Had a great hunt yesterday with George and his son Chaz and his son-in-law. They were the first hunters of the season at Rooster Valley Pheasant Preserve where I am helping out as a guide. It was Chaz’s first time hunting pheasants and I think we got him hooked. They ended up with about 15 pheasants and they picked up a couple of dove along the way. George was hunting with his two labs “Blue” and “Sophie” and they did well together. I enjoyed putting the birds out and keeping an eye on their progress throughout the day.

My friend Chris and I got out a little late on the morning of the dove hunt opener. There were quite a few hunters around where we live so we tried to get away a bit and find some open space. We worked a canal that had a lot of wild sunflowers growing along the banks. The weather was beautiful although a bit windy as a cool-front was moving in from the north. Chris ended up shooting 2 dove and I ended up shooting at about 6 dove and never hit one. It was still a good time and fun to watch the dogs work. Chris’ lab goes crazy at the sound of a gun shot and is a retrieving machine. Abby, my shorthair was just glad to get out and run. We are anxiously awaiting the chukar season which has been moved back a few weeks here in Utah.

Yesterday we snuck over to the Rooster Valley Pheasants hunting preserve to get our fix until next season. We took our new land-lord Jared J. Jensen with us since he loves hunting waterfowl. He couldn’t decide which shotgun to bring on a pheasant hunt and I told him a 10 gauge was a little much. After some searching he finally found a couple boxes of number six shot in his arsenal. The hunting was tough since we were hunting “wild” across the river from the preserve. Jared was able to knock down a couple of nice roosters and we had a great time working the dogs. Sterling Lee and John Jacks were also hunting with us. Their dogs Biff and Trigger did well.

It was fun to take some time to visit with Russ Peterson after the hunt, as the owner of Rooster Valley Pheasants he always has some good tips to help us find some birds. He said he had just jumped 3 more roosters while working a puppy of his along the river. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go and chase them down. We hope to get out again next week. The season at the hunting preserve closes on March 31st.