Al Hansen
Well-known member
Thank goodness Habanero is an understanding Labrador retriever. She has yet to give me “the look” for not shooting some ducks. Here it is 41 days into our regular season and I have given her one opportunity to pick up a duck and that was the woodie drake I took on opening day. Since then it has been a long dry spell.
I have to admit that I have only been out 9 times this year. Normally I hunt 5 days a week and leave the weekends for other hunters. Not so this year because the Rio Grande is on a roaring rampage! Back before the early teal season opened which was on September 14th, I prayed for some rain. Well on the opening day it poured not only where we live but almost state wide. I have never been so wet. It was that night that there was a 5 to 7 foot wall of water that surged down the Rio Grande corridor. Normally in the spring time with the mountain snows melting the high flow rate is between 4,000 and 5,000 cubic feet per second. On the night of the 14th the flow rate hit 9,000 cfs. Where I had been sitting on opening morning there had been an additional 4 feet of water and that was 1/4 of a mile from the rio.
When our regular season opened on October 23rd, the only place I could find to hunt was out at the private ranch. I had one spot that I could drive my Mule to and that was it. The ranch house is one mile from the rio and there was 4 feet of water just behind it that flowed here when it flooded back in September.
Since I have learned the hard way, I now have the utmost respect for the Rio Grande. Well, on November 12th, after waiting 21 days for the area to dry out, I took my 4 wheeler and went back to my normal hunting area on the rio. I promptly got stuck. That is when my 72 year old brain went into overtime and said, “Why don’t you go home. get the Mule and pull out the 4-wheeler?” That I tried to do, with the help of a neighbor. I then buried the Mule. Well, now I had my 4 wheeler just about 8 to 10 feet from the rio’s edge. I didn’t have to worry too much about the Mule because it was at least 2 city blocks from the water. With the help of some mighty fine neighbors, the 6 of us got it done with sheer grunt power, pushing and pulling until we got both vehicles out on dry ground. That was a relief because that afternoon it rained again and the Rio Grande rose up to the point where my Kawasaki 4 wheeler would have been washed away and most likely lost.
Just last week we had 6 inches of heavy snow and once again the whole area is back to a mucky/muddy mess. So with all of this I have decided to try an area that I used to hunt maybe 6 to 8 years ago. Maybe I can find a duck to shoot down there.
I know there are ducks here because Bosque del Apache is holding a bunch of them along with quite a few light geese. My only problem is trying to find a spot that is safe to hunt. I still like walking out in the rio to set up my decoys but not when it looks like it wants to sweep you away. Who knows maybe the new ducks down here have found the private ranch channel that I like to hunt. I’ll give that a try again, if I can get down there.
All I can tell you is this----next year I will be more careful when I pray for rain!
Al
. Have a great holiday howeve.l 
