FOWL EXPOSURE

After receiving some flack about not posting up a blog summing up the end of our season, even though those giving me said flack aren't even members of the FX forums, it is about time I do so. As it turns out, I evidently have the month of December and January to cover, so, shall we?

December:

Nothing really sticks out about this month, in a nutshell, we hunted. With finals week and heading home from school for the holidays upon most of the FX crew, it made organizing big hunts a little tough. We pretty much went out when we could, my local season closed down and I headed out north and west to meet up with some friends to do some hunting. The only hunt that sticks out in the month of December was towards the end of the month, during the week. Unfortunately, the hunt was an experience that truly can not be described with words, it is something you would really had to have been there to experience, like going to Vegas or Disney World, or witnessing the birth of your first child. No writer that has ever existed could capture such a powerful experience like this into words, and an attempt would just be a proverbial kick in the nuts to what actually happened on the brisk December morning. There is only one other person on this great earth who understands what I speak of and he or she shall remain nameless for safety's sake. With that being said, let's move on to January:

We only had until the 10th to hunt, but I would be a lying man to say we did not make the most of every minute. Well in waterfowler's definition "making the most of every minute" can be translated to "we spent every waking hour doing something directly related to waterfowl hunting, pulled multiple all nighters driving back and forth across the fine empire state, had a strict diet of convenience store pizza, 5 hour energy, red bull and coffee, strained relationships with family and friends and burned enough gas to power a NASCAR for the upcoming big race, but that is irrelevant. We drove countless miles, knocked on countless doors all for the sole purpose of organizing the season finale hunt.

Yes, a hunt in which we would have the FX crew and then some out for an evening of licentious and a morning full of goosing.

Everything was in line, hunters, a field with 2000 geese, the driving arrangments, the sleeping arrangments, everything. I disregarded the fact that we were unable to make anything like this to work out, ever.

The day before the big hunt things started falling apart at a pace of 1-3 mishaps per hour. This all started when I picked up one particular hunting buddy Guernsey at 4am and make the 2 hour drive to meet up with another hunting buddy, Ryan Muller in an attempt to get ourselves a mixed bag of mallards and redheads over big water.

By the end of the hunt, with one hen mallard in the bag, we began making decisions for what we would be doing in the morning. Regardless of what we would do, I would still have to drive 2 hours back home to pick up my entire field spread. During our post-hunt conversation, the hunt that was planned for the following day proceeded to crumble right before our very eyes.

Andrew: "So who all is gonna be there tomorrow, I know me, you guys, Jamieson, Jp, Ryan, you got some more buddies coming out right?"

Guernsey: "Andrew...I don't think I can do it"

Andrew: (Blank stare, well, actually, it was more of a mix of disgust, hatred, dissapointment, astonishment and rage stare)

Guernsey: "I'm sorry dude, my body can't take this for one more day, cuz I know what you guys are gonna do, we're going to get back down here at midnight and wake me up 2 hours later to go set-up and I'll be in the hospital again by next week...I can't do it."

Andrew: "It's the last hunt of the year."

Guernsey: "I know, and you know I would be there if I was physically and mentally able."

Andrew (to Ryan, who just got off the phone with our other hunting partner, Jamieson, who was at home from college about 3 hours north of us): "Well, Jay can still come down right?"

Ryan: "He said he can't get a vehicle to bring down."

Andrew: (Same stare as forementioned)

Andrew: "Alright, well I'll call Jp at least."

Jp: (I would like to write something here about how Jp answered and told me he was already on his way down with all of my field gear, but he simply did not answer the phone.)

At this point, we were at two confirmed hunters. I was not okay with this. I pondered and pondered some more. I paced and paced some more, and then I finally reached a decision.

Andrew: "Alright, well, Ryan, you can hop in with us on the way home, we can drop Guernsey off, pick up my gear and then we're gonna go pick up Jamieson."

And like that we were off, it was about 6pm when we finally made it back to my place, myself and Ryan quickly loaded up 9 dozen decoys, blinds, guns and gear, I kissed my dear sweet mother goodbye and we headed north to pick up our dear friend Jamieson Crast.

We arrived in Mannsville around nine, popped in for a delicious dinner at the Crast homestead and headed south to Watkins Glen.

It was 12:30am when we finally put the truck in park at the Watkins Glen Wal-Mart to get our snow spray. After picking up the only two cans left, and some uh, other stuff, we finally made it back to Ryan's humble abode. We hung around until about 3am and started getting ready to go set up.

At 3:30am I got the following text message:

3:31am From: Jp: hey whens that big hunt you were talkin about?

Footnotes:

The hunt turned out fine, we ended up getting five hunters together and shooting our limits just before I got frostbite, Jamieson almost got me crushing the 15th bird on video, and we didn't even have to call a tow truck to get Ryan's truck out of the ditch!

Success!

If you have read previous blog entries you are well aware that the beginning of our season was much less than glamorous, but things started taking a turn for the better once November rolled around, the first weekend brought limits of Canadas over a farm pond in some fantastic hunting weather and the next week saw 50 Canada geese hitting the ground over the course of three hunts, with one hunt being caught on video featuring a season high of 28 birds. 

We haven't really gave much attention to ducks, but being pretty set on filmed goose hunts for the time being, we are going to start focusing on a good diver hunt and backwater mallard hunt for the video. We are also looking into getting a one-of-a-kind big water canada goose hunt on video, but that is going to take a little bit of experimentation. 

Things are starting to look up, we are not doing as great as we could be just because of the fact that we are testing out new methods and doing different things then we normally do for the video.

Stay tuned, still over 100 days of season left.

Remember what I said about our last hunt stinging quite a bit? Yes, well that was a flu shot compared to this horse-kick-in-the-nuts of a hunt we had on Saturday.

In an attempt to extend our season, we decided to make a trip up to the northern zone for opening day.

With not a whole lot of time to scout, we decided to hunt a public marsh just off of Lake Ontario. "Public" being the key word here, creatively thinking I figured we could simply walk or row in to a spot off the main pond, and as simple as that it would be a slaughter.

So myself and Mr. Shawn Guernsey headed up to scout the swamp and find the el dorado of the public swamp. After plowing through thousands of cattails and climbing several trees, I came to the quick realization that our only option would be somewhere on our near the main body. After spending an evening with google maps, I opted to hunt a channel off of the main pond. The decision to row or pack in came to mind. Would we take a 14' Jon Boat with four young men, two dozen decoys and a large, male labrador retriever across 500 yards of water? Or would we make the 400 yard walk through the woods at 3am? I chose the shorter and seemingly safer route.

Fast-forward to Friday night: The three hunters, myself, Jp and Shawn as well as cameraman, Steve frantically attempted to load the vehicle and hit the road as we had motel reservations. Our original plan was to hit the road around nine at the latest, make the hour and a half drive to our motel, get settled in and catch about 4 hours of sleep before waking up at 3:30 to get first dibs on our spot. That is not how it happened at all, it is best to take you through the night hour-by-hour at this point:

10:41pm - Finally leave Sauquoit.

10:50pm - Arrive at McDonalds.

10:56pm - Recieve food.

11:01pm - Make executive decision to pull an all-nighter and arrive to our spot extra early.

11:06pm - Call high school buddy who attends college not too far from our hunting spot.

11:08pm - Make plans to meet up for night life.

11:27pm - Finally leave McDonalds.

11:30pm - Stop for gas as well as multiple 5 hour energies and Red Bull.

11:43pm - Get on NYS Thruway heading westbound.

12:09am - Get on 481 heading northbound.

12:46am - Arrive at SUNY Oswego and pick up high school friend.

12:52am - Arrive at local Dunkin' Donuts.

1:54am - Leave Dunkin' Donuts.

2:23am - Depart from Oswego, NY and head towards Route 3.

3:04am - Arrive in Pulaski, NY; use bathrooms at convienence store.

3:12am - Leave Pulaski, NY, heading towards Lakeview Marsh WMA

3:29am - Arrive at parking area.

3:31am - Head into woods with two bags of decoys, 3 blinds bags and camera equipment, relying on the light mounted on top of the camera as a primary source of vision.

3:37am - Light on camera dies.

3:44am - Find ourselves in a pricker patch up to our necks.

3:53am - Navigate our of pricker patch.

3:59am - Break into swamp, drop everything but decoys on the shore.

4:01am - JP and I begin walking the shoreline in search of the spot I found on google maps.

4:06am - Hear numerous ducks flush, see semi-secluded hole off of the main water.

4:06:10am - First hint of excitement or happiness of the entire trip.

4:08am - Begin placing decoys.

4:19am - Bring all gear back to our make-shift blind.

4:22am - Shawn attempts to get to make-shift blind.

4:23am - Shawn gets severly stuck in quick-mud.

4:23:19am - Steve attempts to push Shawn out of the quick-mud.

4:24am - Steve realizes he is also stuck in quick-mud.

4:36am - Shawn is finally pulled from the quick-mud.

5:01am - Steve is pulled out of his waders and sits on the muddy shore in socks only.

5:17am - Steve's waders are finally pulled from the quick-mud.

5:58am - Last touches on blind are finished, all gear is stored on shore, cameraman gets in place.

6:01am - Watch dozens of boats race across the pond, hear numerous hunters practicing their calling before the shooting starts.

6:17am - Continue to bleed from the ears while listening to a symphony of the most atrocious duck and goose calling that could possibly be compilied into one area.

6:34am - Marsh erupts with gunshots in war-like fashion.

6:47am - Notice ducks are not noticing are small safe-house.

6:58am - Watch numerous of ducks fly over in the ionosphere and have rounds blasted in their general direction.

7:13am - Notice one blind is actually decoying ducks and shooting them at reasonable distance.

7:23am - Hen mallard lands 70 yards out from our decoys.

7:25am - Hen mallard departs.

8:33am - Continue to notice the jubilee of 60+ yard shots.

9:06am - Naps begin.

9:47am - Awake from naps.

10:15am - Begin to pick up.

NOON - Finally arrive back at parking spot, realize the temperature has risen to approximately 50 degrees, take off all unneccesary clothing, apply deodorant, lay down, drink liquids.

This, my friends, was a very close second to the "Worst Hunt Ever" which was the first post of this blog.

My favorite quote from the trip:

"It's 1:30 in the morning and we're drinking coffee about to go hunting in two hours...you Fowl Exposure guys are crazy."

Spirits, once again, are lowering, but I just did the math, in three different zones we have about 181 hunting days this season and we have only gone through 27.

Until next time.

Well the early season has stung quite a bit for the Fowl Exposure crew, more so for myself, seeing as I was scouting everytime a decent hunt occured. We ended our early season in a very painful fashion, watching flock after flock after flock of fresh migrators dump into a field just a few hundred yards from us. After about the 50th flock, I took a quick look around the spread and discovered one lonely stake with a white top missing its decoy. I'm not sure one stake could flare this many birds, but I like to tell myself that's what it was. What stung even more was the post-hunt coversation we had with the farmer and my ex-employer:

Bob: "So how'd it go?"

Andrew: "Nothing"

Bob: "Really?! I figured you guys woulda shot the shit out of 'em, they've been in here three nights in a row!"

Andrew: "Yeah, yeah, nope."

Bob: "Well, I heard ya shoot, did you at least get any pigeons?"

Andrew: "Yeah, no."

Needless to say it was a tragic end to a tragic early season and has my spirits down quite a bit. If we can't fulfill a video-worthy duck hunt up north this week, I'm going to have to start considering selling the rights and logos of Fowl Exposure, not really, but seriously though.

So we make the road trip up north this Friday with tails between our legs, stay tuned.

Well eight days have gone by since the season opened and we don't have much to show for it.

I had quite the experience on a solo hunt today, you can read all about that on the forums under "Pro-Staff Journals"

We were able to finally locate some geese, please believe me when I say it's not that we suck, seriously there was nothing to be found. In fact, I am so confident in that, that I will break the cardinal sin of publically releasing the name of a general scouting area.

Even more, if someone can find geese, plural, meaning no less than two geese, in Sauquoit, NY I will take them to Red Lobster.

Anyway, we found a decent amount just outside of New York City and will be hunting them for the remainder of the week, be on the look out for photos on our facebook page and videos on you tube.

We are really getting excited about this season and have high anticipation for the video!

Andrew

Well, as of September 1st, 2009 the Fowl Exposure video cameras have started rolling and they will not stop until roughly April 15th. So you fine folks aren't left in the dark as far as the filming and hunting are going, I will post up weekly updates on the blog.

Rather than spending my second weekend of college scouting like I should have, I spent it, um, studying. So, Monday, the day before opening day, rolls around and I found myself frantically driving back and forth checking all the local ponds and fields that produced last year. Nothing, I put on over 180 miles and found nothing other than ducks. This faced me with a very difficult decision: just throw out some decoys in an old spot and pray? Or spend opening day scouting? Well I opted to go scouting and decided to have a "Grand Opening Day" on Saturday. You know how stores are open and then they have their "Grand Opening" a few days or later. That's the idea behind this. Hey, maybe we could even make a tradition out of it, or maybe that's just an excuse for my lack of scouting. Either way, we will see how it goes.

As all hunters may know, decoy spreads can make or break a hunt. 

   I will tell you that last year the most decoys I used on a hunt was a dozen "Hot buy" Mallard floaters and 1-2 Spinning wing decoys.  I know many people try to praise that you have to have a trillion decoys to attract ducks, not 100% the case.  On 5 or 6  of my hunts in the mid season I used 2 floaters and 1 spinning wing decoy and limited out within 1 hour of being out in my spot.  Being where the ducks want to be is a huge plus.  During late season when the ducks are on their migration, bigger spreads will get the ducks attention.  Simulating a roost for the ducks is your goal.  The whole point to this blog is to let you know that 2 doz. decoys aren't actually needed when hunting ducks in the right spot.  My dad and I killed over 250 ducks last season over a dozen floaters and 1 spinner.  I hope you could grab something out of this blog and take it to the field

Hunter

There is absolutely no denying it, the waterfowl industry has been and still is experiencing a dramatic transformation. Robotic decoys, competition calling, full-flocking, UV paint, pro-staffs, large trailers, countless videos, countless websites, cyber-scouting, broken-in goose call guts, ultra-low layout blinds, high-tech clothing, high-density shot, etc. To say the least, it’s enough to make your head spin to the point where you want to vomit. Waterfowling is no longer a weekend hobby, waterfowling to myself, and countless others, is now a way of life. “Waterfowling is a way of life” is another saying that can be seen in so many message board signatures that it is about as significant as the word “the” at this point. But, just think of the transformation. Think of the popularity this “hobby” has gained over the last ten years. Stop and look at the difference, we are to the point now where young people, like myself, can look at waterfowling and actually make a noble attempt to hunt, or do something involving hunting, for a living. We are no doubt, on the brink of the next beginning. The next genesis.

    My name is Andrew O’Neill. You may or may not know of a company known as “Fowl Exposure” but, yeah, I own that. Unlike so many other young people blindly straying into the waterfowl industry, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do. Yeah, I wanted to produce and sell videos, but there was something bigger, I just did not know it when I started out. Like most nights, I was browsing through the internet one night and came across the web page of a vulgar writer. I read his stories, had some good laughs, but then I stumbled across his message board, where he had a written form of a speech he had been delivering at colleges. I can’t remember the exact details, but his message was something like: “Don’t let people tell you what to do, if you have a goal, go for it. It might be hard at times, but it is worth it the end.” Sounds cliche, but there was more to it. However, the “don’t let people tell you what to do” part is what really got me thinking. I, as an individual, am a very free-spirited person. I hate to be controlled by anything, and I believe that I, while I am currently widely unknown, can be a bit of a representation of the new generation of young waterfowlers. Focusing on the video industry; for years, waterfowl videos have featured action-packed hunts jammed-full of high-fives and “good jobs” and “nice shooting” Sure, that stuff happens on the hunt, but watching these videos, I can’t help but think of everything they are leaving on the editing room floor. Seriously, sit down with two or three of you’re favorite hunting videos and then ask yourself “Can I honestly relate to that?” A new generation of waterfowlers is upon us and I think I speak for them when I say “No, we can not.” That was when I realized my goal. Initially, my goal was simple: Make and sell enough videos to survive. Now, that has all changed, I want to bring an entirely new perspective to the hunting industry, I want my videos to not only contain completely mind-blowing footage and editing, but also, genuinely capture the lives of young waterfowlers. I believe that so many people have tried to do this and failed. Sure, there has been videos showing more than just the killing, set-up shots, scouting, etc., but I don’t want shots, I want a feeling, I want young hunters to be able to feel like they have actually spent a season with us, and relate to us. This is my new goal. I’m sure I will not make a lot of friends getting there, there are still people out there who don’t accept the new generation and like the hunting industry as it is. Let me tell you how it is: most every company out there has one goal: sell as much product as possible, and that’s fine. However, they have to scratch everyone’s back and shake everyone’s hand all of the time in order to achieve their goal. That is not me, and I refuse to let my company be a representation of that. If people can not accept my videos for what they are, genuine, then I don’t want to sell to them. I do not want to be some puppet and let every potential customer pull my strings just to make a quick buck. I would rather struggle through life doing what I truly want to, then to be well-off and failing to get my message out there and leaving something to be desired in my videos. This is what the next genesis is all about, a new beginning, a change, a reform, a revolution, and I want to be the voice of it.

Everyone has bad days. We forget guns, decoys, shells, licenses, clothing, etc. We travel far distances to experience minimal success, we are often foiled by our prey. But it takes a lot to have one hunt be deemed the worst hunt ever. On March 9th, 2009, that happened to the Fowl Exposure crew. 

Having had a less-than-spectacular regular season, we opted to capitalize on the 10 day March resident season taking place in the southern zone. To reach this zone we had to make an estimated hour and a half drive, just to scout. Not to mention the several hours we spent actually scouting. After one weekend of scouting we decided it was time to just throw caution to the wind, get permission to a field along the river and simply run traffic. Dumb resident birds, lots of flight activity, what could go wrong right.

We finally secured permission to a field along the river that we could barely evaluate from the road, we knew it was near the roost, so we took it. The night before our hunt we all spent the night at my buddies house and came to the executive decision that since we talked about it all season and never actually did it, we would pull an all-nighter on this night and leave around 3am to begin our two-hour voyage. This is where it started going bad. Becoming increasingly tired by midnight, I forced myself to stay awake, watching TV in Dominic's garage and talking for the next two and a half hours kept us occupied. At 2:30 we decided we were too bored to take it any more, hopped in our trucks and got our little convoy rolling. Now is a good time to give you some information, a certain weather website had told me that sunrise would be sometime around 6am, however there was something obviously wrong with this certain weather website and it failed to take into account that daylight savings was taking place on this night/morning. Failing to remember this myself and eventually realizing that it was indeed daylight savings, I now realize we could have gotten about 5 hours of sleep and saved ourselves a lot of trouble to come. Regardless, we were on the road. We arrived to this field around quarter after four after getting a bite to eat and some energy drinks. Thinking we had about an hour and a half to set up and get settled we started walking gear out into the field. Once in the field I quickly realized there was no cover, this was short grass. We had come a long way. I was determined to kill geese in mass amounts. We fortunately found a depression holding water. Fortunately. We had waders, we figured "Hey, let's plop these blinds in this here depression filled with muddy water that is probably also mixed with cow manure." A grand idea. We splashed the mud/poop all over the blinds and became temporarily satisfied with the semi-hide of the blind, until we got in them. After the decoys were set, the trucks were turned off and the blinds were "hidden" We all looked around at each other. Experiencing extreme sleep deprivation the details of the following conversation are a bit hazy in my memory but I think it went something like this:

JP: "Dude it's not even starting to get light out"

Andrew: "You know what, it's daylight savings this weekend isn't it"

Dominic: "So the sun isn't coming up for another hour"

Zach: "So we probably could of actually went to sleep last night"

Andrew: "Well, we can take a nap now for a little bit"

Let me tell you something about taking a nap in a ground blind in muddy, poopy cold water. It doesn't happen. We sat in our blinds and waited. Shooting time came. We saw geese. We called. We flagged. Nothing happened. One loner finally committed. We shot him. We got our goose. For the next four hours we watched flock after flock after flock fly past us lock up and continue their path to a field full of good hunters. Being extremely deprived of sleep, we began having ridiculous conversations and laughing at incredibly stupid thoughts, if I could remember any of this, I would share it. We wondered away from our blinds, went on nature walks and after getting rained on, snowed on and basically mocked by the gods of waterfowl hunting for four hours, we started to pack up. Despite how full of energy we were this somehow became a two hour process. 

Trucks finally loaded we headed home, yes I did doze off at the wheel on the way home, luckily Dominic had just awoken from a nap and was able to save us from a potential 60 mile-per-hour tragedy. 

I got home at 2:30pm and immediately went to bed, I woke up at 7:30pm, ate dinner, and went back to bed, with thoughts of the worst waterfowl hunt I have ever been a part of dancing in my head.

We're not deer hunters. We're not conditioned to endure long hours of little or no activity, that is why we took up waterfowling, we like to see stuff happen, birds move, you know. But what happens when that activity we took up the hobby for doesn't occur? We don't handle it quite like deer hunters, that's what. From this point on, I'm not sure if this holds true for all waterfowlers, but this is a description of what usually starts happening in the Fowl Exposure blind when the activity ceases.

Football:

A good late season activity when bulky clothes are in use, is to pick up our best feeder full body or floater and have a came. However before trying this out, be advised tackle decoyball can be dangerous in harvested corn fields.

Boxing:

During the September season, when we know we are really wasting our time, we actually bring stuff to do, rather than simply improvising. We found bringing a couple pair of boxing gloves can provide about 5-30 minutes of really great entertainment depending on how many people came along.

Jet-Sledding:

In the winter, we like to bring those little sled things for hauling decoys over snow or into the water, it is always a good time to see how much weight they can keep afloat. It helps to have a very weight-diverse hunting group to test this out. For any 160 pounders out there, you're safe!

Rest assured, any activities I can find to keep all you waterfowlers out there entertained, I will be sure to share!