Slow Start

 Three hunts in before the break. 0-2-2 for the three.

Habitat in our local spots is horrible. Rainfall was below normal for our area. Vegetation is sparse and hydrilla has disappeared or hiding a couple feet below the surface.

Got skunked opening day. 

The Friday after Thanksgiving we hunted using layout boats out of Mike’s airboat. Mike’s gun malfunctioned or he would have had more. I was set up looking into the sun. I got one hen ringer that came to the decoys. Later in the morning, a pair of slow flying birds came over the decoys between us. It wasn’t until I saw their profile I knew they were ducks of some sort. After they cleared Mike, I shot one. The second flew back around and started whistling. I knew then they were black bellies. Mike’s gun functioned for once and he got his first ever bbwd.

Our third hunt we paddled out to our regular spot for the last few years. It had looked terrible when I scouted it for Early Teal. It hasn’t improved. We paddled out, found a good island, and got our decoys out in a fairly stiff wind. Almost as soon as we were set up, it was shooting time. Other than four teal that zinged through at an unshootable angle not much was flying. Mike hollered out that a group of 25 were flying at us. They were just out of shooting range as they went by, but they took a big old circle and came back. Closer this time, but still out of range. Their next pass was textbook: feet down and headed for the landing hole in the decoys. We both doubled. One of Mike’s was crippled and swam directly into the sun, but I couldn’t find it.

Later we had a smaller group (10) do the same thing, but we were able to shoot them on the second  pass. We both singled, Mike got a beautiful drake ringer - mine was crippled and out raced me to a reed island. All ringer day and that’s how it ended.

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