Six of us headed for the IV on Wednesday, the day before the opener. We came from the north and Saw lots of white wings on English, west of the 111. The area east of the 111 looked dead, but it was about 2 pm when we went through so I’m curious to hear from others how the DFW fields there shot on opening morning.
We proceeded south toward Brawley, scouting various areas along the way. Dove volume seemed low overall, but we found a stubble field area that looked promising. Crashed out for the night at a hotel after deciding to go back to the noted spot in the morning. We have several other reliable spots down there but decided to roll the dice for a new experience in a new location.
The area turned out to be quite good, with steady but not spectacular action. It was about 75% mournings and 25% white wings. A lot of those little Mexican ground doves too. Breeze was very much appreciated. We all had limits around 9:30 am. After spending the afternoon in the pool we went to a feed lot we had permission to enter and everyone got some ECDs and pigeons.
Day 2 morning we went back to the first spot and it was very slow, so we went back to the feed lot and everyone bagged around half limits of mournings with some euros mixed in before it was time to get back and cleaned up before 11:00 am checkout. Very muggy and uncomfortable this morning (day 2).
A highlight was Jefferson, a 14 month old black lab brought by one of our group. He’s been working with him using a video training program. This was Jefferson’s first actual hunt, and it was neat to see the dog so excited and learning so quickly. In no time he was spotting birds coming in, waiting for them to get shot and dropped, then retrieving them. He needed help often, but the learning curve was short. Smart dog. To keep him cool, we put a cooler on the tailgate and opened the drain valve.
Overall another really fun trip. Too many laughs to count. Can’t wait to do it again. I hope others had a good trip too.
We proceeded south toward Brawley, scouting various areas along the way. Dove volume seemed low overall, but we found a stubble field area that looked promising. Crashed out for the night at a hotel after deciding to go back to the noted spot in the morning. We have several other reliable spots down there but decided to roll the dice for a new experience in a new location.
The area turned out to be quite good, with steady but not spectacular action. It was about 75% mournings and 25% white wings. A lot of those little Mexican ground doves too. Breeze was very much appreciated. We all had limits around 9:30 am. After spending the afternoon in the pool we went to a feed lot we had permission to enter and everyone got some ECDs and pigeons.
Day 2 morning we went back to the first spot and it was very slow, so we went back to the feed lot and everyone bagged around half limits of mournings with some euros mixed in before it was time to get back and cleaned up before 11:00 am checkout. Very muggy and uncomfortable this morning (day 2).
A highlight was Jefferson, a 14 month old black lab brought by one of our group. He’s been working with him using a video training program. This was Jefferson’s first actual hunt, and it was neat to see the dog so excited and learning so quickly. In no time he was spotting birds coming in, waiting for them to get shot and dropped, then retrieving them. He needed help often, but the learning curve was short. Smart dog. To keep him cool, we put a cooler on the tailgate and opened the drain valve.
Overall another really fun trip. Too many laughs to count. Can’t wait to do it again. I hope others had a good trip too.
