Jeffrey Nelson
Active member
It was another muggy morning 66 degrees with a light north breeze. My son went with me this morning. We left the house at 4 AM and headed to Lake Okeechobee. We got there at about 5:30. We loaded our gear and headed out to the spot. I was taking my time so we didn't have to sit for too long. The mosquitos were so bad on Saturday morning I didn't want to make my son endure too much of these hovering blood suckers. If you aren't careful, you could need a blood transfusion after the hunt from loss of blood.
We started by putting out Jersey Boy and building the rest of our decoy set off of him. We got all the decoys placed and moved the boat to the spot where we planned to blind up. We got the boat blind up made from Sable palms and waited for 15 minutes. No early shots this morning. We had a single mottled duck come in from the left. One shot, one downed bird. Not really seeing a lot of teal, we decided to stay put. For at least 30 minutes we had mottled ducks dive bombing us, some landing and some giving the decoys a look. At one point we had 7 mottles come and land on top of Jersey boy. Too bad for us, we already had our one mottled limit. A little more time passed and a couple of missed opportunities on a flock of 7 teal and one lone hen ringer. Mostly because my son and I were too busy talking and laughing at each other. Another half hour goes by and finally we have a young bluewing drake come from the north and we knocked him down as he came in feet down into the spread. We sat in the boat for another hour, nothing but florida mallards coming and going. We decided it is time to pack it up. We got the boat out of the hide and started picking up decoys, and in typical fashion the largest flight of teal I saw all weekend flies right over top us. There had to be 40 birds or more. What a wonderful sight.
It was great to be part of the traveling decoy. I also enjoyed looking at Jode Hillman's excellent carving and superb painting skills! It makes me realize how much I need to improve to be anywhere near that level of painting and carving. Thanks for the opportunity and would love to do it again.
Thanks, Jeff Nelson
We started by putting out Jersey Boy and building the rest of our decoy set off of him. We got all the decoys placed and moved the boat to the spot where we planned to blind up. We got the boat blind up made from Sable palms and waited for 15 minutes. No early shots this morning. We had a single mottled duck come in from the left. One shot, one downed bird. Not really seeing a lot of teal, we decided to stay put. For at least 30 minutes we had mottled ducks dive bombing us, some landing and some giving the decoys a look. At one point we had 7 mottles come and land on top of Jersey boy. Too bad for us, we already had our one mottled limit. A little more time passed and a couple of missed opportunities on a flock of 7 teal and one lone hen ringer. Mostly because my son and I were too busy talking and laughing at each other. Another half hour goes by and finally we have a young bluewing drake come from the north and we knocked him down as he came in feet down into the spread. We sat in the boat for another hour, nothing but florida mallards coming and going. We decided it is time to pack it up. We got the boat out of the hide and started picking up decoys, and in typical fashion the largest flight of teal I saw all weekend flies right over top us. There had to be 40 birds or more. What a wonderful sight.
It was great to be part of the traveling decoy. I also enjoyed looking at Jode Hillman's excellent carving and superb painting skills! It makes me realize how much I need to improve to be anywhere near that level of painting and carving. Thanks for the opportunity and would love to do it again.
Thanks, Jeff Nelson
