Wow!
We have 17 hunters and 9 dogs joining us this year, and mind you, none of us are professional guides.
How do we handle such a large group?
We scout and hunt in small groups, mixing and matching as the week unfolds. Of course, key to this strategy is access to plenty of trucks. This year, we have 6 at our disposal -- one rented at the Regina airport -- so you can do the math and see that on average we will have 3 hunters per truck and a dog or two.
When we arrive Saturday night, I will divvy up maps and ask different trucks and groups to scout different sectors of the map. In a perfect world, each truck will report back Sunday night that each found a spot or two they would rate a sure thing, and maybe a spot or two that deserve to be checked again as the week progresses.
Good scouting will allow us to set up on three different hunt locations Monday morning with five or six hunters per spot and a couple of dogs. Each group will have two decoy sets.
If our scouting is effective, locating 6 to 12 possible hunts, we should be good on spots through Tuesday afternoon. Three or four of the spots will be good enough to hunt a second time before they are burned out, so that helps us place hunters through the end of the week.
And then some of us enjoy scouting as much as hunting. Often, my brother and I will hunt for the first few hours, then break away and look for ducks. We get as much of a kick out of scouting and finding ducks as we do sitting over decoys. And when the rest of the groups finish their hunting at 10:30 a.m. or so, they typically will scout their way to lunch and perhaps do more scounting after lunch before settling in for an afternoon hunt.
With this kind of organization, we can handle a large group with surprising little hassle or confusion. Click the comment button below to add a comment or ask a question.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Scouting your way to success
As I have talked to people about my book “Prairie Pothole Fever,” there have been lots of questions about scouting.
We scout for duck generally by driving on gravel grid roads from large water to large water, and looking for duck activity on that water or in the area. When we get to the big water, we are looking for large concentrations of rafted ducks – thousands of birds. In between, we are looking for small water holding 500 or more ducks. Once we find either, we look closer.
As I explain in the book, all you need to scout well are good maps, a good set of binoculars, a tank of gas and persistence.
In the area we are hunting now, there are almost 40 DU projects within a 30 mile radius. We just moved to that area last year, and in conversation with a DU field officer, he offered to email me a map of where the DU projects were located. Perfect. We literally scouted from DU project to DU project. Ironically, we never hunted one of the projects, but the strategy led us to concentrations of ducks.
We order topographical maps and start by identifying where the larger and small water seems to be concentrated. We drive into that area and slowly drive from water to water, slow enough that we can watch the sky and the countryside, perhaps as slow as 15 to 25 miles per hour, always on the lookout for duck activity. We are looking for birds using small water near big water, or birds going back to big water, or birds coming or going from a field where they feed.
Part of the success of scouting is “searching” versus “looking.” When you look, you hope you are going to find ducks and you give the job as much concentration as your level of hope dictates. When you search, you are sure you are going to find ducks, it is just a question when. You expect to find ducks at every new turn.
The difference between the two reminds of fly fishing. When you cast a fly, you can hope a fish will take, or you can fish fully expecting a fish to take. Only if you fish with the second attitude will you catch fish. Under the second scenario, you try different presentations, you mend your line, you keep up with slack line so you can strike smartly, and you catch more fish.
Scouting is the same way. You work the map, you diligently work from large water to large water, you swing by the DU projects, you look at large water from several angles looking for hidden rafts of ducks and if you see even two or three ducks flying, you stop and watch what they do.
Often, that fleeting sight of just a few ducks will alert you to a concentration. The scenario and conversation goes like this:
“Hold on, I see a few ducks. Over there, near that tree line. Let me throw the glasses on ‘em”
“What are they doing?”
“Looks like they are going in just short of the trees?”
“Let’s sit here for a minute and see if anything else moves.”
“Here come six more, going in the same place. There’s a larger group behind them. Yep, they’re going in, too.”
“Let’s go check it out.”
That scenario plays it out dozens of times on a trip. Sometimes it leads to a small group of ducks, sometimes it leads to thousands.
To comment or ask questions, just double click on the word "comment" below.
We scout for duck generally by driving on gravel grid roads from large water to large water, and looking for duck activity on that water or in the area. When we get to the big water, we are looking for large concentrations of rafted ducks – thousands of birds. In between, we are looking for small water holding 500 or more ducks. Once we find either, we look closer.
As I explain in the book, all you need to scout well are good maps, a good set of binoculars, a tank of gas and persistence.
In the area we are hunting now, there are almost 40 DU projects within a 30 mile radius. We just moved to that area last year, and in conversation with a DU field officer, he offered to email me a map of where the DU projects were located. Perfect. We literally scouted from DU project to DU project. Ironically, we never hunted one of the projects, but the strategy led us to concentrations of ducks.
We order topographical maps and start by identifying where the larger and small water seems to be concentrated. We drive into that area and slowly drive from water to water, slow enough that we can watch the sky and the countryside, perhaps as slow as 15 to 25 miles per hour, always on the lookout for duck activity. We are looking for birds using small water near big water, or birds going back to big water, or birds coming or going from a field where they feed.
Part of the success of scouting is “searching” versus “looking.” When you look, you hope you are going to find ducks and you give the job as much concentration as your level of hope dictates. When you search, you are sure you are going to find ducks, it is just a question when. You expect to find ducks at every new turn.
The difference between the two reminds of fly fishing. When you cast a fly, you can hope a fish will take, or you can fish fully expecting a fish to take. Only if you fish with the second attitude will you catch fish. Under the second scenario, you try different presentations, you mend your line, you keep up with slack line so you can strike smartly, and you catch more fish.
Scouting is the same way. You work the map, you diligently work from large water to large water, you swing by the DU projects, you look at large water from several angles looking for hidden rafts of ducks and if you see even two or three ducks flying, you stop and watch what they do.
Often, that fleeting sight of just a few ducks will alert you to a concentration. The scenario and conversation goes like this:
“Hold on, I see a few ducks. Over there, near that tree line. Let me throw the glasses on ‘em”
“What are they doing?”
“Looks like they are going in just short of the trees?”
“Let’s sit here for a minute and see if anything else moves.”
“Here come six more, going in the same place. There’s a larger group behind them. Yep, they’re going in, too.”
“Let’s go check it out.”
That scenario plays it out dozens of times on a trip. Sometimes it leads to a small group of ducks, sometimes it leads to thousands.
To comment or ask questions, just double click on the word "comment" below.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
