Last day of the season

[Ed Wahl]

I swear my next post will be about fishing, but this was the last day of the wild bird season and I thought I'd share it with you guys.

It starts out early, long before first light.
While I'm getting things ready Cash gets impatient, he lives for these trips now.

Are you ready now? How 'bout now? How 'bout now? Now?
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/edfish333/Cash/Lastdayofqailseason2013002.jpg

We hit our spot about 2 hrs later and about 15 minutes in my little GPS device says "Cash is on point". Freakin handy little device. So I follow the arrow over a small hill and there he is, on point. I walked in expecting a bird to flush and about 8 came out. Totally blew my cool and missed twice. I forgot about the camera in the excitement so no pic of that one.

Then it was hours of walking and climbing with no bird contact. Then, when I decided it was time to turn and head back to the truck Cash got into a bunch of singles.

I got pics of one of them, start to finish.

My device beeped again, Cash is on point, so I went into the gully he was working and found him here, on the opposite side from me.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/edfish333/Cash/Lastdayofqailseason2013005.jpg

I crossed over to his side, circled around him and took this one. Look close.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/edfish333/Cash/Lastdayofqailseason2013006.jpg

Did you see it? Just under the boulder Cash is pointing.
Here's a closer look.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/edfish333/Cash/cashandquail.jpg

The end game, it's all been put together in his head now.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/edfish333/Cash/Lastdayofqailseason2013003.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/edfish333/Cash/Lastdayofqailseason2013004.jpg

There's still some steadying up to do but it looks like I'm back in the bird dog game. One of my most pleasant days afield in years.

An awesome way to end a season.

Ed

[Mark Kranhold]

Well done Cash! Congrats on your success with a mans best friend Ed.

[jbird]

Wonderful story and photos Ed! Thanks for sharing :)

[Ed Wahl]

Hey Jay, it was cold too. Just like your place. I had to wear a long sleeved shirt, with a tee shirt underneath. ;)

Ed

[Larry S]

Thank you Ed. The San Diego UT writer Jack Murphy used to write about his Lab "Abe." Abe would go
berserk when he got the shotgun out. Does your pointer have the same soft mouth of a Lab?
This is always one of my favorite Kiene threads. Thank you, guys!
Larry S

[Ed Wahl]

Hey Larry, he's not as soft mouthed as I'd like. He doesn't maul them but he does get a case of lockjaw when it come time to give it up. A course in 'force breaking to retrieve' this summer should cure that.
My first dog, Rum, a Gordon Setter, once caught a just hatched teal in the creek on the training grounds and was so gentle with it that when I put it back in the water it jetted across the creek into the tules where it's siblings were hiding.
I can say that Cash can smell a quail from what seems to me to be an impossible distance.
Fun stuff.
Ed

[k.hanley]

Cash has you trained pretty darn good there Ed. That dog has tremendous patience to work with you!!!!! Nice going team. Yup. Very nice.

Cheers, Ken

[Mike McKenzie]

Nice stuff there Ed! Makes me miss the heck out my Pointer (Missy) there's nothin' like Oak trees, Bitter Brush, Chamise, Pointers and Quail!

Mike

[Ed Wahl]

Mike, I couldn't have said it better.

He's such a sweetheart, totally blew out what I'd beleived about pointers for most of my life.

I saw the light come on for him this trip. He's got it figured out that it's a team effort.

As far as bird dogs go, this is about as good as it gets.

I took Duke along too, just for the ride. He's too old to hunt now but does enjoy the ride and being tied out in the 'wilds' for a while to get a good look and smell. He was really wanting to get down to business too.


Here he is just chill'in.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/edfish333/Cash/Lastdayofqailseason2013008.jpg

Although in reality Duke never just chills, he's sniffing for game scent. Always.


He was so pleased with the outing that he went ahead and doggified my passenger side window.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a288/edfish333/Cash/Lastdayofqailseason2013011.jpg

What a dog eh?

Ed

[Scott V]

That is so awesome Ed. I have been practicing with my mountain quail call, I think I am getting better.

[Tony Buzolich]

You guys sure make me remember some good times chasing quail, only I was the dog ;)
Tony

[ted1]

Looks like he is doing well, nothing better than a well-trained dog, no matter how good the shooting is.