Started out on thursday it was about 10 degrees when I left. I ended up with this nice little mixed bag of ducks. 2 Mallards, 2 Green Wing Teal, and nice drake Widgeon. Shootin was slow and theses were the only chances I had. Shot well, 5 ducks, 6 shots, misssed twice. Yea, I got the two mallards with one shot.



Left friday night to go to the refuge and I took a rookie for his first time duck hunting. I think he will get addicted after a day like this. I supplied him with all my back up gear and my single shot (thought it was right for a first timer). Ducks were everywhere and un-educated. I did not shoot as well as I did on thursday but still manged to squeeze out my limit. Got some great pics.


Here are few of the dog. She worked her a$$ off and retrived all the birds and chased after a few of the cripples. She hit the water everytime we shot, duck or no duck. Here she is leaving a wake behind her.




I love this pic. I think I am going to get it framed. Notice the ice hanging off her eye whiskers. I am amazed at how much a dog gets better at hunting as they age.




We ended up shooting 13 birds by noon and spent two hours wasting ammo and missing for the next two hours. So we decicded to give the last bird up to the duck gods for the few cripples we lost. Here are a few nice shots.





Here is Mo, the rookie, with his first duck ever. Nice drake mallard.



Here is a tailgate shot (D3smartie style).



We stayed across the river at a motel and were going to hit this spot again on sunday. When we arrived there were only two groups staying at the motel. A full night of freezing rain filled every motel in town. We got up early and headed out, and to our supprise the bridge had been closed due to the weather and we could not get to our spot. So we headed east to the spot I hunted last year closing day. When we finaly arrived it was froze up hard and we decided to go home. The roads were crappy and it took 5 hours to make a 3 hour trip. It wasnt one of my better seasons but it eneded great with lots of shooting and a safe trip home. It was also nice to introduce a new hunter to the sport.

Nice job and thanks for the story.

Great looking lab, they were meant for that cold stuff Thanks for the report.

Thanks. Would you believe she's not a pure bread and we picked her up from the pound. When we first got her she would piss herself if I worked the action on my shotgun. Now she is the craziest bird dog I have ever seen. Rapids, ice, blackberries......doesent matter, she's going after that bird.

Nice report and pics. Looked like lots of fun.

Our best hunter (dog) was a pound dog. He was yellow, not pure bred at all, but was absolutely relentless. I think he might have been part hound. Just an unbelievable hunter, he would not ever lose a cripple if we could get him within 50 feet of where it landed. I've been with lots of good "real" labs since then, but this dog was uncanny, like a 6th sense or something. RIP Chester.

Great report and pics!

Ya this was a sad year for h2ofowl'n for me... I was working too hard to get my salmon/steelhead guiding going... I only went 2 times this entire season.. once in WA and once in MT... The good news is that I locked up some great leases in both WA and MT for next season... So look out for some guided trips... Awsome pics and storys.....