Woke up to 25 degrees with a stiff north wind Thanksgiving morning, coldest opener I can remember in my 14 years of hunting down here.
Got to the boat ramp around 3:45 am and there were already tons of guys heading out. Decided to hunt in spot that had fewer birds but no other people nearby.
We ended up not being on the X for puddle ducks by 100 yards but we sure were on the divers. Had a steady stream of bluebills and TONS of buffies in the decoys all morning.
At times, we would have flocks of 3-8 buffies landing all around the buffy decoys. I have never seen this many buffies down this early and ever in these kind of numbers at any point in the season. We saw a couple of flocks that easily had 10-15 buffies in it.
Only bad part was that there were very few mature drakes. I could of easily shot a limit of hens & immature drake buffies but I let my son try to shoot them instead.
He shot a box of shells and didn't hit a single one. Part of the problem was that he had a big thick coat on, the other was not keeping his head down and shooting over the birds.
But he was pumped up to see that many ducks landing all around the boat.
I shot like crap and totally miffed on the couple of puddlers that did come by the spread.
My limit for the day.
View attachment OpenerLimit.jpg
The next day, we shifted 100 yards to try to get into the puddlers. They had other plans and did not return in any numbers, but the buffies, bluebills and ruddy ducks put on another show.
At one point, we had buffies landing in the decoys on one side with a flock of 15 ruddies blasting past on the other.
I shot even worse this day. Blew the only shot at a redhead, totally missed 2 easy shots on decoying bluebills and missed a gadwall that was hovering over the decoys.
BUT my boy finally connected! He shot 3 buffies! All water shots on decoyed birds but he is still pumped up anyway. It gave him a pile of confidence, next time he swears he will hit one in the air.
We did some scouting afterwards and found a pile of redheads and bluebills on a spot nobody else hunts, so we will get after them on the 7th.
A nice drake:
View attachment OpenerBuffy.jpg
Our birds for the day:
View attachment 2ndDayLimit.jpg
Got to the boat ramp around 3:45 am and there were already tons of guys heading out. Decided to hunt in spot that had fewer birds but no other people nearby.
We ended up not being on the X for puddle ducks by 100 yards but we sure were on the divers. Had a steady stream of bluebills and TONS of buffies in the decoys all morning.
At times, we would have flocks of 3-8 buffies landing all around the buffy decoys. I have never seen this many buffies down this early and ever in these kind of numbers at any point in the season. We saw a couple of flocks that easily had 10-15 buffies in it.
Only bad part was that there were very few mature drakes. I could of easily shot a limit of hens & immature drake buffies but I let my son try to shoot them instead.
He shot a box of shells and didn't hit a single one. Part of the problem was that he had a big thick coat on, the other was not keeping his head down and shooting over the birds.
But he was pumped up to see that many ducks landing all around the boat.
I shot like crap and totally miffed on the couple of puddlers that did come by the spread.
My limit for the day.
View attachment OpenerLimit.jpg
The next day, we shifted 100 yards to try to get into the puddlers. They had other plans and did not return in any numbers, but the buffies, bluebills and ruddy ducks put on another show.
At one point, we had buffies landing in the decoys on one side with a flock of 15 ruddies blasting past on the other.
I shot even worse this day. Blew the only shot at a redhead, totally missed 2 easy shots on decoying bluebills and missed a gadwall that was hovering over the decoys.
BUT my boy finally connected! He shot 3 buffies! All water shots on decoyed birds but he is still pumped up anyway. It gave him a pile of confidence, next time he swears he will hit one in the air.
We did some scouting afterwards and found a pile of redheads and bluebills on a spot nobody else hunts, so we will get after them on the 7th.
A nice drake:
View attachment OpenerBuffy.jpg
Our birds for the day:
View attachment 2ndDayLimit.jpg
