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Dove Hunting in and around Knox county

Wingman

Junior Member
37
0
Hey all...

I've been hitting the fields at Kokosing State Park in Knox county and have not seen too many doves so far. Any doves that I have seen are likely resident birds, and even those are far and few between. Has anyone else had these results? I've seen a few and taken a few shots that I probably shouldn't have even took, and come up dry, and I've heard other shots from other areas, but not much, and that might've been for squirrel anyways. The weather and climate this year is obviously throwing off the migration schedule a bit, so they may have either come and gone already, before the season even started, or have yet to show up. Kokosing has two large plots of sunflower plantings, one at the intersection of Blair & Waterford, and one off of Yankee St., accessed by the third entrance on the right from Waterford Rd. and back next to the high-voltage power lines. I've spent most of my time at the Yankee St. spot since I have seen more there hanging out on the high wire. Half of the sunflowers they planted were mowed down on August 20th...and I don't see any seed left from that mow-down. I talked to a gal at the DNR and she told me they were planning on mowing the rest down by the end of this week hopefully, to get ready to plant their winter wheat. I am hoping that after they mow the remaining sunflowers down, there will be some more incentive for resident doves to drop in, as well as hoping that the migrating ones drop by too. I plan on checking tomorrow or Saturday to see if they mowed...I will let you all know what I see. I am hoping that by posting this we can get some more hunters out there because more hunters in a dove field (not too many though) is always a good thing to keep the birds moving around. I would be down for coordinating a group to head out there after they mow...so let me know if you're interested in meeting up.

Cheers...
 

Wingman

Junior Member
37
0
So I headed out to the field a couple hours before sunset today. The managers mowed down the sunflowers as well as some patches of ragweed, goldenrod, and whatever else was mixed in there. It would have been nice if they disced at least one row around the field to provide the doves with some bare ground, but that may not be something they practice at the state areas for conservation/ecological reasons. There was a front that passed over today, but it looks like it didn't bring any new doves with it...obviously the weather hasn't changed much so I wasn't really expecting that anyways. As I walked up to the field I saw about 5-6 doves perched on the high wire of the high voltage lines, and had a few fly over my decoy that I missed while I was walking the field trying to find some to jump, but not too much other than that. It looks like they are going to be harvesting the other crops of soybeans and corn that are planted within the park in the next few days, so I might actually head over to those areas to see what I see also. The harvested corn should provide a little more bare ground than other areas, and the dropped corn may spur more doves than the sunflower/ragweed fields in that case, if they are even eating that. Obviously there are multiple varieties of corn, and I don't know if they prefer certain types over others and i don't know what they planted there either. Anyways...looks like we'll still have to wait for the migrating doves to show up. Might even have to wait until the second season. Any other info from other areas would be welcomed.

Cheers...
 

Wingman

Junior Member
37
0
So I went back out late today, mostly because I forgot one of my stakes for my decoys in the field, picked that up, and went to scout the fourth entrance down off Yankee St. to see if they had harvested the large corn field in the park yet. So each parking area has a sign that clearly says "no vehicles beyond this point" at the beginning of the trail heading down to the fields, which is large enough to drive a semi down, which they probably do to harvest the fields the park leases out to one guy. As I am heading down the trail--with my 12 gauge--because I was hoping to maybe jump a few doves on my way, someone starts coming down the trail on their gator. I'm thinking...wtf? As they pass me I just kind of give them a confused look and throw up my hands in disbelief...so much for jumping any doves. I get further down into the fields and see them ahead of me picking up walnuts from the ground, and then I hear a voice from the trees above me say "you know this is the first week of bow season right?"...I turn and find a bow-hunter up in a tree stand fully camouflaged, and said..."well it's dove season too"...but no worries, he didn't have a beef with me as I was basically being quiet and what can you do it's public land...these things happen. The bow-hunter was more pissed off than I was about the guys on the gator though...and was getting on the phone to the game warden. As the bow-hunter and I were talking he turned and asked the guys picking up walnuts why they thought it was okay to drive that thing down into the park, and it turns out these are the guys who lease the land from the park to plant and harvest the crops of beans and corn. They told us how they rented the land and have every right to be down there. Both the bow-hunter and I disagreed since they were not doing anything related to their crops...and I'm pretty sure they didn't plant the walnut trees. They basically ruined his chances also. As if it's not enough that people like me have to hunt on public land...now we've got bumpkins running around on gators on the public land. I think I will be calling DNR tomorrow as well. Also, they told me they would be harvesting the large corn field around the 2nd week of October, so I will probably just wait to go back until then for doves...still just resident doves anyways.
 

Wingman

Junior Member
37
0
Heading back out tomorrow...got some more decoys I am going to try. They are the flocked motionless doves from "Hardcore-Brands" decoys. They have large clips so you can attach them to fence lines or branches, but there are none of those in the field I am trying so I bent off some wires from a few of my tomato cages so I can just clip them onto those and put them in the ground. So I have those 5 combined with the "Mojo" motion-wing doves. There is no bare dirt in the field so I am going to try posting the doves through a long 20 ft. rectangular reed camouflaged piece of fabric that has holes in it that I'm hoping will look like doves standing on bare dirt from above...who knows...I could scare them away, but I am just curious and bored I guess to see what works and what doesn't. Gotta adapt right? Hoping this last front pulled some migrating doves in as well.