When morning came I had to sit myself down and really understand why I do what I do. No matter, my heart desire over-rid my brain and I suited up. The night before Dad, and I discussed taking the layout blind merely from a warmth standpoint, and boy am I glad I did. I hauled decoys and gear out, brushed in the blind, and set out decoys. Even with all of my bundled up self, I was cold. 25-35 mph winds and 23 degrees will do that.
At legal light I could barely see a thing but Lou was going berserk. She could see the birds everywhere and as light crept into the darkness, the sky was littered with flocks. When it was finally light enough to see what was going on, I had cans in the decoys. When I stood up to flush them, they all broke into the wind and I picked out a drake and dropped him without hesitation. On the board!
With the blind being tucked away from the water's edge, I really had to pick my shots and it was getting frustrating before I had barely begun. I dropped a bird to my right that dove and dove, and Lou was never able to recover. I had a bufflehead come screaming in and landed right outside the pocket of my decoys, well within range. I dropped it but the diving commenced and four swatter shells were still not able to bring him to hand. Again, I had to call Lou off.
As we watched birds swirling all around us, a pair of large birds were homing in on us at mach speed. I knew they were cans before I even pulled up. When I took my first shot I rocked him but a flapping headfirst drop meant he was still kickin'. I finished him off before he hit the ground so Lou could actually retrieve without the diving. The shot was just a little on the far side but I was still able to pull it off.
When she returned I reevaluated my situation, said screw it, and pulled my blind to the water. The cover was thinner, but I was able to make it work. In fact, I set up in the exact same spot that I was the last time I hunted there. I rebrushed in the blind, being far more diligent this time, and it worked like a charm. I didn't even get the left side of my blind shut after crawling back in, and a bufflehead dropped into the same spot the last one was. This time I was 12 yards away instead of 30.
I really got to enjoy the show this way. Because I had filled my canvasback quota, we just got to watch them everywhere they went. For 10 minutes we had a flock work us, giving multiple shot opportunities, and at one point, they sat down, not five yards from us.
We watched as the mallards and pintails poured into another portion of the marsh, and I hoped eventually we would pull a few our way. Again, we had pair B-line for us but worked off to our left and dropped down not 30 yards beside us. It was a pair of mallards and I knew what they were going to do. As soon as the rounded the point we were on, they were no more than 20 yards. I slowly flipped up the side, and when they caught my movement, they flushed straight up into the air. I dropped the drake with one perfectly placed shot. When Lou returned with the bird I was astounded with the size. This was a giant compared to the big canvasbacks I shot earlier, and it made the buffleheads look like sparrows. A big Canada migrator.
With only one more bird to satisfy a limit, I vowed to save the last for a drake. I didn't care what it was, it just needed to be a drake. Lou and I shivered in our blind for the better part of another two hours. I whiffed an easy shot on a drake shoveler, but then again, I wasn't all that disappointed. Our final bird came screaming in with the wind on his tail, another specimen of a bufflehead, and I dropped him right off the end of the point.
That ended our duck hunt on this frozen, windy October day. If I didn't know better I would have said it was late November, but than again, Mother Nature has her own ways.
I attempted multiple pics with the dog, but with frozen hands, and some missing camera arm parts, I had to improvise. I finished round one with serious frustration, and decided to just take everything down, warm up and try again.
By the time I realized what was happening, it was already too late, and taking down decoys is a sure-fire way to have birds come in. Despite that hiccup, I regretted nothing. It was a duck hunter's dream day. Cold, shitty, windy, and even a little snowy.
I have said it a few times now, but I sure do enjoy this waterfowl thing. Despite my drive to try different things, I am still very hesitant to get in a boat, but Dad keeps trying to convince me....
Maybe...
Stay Tuned
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