Speckled bellies

Randy is asleep. He told me before he drifted off that they got 12 speckled bellies yesterday; however, I do not know where they were hunting. He said he was real proud of Chapman, our Lab who is fourth generation from Chodney the first Wonder Dog. He said that Chapman made a really long retrieve that only older dogs can usually handle. He retrieved the goose out of sight of Randy, then started making his way back to Randy with the goose in his mouth, just pretty as a picture. Then suddenly, when Chapman was just a few yards from Randy, a "s#*@ bird" flew up and Chapman dropped his goose to go chase it. It was one of those "Geeezzz" moments. Except with Randy's vocabulary -- and if you know Randy, you know he has a pretty colorful vocabulary -- I'm sure he would describe it with a different word. Anyhow, Chapman has a little growing up to do still.

Today they got eight speckled bellies, but, again, I don't know where they hunted. I do know that the speckled belly hunting will get better and better as November wears on.

On a somber note, I need to tell whoever is reading this blog that Nick's dog, Gunner II, escaped from his kennel the night before last and was killed on the highway in front of Nick's house. My heart goes out to him. He really loved that dog.

Tomorrow night my aunt and uncle are going to visit, so we might not write on the blog until Sunday. I'm making chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans and chocolate pie. I hope they like the meal.

See ya!

http://www.texasgoosehunting.blogger.com

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Woke up and went to El Campo to pick up my 4-wheeler. I brought it home, and put it together. I found out that the voltage regulator had shorted out against the frame of the bike, which caused the ESM (electronic control module) to quit working. Therefore the engine was not able to get any spark. It's running perfectly now. Not bad for an 11-year-old bike. I saw a large group of snow geese north of Markham. Drove from there to Garwood, and saw another large group of snow geese west of our Nada property. I talked to some people who were there in the morning, and they said a lot of geese had lit in one of our fields, staging and gritting for a while. I think we'll hunt there in the morning. I drove home and watched NCIS with my lovely wife. It was one of their better shows. See you tomorrow!
www.texasgoosehunting.blogger.com
www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

rain

I hunted north of Markham Saturday and Sunday. It was very frustrating on Saturday with absolutely no wind. There are lots of birds feeding in the Markham area. I hunted the same place again on Sunday. Again frustrating. Ended up killing eight birds. The rain snuck up on us, and we got caught in the rain and the mud. All in all, still fun. Made a little money. Looking forward to the next hunt. Chapman is progressing into a really good dog. He's very disciplined and calm.
See ya!
www.texasgoosehunting.blogger.com
www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

Friday, Nov. 6, 2009

Left the house at 7 a.m. and filled up the pickup. Drove to north of Markham. A huge group of snow geese and speckled bellies were feeding about 1/2 mile north of one of our corn fields. Quite an impressive amount of birds. I drove back south toward Markham, and saw some more birds feeding in a plowed ground. I'm looking forward to hunting the birds tomorrow. I went to Sliva's and saw some ducks, gadwall and teal. Spent the rest of the afternoon answering the phone, then I drove with my lovely wife to Eagle Lake to visit Johnny's Sport Shop and bought some 10-gauge bullets. Good bull at Johnny's.
See ya'!
http://www.texasgoosehunting.blogger.com/

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Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009

Went duck hunting with Nick south of Bay City. We bagged six ducks, five gadwall and one ruddy duck. Nick had to go to work by 7:30, so we left the field and I came back to the house. I went scouting in the afternoon. I found a large group of geese north of Markham. Birds were trading back and forth from an area of about 2 miles north of the feeding area. Another small group was feeding about 1/2 mile north of one of our corn fields. It looks like a goose hunt in the making.

See ya!
http://www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009

Lots of snow geese showed up over night. The Garwood roost was covered with them. The clear, calm weather and full moon, and the fact that our hunter was an hour late and we only had 20 minutes to get the decoys out resulted in a complete zero hunt. I talked to a very nice man about trimming his palm trees for blind cover. Turned out he's a friend of my beautiful wife, Judy, and we got lots of cover for our blinds. Lots of ducks north of Markham on the Blocker pond. We need some weather to hunt geese. Anything will be an improvement from this.

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Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009

Saw a bunch of ducks south of Bay City. All three ponds on Sliva's held lots of ducks. After getting my wife's car inspected, I went on a scouting run for our first goose hunt tomorrow. I saw no geese at Darnell's. I did see a large group of geese between El Campo and Bay City. I drove to East Bernard and had lunch with Steve Fefer at Vincek's barbeque. It was very good. I drove to Garwood and saw a very large group of geese about 1/2 mile north of our property. Snows, blues and speckle bellies. I then drove to our Nada property. They had started cutting rice there. I went south to check on Blue Creek and Darnell's again, but still no geese. There were a lot of ducks at Blue Creek on the roost pond. Came home and had supper with my beautiful wife, who bought me a new cell phone. So it should work better tomorrow, if anyone was trying to call me today (it went straight to voicemail, which was full).

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Monday, Nov. 2, 2009

Sunday I hunted with my friend Ben Gregory. He is a great speckle belly caller. Despite the clear blue skies and no wind, we managed to kill sixteen speckled bellies and two ducks. I came home and watched the Cowboys beat the hell out of the Seattle Seahawks.

I got to sleep in on Monday. I went out and checked on a few things. I saw quite a few ducks on our property at Blocker's. I had lunch with Scott and then drove to Sliva's. I saw quite a few ducks there, as well. Didn't see many geese. Had a little bit of an adventure maneuvering a canal levee. Got home OK.

http://www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009

Randy's asleep, because he stayed up to watch the Texas vs. Oklahoma State football game. He said that Third Coast had a great opening day, with an average of four ducks per man. He said it was a clear blue day with temps that reached only to the low seventies. Beautiful day.

http://www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com/

Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

Started the day meeting with Dane Masek. Had a quick Whataburger breakfast (sausage, egg biscuit). Went to our fields west of Markham and repaired the levies and tried to capture the about three inches of rain we had last night. Dane was great help. It took a couple of hours, but we got everything back together and started capturing water. We drove to El Campo and met Scott. Had a quick lunch at McDonalds then drove to our property west of Garwood and repaired more levies. There are a ton of ducks holding on our roost ponds. We saw very few geese. I drove to Markham and checked the water and saw that everything was in order. Came home and got on the phone to line up the hunters for tomorrow. Looks like it will be a very wet opening day. I'm going to bed now - getting up at 4 a.m.

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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Monday it rained almost 4 inches and I had to go to a funeral in Houston for a good friend, Rush Bergman. He died unexpectedly and it was very sad.

Tuesday. Drove the property with Chad Hartman. Saw lots of ducks after the big rain. We saw some geese in a plowed field in Garwood.

Today, Drove to Garwood and met with one of the farmers and had a good visit. Expecting more rain tomorrow. Went south to look at one of my ponds. The wind was blowing so hard it was pushing water over the levy, so I pulled one of the boards to lower the level of the pond. The heavy rain Monday seemed to scatter the birds. See you tomorrow.

http://www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

Sunday, Oct. 25

We'll have to combine Saturday and Sunday. I took some kids hunting for the youth hunt on Saturday. We killed seven speckled bellies and one green-wing teal. It was fun. The kids seemed to have a good time.

Had a good day with football, too. The Aggies and UT both won, and that makes me happy.

Sunday, I took my grandson, Walker, hunting. Hunting wasn't as good. We only killed one goose.

But the football was successful. The Texans and the Cowboys both won. The Cowboys won easily.

We saw lots of birds both days. See you, Monday!

Randy

http://www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

Friday, Oct. 23, 2009

Went to Garwood today. It is covered up with speckled bellies. Youth hunt is tomorrow and Sunday. Plan to take my grandson, Walker, on Sunday.

Not much to report. Had to take my old dog, Chester, to see my friend, Dr. Brady at Stafford Oaks Vet Clinic. Chester has a bad ear infection and allergic bronchitas. Doc fixed him right up. Hopefully, he'll start feelling better soon.

I'll have more to report tomorrow, possibly some pictures if Nick remembers the camera. See ya, Randy

http://www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009

Woke up at 4:30 a.m. to thunder and lightning. Rained heavy between 4:30 and 6. At my house in Bay City, we had almost 2 inches. I drove west toward the hunting spots, and the closer I got, the less it rained. Predictions were 2 to 4 inches of rain, but that didn't happen for Third Coast. The cut rice field east of Garwood is still holding about 30,000 speckled bellies, and about 100 snow geese. It is quite an awesome site to see that many birds. I saw two other feeding areas of speckled bellies. Not many snows. Saw one pond that had lots of ducks. I would assume the rice harvest will resume tomorrow and should start spreading out the birds. It promises to be an exciting opening day. See you tomorrow!
http://www.thirdcoastoutfitters.com

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009

Started the day taking my faithful 4-wheeler to the Honda shop in El Campo. After 11 years of faithful service, something happened and it quit running. Hopefully it is a minor problem. Scouted our property in Garwood. One of the freshly cut rice field had 20,000 to 30,000 speckled bellies in it. On my way back to Bay City, I spotted another rice field (not our field, unfortunately) that had almost as many. Youth season is Saturday. Looks like some people will have a good hunt. Went back to Bay City and finished fixing the air conditioner in my truck. It started to rain, and I came inside. Spent the rest of the evening listening to Nick's bull shit. More tomorrow.
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Monday, Oct. 20

Saw a large group of speckled bellies in a cut rice field west of Markham south of Hwy. 35. Saw another group of speckled bellies in another cut rice field north of Markham. A saw a medium sized group of ducks south of Bay City. Took Chester and Chapman exercising. There seems to be more geese around earlier than I normally see. I will go up around the Garwood area tomorrow. Expecting heavy rain starting tomorrow.

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Monday, Oct. 19

Saw some snow geese north of Markham. About 200 in a cut rice field. We're supposed to get some heavy rain on Thursday. Several of our ponds are covered up with weed called duck salad, but the farmers are spraying and it is effective killing it. So we have lots of open water. Had a pretty uneventful day, so I'll see you tomorrow.

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Sunday, Oct. 18

This morning my beautiful wife and I took the boys for a run and to look for ducks. On the drive in toward the pond, we saw a harrier hawk, or a marsh hawk. You can tell its a harrier hawk, and not another type of hawk, by the white patch on its ass.

As we drove through the gate there were a bunch of black angus cows on the road. Cows have cow meetings on roads. I guess they have discussions about where they're going to poop and stuff.

Chapman, the Wonder Dog, decided it would be great fun to chase them. He was having a large time until one of the cows decided to chase him back. He decided discretion was the better part of valor, and took off, away from the cows. Meanwhile, Chester, the Senior Wonder Dog (and I emphasize the senior part) is scared to death of cows. He got kicked one time when he was a youngster about Chapman's age. So he made a wide circle to avoid the cows.

We drove by the pond and saw some coots. The pond looked like a great place for ducks. If I were a duck, I'd be hanging out at this pond.

We kept driving and came across some more cows. These cows were more aggressive, so I put Chapman back in the truck. My beautiful wife became very concerned, because we had not seen Chester for a good while. So we went looking for him. We went back around the pond and herded the cows down the road. They did not want to give up their road, and just kept running ahead of the truck. Finally, we came to a turn in the road, and some of the cows decided it looked like a good place to exit the cow freeway, and they began to turn. We drove through the cows and got ahead of them.

Earlier, I had seen a glimpse of Chester, but by the time we got turned around, he was no where to be seen. So we parked and waited for Chester to find us. While we were waiting, we saw a group of 8 speckled bellies very high. The sky was cobalt blue. No clouds. South Texas fall.

Since Chester is scared shitless of cows, he made a wide circle around them, and it took him about 15 minutes to find us. My beautiful wife was frantic that we had lost him or that he was dead of a heart attack. But being the wise dog that he is, he had taken a circuitous route to avoid the cows. He may be old, but he's not stupid.

After the happy reunion with Chester, we decided we should head on back to the house. On the way out, we saw some kind of kite. At first, I thought it might be a falcon. But when it flew off the fence post, I could tell it was a kite by the shape of its wings. I couldn't see it well enough to say what kind it was.

All in all, it was a nice outing.

Sat oct 17

Went out late in the afternoon and met a friend for some dove hunting only problem I let The Beautiful Regina borrow my gun. None the less there wern't many doves but did see quite a few specks. Most were high but there were birds. Lots of mosqitoes. Chapman the Wonder Dog had a good time, and I got to have dinner with a friend. till tomorrow

Oct. 16, 2009

Looks like lots of ducks have arrived on the new cold front. I saw a bunch of pin tails and teal south of Bay City. Didn't see any geese today. Most of our ponds are being clogged with a plant called duck salad. It concerns me. May have to spray them. More later.
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Oct. 15, 2009: I saw a bunch of speckled bellies in East Bernard. Two snow geese. Saw a bunch of ducks west of Garwood. There are lots of mosquitoes. It is awful hot. There is a cold front due tonight that will bring the temperatures into the low 50s. I am looking forward to it. It looks like we are in for a wet winter.
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My first day of blogging

This is my first time to blog and my first day to blog. I hope I can figure it out.