Steve Sanford
Well-known member
All~
I have enjoyed a long run of memorable hunts on the day before Christmas - and this morning kept the tradition alive with a very nice shoot - hard won after such a duck-free season.
This photo is a bit misleading - the Hen was from an earlier hunt. Today's take was 3 Drake Mallards but only 2 made it home with me.
We have finally found some birds in one of our usual late-season haunts. In a typical year, the ponds and marshes are frozen by now and Mallards and Blacks move to the rivers. The rivers usually are edged with ice and snow and provide many beautiful and satisfying hunts. However, it is currently 71 degrees and so every little pond or puddle is available. But, it being a Dearth-of-Ducks year, it hardly matters. Ducks are just hard to find.
The river we have been hunting the past few days is small but "flashy" - a little bit of rain raises the levels and the flows. For example, today was at least a foot higher than Tuesday AND the flow has increased - as per USGS gages - almost four-fold. So, hunt planning - especially for retrieving downed birds - can be tricky.
Partner Cap'n Nemo and Loyal Assistant Boo stood in bed this morning, so I was both solo and without the services of a retrieving dog. Nevertheless, I made most of the right decisions and thoroughly enjoyed a couple of hours bankside.
After watching almost 20 Blacks in and out of the rig from about 10 minutes "too early" until sunrise, 4 Mallards roared downstream - barreling in like Broadie-beaks - and shooting was strictly of the "self-defense" variety. My trusted Model Twelve - aka "Locomotive Breath" - spoke twice and accounted for a sweet double. Shortly after retrieving 2 spectacular, fully-plumed drakes, another pair threatened my very existence - and the Drake fell. As per the Standard Operating Procedure, all three were "dead-in-the-air" - but I had to watch the last one float downstream faster than I could run. Since Boo was not along, I should have had a boat. With only 3 days to go up here in dairy country (NY's Southeast Zone), he was my first lost bird for the season.
I should have ended my hunt with a fourth drake - a Black Duck - as well, but suffered a brief bout of E. C. S. - Empty Chamber Syndrome. A la erstwhile gunning partner Cap'n Fencepost, I sent him scurrying upstream with nothing but a dry CLICK to remember me by....
Next year I will stash a canoe at this spot in early December.
And - in light of the ambient temperatures - all of the Mallard fillets are now resting comfortably in my freezer.
Merry Christmas to All!
SJS
I have enjoyed a long run of memorable hunts on the day before Christmas - and this morning kept the tradition alive with a very nice shoot - hard won after such a duck-free season.
This photo is a bit misleading - the Hen was from an earlier hunt. Today's take was 3 Drake Mallards but only 2 made it home with me.
We have finally found some birds in one of our usual late-season haunts. In a typical year, the ponds and marshes are frozen by now and Mallards and Blacks move to the rivers. The rivers usually are edged with ice and snow and provide many beautiful and satisfying hunts. However, it is currently 71 degrees and so every little pond or puddle is available. But, it being a Dearth-of-Ducks year, it hardly matters. Ducks are just hard to find.
The river we have been hunting the past few days is small but "flashy" - a little bit of rain raises the levels and the flows. For example, today was at least a foot higher than Tuesday AND the flow has increased - as per USGS gages - almost four-fold. So, hunt planning - especially for retrieving downed birds - can be tricky.
Partner Cap'n Nemo and Loyal Assistant Boo stood in bed this morning, so I was both solo and without the services of a retrieving dog. Nevertheless, I made most of the right decisions and thoroughly enjoyed a couple of hours bankside.
After watching almost 20 Blacks in and out of the rig from about 10 minutes "too early" until sunrise, 4 Mallards roared downstream - barreling in like Broadie-beaks - and shooting was strictly of the "self-defense" variety. My trusted Model Twelve - aka "Locomotive Breath" - spoke twice and accounted for a sweet double. Shortly after retrieving 2 spectacular, fully-plumed drakes, another pair threatened my very existence - and the Drake fell. As per the Standard Operating Procedure, all three were "dead-in-the-air" - but I had to watch the last one float downstream faster than I could run. Since Boo was not along, I should have had a boat. With only 3 days to go up here in dairy country (NY's Southeast Zone), he was my first lost bird for the season.
I should have ended my hunt with a fourth drake - a Black Duck - as well, but suffered a brief bout of E. C. S. - Empty Chamber Syndrome. A la erstwhile gunning partner Cap'n Fencepost, I sent him scurrying upstream with nothing but a dry CLICK to remember me by....
Next year I will stash a canoe at this spot in early December.
And - in light of the ambient temperatures - all of the Mallard fillets are now resting comfortably in my freezer.
Merry Christmas to All!
SJS
