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SLOW DOVE OPENER IN THE
VALLEY
By: Ron Wilson
September 3, 2010.... Being at the right
place at the right time is the key to dove hunting. Doves are one of the
most exciting flying game a hunter could chase in my book. There left to
right motion in flight once you fire a shot at them is awesome to watch.
This along with the size of the dove makes them a challenging target to
hit.
The Dove season opener was poor where we
hunted near Turlock lake this year. I always look forward to September
1st as it means I can pick up my shotgun and from then until the end of
January its usually a rifle or shotgun day for me since retiring.
The Wednesday opening was not to my
liking as most guys had to return to work or could not get off to hunt.
I was glad I no
longer have that problem as me and the
Modesto Bee parted
ways.
I have been very fortunate to have an
open invitation to hunt doves on private land for some time now. Bob
Woods my neighbor had introduced me to his brother-in-law Terry Robinson
years ago and Terry has access to lots of private property that he has
gave me permission to hunt on.
Opening morning I loaded up Peggy Sue my
Brittany, sons Ronald and Donald and followed Bob Wood and his buddy to
met the gang where they had camped on the private land.
Bob had scouted the area and told me that
he had them located, doves were loaded in the area. He described the
area and I had to chuckle as that was the best spot for me last year on
the ranch.
We arrived early and Ronald and Donald
set out the decoy spread in the top of the long piles of almond brush
where we would be hunting. We had 20 dove decoys along with 2 spinning
wing decoys to lure the birds within shotgun range.
As the morning sky lightened up we could
hear the fire of shotguns off in the distance. As daybreak came with the
morning sun the usual shotgun volleys roaring over the rolling hills
never sounded. I told the boys mother nature had done it to us again. A
cold wind blowing down from the mountains the evening before and the
temperature drop had sent the doves to warmer roosting.
We would drop a bird here and there but
it was a slow morning with lots of missing and losing some of the birds
we dropped in the tall grass. Shriek and Peggy were running all over the
place and with it being their first day out they were just burning up
the ground instead of following there noses to try to find the birds.
We ended the mornings hunt with 20 birds
downed for 3 hunters. Now in Donald's eyes that's great because that is
less birds that have to be cleaned. Its all about the fun of being
outdoors with his dog and getting a few rounds off in his book.
We went back that afternoon around 5 and
a few birds were milling around. I had a robo decoy and 3 dove decoys
set up in a brush pile as I sat in the shade of a almond tree.
About 5:30 I looked up and saw doves
coming into the spread, I nailed one on the
first shot, missed
the second and dumped another one on the third shot. Peggy Sue made a
good retrieve on the first bird and never hesitated when I sent her off
into the orchard for the second which she quickly found and brought back
to hand. My first Eurasian Doves. It seems they have now made it all the
way across the valley.
The evening hunt sucked also as we
managed just a half dozen birds. We stayed until dark and watched birds
come flying in from the mountains. It seemed the warmer weather had some
of the birds coming back down to where the almond harvest is in
progress.
I talked with my grandson who hunted with
some friends that evening around La Grange. He said they all managed to
kill limits. That told me that the doves left the rolling foot hills to
head up to where there was higher grass for them to sleep in the
previous night. I think the hotter weather will bring the birds back
downhill to our area in a couple days. |
