Monday afternoon around 4:30... my car is packed, ready to go, my godfather ready to meet me in the AM and i get a phone call from a prospective employer I have to be there tomorrow at 8 o'clock. Which means a 4:30 wake up and no duck hunting. I dont even have a job yet and it is already messing up my plans.
Tuesday at 3:30 i finally roll out of Bellevue and head for Jberry's house to have some fresh blackmouth for dinner and get all the info i need to "take care" of his place for a few days while he is in Vegas. Talk to my godfather "U.J." and we are set for wednesday at our all time favorite spot. Hopes are high and we are ready to go.
Wednesday morning we hike back into the dunes and set up to the sound of ducks and geese. Lots of birds making a ruckus in the dark. Well U.J. pulls the old, "I think my waders leak" trick to get me to set out the spread while he puts the finishing touches on the blind and we are ready to go about 10 minutes before shooting light. For those ten minutes we are covered in groups of 10-25 ducks bombing into the decoys and finally at 6:40 we are able to open up on a nice group. It was one of the best hunts we have ever had together. Running around picking up birds and trying to dive back into the blind as the next wave started to work. At 7:30 I have one bird to go as U.J. has limited. A nice flock starts to work and dumps into the decoys hard on the left hand edge. I pull up on the nearest drake and proceed to miss 3 times to the delight of U.J. Oh the pain... which lasted for the next 5 minutes until i was able to dump my final drake(with 3 shots) A great hunt with limits of mallards in under an hour, but i was pretty shaky on my shooting. Must be the rough work schedule starting to wear on me. Well with only an hour of the day in the books we head for our quail spots and proceed to shoot much better while getting into some big covies of quail and each getting our limit in about 3 hours. I also tacked on one rooster which i really shouldn't take credit for, as i winged it on an easy shot and it ran into some thick grass. We searched for it for about 15 minutes before starting to head back to the truck. I look back after getting about 100 yards away from the area and Madison is on point... so i hustle back and see her dive into the wild roses along the creek, after a bunch of crashing through the brambles and lots of heavy breathing, she emerges victorious with her rooster. I had given up on finding that one before she hunted him down. GOOD DOG:grvn
Late Wednesday U.J.'s son Peter comes into town and we plan for a return trip knowing that they must be back intime to cook the turkey and head to a friends house for Thanksgiving dinner. I am on my own, but we have to leave the area by 11:00. No Problem.
Thursday morning we head back into the same spot and again set out the spread to the music of the dawn. Peter and I havent hunted together in what seems like ages and it was great to get back out in the blind with him. He is one of the luckiest band shooters i have ever met and he once again came up big with a banded greenhead on this shoot. He might hunt 3 or 4 times a year and almost always gets a band or two. The birds werent as fast and furious as the day before but we managed to knock down our 21 by 9:30 and get back on the road towards home under the wire.
Here is Peter and I with our 21.
And wouldnt you know it, I even managed to weasel my way into their Thanksgiving festivities at their friend's house. :grvn But I didnt have to be back until 2:45 so off to the quail fields i went. Had a great little shoot and managed to get my 10 in under and hour. Lots of birds and good dog work by Maddy and Missy(jberry's 6mo old pup)
Well U.J. not being as crazy as myself bowwed out for friday's hunt, but there are only a certain number of times that i had seen it this good at our spot, so back i went in the morning. And was even dumb enough to pack in 5 goose decoys :cry oh the pain.... Wont make that mistake again. The number of birds in the area was rapidly declining but there were still plenty for me to limit by 8:30 with 7 drakes and a goose, and try to do a little pheasant hunting.
Missy with our waterfowl. she is quite the pup!
Well the cold weather was making it tough for the dogs to chase the roosters because they were able to run through the cattails on the ice that had formed and the dogs couldnt follow without breaking through. So I took them into some stuff away from the water for awhile but the birds werent there so back we went. Well the dogs worked out a nice point and all of the sudden they put up a rooster out in front of me... i made quite the shot at about 45 yards to stone that bird :grvn and on the shot a bird gets up on my left and i am able to dump him as well. :yes a nice double on roosters and I decide that is enough of that and head for the quail grounds again. Well i blame my sore legs for not getting a 3rd rooster, but i sure had my chances. Missy and Maddy both put up birds i should have had but i was out of position both times and could only watch them fly away. :fp
So i ended friday with 7 greenheads, 1 goose, 2 roosters and 7 quail. Not a bad day, but i was starting to wear down pretty badly. this house-sitting aint easy work.
Look at the spurs on those roosters.... and they are sharp!!!
Saturday morning my life long friend Kyle came over from Seattle and i decided to ride the hot streak i had going and head back to the same spot to see if i could scratch out one more limit. Kyle has never hunted but wanted to come along after seeing me go off every weekend and have a great time. Well it wasnt the best day with a low cloud cover, but i think i should have got 7 if i hadn't waited to take them on a couple occasions. Ended up with 3 ducks, 1 rooster, 1 quail and 1 goose before we packed it up and headed out.
Here is Kyle with the birds, he claims he needed the gun to make it look authentic, but anyone could tell that no hunter would ever wear a hat like that :nutz
So after we parted ways i went to look for some new ducks as i had pretty much worn out my welcome over the last 4 days. The dogs and i headed off to some little spots i like to jump shoot and quickly found the rest of our limit. 2 sneaks and 4 geenheads ended our duck hunting for the day but my walk did show me some good numbers and i figured i would give it a shot in the morning to see if i could find some ducks that would decoy in the area.
Sunday morning my alarm goes off at 5:00, 5:10, 5:20, 5:30 and i finally get up. Wearing it pretty badly after 3 beers the night before and Jon waking me up at midnight when they got home from the airport. "i dont want to hear about taco, i want sleep"
So i get set up just after shooting light and wait for some action. Lots of birds flying high but nothing wanting to decoy into my little wide spot on the creek. Finally a flock of 5 mallards work their way up the creek and swing over me, I miss with the first barrel but dump a nice drake with the 2nd and I am on the board. After a half hour of watching lots of ducks traffic over me i decide to go jump shoot the other close spot where i pick up a drake teal. Its a slow morning and i am about to pick up the decoys when i hear a bird flush from down the creek and see a hen wood duck come up the creek right on the deck. My gun is in the grass to my right and i contemplate letting her pass, but decide to try to get her. So i reach down, pick up my gun, shoulder it and fire just as she is about to disappear from sight up the creek. Pretty amazed at my shot, i am even more amazed when i wade out and pick her up.:grvn
My first non-mallard band ever and finally one on a wood duck.
Jon getting the text messages from his bed decides to come down and join me so that we can go hunt some quail together and see if we can get back into those big covies that i had found the previous trips.
Well we split up and i crossed a little creek to get over to where there should have been some quail but it wasnt easy to find them today, until i finally got into a small covey and shot well enough to get 9 before heading back to meet Jon and hunt a new area. Well on Friday i had been out of position on those roosters, but it wasnt going to happen again today. On the way back to the rig, I knew there was going to be a couple pheasants in a wild rose patch along a slough and Madison worked through there while i hustled to keep even or slightly ahead of her, and sure enough a nice rooster popped out in front of me and i was able to collect him.
Sundays Birds after a little more jump shooting.
Jon, i am available to house-sit anytime!:tu
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