Lee Harker
Well-known member
Spent Sat. night at the cabin at the lake with my grandson, took a long zackbox ride in the afternoon to see if we had any ducks around..saw a few and we planned where we would set up Sun. am. Went back to the shack and Blake shot his pellet gun while I grilled burgers..weir having 45 degree weather Dec. 30..but it was a Godsend with him along. Had a big campfire and piddled around till about 8pm and went in to get ready for bed..played several games of checkers then he said we better get to sleep so we can get up at 4:30..I told him we would get up at 5:30..two hours later after answering about 300 questions and naming 30 or so species of ducks and geese..he went quiet. I don't know why, but when I am camping or spending the night in the shack...I wake up about every hour or two..so when I woke up at 4:30, I started the heater so it would be warm when the alarm went off. 5:30 rolled around and we got up and dressed and walked down to the boat. The wind was howling pretty good and it was supposed to rain. The little 1967 Merc 9.8 started on the second pull and we were off across the lake. I hadn't seen or heard any other boats heading out so I figured we had it all to ourselves...halfway across the lake I saw a shadow crossing in front of us and hit it with the flashlight..some dipshit in a jonboat zipping along with no lights on. We could see lights where we were thinking of setting up so we were going to spot B..got almost there and someone was there too...soooo..we set up around a point about halfway between the two parties and I tossed out 6 decoys and ran the boat up into some willow brush. We sat watching the lights of the guys at spot A while they set dekes and it started to sprinkle..bareley...shooting time came and about 10 minutes after, a shot rang out from behind us so I told Blake to watch for ducks..it barely got out of my mouth when he yelled "Grampa! THERES DUCKS ABOVE US" and was waving his arms pointing at them...they looked like they wanted to set in but that sent them to parts unkown..all I could do was laugh when he told me I could have shot them. Pretty soon the boys at spot A shot at a duck..forgot to mention those guys started calling at 6:15 (shooting hour 7:41) and didn't stop. Had a GE buzz at about 50 yards at 8:00 so Blake was a bit excited..the rain picked up and started getting pretty wet so we pulled at 8:30..told Blake "watch, I'll unload and case my gun and the ducks will come in"..sure nuff..just zipped the case and set the gun down when 4 GE's buzzed in about 20 yards out..we both laughed. Got back to the cabin and I fixed him an egg on an english muffin..then he ate crackers and Barcheeze for desert. We played about 10 hands of "Go Fish" when Gramma called and told me to get him home...apparently his mom had been calling all morning and I didn't hear the phone in my blind bag and was worried. His eyes snapped shut when he hit the warmth of the truck and he snored all the way back to town. I hope he remembers as good of memories about our hunt as I do. If it doesn't get crappy out, we may go goose hunting next weekend.
