How to clean your cork!

Well late winter is when I usually get my fishing gear cleaned because I have time now that hunting season is coming to an end. This secret is the magic erasure. It is an inexpensive way to make your fishing gear look and feel new.

All you do is take your magic erasure and wet just like you would to clean your sink and go over the cork or any other parts of the rod for that matter and voila, your rod looks and feels new. This only takes a couple of minutes per rod and it is worth it. I find that after I use my rods, the cork not only gets dirty but feels smooth and has no tack to it. After going over the cork with a magic erasure, that tack is present and the rod feels new.

Here they are before the cleaning.

And here they are after cleaning with the magic erasure.

So go ahead and give this a try to restore your fishing gear to new condition!

Feathers and Lack of Fins!

I had a few days off of work this week and took advantage of the warmer than usual temps by hunting for pheasants on Friday and getting the boat out for the first trip of the year on Saturday. The wind was high on Friday, but the fields were full of pheasants and we had a great hunt. Saturday started off a bit rocky when I finished cracking the head of my trolling motor within minutes of launching, but the boat ran great and The DesPlaines River is impressive south of my neck of the woods. Although we did not land any fish, we did see some promising waters for later in the season.

I made the decision to hunt on Friday and contacted the hunt club to see if any fields were available and they were. I made the reservation and called up a friend to accompany me on the possibly last hunt of the season. We had the field for the morning and the winds were forecast to be 35-40mph. The wind definitely made this a challenging day but the fields were loaded with birds and the dogs were ready to go. Within minutes of taking the field, pheasants started running and flying everywhere. The wind seemed to have them up and they were not holding at all. Thank god for the dogs! Tino and Roxy were in an almost constant state of stalk mode because of the amount of scent in the fields and the wind but they found quite a few birds. Tino as always was tremendous and worked hard all day. Roxy did well and made another leap forward in her hunting abilities. She used to follow Tino and almost never left his side. This caused Tino to get most if not all of the points. Today, she was going out on her own quite a bit. She was still working with Tino but seemed more confident in how she was hunting the field. Roxy has always had a difficult time with the retrieve. She points solid and finds the bird with no problem however, she would not pick the pheasants up let alone complete a retrieve. I was starting to think that I would have to bring her without Tino and specifically work on picking up the pheasant so that she could learn how to complete the retrieve. This was a bit perplexing because she obviously has the drive and and is highly competitive because she would always race Tino to the downed bird. Today, she pointed a bird while Tino was working the other side of the field, and I flushed the bird and made a good shot. Roxy immediately marked the bird and went after him. I noticed her pick up the pheasant and could not believe when she just picked the rooster up, and brought him towards me. I felt like a proud papa!!!! She was finally working on her own, and now began to find the bird and complete the retrieve. We hunted for 2.5 hours and the winds just got too bad and we decided to finish up with 8 birds harvested. What a great day to be out in the field even though it was a bit windy.

Here is the video from the day. The pics were limited due to the birds not holding and the wind noise is high but I did the best I could with the equipment that I have.



Now to the lack of fins! I began earlier in the week to plan out the first run of the boat because of the warm temps. Now this was a full month earlier than I had ever had the boat out or even thought of having the boat out. In fact, most of the lakes despite the warm temps were still covered in ice. I knew the best option was to check out the rivers within driving distance from me. I remember that Nick from Brookfield Angler and I had fished The Des Plaines River out of Big Basin Marina a few years back when I had a smaller john boat for gar. I do remember talking with him about the other fish present in that stretch of the river. Here we are several years later and I am an avid bass fishermen and thought this might be a good option for the first run of the season. I went online and could not find any info on Big Basin and was not sure they were open. I contacted Nick to do some reconnaissance and Big Basin was in fact, open. I know immediately that this was where we would go for our first run. We got to the marina and the launch is well-suited for any type of fishing vessel. I liked the fact that it was an automated launch meaning that you pay the fee which was 6.00 to launch, and 6.00 dollars to recover for a total of 12.00 because all of the launched where I normally fish are 20 dollars or more. It was a quality launch and made the task easy. The boat was in the water ready to go and I parked the truck. I returned to the boat and immediately broke my trolling motor head. A bit disappointing, but it was already cracked so I could not be too upset. The motor was still operable so no big deal. We headed out of the marina and there was a solid 2 foot chop on the water from the winds the were blowing right down the length of the river. We drove up river and saw some great starting points to fish. The water temps were anywhere between 44.5-47.7 and I had high hopes of getting a few bass. Well, we did not! We tried moving baits, jigs, worms, and jerkbaits to no avail. We did however, see some extremely promising water and spots for later in the year. The temperature was in the low 60's and what a beautiful day to hit the river. The boat ran great too!!! So although we did not land any fish, it was a successful outing. Hopefully, as the year rolls on, I will have some better vids and stories to write about.

Here is my not so exciting video! Just some pics and the boat running. I hope to have the youtube channel indexing soon seeing as though this is my third video. Thanks for reading and don't forget to subscribe to the channel.

New Season: High Anticipation and Reflection

Well did some more work on the boat today and got the batteries installed and checked out the cockpit lighting, electronics, and bilge pump. All was working good. It is this time of year that is bittersweet for me. I am full of anticipation for the season to begin in general and this year I have additional excitement because I am going to Ralph Stieger's and Bobby B's smallmouth bass seminar in Hammond on March 5, 2016. I am really looking forward to meeting these guys and gaining some knowledge about fishing The Southern Basin of Lake Michigan. I have always wanted to fish the big pond and never did, so this year it is my goal to get on some of those big Lake Michigan Smallies. Bittersweet because I am really feeling the loss of one of my friends. He sadly took his own life a little over a year ago and this season I am feeling a bit sad and missing the calls I used to get from him. See, he was not the most mechanically inclined, and this is the time of year that he would always take something apart on his boat, screw it up, and then call me. I used to be short with him and ask "Why don't you call me first?" He would usually say something like "I didn't want to bother you." Now this is the second spring since he is gone and I find myself missing that call and sad with the recognition that it will never come again.

To complicate things I bought my first and current bass boat from my friend so it stands to reason that every spring I think of him a bit more than usual. Today was no exception. I got her in the garage over the weekend and got the jump on the season and want the boat ready to fish when the lakes open up. I got the garage up to 57 degrees and it's amazing how stubborn the ice is. This is going on three days and there is still ice on the floor of the boat. No biggie though. Today I got the batteries out and installed. This allowed me to check all of the electrical gear on the boat. I turned on the electronics and they were good, the trolling motor, lights, cockpit lighting, and operated the jack plate and trim. I was happy that everything so far worked without a hitch. The bilge pump that my cousin and I fixed last year just needed a new butt connector other than that, everything was good.

I also took the cover off the motor and removed the plugs and sprayed a little fogging fluid into the cylinders just to give a bit of extra lubrication for when I start her tomorrow or the next day.

The ice in the boat was almost gone and I got everything out of the cockpit and turned on The Blue Water LED Lighting System that I installed last year and this was working perfectly. I do like these lights and the blue LED's look great with the colors on the boat. I finished off with operating all electronics on the boat again, and everything seemed to be working great. I added air to the tires and shot some grease into the bearing buddy's so that when we are ready to go, the trailer components were good. All that's left is to check the trailer lighting and I will probably do that later this week.

I decided to organize my tackle today as well. I had no idea how much gear I have. I took out all tackle and cleaned out the compartments where the boxes were stored. I realized that I need nothing to start the season. I had all my lipless crankbaits as well as a healthy supply of soft plastics ready to go. I put everything on the deck and then got some of the lures that I bought several weeks ago into their compartments. Looked great and my tackle should be ready to go.

After I had completed all of these tasks today I could not help but feel like I was missing something. I couldn't put my finger on it , but I realized that I was not getting the call from my friend to come and fix something on his boat that he took apart and could not get back together. I felt strangely sad. I remember I used to feel irked sometimes when he would call because I knew something was going to be apart and need to be fixed. Two years ago, he got a new ranger and the center seat was a bit loose. Nothing bad, but it had a little wiggle to it. He took that baby apart and could not get it back together. He called and we had to take the whole cockpit apart to get this one little rivet and fix it. We got it and sure enough it was tight. He also let me install an HDS 12 on it at the console and I felt privileged because we had to drill a hole that had to be 2 inches into the gunnel to fit the wiring back to the transducer. I laughed when he said just do it, I won't be mad even if I have to get the fiberglass redone. Well, needless to say, I drilled and installed it and the unit came out amazing. We had a great spring and fished a lot. We also made plans to begin doing the Wednesday night tournaments on the chain because I wanted to get into tournament fishing. Well, I had no way of knowing but this was the last spring he would be around. In September, he was gone and I am still coming to terms with this loss. I have dealt with a lot of loss in my time being a veteran and a recovering drug addict but this one was particularly rough for me to process. I am working to remember the good times we had and how much he taught me about fishing without feeling sad but this is still almost impossible.

I am hopeful that this year will bring new adventures and some good times. I have some great things on the horizon and will be getting a new video camera to document the adventures as they occur and I also purchased some new gear for the gopro's and contours and should be able to add a lot to my fishing and hunting videos. I am also still recovering from the loss of my youtube channel but I got my new one up and running with a welcome video up. I am full of anticipation for ice out but I am finding this year, at this time, that reflection about the last two years is happening more than usual. Tony thanks for being my friend and fishing, talking and hanging out with me. In the time we knew each other, I learned a lot about fishing and am a better angler today because we met.

New youtube channel Adventures Midwest is live!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that my new youtube channel is officially up and running. I do not think it will come up in any searches because I only have the one video up at this time. I did a short welcome video and was trying to advise some of my subscribers that my channel was back up.

I am going to do some new stuff on this channel such as providing a more educational experience. For example, not just showing me fishing but taking a deeper look into the equipment used, location, time of year, and water temps.

So hopefully you guys with sub and gain something positive from the channel or just maybe a laugh or two. I have been known to do some pretty funny things while out in the field or on the water. Thanks to all of the subscribers who watched the old channel and I am looking forward to providing some new videos.

MSI GT-72 6QD Dominator Review.

Several weeks ago my Mac Book Pro started experiencing some issues with speed and functionality and I knew the end was near. I started looking into another Mac Book because I really liked the way it performed however, I quickly found that the new Mac Book's were very overpriced for what you get in my opinion. The editing software for the Mac, Final Cut Pro was also an easy and comprehensive editing suite that was ideal for my productions. I went ahead and priced out a new Mac Book and just could not believe that it came in at 5400.00 dollars. That was the 15.6 Retina Display and I really wanted a 17 inch so I began looking into other options.

I did some research on my own and consulted with a friend that I trust and is knowledgeable with information technology and it was apparent that a PC would be the way to go. I gave him a list of specifications and the main use that I would be needing for this new machine and he got to work researching and I continued my search. We both agreed that MSI made some very good machines that would work for my applications. Most notably they came in around 1500-1700 for the models that I was going to be looking at. After some deliberation, I settled on the MSI brand and began to dig into the specifications of the Machine that would eventually be purchased.

When all was said and done I settled on the MSI GT-72 6QD Dominator. This was the low end of the Dominator line but had everything that I wanted and more. Even though this was a laptop, I feel strongly that it could keep up with any desk top out there.

Firstly, upon unboxing I noticed the size of the machine. The dimensions are: 428(W) x 294(D) x 48(H)mm. It is not a small package at all but size was not an issue and I wanted the larger display for a more satisfying editing experience. This finish is Matte Black and looks like the finish of a dragster. The only issue with the finish is that fingerprints collect easily and are plainly visible. Minor problem but if you like aesthetics, can be bothersome. The display is a 17.3" Full HD (1920x1080), G-SYNC ready with 75Hz, IPS level panel that is extremely vibrant. I have used it for several weeks and I can say the display is clear and editing video is satisfying. I can also connect to my Samsung 60 inch smart tv through the HDMI out but more on that later.

Enough of the eyecandy that this machine has; lets get into the hardware that makes this notebook really shine. The GT-72 6QD comes equipped with the new 6th generation Intel processor. This processor requires lower power consumption and delivers better performance than previous generations of Intel Chipsets. CPU performance of The Core i7-6700HQ is 20% faster than the i7-4720HQ under average usage. For GT series with the Core i7-6820HK model, CPU frequency can be stretched from 3.7GHz to over 4GHz and CPU performance increases 30% compared with that of i7-4720HQ. This is evident once the video is downloaded and editing has begun. Whereas my Mac Book was choppy, this machine is smooth when playing back video and inserting effects such as transitions and titles. Overclocking is easy as well with shift technology. Simply put this is a utility that allows overclocking with three different levels. This can be viewed in and managed by the MSI Gaming Center Utility. The three levels are: green, comfort, and sport. Green modifies power consumption of both CPU and GPU to the lowest while maintaining coolest constant system temperature for both. Comfort maximizes power consumption of both CPU and GPU to leverage full performance of both while maintaining system temperature. Finally, sport overclocks CPU core clock up to 30% (from 3.7GHz over 4GHz) to push the system to extreme.

As far as the video performance the 6QD comes with the Nvidia GeForce GTX970M with 3GB of GDDR5 Ram. One of the most notable features is G-Sync which is a revolutionary technology that eliminates screen tearing while also reducing input lag. The result is the smoothest, fastest, and most responsive video experience. I have found this video card handles my video editing without a hitch. Since this is a gaming notebook, my video productions are not a problem for it to handle and create smooth final products. I forgot to mention the fan boost and this is a nice tool to keep the box cool when overclocking and working on highly resource consuming projects. It can be accessed from the front left of the keyboard. A button press kicks both fans into overdrive and I have seen the temps of the GPU and CPU decrease 7-10 degrees. More of a gaming issue but I have kicked on the fans to cool the box several times and it seems to work well.

As far as Ram goes, she has 16GB of DDR 4 2133 and this seems to be very capable of handling my video needs. I have yet to see any glitches in my video editing and when watching video, this machine is as smooth as can be. Coupled with the 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive I have plenty of storage for my video projects. I did not get the optional SSD drive but the nice part is that it is set up for it and I can get one to install at a later date if I wish too.

One of the things I also like about this machine is how many USB ports are on the case. On the left side of the case there are four USB 3.0 inputs along with headphone I/O and line in and line out and an SD card reader. The right side of the case houses the optical drive which is a Blue ray burner/player as well as two more USB 3.0 inputs. For me, this was a positive because I have four cameras that I charge and with this machine, I can charge all four at once which cuts down on time. On the back of the case is the HDMI(V1.4) out, USB 3.1C input, the A/C charge input and finally, the lan connection.

The keyboard is a steel series and seems to be functional and solid. It has a back lit design and the color of the keyboard is fully customizable and adds to the cool look of this machine.

The machine comes pre-loaded with Windows 10. I do like the way the it runs but I did find out rather quickly that some of my editing software was not compatible with it such as Avid Studio and Pinnacle Studio. Minor issue and for now I did find a program the would work with Windows 10 and that was Filmora.

Overall, I do like the functions of the machine and I have not been disappointed since defecting back to the PC world from The Mac World. When I priced a compatible Mac the price was more than triple. I do have to say that I like the Mac OS compared to Windows, however, I could not justify the price for The Mac. As I said, I have used the machine for several weeks and do like it. So far it has been great for what I am using it for and it meets exactly what I wanted. A machine to edit video and remain smooth even when editing HD and now 4k video. I tried to list the features that stood out to me and why I like this machine. I would recommend this to someone looking to get a new computer if size was not a factor. If size is a factor, I think another machine would be appropriate.

Pro's

Aesthetically pleasing
Fast
Quiet
Great layout of case with many inputs for charging devices
Upgradable (video card, Ram)

Con's

Size (Large Dimensions)
Fingerprint magnet and if you don't like seeing them, you will be cleaning a lot
Heavy
Windows 10 is not compatible with some software although I suspect this will get better

Well, that is my overview of this notebook and I am impressed with the funtionality and features of this machine. I hope this helps if you are looking into a new notebook and if you have any questions just comment and I will do my best to answer anything I may have missed in the review.

Youtube channel was deleted!!!!!!

Well, I was really crushed tonight because I went to sign into my youtube channel tonight and it was not there. It said the account was closed by the user. I had been doing some work on syncing my accounts and inadvertently must have deleted my account. This did not seem to be a big deal because others have done this and gotten their channel back. I emailed google and they advised that my google + pages were all linked together. I had three pages and did not want them all because they were a pain to manage. So when I deleted the unwanted pages, somehow my default page was deleted as well. I was advised that because I manually deleted the pages there was no way to get any of the videos back.

I was going to change the format of the channel drastically in a month or so when I get my new camera but now I have lost over 90 videos!!!!!! I have some of the vids on my mac but that crashed just a few weeks ago. It has been a rough couple weeks. I guess in the grand scheme of things, worse could happen. I just feel bad that I lost all that footage of my older pointer because he is getting older and hopefully I will have more vids of him hunting. Thanks to all that supported my channel and subscribed. Hopefully you will all subscribe to my new channel. I have mad it and it will be titled the same as the blog: Adventures Midwest. I will keep you guys posted of when I am up and running and will put up a short vid this week to see how the channel is working out.

I can still be found on facebook, instagram, twitter (@czapiewskitom), and youtube all at adventures midwest.

Tom

Winter fishing and first bass of 2016!!!

Got up this morning and have to say, I did not feel like doing much. I began watching In-fishermen TV and was bored out of my mind but not feeling very motivated. I thought to myself, the dogs could probably use another run and maybe we could find some deer sheds so I begrudgingly got dressed and got out with the dogs seeking shed antler gold. Well, we did not get it!!!!! Hiked about 3.5 miles back into the woods and did not see a single antler. However, the dogs were very happy with me since I decided to get up off my rear and take them out again. They have not been too happy due to the lack of pheasant hunting over the past two weeks.

Got home and still not feeling very motivated I got a call from a buddy and he wanted to go fishing. Now, with it being 40 degrees out, I figured every other fishermen in the Chi Town area would have the same idea and areas to fish were limited due to there still being hard water over most places. I did know of one area that would be fishable for sure, that was the warm water discharge at Busse Lake. I was not too excited about this because again, with it being a weekend and 40 degrees, I thought the place would be a madhouse. Moreover, I had all of my fishing gear in my boat and I was not going to open the boat to get one or two little jigs out. He talked me into going. I knew of Lee's Bait and Tackle and gave them a call to ensure the place was open, and they were. We made our way over there and this was a very nice place. The lady was polite and helpful. I found all that I needed and saw some other things I may need for later in the year. I was hoping they would have a little ultra lite spinning combo for a reasonable price because I only have heavier gear. They had exactly what I was looking for. A nice little ultra lite spinning combo for 20 bucks. Wonderful!!!! We got some small ice fishing jigs and off to the warm water discharge ready for battle.


Getting there we saw about 8 cars in the lot and that is not too bad especially for a day like this. We proceeded to walk down the path and saw two other guys walking with fishing rods. Upon arrival, it did not look too bad!!! There were a few people fishing but we had plenty of room and area to fish. I put on an ice fishing spoon and got fishing immediately. First several casts, I got some little gills. It was awesome to be on the board for 2016 even if it was a few small gills. I did see some very nice bass cruising in the shallows but I have learned over the years, the ones you see are not the ones you catch. I kept fishing with the little spoon and caught about 10-15 gills. I then decided to change over to a little florescent yellow beetle spin type lure and first cast bam, a little large mouth. First bass of 2016!!!!!

Now, I saw some much bigger bass and figured I would keep fishing. I did have some people now noticing that I caught several gills and now a little bass. So, I moved out further onto the warm water discharge away from the inlet. This is where everybody was congregating. I continued to cast and got another hit. This time a little bit better of a bass. Number 2 for the year!!!!! BOOM!!! Now I can't help but feeling like a little kid here. I was so excited and caught 2 bass that might have weighed a pound. But hey, who cares I was out and catching fish.

We checked out more of the area and I showed my friend the Arlington Pool, but that was a madhouse. There was not a place to fish on the entire pool and there were guys casting over each other. I figure better to come here on another day. We walked back toward the main dam area and my buddy got to try out his new rig. He got an Abu Garcia Veritas Rod with a Revo SX purchased at the fishing show. He made a few casts and everything was working great. He could not believe the sensitivity of this outfit. I also got to try my new polarized glasses and a face shield. I never used a face shield, but man, what a difference that made. It was not terribly cold, however, the wind was blowing pretty good. I was very comfortable with that thing on. My new glasses were made by a company from Louisiana called Blue Fin. They were great! I could see very clearly into the water and the biggest thing that I noticed was how comfortable they were. I had Strike King S11's previously and they were good but after fishing for a couple hours, they would start to hurt the side of my head. These were extremely comfortable. I am very happy with them and you can check them out on the web at Bluefineyewear.com

Overall, a great day to be out. Started the day out hunting for deer shed antlers and ended up with my first fish of 2016!!!! Don't forget to check out my youtube channel www.youtube.com/user/1080tommy1 and instagram at adventuresmidwest. Have a great Superbowl Sunday!!!!!

IQ Bowsight

I have watched this sight for some time now and had interest in trying one. I thought the concept might be just a gimmick like so many of the other products in the outdoor arena. I kept thinking about all of the fishing gear that I purchase and do not use. I did some research on the web and tried to make an educated decision on whether to try one. The sight seemed to have good reviews from private users and not just the people who are sponsored and have television shows so I made the decision to give it a go.

When I took the sight out of the package, I immediately noticed that it felt great and seemed to be of good quality. The sight was metal but had a rubber coating that made for a sturdy feeling piece of equipment. There was a bag with all of the tools necessary to mount the sight and the directions. After my initial inspection of the sight, I read the directions because one of the issues with this sight was that people said that it was not the easiest sight to get installed and sighted in properly. I got my bow and took the old sight off and installed the IQ.

The installation was a snap and it took just a few minutes to install and I also installed the mounting for my Rage Cage Quiver. The quiver fit perfectly on the new sight using the mounting holes in the sight. I did mount the sight using the rearmost holes to ensure that the sight was mounted with the most similar configuration to my old sight. I got the bow ready for my first shot and this is an important part of the process because I did not want to shoot with a brand new sight and loose an arrow.

The process I use to make this go as smoothly as possible is:

1. I line up the pins on the new sight to the left of the bowstring and that will be close on my left and right measurement.
2. I move the sight all the way up not moving any of the pins themselves but rather the whole sight housing.

This should have me not perfect but for a first shot, I should be on the target. I then measure 10 yards. This is important because if you are too far away, you could loose an arrow unless you have a back stop. I was outside, so I needed to hit the target.

3. I measured out 10 yards.
4. I took my first shot.

I was pleasantly surprised that I was just a bit high on my first shot but needed no movement from left to right. I backed up to 15 yards and still a bit high, but again left right was perfect. Lastly, I moved back to 20 yards and was just a bit low. I moved the sight down to move the arrow up. A quick way to adjust for height is that you follow your arrow. So in this example, my arrow was low, so I moved the sight down. This made my arrow hit the target higher. After just this one adjustment I was on at 20 yards. Now it was time to adjust the Retina Lock.

This was the part that I was hearing was difficult. The retina lock is an apparatus on the sight to ensure your anchor position was the same with each shot. There was two adjustments on the sight for the retina lock. I drew the bow and put the pin on the target and noted the position of the green dot in relation to the black dot on the sight. I made three adjustments and was placing three arrows in a 3 inch circle. This was acceptable for any hunting situation. I then backed up to thirty yards and made a few small adjustments of the 30 yard pin and she was right on the money. Here is the last group I shot from 30 yards.

I went on to shoot several groups of arrows at 20 and 30 yards using the retina lock. I was pleased with the way it was grouping. I was starting to get tired so I will work on the 40 and 50 yard pins next week. I will keep this post updated on the progress.

Overall, I found this sight to be extremely easy to setup and get to shoot spot on. I did follow the directions to the letter and I think the most important part was that I adjusted the pin first and got the bow grouping where I wanted from 20 yards then adjusted the retina lock. This is important and I could see this being a difficult issue if you try without following these steps.

Shooting was a bit different then a normal sight without retina lock. I noticed that it was important that upon drawing that I got the anchor point with centering the dot first and then moved the pin onto the target where I wanted it to hit. If I tried the other way around, it felt uncomfortable and I could not center the dot. I tried to get some pics of the view through the sight but my phone did not capture them very good. I like the way this sight shoots and it is a quality piece of equipment. I did not get the micro adjust and looking back, if I was to purchase it again, I would pay the extra money for the micro adjust knobs. I do also like the larger pins on this site compared to my other site.

I am pleased with this sight for sure and it only took about a half hour to adjust the 20 and 30 yard pins to shoot 2-3 inch groups from those distances. I will continue to update on how the 40, 50, and 60 yard pins adjust. I did notice that I was shooting tighter groups with this sight. I do not think this is a gimmick at all and hope if you are in the market for a new sight, you give this one a try.

Last duck hunting trip of 2016! Arkansas

Here is just a quick post! I did not get to go on this trip but my cousin and uncle went down to Arkansas for the last trip of the year. Looked to be a really great trip. They only got 10 ducks the first day however, the last two days they had 5 man limits. This was in Carlyle AR and they were hunting in a variety of habitat. The first day they were in flooded beans, which I would have thought to be the best for puddling ducks but that's the day they only got 10. The second day they hunted over a minnow pond and I think that was the day they got their limit of bluebills in under 2 hours. The last day looked like the most interesting to me. They were set up in the corner of some tall trees and the ducks were buzzing over and spinning around while loosing altitude and coming into the spread. The ducks did look really far away and I think that was due to the POV cameras used because most of them were right in or outside the spread.

This will hopefully be the last video of this type for me. I should have my new camera in a few weeks and will be doing more educational pieces. I think that is the direction I would like to go now. I feel like I have sufficient knowledge from really hunting and fishing hard over the past few years and I would like to pass on some that knowledge. Of course there will still be vids and pics of the hunting and fishing experience, but I would like to help others catch more fish! After all, helping people is what I do now and a Psychologist.

Well the video is just a bunch of shooting and a few bad words slipped by my editing so if you are watching with the kids, there are a couple bad words. Not horrible but I like to have that stuff edited out. Well, thanks for reading and watching. Don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel if you like what you see and please, if you don't like what you see, let me know so I can get better.