke out a limit. My buddy went back two days later and only fired a few shots. |
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| Oct
- 23- 07
- Field Reporter Paul Smith's Update
- Early goose was a bust for us, 4 hunts only produced 1 goose, we hunted
local fields (Genesee Co. and Livingston Co.). Went to Nayanquing Point on the 11th and never fired a shot, the situation there was dismal the corn is almost nonexistent stalks are sparse and only about waist high and very little water. Hunted local fields (Genesee Co.) for geese the 13th and 14th, the last 2 days of goose season in the SJBP before the split. Went with my buddy Chris his Cousin and their boys, the geese flew well the 13th and we shot our 5-man limit before 10 am. Went back to the same field on the 14th, since it was the last day of the split with Chris and his son Lucas and managed to take 3 geese out of the one flock that gave us a close enough pass. Been a slow start for our crew this year. |
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| Oct
- 07- 07
- Saginaw County Michigan
- The opening week end of the Michigan waterfowl hunting season brought
record warm weather and many many
mosquitoes. Saturday was a very slow day for us with only a lone drake mallard and goose giving us a look. Sunday found many more birds in the air. We bagged a drake wood duck just after shooting time and that would be it, for the ducks. Geese were totally a different matter, over the course of the morning we seen upwards of 600 geese. I only wish we had that many wanting to get into our decoys. We did end up with 3 geese for the morning. The first one came when it broke away from another and came right into the set up just like you see on TV, it was a thing of beauty. After that a group of about 20 worked our spread for about ten minutes but they really never presented us a good shot. That was about it, except for high fliers, until what I call the 10:00 rush, this is the time when geese get off the fields and head to water. A small flock of about 8 came over the tree line, very quite, we gave them a few clucks on the calls, they turned toward us. We continued to work them with clucks. They passed us to the right and then turned and came right for the decoys. They never committed but two came right over us low enough for a good shot ending a very warm and productive morning. |
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| Sep - 09- 07 - Saginaw County Michigan - What a fabulous morning it was here, geese were moving and the weather could not have been better with a light north east breeze. I had 3 try to sneek in as I was setting up the decoys about 7:00am and that was the last that made an attempt to get on the lake, until about 10:00am. A flock of about 50 came across the western tree line and they made it straight into the western part of the area we are hunting. About 15 minutes later a flock of about 20 came over me from the north made a perfect swing into the decoys. When they made their swing I was concerned that they would not circle around again because of the other fifty on the other side of the area, I drew on the lead goose and that was that. What a great day. | Click Image for Larger a View
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Sep - 01- 07 - Saginaw County Michigan - Early goose season started very slow for us today, no birds flying, but we did have a few ducks working the area and our setup. Will be after them in a few days when the pressure lets up a little. The dog had a great time checking out the the lake when he wasn't sleeping or back in the cattails. Every season we all look through all the catalogs and see television ads telling us how great a certain product is and how we can't get along without it. So we are going to test these products and see if they have real value and use for the regular hunter. This year we will be using a two wheel cart, we plan to use it to haul our decoys in and out of the fields, it could also be used to haul gear into your deer hunting area and haul the big one back out. We will update you after every hunt as to how this cart performed or if we even have found a use for it. So check back often and if you would like us to try something just send us an email with what you would like us to try. |
 
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| Aug-19-07 - Went out scouting our early goose season spot today and as long as we were going we made it a family outing. Took the kids and dogs along, kids got a little fishing in and dogs well they did what dogs do, ran and ran and swam and ran some more. Fishing was a little slow but all had a good time. Oh, by the way there was a small flock that wanted in on the lake but we were making to much noise. We also spotted 3 other family groups about a mile from our area. Looks like we are set for September 1st. |  
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| Oct
-28-06 - Fish point State Game Area - Today the Muck boy crew had the privilege of taking Richard Houser of Reese, MI., on Richard's first waterfowl hunt at the Fish Point State Game Area. The afternoon hunt was a youth hunt that was sponsored by the DNR and the Fish Point Wildlife Association. We drew well and took zone 9 (note: the corn in this zone looked to be mostly eaten and the cover thin). The afternoon weather report was promising with occasional rain and heavy winds forecasted, and we were not disappointed. The decoys were set right at 1:00pm and the teal were everywhere. I can not remember when so many teal were in the area. I like to call them "bullet wasters" and we wasted plenty of bullets on them early. When the rain lifted and the wind picked up, the teal quit flying like they had earlier. Throughout the afternoon, an occasional mallard or pintail would check out the decoys. We managed to pick up four additional mallards to go along with the three teal we bagged earlier. Richard shot very well and had a great time. The Muck boy crew looks forward to taking him hunting again. |
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| Sep - 07- 06 - Saginaw County Michigan - Today the Muck boy crew was joined by Ernie Smith and his dog Tugg on a hunt for local geese. For a while we thought it was going to be a replay of 9/2/06. The day started with fog, it was not really heavy but thick enough that it kept the birds from moving early. About 10:00am the fog started to break and at 11:00am a flock of about 12 came over the trees from behind us, responding to our calls 3 from that group, came right in and we dropped 2. The next flock showed up 5 minutes later and we dropped 3 more of which 1 was a cripple, of course it was on the other side of the lake. Ernie and Tugg took off after it and in the mean time 4 more joined the cripple. When Ernie and Tugg got close to them they took off and flew right over my position and I downed the last bird of the hunt while Ernie and Tugg retrived the cripple. After 4 hours of waiting the whole hunt was over in 15 minutes. | Click Images for Larger a View
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Sep - 02- 06 - Saginaw County Michigan - Well the picture to the right should explain the second day of the early goose season. Yes the fishing was better than the goose hunting. A few distance flocks flying at about 7:30am and then nothing. |
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| Sep - 01- 06 - Saginaw County Michigan - Early goose season started slow for us today, not many birds flying, the property owner says the birds have not been active for about a week now. There was an occasional flock that flew by but nothing that gave us a hard look until 10:00 am. A flock of about twenty came over the west tree line and may a straight line to our set up at about thirty yards they started to make a turn that's when we opened up and managed to take three. | Click Images for Larger a View
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| Aug-13-06 - Went scouting our early goose season spot today and we were not disappointed. In this picture there are about 50 geese and before we left the area there were about 200. Well the blood pressure is up and we can't wait till September 1st. Stay tuned for our next report coming Labor Day week end. |  |
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