I posted this on the refuge but figured I'd post it here too.
we were due...
jberry and I had talked about it for awhile, we were due... for a number of things, a good hunt together, a band, a hunt with some wind, no ice... bottom line is we were due for a hunt that would have everything come together. It finally did, even if we had to wait for the last day of the season.
Thanks in large part to booger eaters in the Yakima Valley we felt it necessary to head out of town for the final day of the season. It had just gotten to be too much of a cluster up in our local haunts and we were tired of all the damn pintails, and mallards that didnt want to pay us any mind.
3:30 rolled around awfully early on saturday morning as i rolled off of my bed. Lane and Jon were mostly ready to go although the enchiladas and/or mexican hotdogs from the day before were definately still in mind.
The day started off very well. An impassioned speach by the refuge worker really got us ready for the final day(hey jon, who got hammered sunday night?) upon arrival the pond was loaded with birds. Lots of geese, mallards and pintails were making their presence known in the dark. We hustled to set decoys, and gather some brush for a blind but even working fast we couldnt get set up by shooting light. We finally got down to business around 20 minutes after legal light but for the first hour or so we just couldnt quite get the birds to work their way up to our blind. They wanted to tuck into the lee shore and seemed to make a U-turn about 100 yards before they got to us. it was frustrating to say the least.
The star of the day was jon;s son lane. the little turd( a term of endearment) was shooting the lights out. he was done quickly with his limit of drake mallards and a nice bull pin. All on his own shooting his 2 3/4 inch 20ga auto. Not just bringing 'em down, but stoning birds. as a side note, It has really been great to see Lane come into his own as a duck hunter the past couple years. i wont cry like his mom did this weekend, but seeing him work birds by himself on saturday, shoot his first limit last year and like a seasoned vet calmly shoot his Big McRae on sunday, has been a pleasure. :tu Nice work Meat. :tu
It seemed like I spent a bunch of the morning not even hunting but trying to reset decoys, help some other guys with their dog and retrieve birds. but when i finally settled down to try to shoot my own, it was with difficulty. I managed to get a nice drake widgeon and bull pintail right off the bat, but after that i had some serious issues. thankfully Jon was more than willing to shoot some back up and help waterswat for me. it may be his most impressive shooting. At one point, right after i got back from my dog retrieving, we had a single green head dump in. Jon called the shot and i proceeded to miss 3 times. my only consolation was that jon and lane also couldnt bring him down with their combined 6 shots and I was able to quickly fish a 4th shell out of my pocket, feed it into my BPS, pump it into the chamber and bring him down. A nice fat drake, banded in 2005 in Alberta. 10 shots, 1 bird. i thought we were better than that.
It ended on a nice note too. Jon waited for me to retrieve a hen I had suckstered and floated out into the middle. Madison and I took a hike to go get her but Jon waited to finish out our limits. Lane, was on shore with his pup and we had 2 birds to go when i got back. I shot the first single that rumpledumpskinned into the decoys and Jon made a nice shot on the second. A fist bump, and just like that, it was over.
Another season in the books, not the best ever but they all have their moments and sunday was exceptionally fine for us.
oh and p.s. - hey daryl. we're hunting it.:fp
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