Thursday, September 15, 2011

Ridin' on DUBS! Part 1

Next year I want permission to hunt here









In the words of Ice-T,'That ain't me dawg!".So with Hurricane Irene gone,the following week brought major flooding of all the local rivers and creeks.This translates to trees with root balls still attached floating down river at 4 knots,aka not going bass fishing anytime soon.No worries the September goose season came in!Not only was I not excited,it was almost like I wasn't enjoying the thought of going to hunt honkers.I powered through this outdoor depression and got the boat ready.Blind put back on,grass mats attached,decoys washed off,ready to roll.Opening day I was by myself in a spot that I most likely will never get the chance to hunt again.This topic I will not discuss until it all gets figured out but lets say the blind laws in Virginia are a bit strange and leave it at that.So there I was reading my current selection,The Good Soldiers,in the boat blind in 80 degree weather not feeling this hunt.Not sure if it was because i was by myself,was it the weather,was it the lack of birds?Again I powered through my second bout of outdoor depression and the birds never worked correctly and I went home empty handed.I made the decision that I needed to do something different to get the outdoors enjoyment back in my life,a boot to the pant seat if you will.After a short chat with my big brother Swamp Thing I began to realize it was time to stretch my outdoor legs and branch out.


The Goose setup
Dove season opened in a few days,sounds like a plan.I looked at public areas to hunt,I decided that was a horrible idea.People lined up on the dirt roads shooting each other in the face isn't my idea of getting in touch with the outdoors.It was high time I took a go at getting permission to hunt private land.Not just any land,but the large field directly behind my house that was planted in half corn this year. I met the farmer earlier this year,at night,while fireworks were going off,not a great time to connect with a land owner=fail.This time I drove by the harvesters at the end of the day and caught one of the farmers sons outside.A short chat later and I was in!I couldn't believe how cool he was with the idea.It definitely helped that I lived nearby and was a "hard working man trying to do right by the world."Southern people are awesome!So I made the call to my other brother who lives nearby and we had a nice setup for the next day.Dove hunting in the field directly behind my house,how much easier can it get.I didn't even care if we didn't see any birds,it promised to be a relaxing afternoon spent outdoors.Stay tuned,next time we go dove hunting,the guns work well but how about our aim?Have a good one and get outside!

Sunset on the Elizabeth River,Southern Branch

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