The morning started off like any other pheasant hunting morning. Got up, got Tino out to do his business and then it happened. My buddy Bill came over and Tino was happy to see him. In his jovial moment. Tino hit Bill's bumper and cut himself deeply. The weird thing was that Tino was not bleeding and I did not even find the ensuing cut. We made our way out to Quarrry Ridge Hunt Club were Corey was putting out birds frantically.

As we made our way out to the field, Tino made sure that every bird was discovered and flushed a bird that was not ours. No problem, because you can't keep this dog off any bird. He has an amazing nose and finds everything within a country mile. We finally made it to our field and Tino went to work. He pointed bird after bird but within about a half hour it was apparent, Tino suffered a very deep cut to his ribcage. Tino did great and pointed out all of our birds, but definitely had a bad cut on his side on his ribcage.

We finished our last hunt and I am sure Tino was as disappionted as we were, but it was over nonetheless. Tino was not in good shape suffering the cut as well as some internal problems from that pheasant that ran him into the trees early in the video. The hunt was great and me, my uncle, my cousin, and friend Bill did great. Tino, despite his injury did not fail to impress and pointed out all the birds. We however; did miss a few and showed that we need some shooting practice.

Now it is on to fishing season but be assured, Tino will be out practicing for next waterfowl season and yes, he is a pointer, however; pointers can be great waterfowl dogs too!!!! Wait till next year and I will show you. Thanks for tuning into my blog, and don't forget to check out my youtube channel.

So I got the video to upload. Here it is, enjoy!!!! Sorry about the video being sideways, I forgot to realign my Contour Roam's lens because the camera was on my bow last. I know it really narrows things down and will not forget this in the future.

Early Season On The Fox

Got out today and was hoping to find some water temps out of the 30's however; with the weather over the past few weeks, that was an impossibility. Met a new partner in crime at about 9:40 because I missed the turn off to his house and hit the river. We started in 4 fow looking for any fish up close to cover because the river was high and fast. Nothing was happening and we used several different lures to try and hook into a smallie or eyeball. We stayed out for about five hours and did more searching and looking for promising spots for warmer weather.

One bright spot was this Bald Eagle that we saw several time during the outing. He seemed to be upset with us as we moved in on the tree that he was sitting in. The eagle flew off but that was great to see so close to home. I know he is kindof hard to see but my current camera lacks a good zoom.

Also I did hook into something large at the end of our trip and never did get to see what that fish was. It hit tight to the lay down we were in front of and made its way around the boat into the deeper water. As I tried to life the fish it just hugged the bottom and would not budge. The fish eventually headed back into the shallower water and then the hook pulled. Even though I did not land the fish it was great to have something on and something that big. We fished for a while after that and then called it a day. Hope the temps come up soon and trigger some spawning action. 

On another note it was great to meet another fellow fishermen that could stand the cold temps and really fish the area extensively. Good to meet you Sam and we will definitely be getting out more as the season progresses.

Winter continues to hang on!!!!

Well I was hoping to have a tale of many fish but it was not meant to be. Another fisherman and I planned to do some winter smallie fishing on The Fox River however, there was ice over the whole river on Sunday morning. This was disappointing but I have just seen the forecast for the next three days and apparently we are going to get somewhere between 5" to a foot of snow! Oh well, I guess after last year's drought, we need all the water we can get.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I will be able to get out on some spawning pike and pre-spawn eyeballs and smallies. I am on a quest to catch a mount worthy specimen to hoan my taxidermy skills on. Now I am catch and release only so I will be doing a reproduction of the fish so that I can return the monster (when I catch him or her) to the river. I will be keeping you guys posted as to my progress in this area. Hope to get one quick because we all know the best time of year is right around the corner. Until ice out, I will be patiently waiting. The boat is ready to go, now I just have to put her in the garage so the inside does not fill up with this foot of snow we are going to get in the Chi-Town area