It's been a complicated winter and I have limited cash flow and time depending on the snow. When I was able to get out as noted I would ice fish, but the season for sheds has been creeping in slowly and quite frankly the dog has been driving us up the wall. I have walked a fair amount of public in search of anything and have come up short on the majority. January 30th I was determined to run Mocha into the ground. With much of the snow melted off before the next round of wintery hell arrived, we did manage to find a good one. Mocha remain oblivious of our goal.
Michael was slated to come down the coming weekend but with major snow in the forecast, our original plan to walk down south was put in the back burners. With snow already piling up around Ames, we decided to give ice fishing a try again.
Though the fishing was mega-slow, Michael iced his first fish!
Weekend well spent; much better than sitting inside all day.
Fast forward to this weekend. Our plan to walk Michael's Uncle's property in southern Iowa finally came through and we went down with Mocha in tow. We started right behind the house in the turnip food plot. It was pounded. Upon further inspection, it was also discovered that it had been gridded by someone already. As we walked we found the first property had actually been gridded thoroughly. As we crested the hill to hit the bean field Mocha was locked up. I thought rabbit, but upon her command up flushed a great big rooster. She proceeded to strut her stuff for the remainder of the day. We turned into the half standing bean field and I see a beacon of a three point.
How the guy missed this one is beyond me.
We continued to walk this property and an adjacent property across the road and saw tons of turkeys. On one ridge I managed my first hanger. Though small I was stoked to find it.
After a continued walk we were beat and a little disheartened. I was happy with any bone but Michael had higher more glorious expectations. We recollected ourselves and went to the next property. This was the place he harvested a doe during Thanksgiving break this last bow season. It was not nearly as big and we went in not expecting much but not giving up either. Again, almost immediate bone. This time a dead head.
Nothing huge but we were happy to find something. We continued to walk the finger we found this dead head and it took a grand total of 10 minutes and I found another shed.
My second ever spike, it was nothing spectacular. I was in the middle of taking the pic and I hear Michael yell from across this old run down shed.
"I've got bone!"
I yelled back that I did too but he didn't hear me as he was already yelling again.
"MATCH SET MATCH SET!!!!"
His first ever match set not 15 feet apart.
We gridded the rest of the property but the big timber to the south most likely held the rest of the bone but we did not have permission for that.
We finished up there and headed to the last property which was just across the road from where we were. This place was a giant cedar thicket next to some of the nastiest bottomeland I have seen.
I did sight another dead head but we were running short on time so I grab some quick pics and we continued on.
Again, nothing big but bone nevertheless. We both would have much rather find sheds than dead though. Again, pounded like nothing I have seen but no sheds.
On the way out for the day Mocha decided to finish off one of the live critters she could actually catch up to. Opossum number 2 made it ten feet before she tried to turn it inside out. Shock collar or not, she had a mission....
Final tally for the day was 5 sheds and two deads walking from 9am until 5pm. We succeeded in running Mocha into the ground.
We made our way back home where, again, my wonderful wife had a chicken roasting in the oven, and some special potato concoction waiting for garlic. Spectacular!
We spent ALL of Sunday trying to peel ourselves off of the couch...
Stay Tuned
