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2009/2010 Waterfowl & Turkey Archive
Self Family and Team Tribal Outdoors New Years
(From left to right: Casey Self, Caden Lynch, Eric Massey, Shawn Self, Gary Self, Kevin Gibson, Ben Smolen, Colton Lynch)
In the coldest December I've seen in over 10 years of living in Kansas we found out selves staring at a foot of snow that had been on the ground since the day before Christmas and temperatures keeping ponds and lakes frozen now for over 5 weeks now. What does this mean for Kansas Geese? Well it means we get more of them all in one spot, geese for some reason in Kansas don't seem to ever leave however this year may be a true test to that theory. They find water on the river, rock quarry, hot water lakes, and feed on beans and grass where they can still find it through the snow. For us, we got lucky after a foot and a half of snow in most places it blew off the fields enough in drifts to keep food visible for geese but made it very challenging to get into the fields. Wednesday evening I get a call from my friend Colton Lynch that a field less then a 1/4 mile from his house was covered with honkers and ducks and they just continued to pile in as the day went on. Eager to get out there the next day my wife and I were awaiting the arrival of Tribal Outdoors Graphic Designer and President, Shawn Self and our father Gary Self along with my Mom and Shawn's wife and kids. It has been an annual trip each year either before or after Christmas for my dad and some of my brothers to come out for a few days of hunting and some good ole fasion family time. This year they came out to hunt New Years eve and New Years day. With the temperatures hitting single digits each night and only barely hitting double digits in the after noon we decided to set up for mid day hunts. Everytime I look at the next day to hunt I study the weather and make the best decision I plan on when I think the birds would fly based on clouds, wind, and temps. Typically we find that if its sunny and single digits or negative temps as a low the birds will sit until the warmest part of the day, Cloudy and spitting snow type weather they will fly a little earlier but not by much. In these cases that would be about 15 degrees as a high for the weekend. What I do then is look at the hourly forecast and see when its going to hit that temperature and decided to be set up ready to go by then typically being ready to go around noon is a safe bet. Geese go into survival mode when it gets that cold, they will sit as long as they can conserving warmth and then fly only when they need to. Then you can bet they will only feed once, so its always better to be a little early on the safe side incase the weather man is wrong. The weather men forecasted cloudy sky's in the morning and then clearing for the last day of 2009. We decided to get out just a little earlier then normal just in case they flew earlier with the clouds. However when we got set up around 930am there wasn't a cloud in the sky so I knew it was going to be a long morning wait. We took our time knowing they wouldn't be leaving any time soon and around 1130 one flight came off the roost and my dad was able to pluck a Single out of the flock on his side, as my Lab Basel brought it in, I looked through my power hunter lid and noticed it had a nice shinny band on its leg. The excitement rose as we looked at it and threw it behind my dads layout blind in hopes that he had more friends just like him. Soon the sun clicked to high noon and the roost started erupting with birds. The first flight that came in right at noon and after I let the first 15 or so land, 6 of us sat up to shoot into a flock of about 75 honkers and 9 birds fell dead to our volley with my dad knocking 2 out with one shot on his end. Talk about a day for him to remember, first jewelry and now a double with one shot. Of course he was more excited about the double then he was the band. Soon we were just a few birds short of a 6 man limit so we called Colton who him and his little brother (Caden) had to leave earlier in the hunt to do chores and I told him to get out there as quick as he could. Soon they haulled butt into the field got in and after letting birds land among us I started calling the shots for the 2 of them. After 15 minutes of shots at 10 to 15 feet Colton and Caden Lynch were picking up there last birds to complete out 24 big honkers at 2pm for a 8 man Kansas Limit along with 4 mallards and 3 bonus quail we kicked up by the trucks.
Now in this instance we knew that a ton more birds had yet to even get off the roost and judging by the amount of birds using the field the day before we decided to just grab our birds and leave our blinds and deeks all out in the field. Having great success with this in the past we got in the trucks and drove out of the field and sat to watch from a distance drinking coffee and enjoying the story's of the day. As we got our pics taken and started deciding on the game plan for the next day we watched about 500 or so birds sit down in the field about 40 yards from our spread. Later that day a couple thousand worked back into the field so we knew we would have a good day come tomorrow. This is a good tip for people out there, many mess up by trying to pick there spread up quick and when all the birds come to land back in the field they end up spooking off and going into a different field thus ruining a second day Massicure. 2 things you have to watch for in this case though, one is it ok with the farmer to leave your stuff out, and secondly is anyone going to come out and steal your spread when your not there to watch it. In this case the field was close enough to the house that colton could watch the spread. Other times when we can't leave the spread out over night for what ever reason, we will let the birds get in the field and after they head back to the roost get out and pick up your spread. Sometimes this means running to the local resturant and getting a bite to eat for a hour or 2. A couple years ago I proved this theory by successfully killing 7 man limits for 5 days strait in the same field. The only thing I suggest it moving your spread a little or at least changing it up to make it look a little different each day, but that isn't always neccissary. Continues below...
2009 Kansas KDWP Lead Youth Hunt with Tribal Outdoors
Pass It On - Outdoor Mentors, Inc. partners with youth mentoring organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters and with outdoor groups like Pheasants Forever, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and local Wildlife and Game offices. Matching volunteers from the outdoor groups as mentors to youth in strong mentoring organizations is designed to give the children outdoor experiences they would not have without a mentor making it happen.
This level of exposure to the outdoors gives the child a chance to develop an appreciation for the outdoors that they wouldn’t have with single-day events like fishing derbies and outdoor festivals. They are given the opportunity to build their outdoor skills and to learn responsibility, good conservation ethics and respect for our natural world. All of which can only be learned through first-hand experience…and none of which they will have the opportunity to learn without a mentor helping to make it happen. So when Kansas Department of Wildlife wanted to team up with
Hillsdale
Lake officials and host a Duck hunt with Pass It On to introduce their new youth marsh at Hillsdale reservoir they began looking for mentors. Local Conservation Officers familiar with Tribal Outdoors and its team asked us to step up and we did so in a big way. Tribal Pro Team members Ben Smolen and Eric Massey participated as mentors for the project. It started on Friday morning with a quick scouting trip, planning out the blind setups and helping build an open water blind. That Friday evening we met the kids, gave out some goodies and put on a little calling clinic and got to just interact with the kids and talk about this passion of ours. Saturday morning came early as Ben and Eric arrived before anyone else to complete the two setups by themselves. In true Tribal Outdoors fashion they went full bore, all out. Hillsdale lake management extended some special permissions as far as land access to us, and when they showed up on Saturday morning expecting to see a couple bags of decoys they got a glimpse into what Tribal Outdoors does best and the first words out of the Conservation Officer that morning was (we have to get a picture of this). The ATV, trailer, dozens and dozens of decoys rigged with rig em right setups. More than 4 dozen full bodied duck decoys, Mojos, layout blinds, and Jerk rig’s were just to name a few of the things loaded up on the trailer. To ensure the kids had a great morning Ben and Eric completed setups for two different groups before the kids ever arrived. All the kids had to do was load up come shooting time. We had a lot of action early and both groups got to see plenty of in your face action. Shooting them was another story but watching these kids smile was better than any limit that could have been taken. From a huge number of outdoor groups that they could have come to for mentors for KDWP to trust Tribal Outdoors and ask for their participation is a huge credit to the company and the people that represent Tribal Outdoors.
2009 Missouri Self Bros Middle Zone Opener Nov. 7& 8th
(Left to Right: Shawn Self, Corey Self, Ben Smolen, Casey Self, Basel (Lab))
After recovering from the weekend of little to no sleep the scouting began for another opening weekend for the Middle Zone Missouri Season. Knowing my brothers Shawn and Corey would be coming into town for the weekend we hit the road hard to find the birds we wanted to get after. After some hard scouting I found a sheet water field of millet that was absolutely covered in teal and mallards. Knowing they wouldn’t be going anywhere soon we decided to hit a local public marsh for our Saturday hunt. Flood waters were against us this year making the water levels at the top of your waters, that night boating out the wind was blowing 35-45 mph which made it interesting to say the least, but we found a nice little island of buck brush that we were able to slide our layout boats in and set up out of the wind. 1030am came along and we were just 1 duck shy of a 4 man limit. Basel (my lab) was tuckered out after that day, retrieving 23 ducks in chest deep water and 25 mph wind is no picnic for a dog. However some how in the mix we only lost one bird so she earned her kibble for the weekend.
(Left to Right: Corey Self, Ben Smolen, Shawn Self, Casey Self, Marsh (lab))
Day 2 we decided to put in the work and drag our layout boats out into this sheet water field I had found earlier that week, we started out early but not as crazy early as the opener and got into a place where no one else could hide without a layout boat, after flushing a couple thousand ducks out as we walked in we knew that we would be in the money come day light. Setting up for a cross wind we put out a Nike Swoosh looking spread and set the jerk rig over on the far left corner with Ben running it from his boat. At first light we had thousands of ducks around us, landing in the spread and coming within a few feet of our boats swooshing over our heads. The light stayed on my watch waiting for the legal shooting time to click over and soon hit 6:22am which meant it was time to start the fun. First group of the morning was a pair of mallards, followed with group after group of GW Teal and even a couple beautiful Spoony Drakes. The highlight of the morning was when a group of 25 or so GW Teal buzzed through the deeks and after the smoke cleared 6 of them were laying on the water. The shooting was going so fast that Corey's dog (Marsh) hardly made it back into the boat before she would be heading right back out into the water again. Soon 7am cam and the top part of the sun started to crest. Being in a fast and furious shooting spree we stopped the action to check the count and we were already at 21 ducks. Soon after being picky with our shots slowing it down to singles to try and stretch the hunt out a GW teal came blazing in on the left side after a quick jolt of the jerk rig to finish out our 24th bird for a 4 man limit in almost exactly 1 hour. There is just something about being out on opening weekend with your brothers that makes days like these the most memorable. We've been hunting together since we were all knee high to a grasshopper and we just know what the other one is thinking. We shoot well together and we have the same opinions usually on decoy set up and calling techniques. All morning we were hooping and hollering and cracking jokes when someone missed one, or made a great shot. It was almost a shame it ended so fast, but making it to Hardees before they quit serving breakfast was a bonus. Shawn and Corey left the weekend to head back to IL to prepare for their opener the following weekend. For me I'm glad to get the 2 openers out of the way so I don’t have to sleep in the boat anymore!! Stay tuned for more stories for the 2009/2010 season.
2009 Kansas Duck Opener Oct 31st & Nov 1st
(Left to Right: Eric Massey, Ben Smolen, Casey Self, Daisy (lab))
With waterfowl seasons well under well in the northern states, we from the Midwest eagerly were waiting for go time come Halloween morning for the Kansas duck opener. After a lot of hard scouting fellow Pro-team members Ben Smolen, Eric Massey, and myself found ourselves cooking breakfast in the boat after a long night of cutting willows and trying to sleep in the boat for a couple hours. This year we lucked out and found spot with plenty of ducks and in a spot tucked back into some public waters. After a morning of fast paced mix ducks and a few mallards we found ourselves picking up decoys at 930am with a 3 man limit and a tired dog. Opening morning can always go in so many directions but for the most part your dealing with ducks flying around scared out of their minds and dumping in to the nearest spread. This year wasn't the case for us, we didn't have another hunter within a mile and the ducks were able to circle and get right into the kill hole with ease. Made the long night of camping out well worth the effort.
(Left to Right:Ben Smolen, Casey Self, Eric Massey, Tyler Massey, Basel (lab))
Day 2 brought a different tune with most guys staying out too late for Halloween to make it for a second early morning in a row, so we took advantage of the low crowds and got our layout boats into a marsh where the ducks had been using pretty hard. The same crew as day 1 plus Eric's Son Tyler got in and found the spot we had scouted thinking we were in the money. At first light we quickly noticed all the ducks were wanting to land about 100 yards away into some standing flooded millet. We decided after 15 minutes that we had better cut our losses and move while we still had time. Because of our rig'em right set ups we tied a long ski rope to one boat on one end and another boat on the other end and dragged the hole decoy set up to the X and was back to hunting in less then 20 minutes. The bad thing was we had missed the favorite part of everyones duck mornings when they are flying at first light and dumping into the spread. However what would soon happen made missing that part of the day well worth it. Frantically we were throwing decoys back out in a lopsided half moon spread with a couple different pockets and we thought we may have been too late for this warm November first morning with high's expected in the 60's. We got set, broke out the call and the magic started to happen. Slowly we plucked off singles and doubles until we found our selves saying only 4 more to go at 8:45am, about that time a group of black jacks came whizzing through the decoy spread on Ben's side. He reached up and in one shot dropped 2 stone dead with a quick followed triple. The last duck of the day was a beautiful Widgeon drake to finish out at 9am. Tyler just along for the ride was pretty excited to be out with the boys and although he is still a little young to be shooting himself he was pretty proud when we lined the ducks up for the picture. This time a year is the best time to get kids out with you in the marsh. Its still warm and they will get to experience a big mix bag of species which is very important for young kids to grasp.
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Kansas Spring Turkey Season 2009
(Above and Below: Tyler Massey and his big KS Boss TOM)
(Above and below: Casey Selfs Double Bearded TOM 11inch & 6inch)
Zach Simon & Snow Storm Team
The regular waterfowl season came to a close for most of the Tribal Team although a few like Zach Simon found themselves teaming up with Tony Vandemore, Tyson Keller, Field Hudnell and the rest of the Snow Storm Team grinding away on snows in Missouri for the filming of DU TV and the second addition to the popular DVD Snow Storm. This year like many strong south winds blew through in early February and pushed the snows in a hurry. Zach and the team found themselves picking up thousands of decoys and moving with the flock sometimes only surviving on 3 hours of sleep. Man this is crazy, we hunted for a week strait only surviving off small cat naps and 3 hours of sleep at night, wed get in an area that was producing and then overnight the birds would pick up and move with the full moon and south winds and we’d have to pick up everything and move 60 miles away, says Zach. But the hard work paid off, the Snow Storm team put up impressive numbers as usual killing over 4,600 snows and had a final day of 368 all shot on film over decoys with no more then 5 or 6 shooters. Zach said This was a good day to close the season out, it was just all the guides that had been working hard all season getting together for this hunt, we turned the camera’s on just had a unbelievable hunt That is enough for any ones arm to be sore. Continued below.....
For others on the team we start the contest calling circuit up in February well into the summer. Jody Niccum chalked up his bus ticket for the World Duck calling contest by winning big in
Burlington,
IA, Mike Anderson won at IWA in
Northern Illinois, and
Jeremy Romain got his bus ticket at the Arkansas Regional. For me the end of winter building into Spring is the time to get my fly rod out and get after Rainbow and Brown Trout in the many Missouri Public streams. This year was no different as we set out to
Cassville,
MO for the Missouri Trout Opener where the State had released over 4,000 trout into
Roaring
River
State Park. Opening day trout resembles any public duck opener were you have to be some what crazy to get involved in it, but the thrill of catching your first trout of the year is something we can never pass up. This year like many, felt like it duck season as it was 13 degrees out in the morning when the opening buzzer went off and there was about an inch of snow on the ground. One thing significant about opening day is the park releases several Lunker trout, a lunker is a trout over 3 lbs. Our group always passes on the Trout Master trophy to the guy in our group that catches the biggest lunker on our trip. Well this year was a special year as my good friend
Kevin Gibson landed this 8.96 lbs Rainbow Trout with one heck of a hook jaw right beside me in the stream that morning after about 30 minutes of fishing. For the remainder of March I also took a trout fishing trip with Team member and good friend Tim Strunk, and a trip to my other favorite MO park
Bennett
Springs with Team members Ben Smolen and John Eckers. Next on the agenda for the Tribal team will be
Turkey season, Shawn and Corey in the UKC Dog trials and then I will be starting up my journey on the contest trail.
(Kevin Gibson 8.96 LBS Rainbow Trout)
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