Well, the boy had a case of "teenager-itis" at 3:15 am this morning, so I was solo.
It was pretty calm this morning, winds were around 8-10 kts vs. 25 kts yesterday.
Set up in the same spot, just a different spread. left 1/2 the diver decoys home and added more gadwalls. Put out about 2.5 dzn gaddies, 1.5 dzn bluebills, my buffies and 3 cans.
Morning started off much slower and that was the trend of the day. The bays north of me were doing a lot more shooting today.
I didn't see nearly as many ducks, divers or gadwalls, as we did yesterday, not even close. I think the wind had them stirred up yesterday.
Had a lone BB come in about 7:00. Then a trio at around 8:00, doubled on them (two hens in that group vs. no hens yesterday). Missed on a high overhead shot on a gadwalls around 8:15. Then got a nice drake buffy a little later, with a hen gadwall soon after that. At 9:20 a drake buffy buzzed by. Other than a hen buffy that I let swim off around 7:15, that was all the ducks that came into range today.
Luckily I was shooting well, only missed one bird, killed a limit with 9 shells. Made a heck of a left to right crossing shot on that last drake buffy to finish my limit.
Wind died to less than 5 knots by time I was done picking up decoys. Scouted a little after the hunt, found a couple of small flocks of bluebills and one of redheads. Along with a pile of gadwalls rafted up in 7' of water. I figure with no wind and relatively warmer weather today, they just weren't feeling like flying.
I am beginning to think that smartphones are the new "pouring a cup of coffee" or "taking a pee". Both today and yesterday I looked up from posting a pic to Facebook to find a duck swimming in the decoys. Today it was the gadwall. I stood up, she took off and then splashed right back down. When things are slow in the blind, breakout your IPhone.
Had to order a case of shells from Rogers, down to only 2 boxes and there are still 27 days left in the season.
Back bench pic:
View attachment 010316A.jpg
It was pretty calm this morning, winds were around 8-10 kts vs. 25 kts yesterday.
Set up in the same spot, just a different spread. left 1/2 the diver decoys home and added more gadwalls. Put out about 2.5 dzn gaddies, 1.5 dzn bluebills, my buffies and 3 cans.
Morning started off much slower and that was the trend of the day. The bays north of me were doing a lot more shooting today.
I didn't see nearly as many ducks, divers or gadwalls, as we did yesterday, not even close. I think the wind had them stirred up yesterday.
Had a lone BB come in about 7:00. Then a trio at around 8:00, doubled on them (two hens in that group vs. no hens yesterday). Missed on a high overhead shot on a gadwalls around 8:15. Then got a nice drake buffy a little later, with a hen gadwall soon after that. At 9:20 a drake buffy buzzed by. Other than a hen buffy that I let swim off around 7:15, that was all the ducks that came into range today.
Luckily I was shooting well, only missed one bird, killed a limit with 9 shells. Made a heck of a left to right crossing shot on that last drake buffy to finish my limit.
Wind died to less than 5 knots by time I was done picking up decoys. Scouted a little after the hunt, found a couple of small flocks of bluebills and one of redheads. Along with a pile of gadwalls rafted up in 7' of water. I figure with no wind and relatively warmer weather today, they just weren't feeling like flying.
I am beginning to think that smartphones are the new "pouring a cup of coffee" or "taking a pee". Both today and yesterday I looked up from posting a pic to Facebook to find a duck swimming in the decoys. Today it was the gadwall. I stood up, she took off and then splashed right back down. When things are slow in the blind, breakout your IPhone.
Had to order a case of shells from Rogers, down to only 2 boxes and there are still 27 days left in the season.
Back bench pic:
View attachment 010316A.jpg
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