oldfatslow: Early Teal 2019

Early teal was its usual self: hot and buggy.
I went out opening day in the Fowl Trouble.
I had driven out a few evenings before and
tried to see what I could gather about the area.
The water was over a foot taller than last
year. I couldn't see any dry land. The
day before opening day, I did a quick kayak
scout. The wind was gusts of 30mph. When
I turned one corner of the river and went
head on into the wind and current, I gave
up. Instead I went and scouted Ghost
Teal. Where I lost a bird last year. That
looked really nice.

View from Ghost Teal

I timed it perfectly and got to my spot and set up
with only a few minutes before shooting time.
I hid the boat back in the broom grass and found
a clump of dog fennel to hide behind. I only
saw one wood duck in the far distance. Black-
bellies(out of season) were all around me. One
circled close enough that I thought it winked at
me.

The one good thing was talking to the air boat
tour boat operators. One, Mike, and I have
talked many time over the years. He said he
wanted to go hunting later in the year. If anyone
knows the river, he does. He's been hunting it
since a boy.

Tuesday I went out again scouting at a different
spot. I thought I was sun-tough, but I should
have used sunscreen: legs and arms got a bit
crispy. I saw two groups (more likely the same
group twice) of 12 bwt. The first spot I saw
them, I code named Oliphant Ears.

Yesterday, I gave it a shot. I was the only
hunter on the marsh. I pulled out the regs
and checked them 3 times to make sure it
was a hunt day. Paddling out was easy - even
though the hydrilla was so thick it was like
paddling through a Christmas tree. I
struggled with the GPS and had a
tricky time finding my spot, but find it
I did.

I put the decoys out in a tiny patch of
open water so they would move in the
breeze. I broke my device for holding
the Mojo teal at the launch ramp and
had to try and wedge it in a piece of
PVC pipe I had. Then I broke the
Mojo too. It still functioned and I
set it aspinning.

Then I settled back in the kayak with
all the mosquitoes and other bugs
to wait out the morning.

Beautiful Sunrise

Decoy placement

I had one group of 20 teal fly south of me heading
elsewhere in a hurry. I decided to post some
pictures on FB to relieve the boredom. Right as
I was typing a comment, a teal landed in the
pond. I had to look hard to make sure it wasn't a
grebe, but tweren't. I shot once, and it took off.

I rang off two more shots and it kept flying
away. How could I miss! Out of the corner of
my eye I saw a splash in the distance. I paddled
over and found it. If it had gone another foot, the
bird would have ended up in some really thick
stuff that would never have give up its secrets.

Lonely Teal