I woke up Sunday morning hopeing for a full bag limit like Sat. The temperature was around 34 degrees and felt every bit like it. The wind
was blowing just hard enough to force a few more leaves to fall from the sweet gum trees and get thru a couple of layers of clothing. The crispness in the air was a good welcome, it was going to be a great duck hunting morning.
I made my thermos of hot chocolate, loaded the charged mojo batteries and out the door I went. As I arrived to the landing, there were 5 other trucks with boats launching as was expected, but something was amiss.
My hunting partner hadn't shown up. Not like him to miss a hunt without calling and letting me know. Thank god for cell phones. It didn't take long for his phone to be answered by the words "Dude, I am so sorry...I over slept. It'll take me a couple of minutes and I'll be out the door." I told him not to rush, a thick fog was on the water and it looked like the ducks would be flying a little later.
He was there within 15 minutes, we launched the boat and headed out. It was a cold 20 minute ride from the landing to our cut off the river followed by another 10 minute idle through what I call the stump mine field. After setting up the electronic decoy's and checking the spread we got into the hole and got situated. It wasn't but a few minutes and the first group of teal buzzed by. You could hear the wwwiiisssssshhhhhh as they went by, causing chills to go thru my body. I knew it was on. A couple of quacks from the ol double nasty and they started their turn. "Out in front" my buddy said. My finger was already on the safety and the meat stick was easing out the blind. Just as they were about 5 feet off the water and in a full cupped position I heard my partner stirring to stand up. I knew he had beat me to the first shot...BANG! I saw a bird drop as I was setting my bead...BANG! I saw a second bird drop, but it was from my #4's. We dropped a third one but it was argued over who hit him. It didn't really matter, we had three ducks in on the first volly. The morning went well as we had groups come in about every few minutes. The shooting was steady and it wasn't long we was working on the 2nd limit.
The flights slowed down and we had 7 birds in the boat. We went thru the eight o'clock lull with no ducks giving us a shot for about 30 minutes.
Then a group of Gadies came thru but they were a little high. I hit the call with a lonley quack. THEY TURNED! and was heading back toward us. Just as they were starting to cup, they FLARED! they shot out and away from us, ***!, I hit the call again as they got about a hundred yards away and they turned back toward us again. They gave us a fly by and was about 30 yards up. My partner whispered with a little excitement to look in the decoys, but my eyes were glued to the Gadwalls as they circled again. He then said "Look what is swimming toward us". I hit the call again and glanced at the decoys to see what the excitement was about. About 20 yards right in front of the blind there was an 8 pt buck swimming straight for us. That is when I realised what was flaring the ducks. Ducks!, crap I scanned the sky and found the ducks still wanting to work. I hit the call again and they kept showing interest. I looked back at the buck and watched him swim thru the decoys and about 10 feet from the mojo. I thought for sure he would spook from the mojo, but he didn't flinch. He got about 15 feet from the blind and turned to our left and got some footing on the bottom. He slowly walked at an angle from us toward the bank. He stopped about 20 feet from us and just stood there for a moment. He shook the water from his coat, looked at us again, then slowly walked along the bank till he found a spot that looked good to him to enter. WOW! Where is the camcorder when sh*# like that happens. While in total disbelief of what I had seen I heard the familiar dac...dac dac from my trophies. I looked and they were still wanting to come in. With a couple more calls from the teasers and the deer out of their way, they committed. Four Gad's hit the water with a thud and splash. The full limit was not achieved Sunday, but we will still have a story to tell for years to come. More than likely every guest I have out there will hear this story time after time. Eventually the story may have the limit I had sought, but the 8 pt will be the center of the story each time.
11-15-2010, 09:23 AM
Wish I had my camcorder Sunday morning.
Linear Mode
