End of Year

The season is completely over.  Our final big boy hunt

matched us up with our good friend Duckmanjr.  He 

helped put us on the ducks.  Jim tore up with his first

widgeon and one more limit.  Dave and I didn't score

quite as well.  

The next Saturday, Dave took Tommy on the Youth

Waterfowl Hunt.  Tommy hasn't gotten many opportunities

to hunt this year, but he got a couple nice blue wings and

extended his unblanked record of Youth Hunts.

Yesterday, Dave and I went to the WMA for a snipe

hunt.  Vision, reflexes, and shooting ability deserted

me one more time and I managed only one snipe.  

Dave got five.  I don't know how many miles of

mud we slogged, but my legs were noodled by

the time we called it quits.

The season was an excellent one for us:  83 ducks and

25 snipe.  I can't wait until next year.

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Final Ducks

Jim's First Widgeon and Two of His Other Five Ducks

Pensive at the Picking Table

Youth Hunt 2013

Two Flew Over the Cuckoo's Canal

Craig and Dave spent the night in the TMG
walkin line.  They ended up eighth in line.
For a Saturday, that put us pretty far down
in the running for any unclaimed permits.
After noodling on it quite a bit, I had opted
not to bring the boat when I met the boys
in the morning.

By the time our time to choose came along,
all the Broadmoor spots were long gone and
the best TMG spots were picked over.  If we
had had the boat, though, there were lots of
open impoundments.  Duckmanjr came to
our rescue and told us a spot.  Dan was
working the table and asked me for my
pick.  I said, "7E."  Right then, we figured
out that the guy ahead of me still had to
pick.  Guess what spot he snaked me for?
[It turned to our favor - he got skunked.]
Duckmanjr, told us of another spot that
didn't have much water but hadn't been
hunted too hard either.

The hay ride dropped us off at our
impoundment and we waded in.  We
had dressed so light because of the
heat that we weren't even wearing
waders.  Going into the water was
an initial shock, but we quickly got
accustomed to it.

Indeed, there wasn't much water.
We set up pretty close to the east
levee and hard against the canal on
the north levee.  Any long shots and
they would be in or over the 20ft deep
canal.  Having ended up in one of those
canals, I wasn't making the long retrieve
no matter how many sprigs or how much
jewelry.

Dave wandered off and came back saying
that it opened up farther down.  I said I'd take
a half dozen duck and a few coot decoys and
hunt that area.  As I headed out, I asked
Dave if he had gone left or right around the
reed island in front of me.  He said left.  He
was wrong.  I ended up in some really
thick stuff before I got course corrected.

The spot I choose was much smaller, but
a safe distance and direction from the boys.

The day was great.  Ducks actually decoyed
in or flew low and slow enough for easy
shots.  Well, all but two.  Both of them ended
up over the canal.  I was bummed.  Counting
them, I was limited.  The boys had been shooting,
but didn't have a lot of birds.  I called one of
them over.   Dave came and Craig stayed.

As he waded over and I headed out to meet
him, he yelled, "Down!"  I ducked and put
my fingers in my ears.  He fired and dropped
a drake woodie.  Unfortunately, it too went
over the canal.  I told him to hunt and I'd
make the circuit to the levee on the other
side of the canal to try and retrieve his bird.

I ended up retrieving my two teal, but neither
I nor later he could find his duck.

We ended the day with 11 ducks and a lot
of fun.

Bucket O'Ducks

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Going for the Green

 Jim and I went snipe hunting on New Year's
Day.  I would have tried a duck hunt in the AM,
but I didn't want to be out driving with all the
early morning drunks.

We weren't but a few hundred yards from the
launching ramp when we saw several small
groups of mottled ducks take off from small
ponds.  We grabbed a couple of decoys and
hunkered down in the dog fennel hoping
some of the ducks would come back.  A
pair gave us a look but stayed just out of
shooting range.  So, we headed back in
the boat and headed further upriver.

We found a large open area of mud and
low smartweed.  Jim went right and I
headed left.  There were snipe, but they
had been shot at pretty hard and were
taking off yards out of range.  As I
swung around in a big circle, I saw
big flocks of sandpipers flying over
the open water to the west.  I watched
a little closer and realized they were
green wing teal.  I headed back to the
boat hoping Jim was doing the same.

At one point, I looked down and saw
the thick, black body of a cottonmouth
at my feet. I first thought it was already
dead because it wasn't moving.  Two quick
blasts of 20 gauge steel #7s and it most certainly
is now.

By the time I got back to the boat, Jim was
indeed on his way.  We found some fresh,
abandoned palmetto fans and tossed them
in the boat.

We had to make a giant loop to get all
the way around to where the teal were.
I found a likely spot, stopped the boat,
and started to toss out the decoys.  Suddenly,
I noticed a guy not 30 yards away
stand up.  He and his lab were really
well camoed up.  We quickly pulled
up stakes and headed to a spot he indicated.

We set up quickly.  Jim made hides of
the fans and I dragged the boat down
an airboat trail.

By then, the tour air [barges] boats were
running, but still the ducks wouldn't
clear out.  They also wouldn't quite
fly where we were.  Jim finally got
stiff and headed out on walkabout.

His jaunt was my good fortune.  I
had three groups of teal come over
and dropped two nice drakes and two
hens.

Jim did get buzzed by one group, but
as he ducked down to hide in the
broomgrass, he looked down to
see he was standing on another
moccasin.  Both barrels made
short work of that problem.

By then, the duck flight slowed
down and we headed back out to
a hot snipe hole of the past.  It
was ice cold for birds and our
boat floated out into the middle
of the slough.  I was almost ready
to swim for it, but two airboats
came by and one of them dragged
the boat over for us.  Nice guys.

Spent an nice, warm, breezy afternoon
having a good time.  Besides the
four teal, we got a snipe apiece.

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Few ducks are pretty than the Drake Green Wing Teal

Truly the Softest Feathers

One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Yesterday, we were first pick in
the TMG draw.  We also didn't have
a single hunter in the house who
didn't have the flu.  Waste of a
good draw.

ofs

Variety - The Spice of Life

It was warm today, but the action we got
into made the day positively hot.

Dave and Jim took the van down to TMG
and camped overnight in the walk in line.
By the time the gates were opened, they
were #3 in line.  When Craig and I met
them at 4AM, we were looking at the
7th pick after the permit holders.  To
my surprise the same spot Jim and I
hunted a couple weeks back was
still open.  We jumped on it.

Our buddy Duckmanjr let us know that
the 4.5 inches of rain the previous week
had made the impoundment a skosh
deeper.  Where we had once had
a couple of inches to spare crossing
the lateral ditches, the water now
topped our waders.  Dave had chosen
to free wheel it and go without waders.
He made the wise move.  The rest of
us were just as soaked by the end of
the day, but we had the added burden
of trying to wade with half the marsh
in our waders.

Dave and I hunted together while Jim
and Craig moved further down.  By
8:30, Dave had 4 birds and I had 5.
Things had slowed down and we had
an awesome view of the impoundment.
Much further back, where the water
was shallower, we saw wad after wad
of ducks piling in.  We moved out there
and were covered up.  I rounded out my
limit and decided to go get Jim and Craig.

They started wading out and told me they
only had 4 birds.  I said that I would head
in and pick up gear and decoys while they
went out to join Dave.  In the next half hour,
Craig went from 1 bird to a limit using only
his O/U.  Jim's gun had picked up some
goo and was back to single shot status.

Somewhere in there, Dave finished his
limit and Jim chipped away at his until
he too had six birds.  I had finally slogged
my way back to the pickup and was dozing
in the bed when they finally stopped shooting.

This was our first four man limit as a Clan
and had - we think - the most species variety
of any single hunt:
2 scaup (really unusual bird in the marsh)
2 ringers
2 green wing teal (we got none last year)
2 spoonies
16 blue wing teal.

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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

Opening Day 2012

Nothing like being fully prepared and well scouted in
anticipation of an awesome opening day only to find
that the mud motor has an oil leak. Fortunately, we
weren't planning a long trip in the morning (300 yards
at most).

Stu and I headed out early, but were surprised at the
number of boats that were already launched when we
got there. Three or four more boats showed up after
we were in the water. The quick trip was ... well ...
quick. We set up and waited. The Thermacell worked
awesomely and we had no problems.

There were ducks, but they came at a really odd angle -
directly towards the bow of the boat. I couldn't fire
without shooting over Stu's head. Also, I'm still having
cycling problems with the Baikal. If we had a decent
gunsmith in town, I'd have my three crippled shotguns
fixed and firing. As it is, we're limping through duck
season.

Most of the ducks that came to us were blue wing teal
and I doubled on a pair. We saw some woodies , but
they didn't even give us a look. A pair of mottles liked
my duck calling and circled us four or five times, but they
didn't like the spread and moved on. At least we're on the
board.

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Hide in Highway Sight

ofs and Jones Hat