Lonely Hunt

I was going to try a walk in at TMG
with Craig, but we decided to take the
boat out on the St. Johns and give that
a try. I've mumbled about the river dropping
before and I really wasn't sure where
to try. Craig and I had done some
scouting last Monday, but hadn't seen
any ducks. Still, I've had success
there this year and wanted to try
again.

We were the only boat at the ramp.
That's not a good sign. But, the
weather was perfect: blowing wind,
spitting rain, and darkly overcast.
Miserable is the best way to describe
it - almost ideal duck hunting
conditions.

We headed out on the river at a brisk
6 miles per hour. Craig manned the
Q-Beam and I kept my eye on the GPS.
I was torn between three different
spots. None of them seemed ideal.
I passed the first one because I didn't
have the side channel it was on in the
GPS. The third one I talked myself
out of because I didn't like the feel of
if (sort of a Gandolfian experience in
the Mines of Moria). So, we chose the
middle way (I am Anglican after all).

We ran the boat up in a little cut and I
went to find a spot. I found a little
pond surrounded by dry land. There was
a little clump of plants mostly stripped
clean by free ranging cattle. We put
the blind in there. Here's Craig putting
up his palmettos.



I loaded the far section of the pond with
coots and put teal and pinners up front.
I left a landing zone on the left that was
about a 20 yard shot. Here's the layout
from the blind.



We didn't get much action at first. But,
finally some bird flew in. It came in so
slow, that at first, I wasn't sure it was a duck.
When it put its feet down I changed my mind and
shot it. The day started with a nice hen pinner.

Craig and I decided that we couldn't shoot any thing
over our heads; the river was only 10 yards
behind us. Still, two blue wing teal came
from Craig's right straight over us. He
shot the one on the left cause it was the
safest shot. It landed in the river, but
we were able to easily retrieve it.

There were dozens of shore birds: white ibis,
glossy ibis, every variety of heron, even
more varieties of sand pipers, and rosette
spoonbills around us, but precious few ducks.
After a bit, 4 gwt landed 90 yards out on
the bank of a side channel. Their heads
were tantalizingly visible. We peeped softly
and did some mallard feed chuckles. After
10 or 15 minutes, they took off and flew to our
spread. I whispered to Craig that they were coming,
but he didn't hear me. I shot the drake and
two hens for my first true triple. Craig
got the other hen before it got away. A "Cut
'em all , Jack."

There were some other ducks - a flight of
mottles and some widgeons(?) that came by
but couldn't be tempted in range. I
finished the day with a stray hen gwt.

We killed every duck we had a shot at today.
A lot of fun.

Here's a shot looking back at the blind.



Here's what 8 palmetto fans will do. This is
a picture of Craig in the blind.



Here are some of the wild or not so wild
horses that wander the river. We scared
a herd of cows that swam the river in the
dark. Really neat.



Here's the final take:




ofs