Whack a Doodle

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

Two Limits

Tw

Jim's Nice Drake Ringer

Here One Can See the Ringer's Ring 

Banded Aug 2012 in North Dakota