Jason DeBacker
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Great tips all around. Since you are familiar with shoal bass, let me also point out that while shoalies often hold right in the current, smallmouth prefer the edges and eddies much more and usually aren’t right in the main flow.
Zach,
I’m definitely not an expert here. I’ve only done this with one dog and he’s not a pointer – though I did have him setting up on a bird. I know there has been debate here in the past, but I used the Wolters methods for training (Bird Dog and Water Dog). Not sure if the best, but my brother has used these methods to great success on some labs.My dog has a soft mouth, so we didn’t lose a lot of birds from him crunching them. If you are worried about this, perhaps starting him off in the yard without live birds is the way to go. Do some retrieves with a wing from a quail tied to dummy (or just a whole dead bird) and discipline him if he’s chewing on it. Keep the wing/dead bird in the fridge/freezer when not in use to get more “life” out of it.
To work on pointing, tie a wing to a line on the end of an old fishing rod. Here you can work on his approach and hold while he’s close and you can discipline. You can do this with or without a lead. These are the types of things that I was doing – but again, there may be better methods. I didn’t want to mess with shock collars or super long leads in the field.
J
Don’t think you’ll need a light, but you will want to feed and water. Probably want a bigger cage if you keep them for long periods of time at home.
Like Michael suggested, leaving a call back cage out is ideal. This is what I was doing. Taking the birds out about everyday to train, but leaving the call back cage out in the field for days (giving the birds food and water). Unfortunately, I was not doing this on my own private land and after sometime someone eventually found and took the cage.
Great looking dog.
When training my dog (a flat-coated retriever) I used a quail call back cage a brother of mine built. We bought some quail, clipped the flight feathers and would plant them in the field. Leave a couple in the cage and they’ll return so you can reuse the birds. Depending on the size of your cage/vehicle, the cage will also work for you to transport them so you don’t have to buy birds on the day of the hunt/training session.
As far as hunting over planted birds, I thought I recall checking with Charlie Elliot WMA and they were ok with it for training purposes. I think it was off-season only and you may need to make prior arrangements.
Jason
Nice pictures – I especially like the first. Bummer on the weather and fishing.
The GA coast certainly makes you reconsider the cost of driving a couple more hours. My two experiences on the coast have only been side trips. Even when I lived in GA, I always put in the additional miles to get down to FL. I’ve fished the salt in 8 of the 13 states on the east coast and would put GA on the bottom of my list as a saltwater destination (despite a bias for the state). I’m sure it can be good if you put in a lot of time, but it’s a tough place to sight fish and to figure out on your own in a few weekends per year.
Jason
I did get out on Sunday near Savannah.
Got to see a nice sunrise:
But no fish to report. What looked good on the satellite images was not great at the high tide we fished. We didn’t really find anything shallow enough for sight fishing – most spots even with grass were in 4+ ft of water. We cast in creeks and creek mouths with some rattle clousers, but no luck. Given the frequency I’ve been fishing lately, I was happy to just get out and cast a bit. The large tides and dingy water make it a hard place to figure out on the fly.
Good luck on Jekyll!
Best,
JasonRob,
I haven’t seen the full length film, but the trailer looks awesome. I was happy to call the Tidal Potomac my home water for 3 years. From what I saw, you all did a great job capturing the fishery and those who fish it.
Best,
JasonBlue lining for brook trout is fun – especially exploring a new area.
Really nice shots of that copperhead!
Jason
