Castin' and Blastin'

Spent roughly 14 hours afield yesterday in search of a couple of firsts for the season. The goal was to finally beat the September steelhead skunk, and to bag my first goose. I guess 1 out of 2 isn't too bad...

The day began with yet another fruitless trek east despite the fact that conditions hadn't changed a bit since my last trip. Even with practically non-existent river flows we did see a few fish pounded into submission by The Pennsylvania Steelhead Militia. I guess that's encouraging, right? We opted to stick to the surf and did have a very brief shot at some fish crashing bait on the surface, which kept our interest just long enough for about 1,000 more fishless casts.

John and I met up with Alex in the evening to take a crack at goose hunting before the early season closes on Wednesday. After about an hour it looked like we we're going to get skunked altogether as there was little to no water in the marsh we had planned to hunt. With daylight dwindling we weighed our options and the guys made a last-minute decision to set up in a field adjacent to the marsh.

Birds flew, John called 'em in, & the rest is history.

I'll be packing up boxes all day today so it was great to spend yesterday outside. Can't wait to take a crack at ducks in October...