Mike Livingston


[Roll Call ]

Posted by Mike Livingston on August 04, 1999 at 15:57:58:

Been gunning waterfowl since 1974, so I guess the better part of 25 years. I began hunting under the tuleage of my Father, who had the bug like I have the bug now. We hunted the Missouri river as it ran between the states of South Dakota and Nebraska. Spreads of balsa wood Herters full bodied canadas and balsa wood goose floaters. The wooden ducks decoys had been replaced before I started gunning with the new fangled model 72 styrofoam ducks which were touted for their increased weatherability. I look back on some of the old pics when I started hunting and it definitely was a labor of love keeping them old balsa decoys in good working order for so many years. I still drag a couple of them along on a couple special days a year for nostalgias sake. One of the hundreds of lessons I've learned from hunting with my Dad and uncle would be "If you take care of your equipment, it will take care of you" This lesson I'm sure has kept me alive on an occasion or two in the past. At present my primary boat is a 17 ft Lowe "Roughneck" powered by a 40 HP Johnson, I have a 14 ft Lund, a 12 foot Carsten bluebill, and I think at present that is it. At one time I had more but storage was a problem so I let a couple go, big mistake. I've made a pact never to sell another boat in my life cuz you just never know what next year will bring, who knows? My favorite day on the river is when the wind blows 25 mph from the NW and the temp has been below 25 for a couple days. This is when the ducks pour in off the prairie potholes. Our bag consists mostly of mallards, but widgeon,teal, pintails, gadwall, woodies, bluebills,redheads, cans, goldeneye, bufflehead, and once every five or so years I see a black duck late in the season mixed in with the mallards. Canada geese have become more frequent in the last 5 years or so, and each year we get a good push of specks through in late October but unless your there on the few days they push through they are incidental to the bag. The snows come through in great numbers but they are usually in huge groups in the fall and on the move in front of a storm and I don't set-up for them as they require HUGE spreads, but we get a few each fall that toll to the mixed spread of candas and ducks. Well hope I didn't bore anyone with all this. Give me a shout if you want to hear more, as I can go on and on, and.....
Best Regards, Mike