duck hunting stories and journalism....

U

uncle mike pierce

Active member
MLBob Furia's posting of Joe Wooster's account of his Stuttgart experiences made me ask a very serious question: What the heck happened to that style of writing, especially in terms of waterfowling?

I know we all need the technical stuff about how to rig decoys, call ducks, and make a goose decoy out of swamp grass, snot, and mud in 2 minutes, but I really miss the human interest stories of waterfowling. I think a lot of us got hooked on waterfowling exactly because of its rich history, long traditions, and intriguing tales of difficulties and triumphs...... While I think there is a big market for stories of waterfowling like those laid out by Joe Wooster, I understand I was, and am, as far off the bell curve as Old Joe was...

So is there still a market for great story tellers like the late Joe Wooster, Gene Hill, or MacQuarry? I don't see much of that type of stuff being published in mainline magazines. Have spinning wings, motorized decoys, UV paint, flocking, 200 hp outboards, jet setting waterfowlers, and GPS put an end to any "street cred" such tales as Joe's may have with modern hunters?

Am I asking the wrong group? Are most of us here as far off the bell curve as Joe was??? Should we be sending missionaries to stand outside of Mack's (in Stuttgart) to pray for and convert those praying at the altar of MOJO?
 
You are right Mike. We have to pray for those black hooded heathens with the spinners. Bring them out of the dark side. I would say more but this is a family site.
 
I agree one hundred percent. I am only 34 years old and the reason I started waterfowling and have such a passion for it's traditions is from a McQuarry book I was given for a high school graduation gift. My father was not a hunter so I was not brought up with seeing someone put out the decoys. I have a profound interest in human interest stories of our great sport. I am not bashing anyone but after seeing where some of the big names are taking the sport I stopped buying name brand merchandise. My mud motor is home made, my boat is home made, my decoys I have carved or traded other carvers for. There are a lot of quality products on the marked today don't get me wrong, but there is something to be said about the way the old timers did it.
Riley
 
Uncle Mike (if I may) et al

This topic strikes a chord...I thoroughly enjoy my annual re-reads of Duck Shooting Along the Atlantic Tidewater and Shotgunning in the Lowlands - and Heilner and MacQuarry and Ruark, etc. It's all part of the same aesthetic and values that draw me to old guns, boats, decoys and - definitely - MOJO-Free marshes....There is precious little waterfowling literature today that interests me - most of it reflects a retailer to consumer relationship and not author to reader.

Although a new member of this site, I have already found that more than a few of the members have a way with words, and some great "voices". The entries here are brief but I cannot help but think that some could be drawn out into beguiling (and no doubt far-fetched) tales. My own plan - as part of a decoys, artwork and boats website I'll be starting soon - is to nourish my own writing needs (have written memos and reports for the better part of 4 decades, I am ready to move into something less confining...) and put down in electrons the stories I've carried around with me for most of my 59 years. My intent is not to publish, per se, but rather to just put them out where they can be read and - I hope - enjoyed. So, instead of the 1-page "purple prose" e-mails I now zip around to my gunning circle after some noteworthy hunt or happening, I will take the time to craft my recollections into something more on the order of a chapter or short story. I tried Round 1 a week or so ago and found it very satisfying - and well-received by my "focus group".

My point in this note is just to encourage you and other members of this site to do the same. I know it would be entertaining and enlightening for all of us.

BTW: I sign my e-mails to my friends "Cap'n Fowler" - and, yes, there's a story behind that, too.

All the best,

C. F.
 
I can tell you I get a heck of lot more enjoyments out of a book like "Big December Canvasbacks" than I do from a "modern" magazine article that sounds more like an long paid advertisement.......
 
Uncle Mike (if I may) et al

This topic strikes a chord...I thoroughly enjoy my annual re-reads of Duck Shooting Along the Atlantic Tidewater and Shotgunning in the Lowlands - and Heilner and MacQuarry and Ruark, etc. It's all part of the same aesthetic and values that draw me to old guns, boats, decoys and - definitely - MOJO-Free marshes....There is precious little waterfowling literature today that interests me - most of it reflects a retailer to consumer relationship and not author to reader.

Although a new member of this site, I have already found that more than a few of the members have a way with words, and some great "voices". The entries here are brief but I cannot help but think that some could be drawn out into beguiling (and no doubt far-fetched) tales. My own plan - as part of a decoys, artwork and boats website I'll be starting soon - is to nourish my own writing needs (have written memos and reports for the better part of 4 decades, I am ready to move into something less confining...) and put down in electrons the stories I've carried around with me for most of my 59 years. My intent is not to publish, per se, but rather to just put them out where they can be read and - I hope - enjoyed. So, instead of the 1-page "purple prose" e-mails I now zip around to my gunning circle after some noteworthy hunt or happening, I will take the time to craft my recollections into something more on the order of a chapter or short story. I tried Round 1 a week or so ago and found it very satisfying - and well-received by my "focus group".

My point in this note is just to encourage you and other members of this site to do the same. I know it would be entertaining and enlightening for all of us.

BTW: I sign my e-mails to my friends "Cap'n Fowler" - and, yes, there's a story behind that, too.

All the best,

C. F.
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We have been doing this exact thing here for years - each of us in our own way. Be it boat building, decoy making, special hunts, reflections on the season, photo essays, or wild rants against or for this or that - the life of the forum is sharing our experiance and shared interest with the community.

T
 
Why I am the way I am...

I think a lot of it anchors around what is important...is the journey and the experience more important, or is it more important to convince someone (anyone) that we are professional duck killers who Know What We Are Talking About?

Much of that is found in the outdoor programming...kill shots abound, but with a few exceptions, most shows don't discuss the region, the history of duck hunting in the area, or a lot of information.

One of the people I met in my MBA program is a good hunter and fisherman who made it a point to buy a large number of copies of "The Old Man and the Boy". When he worked with the youth shooting team, he gave all of the team members copies. If a friend's son or daughter hunts, he gives the child a copy. I've been really impressed with the actions of people like him who work hard against the "extreme" image that duck hunters seem to have to have these days.

Or maybe I need a chartreuse call, black hooded sweatshirt and barrel stickers to really kill ducks. I mean, I have an over\under...think about all the stickers I could get on there to show people how serious I am...
 
Rick, I think you are right on with the last part of your post. A lot of people think it is about the harvest not the hunt. You can a lot of memorable days in the field and never see a bird.. I live in NE Ohio and hunt small birdless marshs and field hunt for geese and we manage to get a couple birds now and then, but we still have fun. There is nothing more fun than seeing a young hunter watching a flight of geese and then seeing them decoy right on top of you and watching the young hunter kill his or her first goose or duck. Once they get that taste of sucess they are hooked, some never see a bird up close and enjoy themselves enough they don't hesitste to say "YEA" when asked if they want to try it again.........
 
Hey Wispete, I think you have the spirit when you suggest,

"You are right Mike. We have to pray for those black hooded heathens with the spinners. Bring them out of the dark side. I would say more but this is a family site."

Well said.........now we just need to find a few passionate young missionaries to do it!


Mike
 
In response to the original post - Seems to be a very philosophical type discussion but the fact of the matter is it must not "sell" like it use to. And if you're expecting my generation (31yrs old) and younger to be the torch bearer for writing them, then it's probably a lost art. I would recommend those who would like to read this style (myself included) and have any talent (myself excluded) to submit articles of their own to said waterfowl "journals" and see what response you get.

As much as I dislike technology and "the digital age" (I still don't own a smart phone or tablet despite living in the Silicon Valley of the South), I get all of my news and order most consumer products using the web. Printed material is just too expensive for most companies to justify as they once did, hence everyone having "digital versions" of magazines, newspapers, tech journals, etc. This website has been my #1 source of waterfowling entertainment/web learning since 2003ish.
 
Well C. J., I look forward to hearing that story. I have had several monikers besides "Ol' Coppershot" and "Shakira" and "Killer", but most of the rest are not suitable for a family site......

And I don't consider some of the disrespectful and profanity laced names I have been called by my detractors "monikers", I just consdier them to be input I prefer to ignore..............

I cannot wait to read some of your posts on your site. I envy you for being near enough the ocean to hunt salt water, and walk on some pretty holy waterfowling ground. But I was lucky enough to grow up near the Mississippi river, fishing and hunting when the ducks were more plentiful on the river, and the river was dirtier, but more fertile and productive. I got to walk on and hunt some pretty legendary areas along the Illinois river and in Arkansas, so I have had some really great blessings too.

Mike
 
My best hunting day in the last two seasons was taking a kid out for an afternoon hunt last year. We ended up sitting on the X, and there were hundreds if not thousands of black ducks working us. Sam knocked down his black duck early, and we waited in vain for a flock of mallards or teal to take some interest in us. We had blacks in groups from 1 to 30+ dropping into the decoys for well over an hour after he'd killed his single black.

After a while I looked at him, and said something like, "Jeez, I'm sorry you're not going to get any more shooting."

His response made my season: "Are you kidding? It's so cool to just sit here and watch this. Can we stay till sunset?"

There is at least one good young gun coming up behind us.
 
While we're at it, it's not just duck hunting. Give me Robert Traver, Ray Bergman, and Sparse Grey Hackle on trout fishing over anybody modern.
 
Can you tell a story with only 140 characters? Does LOL, IMO, OMG, POS and ROTFLMAO make a great story?

I think the great story tellers are history like so many of the good old duck hunting traditions. IMHO that is.

Mark W
 
After a while I looked at him, and said something like, "Jeez, I'm sorry you're not going to get any more shooting."

His response made my season: "Are you kidding? It's so cool to just sit here and watch this. Can we stay till sunset?"
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And that, my friends, is what it is all about!
My boy and I had a similar experience the last weekend of the season.
He didnt get any shots even though there were lots of birds flying. His reaction was basically "Dad, who cares, that was cool, we havent seen that many ducks in a long time".
 
I got turned off years ago by the "We ARE at War with Waterfowl and Wanna Kill Em!" attitude. I own and read all the old classic waterfowling books. In many regards we seem to be going backwards,
instead of forward, in literature and technology. Waterfowling is rich in American History. To make it a competition, and" limits at all costs", demeans the heritage that defines our way of life.
 
I can't believe this post comes at this time. I recently (finally) started to write just such a book. I have 5 chapters well under way.
 
I have shared a lot of stories in the past. For right now I am hanging on to them. Here is a photo with a caption I posted on Facebook. It is just a caption but I think it gives some of the flavor of where I am going. When I finish my first 5 chapters they will be given to hunting friends that are never afraid to tell me what they think.

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http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150272310885543.493209.895130542&type=3#http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150272310885543.493209.895130542&type=3#
After 9 months of waiting and 14 hours of labor the nurse placed all 7 pounds of our first son in my arms. Many of the details of the next few days at the hospital are now lost in a distant memory. One detail of the time spent that still stands out clearly to me is pacing around the second floor of Memorial Hospital looking into his little face explaining how he was going to hunt and fish with me and his mom. He was about 12 hours old the first time he heard me list his upcoming birthday presents, from age 6, a BB gun through age 12 his first shotgun.
As I sit in Lake Okeechobee on a warm Wednesday before Thanksgiving day it does not seem possible that 29 years have passed since he arrived. Now as he and I scan the horizon and his wife sits out the shooting part of the hunt in a folding camp chair that we brought for her, 2 of their children are with us. They do all the things that their father did hunting with me. They blow the calls, shoot decoys with the BB gun and generally make noise and movement that keeps the ducks away. One lone duck circles close to see what the commotion is all about. She cuts hard to the decoys closest to my end of the blind. By all unwritten rules of hunting etiquette the shot is mine and my son acknowledges that fact but I pass my right on to him. At the report of his 870 the ringneck pays the price for her curiosity. The hunt is now a complete success. Not long after that the sun touches the horizon and we pack up to head for the ramp and I am thinking how wonderful it would be if God grants me the days it do this with our great grand kids.
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Somehow it did not occur to me as the sun kissed the horizon that not only was this the end of duck season, it was also the close of a season in my life. After 30 years I will no longer have a son young enough to do the “youth hunt” with. I have enjoyed the final 2 days of the season each year as much as if I also was a shooter. I am not without youth to hunt with. If I can encourage my oldest grand daughter to load up the .410 with Bismuth next season I will have another trainee but my days as Dad on the youth hunts are over.
Austin brought a friend of his who will also age out of youth status this year. The afternoon boat ride to the hunting spot put up loads of teal, ringnecks and mottled ducks. It was not long after we set up that a drake faced the wind, dropped his landing gear and floated into the deeks. Through a barrage of #3 steel he flew over the blocks and lived to tell about it. A couple of more mottled ducks thought they could also get away with it and failed. Their new home is our freezer. Then there were teal, spoon bills, ibis, tri-colored herons wood storks and all the other usual cast of characters.
When the the sun and horizon met to signal the end of the hunt the boys unloaded and cased their guns. Just as they did that a flock of a dozen teal floated into the deeks. I commented that I wish that had happened 5 minutes earlier and Austin's friend said ”I'm just glad I was here to see it”. It was music to my ears...”I'm just glad I was here to see it”. Austin said to me “He gets it dad”. I am glad the he and Austin “get it”....that even though we were there to harvest ducks (and we did), there is so much more to duck hunting than dropping the hammer on a bird. Mission accomplished. Now , with more seasons behind me than ahead of me ...on to the 5 grandkids!
 
bless any of you who are inspired to write and share traditional viewpoints of sportsmanship and waterfowling.....

I think that is one of the things I love most about a lot of the great waterfowling and fishing story tellers/authors of the past, was that they were average people telling stories of their average experiences in an extraordinary way that allowed us to live them too..... They attempted to connect with us, and we shared a commonality.

Perhaps part of the charm is that reading them today, they describe ways and places we cannot visit....but the other part of the charm was that collegiality we sensed from the shared experiences. Even if we cannot do the same things on the same marshes, we can still connect and share a bond.

What I do know is that the obsession with number and sizes of fish caught and released has inspired a number of bad behaviors in the fly fishing community, where the experience is not nearly as important as "bragging rights". I remember a November day on the Little Red River, in Arkansas, watching guides (some sporting "Orvis Guide" on their trucks and vests) with clients 30 yards apart for as far as you could see on a bend in the river where migrating and spawning brown trout were moving through. The guides were helping clients hook and land foul hooked fish, then remove the hook, place it in the jaw and take a picture of the sport with a 24" trout for the sport's wall in his or her office. That picture showing their conquest was more important than the reality of the event to both the guide and the sport.

Fly fishing and a lot of waterfowling journalism seem more and more oriented toward this viewpoint of "look at me, I'm not like you, I'm better and more successful. Colleagues? Phew, you are not colleagues, I want you to be fans and groupies........"
 
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