The day started out a little rough. Les, Matt, Jeff, Mark and I headed out to Logan and Whiteside, but I didn't go far enough and we started out on the back side of Logan. Turned out that was just the shooting range and there wasn't a good place to rabbit hunt so we continued on up 61 and got to another entrance to Logan. We stopped in a camping area and worked a couple fields. It was still pretty cool with an overcast. Great day to be hunting. With 5 of us hunting it didn't take long to push down through a draw. We worked the area in a counterclockwise direction, heading southeast and then doubling back to work around the backside of the pond towards the road and eventually back to the truck. As we pushed up the backside of the pond, we came up on what looked to be a really nice rabbit field only to find out that it was a limited area and we couldn't shoot in the area. So we were forced west of this field. As we neared the road I got a rabbit up. He jumped about 15 feet in front of me. They were not holding tight at all. Of course the rabbit headed towards the area that we couldn't shoot. He out-smarted the dog and we pushed our way back to the truck.
We drove around Logan a little bit more, but the area was a dead end so we decided to go on down to Whiteside. The area is actually called William G. and Erma Parke White Memorial Wildlife Area, but since it's White Memorial Area, and it's just outside of the town of Whiteside, we call it Whiteside. I digress. We started in what use to be my favorite place to hunt. I say this because we have always had luck in the area. Not only have we seen a rabbit on every outing, but we've gotten quail up in the area on several occasions. We worked this field clockwise starting by heading west towards the little pond. This is where we usually have a lot of action. As we turned north on the west side of the pond we found that the entire north side of this field had been part of a control burn, similar to the area we saw at Hi Pointe a couple weeks ago. We walked along the woods until we got east of the truck at which point we were back into cover. We passed a few other hunters that had a rabbit going in the woods north of the area (we never did hear a shot). As we neared the truck, Jeff and Mark spotted a rabbit crossing from the south towards the northwest. We got the dog over as quickly as possible, but after crossing two field he wasn't driving very hard and was searching for the scent, so we called him back and headed to the truck.
After a bite to eat we went down to the large lake on the west side of the CA. We worked in a clockwise direction again. Down a draw and around to the back side of the lake. As we came down this little road, we headed up the overflow from the lake towards the back of the dam. Nearing the base of the dam Chip started barking about 10 feet to my right. There was no rabbit in site, but he pushed over towards Mark, and on up the side of a wooded hill. We decided to let him go and see what he does. He hesitated in several different areas lost the scent and then got it back. He got almost out of ear-shot and seemed to be holding in one area. Mark, Les and I headed after him while Matt and Jeff stayed put. Chip was on the other side of the conservation line when Les saw both him and the rabbit in a full sprint. I ran west down the path to try to catch the rabbit crossing the path towards the north, but got there about the same time the dog did. Chip stayed in pursuit all the way back to where Jeff and Matt were waiting, but just before arriving at their location, the rabbit was gone. Three rabbits up, three lost. We continued to hunt, but it was after 1:00 and we were all a bit tired. We talked to another couple of hunters who were had not seen a thing all day. We exchanged hunting stories and headed back to the truck. It was a good day of hunting.
TEMP: 27° - 35°
TIME: 8:00 - 2:00
CONDITIONS: Overcast and cold in the morning. Had a little bit of spitting snow when we first headed out. A good day to utilize layers. As it got later in the day, the clouds broke up and we had some sunshine. The wind was on and off. Not too bad, but very cold. It was pretty dry. Great day to be in the fields.
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