Opening Day 2009

Well, the day turned out better
than I had imagined, but barely
better. There were few ducks and
few people hunting them. We heard
some distant shooting, but even that
wasn't very much. It was an eleven
mile trip up stream. For some reason,
I had mis-figured it at eight miles
and about a two hour journey. By the
time we got off all the sandbars we
rammed and got to our spot
(code named Deep South), we had
little time to set up. But,
set up we did. The last decoy
was out and the final bit of
camo on the boat exactly at
shooting time. We had
pretty high hopes early because
the dark was full of the sound
of black bellied whistling
ducks and mottles. The bbwds
were gone before shooting time
and never came back. The
mottles hung around, but that's
for later in the story.

The sun was at our backs. I had
coot decoys as blockers at the
upwind side of the spread off my
right shoulder. The teal and
mottle decoys were just inside
of the coots. For good measure,
I put 4 pintail dekes in the
shallows off of Jim's left shoulder.
Before us, was a nice, open landing
area.

Now, we don't actually intend to
shoot coots. The coot decoys are
there as confidence decoys. They
are wary, skittish birds that
won't ever hang around hunters.
Ducks see that and think they
are home free. So, first thing
in the AM, the only real coot
on the marsh lands in our spread
and spends almost the rest of the
day swimming amongst the decoys
trying to feel a little less
lonely. I got out of the boat
several times and we fired at
ducks once or twice. Our coot
friend was entirely unfazed.
Jenny named him Charlie. I
hope someday he finds true
happiness.

Anyway, the twilight turned
to daylight and shorebirds
by the thousands came out.
Maybe an hour into shooting
time, Jim said a duck was
flying just over out heads
and away from the spread.
I hit it a lick with the
mallard paralyzer call, it
turned on a dime, zoomed
back, and landed. I told
Jenny to shoot it since
she's never gotten a duck.
We stood up and yelled at
the hen ringer to fly but
it decided to swim for it.
Jenny fired and missed, the
duck took off, and I knocked
it down with my second shot.
At least we weren't getting
skunked.

A couple hours later, Jim
decided to go on walkabout
and see if he could scare
up some snipe. Jenny and
I stayed with the boat. Jim
was gone a long time and
never got a shot off. I
was surprised to suddenly
see a greenwing teal hen
fly up and land right in
front of Jenny. Again,
she got the first shot off.
The duck flew and we both
unloaded on it. The duck
is still flying.

When Jim finally got back,
we had to load him up with
water, it had gotten hot and
he was wearing his chest
waders and a jacket. Once
he was cooled down and irrigated
we got back to our semi-futile
hunt. Across the pond, three
mottled ducks landed. We
binoced them and waited. When
nothing happened, I got the
call back out and did a feed
chuckle and a few lonely hen
quacks. Low and behold, it
worked and all three picked
up and flew straight at us.
At about 20 yards out and
20 feet up we rose as one,
and fired. Nine shots and
all three ducks flew away.
It was pathetic.

We finally picked up and
did some snipe hunting
back down the river. I
got four and some sore
feet. Jenny and Jim
got sunburned.

ofs

Winner, Winner, Winner

I doesn't happen often in life,
but sometimes you're a winner.
This time it happened to me.

ofs

Phys Ed

One of the great things about homeschooling
is the creativity one can have. For instance
in our school, duck hunting is PE.

Stuey went out for Early Teal with me
this morning after I decided to take a
vacation day and try a walk on at the
WMA.

Things didn't look too good when we got
there. Six cars were in front of us.
But, when it came time to pass out
the walk on numbers, we were the second
pick. Even better, only two people with
draws at Goodwin bothered to show up. I
got the spot I wanted and got some good
G2 from Ken.

Launching was easy. The boat ride out
was easy. We found our spot easy. Got
the decoys out. Got camoed up. Fired up
the Thermacell (you NEED one of these).
And sat back for an hour wait. We took
turns shining the Q-Beam at bullfrogs and
waited. Finally, shooting time came. We
didn't hear any woodies squeeking and
I was a little afraid they might have
cleared out after the pounding they took
last Saturday. We were pushed up in a
cat tail island with the sun at our backs.
The palmettos we had jammed in around us
didn't give us a good look to our rear. As
always, ducks came from the way we weren't
looking. Two big groups of blue wing
teal came zooming out of the sun over
our heads. I couldn't think fast enough
to recognize them, jump up, and take a
tail shot.

Still, wood ducks started showing up in
ones and twos. We actually had a few
try and land in front of us unlike
Saturday's pass shooting only extrava-
ganza. Stu and I each got two to take
home. He got a beautiful drake. We
had a blast.













ofs

Early Teal

Was today. There weren't many folks
at the check in station today, but
we were 4th pick and got the spot I
wanted.

The boat ride out was tricky. There
were several large mud tussets that
had become floating islands full of
plants. They were blocking much
of the launching ramp. The first
boat out pushed some of it out of
the way and we were able to punch
through pulling Cannon's pirogue.

Somehow, I managed to get turned
around once we got out into the
marsh. Fortunately, I had my
GPS. The humidity had my glasses
and the GPS screen fogged over,
but we managed to read our way
to the levee jump and then to
our assigned spot.

When we got to the hole I had
picked out we were assaulted by
largest group of bugs I have
ever seen. Jim said the entire
bow of the boat was covered in
a sheet of insects. I could not
open my eyes or breath for the
swarms. Dragonflies were flying
down my shirt. I inhaled a
couple of little bugs and had
several get caught in my eyes.

I was glad when we finally
got the decoys out and got
blinded up. There were only
mosquitoes to deal with then.
But, they were viscous. They
were operating in packs. Our
new Thermacell wouldn't light
and we only had a little spray.
The skeeters harpooned me from
the back of my pants. I'll
probably die of butt encephalitis.

When shooting time came, we could
see a lot of wood ducks around
us, but we weren't on the flight
line and they sure didn't like
the mojo teal. We scratched out
four knockdowns on passing shots,
before Cannon paddled out and pulled
in the mojo. Jim got one last one
and our day was done. The real high
light was Cannon getting a banded
duck. Woo Hoo!

We got home, crashed, and then
picked the ducks (woodies are
the easiest picking ducks), cleaned
the guns and boat, and settled down
for some Gator football.

Other than forgetting batteries
for the camera, we had a good day.

ofs

Why I Fund a Useless Degree

This is where my number 2 boy goes to school.



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Why I Believe in Liberalism

I'm in favor of this kind
of liberalism any time.

ofs

Hunting Gets Trickier

If cottonmouths and gators weren't
enough, now I'll have to worry about
pythons when I step off the levee
at 4AM.

ofs