Later Season
My Griffon and I had another great hunt this weekend in [location deleted]. Lots of birds and seeing all the hunters patrolling the roads on opening day was a reminder of how good we have it in this organization. Thanks for all your hard work in making it happen. Thought I'd share this picture of TJ (Wirehaired Pointing Griffon) displaying her new pointing style. She seems to prefer this posture toward the end of a hard day's work, when fatigue sets in, and her feet are sore. I just have to be careful I don't spoil her too much. Charles Earlier season.
I hope all is well for you all. Just wanted to drop you a note with a report on our hunting so far this year. As always the service from the office staff has been great this year. I'm always greeted with a pleasant and patient voice. That means so much since my calls for reservations are often the first step in a hunting trip and your helpfulness really sets the tone. I know how busy and hectic it gets for you folks and I never feel like I'm bothering someone. Nicole even guided me to my hunting reservation area one day when I was out in the boondocks and had forgotten my maps at home. Congratulations on the conversion to CD for the maps. For me this is much handier than the old system. Having been involved in computer activities, I know it takes a lot of work and expense. Thank you.
We also moved more into duck hunting this year with some investment in equipment. It is certainly more complicated than when I hunted with my dad 35 years ago in Minnesota. For one thing the ducks in Minnesota are pretty stupid compared to their level of education by the time they migrate all the way down here. It's also almost a full time job managing/charging and replacing all the batteries that new technology requires. I'm still working on my calling. This year calling worked best when I left the call in the glove box of my vehicle. My 3 y/o Wirehaired Pointing Griffon really came into her own this year on pheasants. The past two years I've adopted a training method recommended by a NAVHDA Judge from Maine.
Again, Jon and Staff. Thank you so much for another great hunting season. I look forward to many more. I'm sending you some pictures through snail mail of our hunting success. Sorry I haven't moved into the digital world of photography yet. Take care. Charles Dahlstrom Previous letterDear Jon, Jennifer and John, I hope your New Years are off to great starts. Jon, our association with you was positive right from the start. When we were considering a membership last year, I really appreciated your candor about what to expect from MAHA. I remember you pointing out that this was not a "game farm" with a guarantee of limits of birds for every hunt. That was important for me. During earlier years in my life in northern Minnesota, I'd done a great deal of hunting "wild" upland game birds (mostly Ruffed Grouse), with a couple trips to the southern part of the state for pheasants. But over the last 20 years my hunting had been limited to occasional outings at game farms with planted birds and rented dogs. I wanted something more authentic and genuine for my young son. I wanted him to earn his shots. Well, needless to say, with this last year's tough winter and poor nesting, and Conservation Reports in all three states predicting pheasant and quail population dips of 40% to 70%, we knew going into the year that it was going to be challenging. We started the year with the Youth Hunts in Iowa and Kansas and had to end our season early in mid- January due to an injury to the most important member of our hunting partnership ("TJ," our 14-month old Wire-Haired Pointing Griffon). I think we hunted 29 days, with my son having to limit his trips to weekends. I'm fortunate to have considerable time off during the holiday season, so TJ and I hit the second half of the season hard. We split our time pretty equally among the three states, and with only a couple exceptions, tried new areas for each hunt. Your prediction was right that the hunting was better the further from Kansas City we traveled. But we found birds on all by one hunting day. I was particularly pleased with the numbers of quail we found. This was especially surprising as we did not specifically hunt for quail on timber edges or close to beans. We basically hunted pheasants and were shooting full chokes and 3-inch #4s when we encountered quail (by the way, we made only a little dent in the quail population with those loads). Given the state reports and the number of times I have heard the disgusted statement from other hunters: "There's no quail left at all," I concluded any quail we found would have to be at the local game farm. TJ and I raised five coveys on our best day and we typically saw two coveys per day. I guess a parallel I can relate to is walleye fishing. Growing up in northern Minnesota, walleye fishing involved a short drive to "Lake of the Woods" which bordered Minnesota and Manitoba. We'd buy fishing licenses for both sides. In those days we could take 8 walleyes in Manitoba and 6 in Minnesota. In a few hours in Buffalo Bay, we'd have our limit of fourteen 2- to 3-pound walleyes each and be on our way home. Down here, I spend all day on Stockton lake for 2 or 3 keeper walleyes. I also want to give you folks feedback on your customer services. I looked forward to calling for reservations or stopping by the office so I could visit with Jennifer, then Kris, then Jennifer again (after the stork made its delivery). Everyone was open to, tolerant of, and helpful with my various questions (e.g. "When was that area hunted last? How many hunters?" etc.). Jennifer, I've heard and seen the volume of phone calls you get at busy times and I know the phones must drive you nuts at times. A hunt could get off to a bad start with a sharp word or a bad attitude while making a reservation for a hunt. Your friendliness and patience were so much appreciated. Thank you. Thank you very much for all your hard work. Sincerely,
|
Happy New Year Jon and Crew:
We've had good hunting this year. I'm fortunate to be able to hunt a lot and we'll be eating pheasant, quail and ducks for many months. For those who haven't seen the new Duck's Unlimited Cookbook, it's got some great recipes (try the Pheasant Marsela and substitute Wild Rice if you can get it).
The key component of this method is that: "birds train dogs on how to hunt...the best bird dog training device is a strip of duct tape placed firmly over the mouth of the handler. Some of the methods fly in the face of traditional theory and training of upland bird dogs. Interesting stuff.
