Always Experimenting

Al Hansen

Al Hansen

Well-known member
“Where Did You Hide?”

I had just told Tim where I shot my limit of bluewings. He had that perplexed look on his face when he asked, “Where did you hide?" He knew exactly the spot I was at and there is no place to hide and no place for a blind.
That is when a big smile erupted when I replied, “I didn’t.” From that point on I described where on the pond I sat which was on the east/southeast corner. I had Chili sitting by my side, with one ragweed plant in front of her. As for me, I must have looked like a barn on a golf course or maybe how a boar Kodiak brownie looks like when crossing the tundra out by Dead Man's Bay, but I was not worrying. I was wearing my face mask with my shotgun on my lap. As a backrest I had three stalks of wild sunflowers to lean against. My feet were in the pond.
I was using three teal decoys on the opposite side of the pond and my shell of choice was a Federal 2 3/4 inch steel 7 shot. My decoy spread was only 18 yards away so things tended to happen quickly.
For a long time I have always been intrigued by the duck’s inability to recognize inanimate objects. Point blank, this means that if you remain absolutely still it is not of concern to them. So I tried it and it worked. Not once but twice in different settings.
Next year I will bring my folding chair along and be more comfortable. I want to see if that will work.
One thing that I do that always makes a difference is to have something at my back to break up my silhouette. I don't worry about Chili because she just doesn't move. Not at all except for her head when she is following the flight path of ducks. Once we are set wherever we are she is like a fixed object----that is until a duck is down and then you need to stay the heck out of her way.
Ducks Unlimited magazine has had some great articles about the eyesight of a duck and they are worth reading. They will also let you know exactly what colors NOT to have around you as ducks spot them easily.
Al

This is the spot where my feet were in the water as I sat there. Chili is on my left and we sat there until I had my limit of teal.

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In this next picture you will see Chili. I sat to her side in front of the small tree looking straight north. On that day we had a good southerly breeze and the ducks decided to fly the channel.

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I think it is fun to experiment when you duck hunt. You never know what will or won't work unless you try it.
 
Al,
Nice going! That really looks like a great place for the ducks. Be happy you have a steady dog, Booker would "book out". That is at the top of our summer training list. Stay and I mean it!!. We are watching the snow start to melt and any open water is a sight for sore eyes.
 
The "sitting still & looking like a log/stump" system works on shallow open water too, it just gets a little chilly. The whole key is to where drab natural colors, cover/camo your face and sit still.
 
Tom, in those top two shots, that is the first time in 12 years that I have seen water in this spot. One of the arroyos happened to run just enough water that filled that pond. It was dry by the time the main duck season opened.
Glad to hear that the termination dust is beginning to melt. In two months you will be fishing.
Al
 
Carl, thanks for adding that about the drab natural colors. I agree about the chilly part. Normally I like sitting behind a blind of some sort so I can hoist my coffee cup as often as I need to.
Al
 
Al, Ducks sure know where the water is. Some years back when it was drought here there was just a tiny bit of water towards Clinton the covered up every night. It was all mine cause I knew where it was and so did the ducks. Also it took almost a half hour to crawl through the cattails to reach the water.;-)
 
Al,

Looks like the water flooded some weeds there....the burdock and sunflower....I agree with Carl and you about sitting still as a rock...it works and works well if you do not move.

On the shallow bays around the Great Salt Lake you can sit on a upside down 5 gallon bucket(painted mud brown) pushed down in to the mud. just so your butt is about water level. Surround yourself with decoys and sit like a lump of mud...DO NOT MOVE!! I used to wear an old olive drab military coat (m65?) with a bit of mud brown paint splashed on it and a brown face mask. The water in those areas might be 2-6 inches deep

You could just go to a craft store get a few silk sun flowers, sew them on your clothes and you would look like that flower in the photo. You could call the camo pattern "Southwest SunFlower"...might start a trend..


Nice hunt you had...Lucky you and Chili

Matt
 
A related thought- We used to(pre dog days) hunt out of float tubes. Camo up like a rat house and don't move.Some beaver ponds we hiked into had probably never been shot over and the ducks knew it. Then came the dogs and we kinda gave up on that but it still is a great idea but I would never say where those ponds were;-). I did try to get ol' Jack to ride on a tube but not to be.I'll see if I can learn the photo posting again and show some of those days.
 
Tom, I can remember only too well, how many times I stepped into a beaver or muskrat run getting totally soaked with cold slough water. By the way some of my best pheasant hunting was done in this environment. I found out that cock pheasants liked to sit on the muskrat houses which were a safe haven for them during the season.
Al
 
I have a similar spot Al on a stream is western WI that I hunt. There is no cover in front of me but I have some scrub trees behind me about 10 feet or so. I sit in a nice folding chair, face mask on and sit perfectly still except to call if needed. If the ducks want to be there, and you don't give them a reason not to, they will come. I've killed many ducks in this spot where no one else will hunt cause there is no camo. I like going there not for the ducks but because it is so beautiful and peaceful. Not a soul around for miles. Not like where you hunt but for where I live, it isn't too bad.

Mark W
 
Thanks for sharing that, Mark. I know right where I am going to put my folding chair next fall. It is a good feeling to "think" that no one is within miles of you. Not always does that happen but it does at times. As for me, I am one of those duck hunters who seeks out solitude on a regular basis. I have always said that I would much rather be in a spot that might allow me to shoot one duck a day but with no hunters close by than be somewhere where there are lots of ducks and hunters. Sometimes patience pays off in big dividends.
Al
 
Years ago I killed my first Pintail while I sat on a log on a big mudflat. The only thing verticle within 100's of yards was me. No brush added due to me running late. Just trudged out through the knee deep mud and sat on the only thing I could sit on due to the mud and water. I doubted I would do any good on decoying birds but figured I could get lucky and shoot a few birds that got a little too close. I'll never forget that day as I was covered up with Pintails which I have never seen since here in Indiana. I shot a limit of Mallards and the Pintail and left. As I was leaving I talked to a few guys that couldn't make the walk out across the deep mud due to health problems. Getting back to where I had parked I sat and watched the birds work the flat I had been on. Swarms of them trading back and forth. As I sat there watching I spotted multiple blinds that stood out like sore thumbs. The reason for my success was due to me scouting the evening before and I saw where the birds wanted to be and went to them instead of hoping for them to go out of their way to come to me. I have hunted many of times like you hunted your Teal hole. Now adays I try to have some type of blind to cover my movement, be it brush, burlap, netting, layout blind, etc.. But I still do the sit and shoot type hunts from time to time if the situation calls for it. Being versatile is the key to hunting here where I'm at to get into consistent shooting. From those photos it looks like a layout blind would work out great along that hole.
 
[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]"Being versatile is the key to hunting here where I'm at to get into consistent shooting."

Well said, Gary. Nothing could be truer about any type of hunting than the words you spoke.
Al
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Al,

I like that solitude also, but it seems to be getting a bit harder to find. In the 70-80's a person could escape the crowd to some extent by using an airboat or hiking out on to the flats and shallow bays around the Great Salt Lake. It now seems that more people are doing that so I end up finding small creeks and out of the way places...less birds but nice and quiet.

Matt
 
I'll add one wrinkle to this "SIT STILL" theme. On Green Bay it is rather shallow in areas and often you can just wade to retreive down ducks if the dog didn't come with you that day for whatever reason. Anyhow, often you will find out that you had better take your gun with you because it seems like your MOTION in the open water gets ducks moving and coming closer, now when you see them a ways off coming, now you STOP and sit tight/squat whatever, often you will get shooting when guys in the boat will not.

Nice pics Al, thanks.
 
Matt---now you know how fortunate I have been in my lifetime of duck hunting. Being born and raised in western Minnesota back in the 40's and 50's. Then leaving for Alaska in the 60's and 70's and then coming to New Mexico in the late 90's has allowed me to some Solitude that for most people couldn't even dream about.
I do think that if you look hard enough and are willing to work for it, that you can still find these small nooks and crannies!
Al
 
Good point, Eric. I'm glad that you mentioned that. Thank you for the compliment. Speaking of Green Bay, during the winter months are there still hundreds upon hundreds of ice fishing shacks there? I remember the locals loving to go out there for jumbo perch when I lived in Wausau.
Al
 
Some of the best success we've had up here in Rhode Island has been a similar strategy on salt water. We sit with our backs against a solid object (sometimes a rock, for example) and at times our boots will be right at the water's edge (depends on the tide). No question it works. One day, after we got our limit of black ducks, we had another black duck fly right at us and land about 25 feet in front of us. Mind you, this was a black duck. Aren't they notoriously jittery? It then proceed to paddle even closer to us. I don't think it ever spooked. As I recall it just eventually worked its way to another location.

Sometimes we throw camo burlap across us from about mid-stomach downward. That can be a pain, however, because it tends to soak up water.

Biggest problem I find, as others mentioned, it can get mighty cold, especially sitting on the ground in sub-freezing weather.
 
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Steve, thanks for the input. You had mentioned that black ducks are normally more leary or skittish than the average duck and now I am wondering why. They are related to the mallard just like our Mexican duck is but from what I have read most hunters think they are tougher to decoy, etc. True?
Al
 
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