Ted and Mike visit LoBank

I first began corresponding with Dale Hernden of Michigan a couple of years ago when we discovered that we had littermates from an excellent setter breeding by Craig Peters of Maryland. So we exchanged notes on Ted and Dale's gyp, Lu (Keystone's Private Dancer). Dale and I began blogging at about the same time - he blogs at LoBank. Long story short, Dale invited me to come to LoBank for a visit, and since I was in the neighborhood (Montana) I took him up on his offer. 

LoBank is a wonderful place on the Ausable RIver, and Dale was an exemplary host for the week that I was there. Unfortunately the weather was less than wonderful. But we got out for a day or two of woodcock and grouse in the Michigan woods. I had never been to this type of cover, and Ted had never hunted woodcock. But his cover dog side came to the front, and he ran the cover with his littermate Lu like he had been doing it all his life. Very cool.

Here is Ted pointing a woodcock in typical Michigan cover - thick stuff! (photo by Dale Hernden)

I flushed the woodcock Ted is pointing above, but did not have a clear shot... later Dale told me that, "If you can see the bird, that's a clear shot!" Lesson learned.

Dale also invited me to attend the Michigan Woodcock Championship - a premier cover dog trial. Since I had never been to a cover dog trial I was excited to have a chance to attend, and Dale had a dog running under the whistle of Scott Chaffee, an accomplished cover dog trainer and handler. 

The trial was held at Gladwin, MI. These are grounds set aside by the state of Michigan specifically for field trials and no hunting or other use is allowed. Amazing to a Westerner who is used to scraping for trial grounds. This is a very classy set-up, and the Michigan trialers are very fortunate to have these grounds, which includes an excellent club house and camping area.

The Gladwin grounds were an example of what is possible when the state and sportsmen can co-operate.

Dale's young pointer, "Al", was running in the 5th brace and I was able to walk a couple braces and scout Dale's dog for handler Scott Chaffee. There were many birds on the course, and grouse and/or woodcock were pointed in almost every brace. The handlers had an almost uncanny knack of knowing when and where the dog (not visible in the thick cover) were on point, and went straight to their dogs. Also very cool.

Dale introduced me to a number of people, including Wayne Fruchey, Bryan Wood, Mark and Scott Foreman, Scott Chaffee, and others who exceeded my ability to remember all their names. A terrific and hospitable group of people! I thank all who made me welcome at the trial. A fine group of sportsmen.

I hope to sample some of the fishing in the beautiful AuSable River that Dale shared with me, and to reciprocate his hospitality in the near future. Thank you, Dale!

Saskatchewan

Clair Kofoed and Dave Brown (right) heading in from an impromptu evening goose shoot in Saskatchewan.

I am posting this ahead of other reports (Michigan, Prairie Chickens, Montana...) while it is fresh in my mind.  I just returned from a week of bird hunting in Saskatchewan at the invitation of Dave Brown. Dave maintains an outfitting operation in Cabri, Saskatchewan and invited Clair Kofoed and I up for an 'end of the season' hunt - a casual event that was most enjoyable for all of us. 

The Hungarian (grey) partridge is a sporting bird, and is nearly perfect for hunting with pointing dogs. And we found Saskatchewan to be a Hun paradise - rolling wheat fields interspersed with prairie islands and brushy draws. This is the finest partridge hunting I have yet experienced. We moved as many as 10 coveys a day and in some very beautiful cover. 

We found the waterfowl hunting to be very good, even though we spent 80% of our hunting time chasing Huns and sharp-tailed grouse. We took both geese and ducks. Geese were incredibly abundant - snows, Canadas, and white fronted geese were overhead in huge numbers every morning and evening.

Dave runs a string of pointers and Brittanies, and he hunts his very stylish and capable bird dogs two at a time. They find a lot of birds, but neither Ted or Clair's setter Thorn suffered in comparison. 

We finished the hunt with a Wednesday evening game dinner of Huns, Sharp-tails, mallard, sprig, and both snow and Canada geese that Clair prepared over a smoky alder wood charcoal grill. Wine, sourmash, Scotch and cigars were also on the menu. Great times with old and new friends. Thanks. Dave Brown!

John Yates - a memorial

On September 15th of this year, my friend John Yates died while undergoing major surgery. He had been battling cancer for months.  I will miss him.

John was a trainer and breeder of setters, and helped to develop my dog Ted at his winter camp in Oklahoma several years ago. I spent a lot of time with him that winter in Oklahoma and we became friends. 

john was a tireless and tenacious fighter for the rights of dog owners and founder of the American Sporting Dog Alliance. He made a major difference in the fight to defeat SB250 in California, and had a similar impact in many states where the rights of dog owners have been threatened by animal rights sponsored legislation. 

My heart goes out to John's wife, Donna. 

I will miss him.

New dog topper

Shortly before I left for Nebraska in mid-September, I completed my dog topper project - a four-holer with room for extra gear. Above photo - Ted is modeling on the tailgate of the Ford with the completed topper in place. This is a Ford F350 crewcab with a short (6' 8") bed. 

This topper was inspired by the ones made by Bob Welch of WingWorks in Hailey, ID. Instead of the aluminum sheet that Bob used, I chose to make the interior of Baltic birch plywood, which was then sprayed with Line-X bed liner. This made an inexpensive, durable and stable solution to floors and dividers.

Here is Tommy trying out his new digs. He seems dubious, but all the dogs are happy to travel on warmth and comfort with hay bedding. The boxes in the bed of my F350 are each 24"W X 32" L X 27" H and the floors are insulated with 1" of styrofoam sheet under the Line-X coating - this has proven very successful.

I will make a PDF of rough plans and some photos when I get back from Saskatchewan. More updates to come in about a week.

Chukar and horses and such

I spent last weekend in the Inyo Mountains (California, east of the Sierras) hunting chukar and quail. Warm weather limited hunts to a few hours in the morning but the bird population was reasonble, generally a covey or two for each hour walked. Good times for man and dog.

Sadly, the ground that I was walking had been horribly overgrazed by wild horses. The rocky areas that were inaccessible to the horses had good grass cover but the open areas were nearly barren. Such a shame that a piece of high desert habitat, which should be a real jewel, was instead ruined by an invasive species. The wild horses and burros are now protected, thanks to the efforts of misguided psuedo-environmentalists, and they compete strongly with native species such as the desert bighorn. Of course chukar are also non-native so perhaps I am not being entirely consistent ... but chukar do not seem to impact the environment to any measurable degree.

While camped in the area I met a group of buddies who had been hunting chukar together for a couple of decades. Nice guys, and clearly understood where to find chukar. However, none of them used pointing dogs, and with my two setters I was getting into a LOT more birds than they were. Interesting to have the difference in canine support illustrated this strongly.

I'll leave it to Mike to post more stories of our trip together with Clair, but thought others would enjoy pictures from my en-route hunt in Colorado. I had a day to wander while traveling to Nebraska and Joe Augustine very kindly suggested an area for ptarmigan (thanks Joe!) Hunting those birds is quite an adventure since their range starts at 12,000 feet or so and goes up from there. But the fall view of the tundra, with snowy peaks in the background, was quite lovely.






The tundra was very damp, spongy underfoot, and there were small lakes everywhere.




I started out hunting on the edges of the meadows, gaining altitude, and eventually moved my way onto the steeper slopes. At just under 13,000 feet we found some birds. My pups handled them reasonably well and I found myself with a 3-bird limit pretty quickly.


The colors in this picture are just wonderful - I hope they show well on the posted image. The white birds contrast beautifully with the yellow and orange tundra plants.

A close-up. These birds were about half-way fitted for their all-white winter coat.



There was a small peak nearby, perhaps 13,800', and I started to climb it just for the view. However, Rosie seemed to be hit by altitude sickness - she got glassy-eyed and listless - so we headed back to thicker air. I gave her half a Tiger's Milk bar and some water, and by the time we got under 12,000' she was fine.

I grilled one of the ptarmigan a few days later and can testify that they are delicious.

Take care all, Pete.

Report from the road...

I am in northern Michigan. Got on the road the afternoon of September 19th, and drove to Valentine, Nebraska to hunt prairie chickens with Pete Houser - and Clair Kofoed was along to take photos and offer encouragement. We hunted with outfitter Mike 2

Kuchera for a couple of days on private land,  and then we tried the McKelvie National Forest lands near Valentine. We got into lots of birds with Mike, fewer on the public ground. More on this later.

Pete and I then headed to Eastern Montana for sharp-tailed grouse and Hungarian partridge. It was cool and windy, but mostly dry and we found birds and had some good dogwork every day. Pete packed up and left for home, with a blue grouse hunt along the way. He reports that he did well in his 'special' spot, and bagged a double-double - both dogs pointing and produced two birds for a double on blues, followed by a late flush, and he was limited out. Pete's shooting the Fox, and his shooting has apparently improved.

As Pete went West, I headed East, crossing North Dakota and stopping today in Clearview, MN to visit Scott and Ben Berg at their beautiful kennels. We ran some dogs, and  while Ted was wornout and had sore feet, Tommy produced an acceptable performance. Scott and Ben showed me several very nice young dogs, and of which I would be happy to have in my truck. Ben's wife Dawn provided a nice lunch of classic Minnesota chili, and we had a nice visit. 

More later, and maybe some photos...