"I DON'T WANT NO GOOSE"

My Uncle Kelly and I got down the marsh just before all the snow showed up and did some damage despite the fact that we had absolutely no wind. Kelly killed a goose the afternoon before I got there and the next morning we limited out on geese and killed 3 gadwall, 3 mallards, and another drake pintail. None of the ducks decoyed just right because our spread looked pretty fishy after some junks of skim ice tangled up a bunch of our decoys and the tide took a couple away. Also Kelly stoned a goose at about 50 yards right above us that landed directly on my new robo d and smashed it. We got em to come in and take a good look though which ended up being good enough. For the most part we shot straight and Dex did a great job on a couple tough retrieves. We had one mallard sail on us and land on the other sided of the river and swim up in the marsh. Towards the end of the day we took Dex over to the other side to let him hunt the shore line even though we did not think there was much of a chance of finding the bird, but Dex found it within a couple minutes. All in all a good day in what is turning out to be a pretty solid season down at The Marsh.




I stopped at the Rayzway on my way home and one of the ladies behind the counter asked me if I had any ducks I could share with her. I quickly offered one of the 4 geese I had in the truck, and she looked at me like I had just offered her a fresh dog turd and exclaimed "I DONT WANT NO GOOSE!!!" :)

"Cash" Arrives

Yesterday Sarah and I drove down to south west VA with Taylor to pick up his puppy "Cash". These folks have some really good looking dogs and Taylor got the pick of the litter. He is a male with a black nose just like his daddy "Beau Brooks". "Brooks" is one of the best looking yellow labs I have ever seen. Here are some pics.

Sarah with one of Cash's cute little sisters. It was tough for us to get out of there with just one puppy, but cooler heads prevailed.

That's Cash on the far right catching a nap with two of his sisters.

Cash with his new Dad

Cash up close

This is Beau Brooks showing off in his pen. He looks to be about 80-85 lbs and handsome.

Brooks just hanging tight

He is a beef cake for sure

"I like DAT DUCK"

My brother Taylor and I had a pretty good swat yesterday morning. It is amazing how much difference a good cold front and a little breeze makes. We hunted two weeks ago on opening day and it was 60 degrees and dead still. We scraped out 1 goose and 1 ring neck but it was pretty slow. Yesterday we had a great mixed bag with 2 pintails, 2 mallards, 1 ring neck, 1 teale, and 3 geese. Here are some pics

My dad stole my chest waders and left them in the back of his car which is in the richmond airport parking lot so I borrowed his hip boots and ended up filling them which sucked!

Taylor with his new hunting dog

The first bull Pintail I ever remember killing down at our marsh. He did it just right with his girlfriend. Taylor and I both shot him in the face and then Taylor got sloppy and shot the lady in the ass

Me and Dex. Dex did a great job yesterday and he is still passed out. The old man is slowing down a bit unfortunately

Taylor and Dex in front of the blind

Our birds hung up at the cabin

New River Part Deux

Taylor, Mase and I went and did an overnight on The New the last weekend in July and despite the fact that it dumped on us for a solid 6 hours on Saturday we had a great trip. We did not catch a ton of fish but we caught a handful of really nice fish each day. I personally had been on a record setting dink streak so it was exciting to catch some good fish. We also caught every single one of these fish on the surface with big white popping bugs. Most of the fish except for Taylor's monster ate in real slow water near the banks and the takes were super slow and subtle just like a big ole trout.



This was the biggest fish of the trip. A solid 19" measured on the cooler. It ate in fast water and put up a hell of a fight. Taylor did a hell of a job just to land this fish. About 45 minutes after this fish I had a bigger one slurp my popping bug charge me, jump out of the water so we could see him, and spit it right back in the boat. He still haunts my dreams

Hard to see how fat this fish is but he is a hoss.

Honeymoon

We went down to Belize for our honeymoon and it was incredible. I have not done a ton of saltwater flyfishing, but I have fished The Keys, Mexico, and the Bahamas on several occasions. It is safe to say that Belize is now at the top of my list. Belize hosts more Grand Slams (Permit, Tarpon, and Bonefish) then any other country in the world, and after fishing here it is easy to see why. Our first morning we spent in the mangroves fishing for Tarpon and Snook, then when the sun came out we ran out to the bonefish flats and caught bonefish till the tide got right to chase Mr. P. That same day I caught a Tarpon(dink), Bonefish, Snook, and Barracuda all on the fly. My wife also landed 4 bonefish on her very first saltwater fly fishing expedition. We owe much of our success to Captain Eworth Garbut, who is the best guide I have ever fished with. Typically I end the day chomping at the bit and wishing we could stay out for a couple more hours but Eworth (pronounced Euort) had me begging for mercy at the end of both days. His passion for fishing, knowledge of the area, and ability to get the most out of his anglers with the perfect balance of optimism/encouragement and criticism/instruction are unparalleled. We can't wait to go back!!












Go Fish with Eworth and his Brothers!! also we stayed at Turtle Inn

New River Madness

For my bachelor party 10 of us headed west to do an overnight on the New River. We had an amazing time and while the fishing wasn't exactly red hot we ate and drank well and the scenery was spectacular. We also managed to catch a couple nice fish. Including probably the biggest fresh water fish any of us will ever see in real life again.

Dinner

My buddy Mcnair landed this 44 inch 24.6lb tiger muskie on a 5wt fly rod with 2x(9lb) tippet. It took him almost 30 minutes to land it and almost as long for us to revive it. The outfitter we were fishing with who has been guiding on this river for 28 years says there is no doubt in his mind that this fish was the largest muskie ever landed on such light tackle.

Last Two Weeks of the Season

We like to start em young in the commonwealth

2nd hunt back in VA

Last day of the season we hunted in a full on blizzard. I saw two accidents on the way to the duck hole

This pic does not doe it justice but Dex was completely coated in ice

My buddy Troy who hosted this mission with Dex and a lot of Green

Last Trip Out West and Virginia Come Back

Captain commander pooty tang with Boudreaux and Dex (behind him). This pic is from our first hunt in town. We killed our limit in about 2 hours. 13 wigeon and one green head.

Poot and I had an unreal hunt on our 3rd day. We set up in a new spot with a strong wind from right to left. When we first set up it was clear and sunny which is great for this section of river. It was slow for the first 45 minutes until we had a group of 40 mallards do it perfectly. 3 greenheads dropped in from about 200 yds up like they were coming down an elevator shaft. We let the 3 land and the rest of the group took one more pass and came in about the same time that the 3 green heads on the water spooked. Poot and I killed 5 out of the group. One of which was the double banded bird below with a $100 money band. It ended up getting really foggy which we thought would be a deal killer but we started calling alot to help the birds find us in the fog and it only took us about another hour to fill our limit of mallards.


This picture is from the boat ramp on the way out after hour last hunt of the trip. It was 33 and rainy with a 15mph wind all day. Unfortunately the hunting was good enough for us to fill our limit but it took us all day and we were soaked to the bone and miserable by the time we got out of there.
This pic is from my first duck hunt back in Virginia. My buddy invited me to a beaver swamp he has access to about 45 min from Charlottesville. We shot a green head that sailed into the woods beyond the swamp and we assumed it was lost, but at the end of the hunt I walked over to where I thought the bird went down and sent Dex on it and to all of our surprise he found it.

Oakey and I went down to the Marsh two weeks ago on a Thursday evening and the next morning we killed 10 mallards/blacks in about an hour and a half which is the best hunt I have ever had down at our marsh. The whole river was frozen up except for a chunk of open water in the middle of our marsh. We walked to the hole and tossed out a handfull of dekes and the birds worked perfectly. We ended up hunting the river in the afternoon as the ice moved out with the tide and killed 2 more ducks to fill our limit and 3 geese just one shy of a limit. This one is permantently burned in my mind. Pretty much everything was perfect. The ducks worked perfectly, we shot straight, and Dex was absolutely perfect. Without him we would not have been able to get to or find any of our ducks.
Dex was so tired he fell asleep in the fire. :)

Dex helping dad drive.

Dad and Taylor joined Oakey and I on Friday evening and on Saturday the ice made the hunting a lot tougher but we ended up scratching out 4 ducks in 4 shots. Taylor folded a black duck at shooting time followed up by a triple by Oakey later in the day.

Yesterday the King brothers treated us to a great goose hunt out at their place. Thanks Guys!!