Long Hollow Retrievers

I was fixin' to work this weekend... So I pulled the kids out of school Friday for their 1st duck hunting adventure...  The early morning brought a lot of Hot Chocolate and laughter... But right at legal shooting light the boys witnessed the harvest of two beautiful Gadwall's... Grady was full of question's and Ryker was full of answers...

Shortly after  that we took a Drake Ringneck and a Drake Bufflehead... Two beautiful Diver's that were unlike anything they had ever seen before... The morning started perfect and my day was made... We were nothing but smiles as we shared our first morning in a duck blind together...

I figured since the focus of this trip was on the yougnster's that we would go ahead and complete the theme by enjoying some time duck hunting with one of our young dog's "Mercy"...

The 1st hour of light was just enough fast action for the 3 of us and all quesitons about what Dad does on the weekends were answered... Plus a few other good questions from Grady like, " What if the ducks that get away go back and tell their friends what happened?  Then they won't come back"...

By mid morning it was warm and calm... It was evident that the remainder of the day would be slow... Not to mention the boys were pretty figidy by then... So I took them for a long boat ride and they insisted that I shoot some Coots... Needless to say... Shooting Coots and going for a boat ride was a big hit!

Proud boys!  On Cloud 9!

All that fun... And I am pretty sure they had the most fun picking up the decoy's...

It was great to see Grady especially enjoying the pride in some hard work and a job well done! 

All and all it was a great day!

Ryker and I shared our first trip to the Goose field this last Saturday... Ryker was a natural... He loved sipping Hot Chocolate in the layout blind... And I will never forget his face as we cleaned up on the 1st small group of Greater Canadian Honkers that came in right at shooting light... He was full of questions... But all in all I think he enjoyed him self as much as I did...

Big thanks to friend and client Todd Thayer for putting this hunt together... It's always fun getting to the field with good friends... But this trip was extra special to me with 3 of my very good friends and my oldest son Ryker getting to be with us on his very 1st Goose Hunt...  Thanks Todd....

This is the look of a 7 year old after witnessing his 1st Geese cupped and committed to the decoy's... Plus he was pretty hopped up on Hot Cocoa!

With everything froze up; A thawed out creek was just the ticket... Delta and I enjoyed a great Duck Hunt this morning with friend and part time assistant trainer "Matt Tuttle" and friend "Chase Hunter"... Right at shooting light... Sure enough... The sound of whistling wings and the sight of cupped Mallards proved we were in the right spot...

We made quick work of it as the boys had to be on time for class and I had to pick up two of my kids from the Babysitter... I was having coffe and breakfast with Traci and my kids by 10 am...

GUIDE - "Chase Hunter"...

TRAINER - "Matt Tuttle"...

MASTER HUNTER - "Delta"

1st trip of the year was Great!  Great weather! Great Friends! Great Dogs! and Great Shootin!

Not to mention being joined for the 1st time by my Uncle Paul Harrington of Spokane Washington... Paul was a joy to share the blind with and he is welcome at my fire any time...:)

Pictured Left to Right... Delta, Billy, Josh, Paul and Mac...

Billy and Fergy were meant to be!

Mac showed a lot of maturity on this trip as he and Delta shared the work load...

This will motst definitely be a trip that I will not soon forget...

I am so glad it was all worth it... We put out one enormous spread this trip...

It's been a long time since I traveled down Long Hollow Road... It brought back a lot of good memories... I spent some good time in the field with an old friend and a couple new ones... We enjoyed great weather and plenty of birds... Not to mention great Whiskey and a lot of fun around the camp fire...

Good friend and Client Todd Thayer and his dog Rufus shot their 1st limit of Rooster's early on Saturday... Rufus did a great job for a rookie pheasant dog and showed a lot of heart after a tough day of hunting and tracking a few hard to find cripples...