September started out with a bang. Dove opener was fantastic. I hunted with my brother and a good friend Thursday afternoon and it was really quiet as I started hunting around 4 o'clock. I only saw a few doves until about 5:30 p.m. and then it started to cool off a little bit and all of a sudden the doves started coming by in the flocks. It took about an hour after they started moving and we ended up with our three-man limit of doves. It was a great kickoff to the fall hunting season. Unfortunately I was not able to hunt dove since then because of my fishing schedule, but I was back in the dove field Monday afternoon. I have heard some really mixed reports from the early goose opener.
I had the opportunity to take my parents and my grandma and grandpa fishing during the holiday weekend. We had some good weather for our late afternoon outing. We fished for panfish on this outing and we fished on one of my top secret panfish lakes that gives you sunfish the size of a pie plate, well not quite that big, but they are very nice fish. We had a great time talking smart and catching fish. I never even got my line wet as I was way too busy casting for my grandparents and taking fish off and baiting hooks. Dad did a great job of keeping Mom in the fish on the front of the boat, taking her fish off and baiting her hook and keeping himself in some good fishing also. We all had a great time and Grandpa said he can't remember having so many fish biting and catching so many that fast. The sunfish were really just going crazy for our top secret lures on the top secret lake we were fishing on!
Some more exciting news for me last week, I received an invite to attend the first ever Governor's Pheasant Opener that will be in Montevideo this year. There are activities that start Friday night and go through the weekend. It looks to be run similar to the governor's fishing opener that I was also invited to attend this past spring. I would love to attend this event, but I'm not sure that I will be able to squeeze that into my busy fall schedule. We will have to see what happens, but I think it's great that Gov. Mark Dayton is starting this pheasant opener.
The youth waterfowl hunt is slated for this Saturday, Sept. 10. This allows the experienced hunter the chance to take a youth duck hunting two weeks prior to the normal duck opener. This is focused on the kids and only kids are allowed to hunt with a non-hunting adult. It's a great time to introduce someone to the sport. Also don't forget to apply for a doe permit if you are one of those people that do want the opportunity to hunt does, the deadline is Sept. 8 so don't forget.
Have a great week as the fall season is officially here with the first of the hunting seasons now open.
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