Carl Tuesday, November 22Arrived at 3:30pm after 2 longs days of driving. Goal was to exercise myself and dogs in preparation for serious hunt on Wed. Hunted Belle for 45 minutes with no finds. Hunted hard but she's out of shape because of very little grouse hunting in October. She'll undoubtedly get much better over next week. Hunted Blue for 35 minutes. He pushed out two pheasants but I'm not sure he was really clued in on the birds. One bird jumped up and headed into sun. I couldn't see anything but the shape but judging from the cackling it was likely a rooster. No shot taken. A hen then flushed quietly from same area with dog working under tight grass cover and he didn't seem to be aware that the bird rose. Blue walked a lot and acted very unsure of his role and circumstances. After about 20 minutes he started to range a little at a faster pace and finally was actively hunting at a pace one would expect from a 10+-year-old dog who hasn't been hunted much. I'm confident that he'll do OK in the next week.
Wednesday, November 23On ground at 9:30AM with Belle in Section 16a. Warm, dry wind at about 30-40 mph. Temperature was 54F @ 9:30. Belle hunted well and went to all the right cover but had no finds. One rooster flushed in adjacent field but no shot opportunity. Hunted for about 45 minutes. Lots of debris blowing across fields. Put Blue on ground further down in section 16b. Took him about 10 minutes to figure out that he was hunting and he slowly picked up the tempo. Getting better. No birds. Still very windy and temp was then 62F. Hunted for about 40 minutes. Belle on ground in section 29a at 1:00 PM. Very windy and temp in high 60's. No birds - very frustrating. Hunted for about 25 minutes. Blue on ground on south side of section 20c @ 2:00PM . Slow to start but got revved up when he busted some turkeys. No other birds. Windy and temp about 68F. Hunted about 20 minutes. Blue on ground in upper section 20a @ 3:15PM. Hunted hard for about 25 minutes. No birds but one hen flushed wild off to side. Blue looked better. Belle on ground on south end of section 16c @ 4:00PM - freshly cut cornfield. Still very windy and warm and although she hunted hard and smart there was no bird work. Temp was still 58 when we quit qt 4:55PM - almost dark. Thursday, November 24Belle on ground at 8:15AM on southeast corner of Section 27b. Cold & windy. 28F & 25mph winds. Hunted for about 2 hours with no birds. Got birdy once but no follow-up. Hunted Blue on west side of 27b near barns. Hunted nicely but no birds. Lots of wind whipping across fields - blowing cornstalks and other debris. We quit after 45 minutes. Ate Thanksgiving Day lunch at [location deleted]. Not great food but only game in town. Headed for [location deleted] at 1:30 PM. Friday, November 25Things getting better! Hunted Belle in section 28a - cut cornfield and adjacent tall grass. On the ground about 8:30AM and still windy but warmer. Belle worked two roosters in swamp grass but I had no shot because of grass height (over my head). Moved on and pointed rooster in stubble - in the bag!! Worked two more birds along swale leading out of swamp area. Both ran a lot but we finally bagged one of them. Hunted Blue across stubble field into tree line. Hen and rooster went up way in front. Worked another rooster in grass - one more in the bag!! Continued in tree line and put up two more birds - one hen, one rooster. Took break until about 2:30PM. Then hunted Belle in section 6a - more grass and stubble. Worked three birds - all went up too far out. No shot possible. Hunted Blue in sector where Belle started this morning. Moved two coveys of quail and one rooster. No shots - Blue hunts OK but needs to start pointing. Quit at dark. Saturday, November 26Belle on ground at 8:45AM in east end of section 28a. Lots of birdiness in stubble field but birds apparently moving way ahead. Worked across stubble, along tree line and into grass field. One find that resulted in another rooster in bag - very surprising because of number of birds in there yesterday. Worked up through stubble toward truck and Belle worked a rooster. A hawk swooped low nearby and Belle took of after it. Simultaneously the rooster flushed and I shot it. Belle chased for extended period of time - terrible performance. Possible E-collar in her future. Hunted Blue in east end of section 26c. Rooster flushed about 20 ft. from truck just as I let him out. He chased for about ten minutes and put it up twice more. We then hunted a number of brush piles that looked to be excellent cover in middle of cut bean field with one more bird that was cleanly shot. He was very tired after his earlier chase. Weather was breezy and very mild (62F). Hunted Belle in section 11a/c. Very warm but she was quite birdy twice in this grass field area and we finally got one rooster. Then after about twenty more minutes of hunting she pointed some prairie chickens and chased for about 10 minutes. E-collar definitely in her future. Went back to section 28a with Belle and finally worked one of the coveys found yesterday. Two birds in bag and Belle partially redeemed herself for the earlier chase - nice dog work here. Sunday, November 28Spoke with John Wenzel who recommended shifting from Unit C to A for better Quail hunting. About 1:00PM went into the first field and within 50 yards of van Belle had first covey. Most of birds broke into adjacent field that is not MAHA property. Couldn't pursue them so we hunted singles on our property and got one after a point to flush. Very windy and Belle pointed three other singles two of which I bagged. Very nice dog work. Worked second covey in swale through middle of area. Flushed covey and one flew very close to ground and I had to pull shotgun up because of proximity to dog. They flew very fast with a 30mph tail wind and went across road. Tough shooting. Beautiful grounds. Third covey flushed wild out in middle of stubble field (cut soybean field). Hunted Blue in same section (different area) from about 2:30 - 3:00 when thunderstorms and lightning cut the day short. He was birdy once but no finds. Monday, November 29Drove from [location deleted] to [location deleted] after marginal breakfast at diner in Marysville. On the ground on south side of section 32 about 11:00AM. Windy and cold but had good luck in this area last year so decided to try it again. Hunted Belle along cut cornfield and found covey at end of field - got one bird on covey rise. Most of birds flew into adjacent tall grass field and we pursued with no finds. Pushed on to grass area in southeast part of area and found second covey in small tree line (same place as last year). One bird on covey rise and one more single about 10 minutes later. Very windy and getting colder. Quit about 12:45. Exercised Blue for about 10 minutes and then headed for [location deleted]. Tuesday, November 30Stayed in [location deleted] last night. Decent food and drink compared to [location deleted]. On the ground with Belle about 9:30AM on south side of section 14c/d. Lots of cut beans and tree lines. Very windy and spitting light sleet. Worked a covey in swale after about 30 minutes and took one bird on covey rise and a single after a few minutes. Worked around edge of adjacent field and started to think about leaving because of cold wind & sleet. Found a covey in grass edge of second field and dropped one more bird. Most of covey went across field in direction away from truck so we did a quick look at some of the closer spots that might hold a single with no luck - then head to truck about 12:00 noon. Miserable hunting weather. Wednesday, December 1On the ground with Belle at 8:30AM in section 11b. Cover similar to yesterday. Weather similar to yesterday - awful - windy and cold. No fun hunting in this weather. We actually found a covey after about 10 minutes along grass-covered swale. Good dog work and we got one on covey rise and then a single out in middle of field. Crazy place for a quail to set down in this weather. Worked around field and then into tree line and across second grass area with no finds. Went back to truck about 10:00 AM. Worked Blue for about an hour in east side of section 7b. Nice cover but now the wind was howling and although Blue seemed to go to right places we had no finds. Time to head East toward DC and Maine. Good trip overall.
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