Usually the unproductive days aren't worth mentioning, but this one was full of little lessons. In another attempt to chase some birds with the shorthairs, I went on an impromptu trip last Thursday. I decided to carpool with my husband, after dropping him off at college. Traveling southbound, I was excited to go to a 13,000 acre public area, that I’d only been to once a couple years prior. Some say it's been a bust this year and others say they've gotten their limit. After a twenty minute ride to get there, I took the gravels bordering the north side. Twenty minutes later, I was still looking for a good spot. Lots of water and lots of timber, but no place that looked like the dogs and I could get lost chasing birds for an hour or more But my first revelation was smacking me in the face by about that time.
Let’s just say that it is nearly impossible to scout in a VW Golf. I am use to driving my F250 and being able to see the vista clearly from the driver's seat. The Golf left me viewing a lot of ditch grass, and unable to see anything beyond it. I had to get out and stand more than a few times to see the view.
With the north side being a washout, I headed for another 20 minute ride to get to the south side of the grounds. I hit up a few of the areas I remembered from my past visit, only to find that they were planted in corn. I saw what must have been a thousand plus acres of unharvested corn as I circled the grounds.
I drove down a dead end road that goes towards the middle of the WMA and saw a spot that looked promising. But then I saw an adjacent parking lot with an adult teaching a youngster how to shoot. Sounds like a magical moment, right? Problem was that the field I’d seen would be their backdrop. I could have and maybe should have said something to the adult, but let it slide, turned around and left. Revelation # two, wasn’t really all that new to me, and that was that some people can’t read signs and don’t care about the rules. There was a sign at the lot that said “NO TARGET SHOOTING”, and since there was a perfectly good shooting range with benches and berms on the north side of the WMA, that really didn’t seem to be asking too much.
I then looked at my watch, on that dark and dreary day, thinking I’ll be lucky if it’s not dark before shooting hours end. So I did what I HATE to do, which is settling for ground that didn’t make me optimistic from the get go. Collared up, vested up, camera'ed up—I headed out with the girls. I was hopeful that maybe we’d find some pheasant in the reeds around the marsh, but I think I’m too early in the season for that. When I saw the sea of rust colored fall smartweed, I again had hope, having found pheasant hiding in it's moisture rich environment before at another location. The problem was there was just a small patch of it at that location and like 1000 acres of it here. The smartweed became just a little bit meaningless, when engulfed by it.
That might have been revelation #3. Maybe like knowing that pheasant like corn, and then standing in the middle of 1000 acre cornfield, when you’d be better standing in a 10 acre plot. My hopes then switched to woodcock, and later to quail as we got into a dry brushy area, but the best we would see would be ducks. 
Revelation #4 was simple. I am glad I have shorthairs that I don’t have to comb things out of after a hunt.
Thankfully, before we got to the car, we ran through some super thick prairie grass and their vests destickered. My gloves were not as simple and required some picking time.
Revelation #5 probably could have also been my 1st, and that is that I needed much more time to find the in’s and out’s of this 13,000 acre parcel. I’m all about scouting, so in reality, I had no reason to think I could just drive out and hit a honey hole the first visit. I guess I needed that reminder though. I had a brief period after shooting hours, where I was able to do another 30 minutes or so of driving before dark, and have discovered some fields I want to visit. Despite our unproductive time a field, the dogs were happy to be out, I got to see a pretty sunset, and was reminded to chalk it up as just another scouting adventure.
