My friend and old Control's engineer, Mike U..
invited Jim and me to join him and his son at
Broadmoor WMA for last Saturday's hunt.
He had #4 pick. At Broadmoor, that's a
guaranteed awesome draw if you know
what the layout of the land looks like.
I got to the parking lot a few minutes late, but
immediately ran into Joe R. As always, the
Mayor shared some really good G2. When
the drawing time came, he put us on the
hot spot of hot spots.
We met Mike and Josh at the stand and
then headed out together to our spot. It's
been a while, but it felt really good to
be back at Broadmoor.
Joe had told us to hunt the very east
side of our impoundment either in
the north or south corners. I told
Mike I wasn't sure I could make it
all the way to the north and he
graciously agreed to let us hunt
the nearer spot.
Jim and I got in, crossed one
lateral ditch, and then sloshed
around a bit trying to find the
best spot with some cover. We
finally backed up against the
reeds on the lateral ditch and
tossed the decoys out close in
front of us in some really nice,
low feed.
After that, we sat and waited until
shooting time. There were a
bazillion ducks flying in from
behind us. If I hadn't had a hat
on, I imagine I'd have had a new
part. They were low, fast, and
plentiful.
I could see Mike and Josh's lights
in front of us and was surprised to
hear someone on a hen mallard
call just to our left. What's worse is
how badly they were blowing the
call. Turns out, it must have been
a real hen because there was no
place for a person to hide once the
sun came up. If that's the best she
can do, she needs killin' before she
she screws up the gene pool.
I started off slow with my continuing
cycling problems but Jim had the
O/U banging them out. He was
several ducks ahead when my gun
started working better. I eventually
caught up and passed him. One
of my ducks he tracked down and
retrieved - dispatching it a la Duck
Commander. Jim surprised me by
announcing that it had a band. I
thought he was joking because a
banded blue winged teal is pretty
rare. Most of the bands I have are
the local mottled or wood ducks
banded at the WMA.
Joe had counseled us to not "burn
out on teal, but wait for the big
ducks." I couldn't stop myself.
I had six and Jim five bwts when
a last flight of speedy ducks buzzed
us from our right shoulders. Jim
fired and I knew he had hit a
drake ringer. It kept flying
about another hundred yards before
dropping hard with a big splash.
We both waded to get it, but I
played out and was pretty sure
I could see it dead in the water.
He got a really nice bird.
Mike and Josh weren't set up
quite as well, but they managed
7 nice birds.
We had a really good day.
ofs
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Two Limits |
Tw
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Jim's Nice Drake Ringer |
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Here One Can See the Ringer's Ring |
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Banded Aug 2012 in North Dakota |
Labels: duck hunting 12-13