I got out three times this week chasing some late season roosters. The hound and I headed out Tuesday to an area I had not hit in about a month. I know a few small swampy WMA areas that had produced early in the year but were pounded hard and the last time out I saw nothing but hens. I got out at 9 and pushed a small area. To my surprise the dog flushed 3 roosters and many hens. I missed all birds in this area taking two shots 
. I hit the next spot and found that nobody had been in it today 
which is hard to do hunting public so close to home. Next spot one rooster on a long shot 
. To the next larger WPA I again found that nobody had hunted it today, WOW! I hit this area working the cattails watching several hens flush wild way out ahead. I continued to push the area in hopes of a rooster that made a bad choice. Well, by the time I was as far away from the truck as I could be the dog gets hot and flushed a bird that held nice and tight. One rooster up and one rooster down . Back to the truck I go.
I headed south with the pooch on Thursday to an area just north of rochester. I had hunted this area one other time this year and saw a few birds but nothing in range. I hit two small public areas and had two nice healthy roosters down by 11am 
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I got out again Saturday. This was a last second trip since I had plans to head S/W for the weekend with a friend of mine to hit some prime private land, but that fell through. This is the first time I have been out on a weekend since hunting on private land at the end of October. I hate the crowds, but I had taken the weekend off and I had been having so much fun. Besides, it’s the weekend and easier to find someone to come along. I sent my cousin some pics of recent hunts and I had a partner for the day. We headed west to an area N/W of marshall called Ivanhoe. It appeared to have a lot of public land and I had someone helping out with the price of gas. We showed up about an hour early thinking the drive would take longer. We drove around noticing a lot of birds in the picked fields 
. We drove around and found one area that looked good and parked and waited for the half hour to start. As we waited we must have seen 5 or 6 waves of at least 50 birds dump into the cattails we were about to hunt. We pushed the area and got zero shots since they all took off once one of them got spooked. We pushed on since it looked like some thickets were on the other end of cattails. We started walking and birds were holding very tight in the grass in the thickets. I had two roosters in short order on two shots . I got my auto cleaned up and its shooting smooth again . I found out today that my dog hunts only for me and will not work in front of someone else. Not sure if that is good or bad 
. I had my cousin move closer since it was hard to see the dog get on these birds in the thicket from where he was. We pushed this area with several missed shots and moved on. We pushed on and picked two other smaller areas with willows. After a couple more hrs and few more missed shots my cousin had his birds and it was time to make the drive home 
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It was a good week with some very good hunting. I used these Top Dog Power Stix for the first time on Thursday and Saturday and must say, WoW . These things work! We also got some larger birds on Saturday with one having a little over a half inch spur and another bird having a 23 inch tail feather. Get out and bangem Guys 
I had some pheasant potpie on saturday and was fantastic.
I will be out again Tue and Wed.
I am not good with the camera. My cousin thought it would be good to get out of sun, I guess not.
I can’t believe its almost over, I might have to take up 
