Last stop in Jersey for Lady M

My daughter and I went on our 1st duck hunt together this afternoon. We loaded up everything and headed for the gun club around 2pm. The tide was high and the weather was really nice for the 26th of December. It has been a very mild season thus far. This time last season we were breaking ice. A short boat ride later we kicked up a few ducks and set our spread where they had been loafing. As usual, Lady M was given a spot front and center. The tide started to fall out a bit faster than I had expected and we found ourselves stuck on the bank. With a little manpower, I managed to get the boat back to the water and decided to take the opportunity to find a spot that held more water as the tide ran out. We settled on a spot much closer to the end of the ditch and set out a pair of Black Ducks, an oversized drake Mallard and Lady M. It wasn't long and we had a single hen Mallard cupped and committed to our little spread. One shot and she was floating feet up in the center of the ditch. A few minutes later and our Lab had her retrived to hand. With dinner in hand, we packed up and headed for home. We were both all smiles all afternoon and I hope that she continues to join me in the meadow in the years to come. This was the best hunt that I've ever had.

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Fellow members Dave Anzaldo & Benny Patten as well as Ben's dad Benny Sr. and I went out for a hunt Tuesday morning. The tide was dropping as we were setting up and continued to run out for another hour or so. Anytime you hunt this area at low tide it becomes a mud fest! Just in case anyone reading this comes and hunts with me in the future, I'll throw out a bit of advice. If you have a problem with getting mud on everything you have, don't hunt around here. Even though the bird #'s seem to be down in our area, we tend to always scratch out a few. Today we ended up with 3 Canada geese, 1 hen Black Duck, 1 hen Mallet and 1 drake Mallet. Poor shooting by all contributed to a few lost ducks.
Dave and I went to high school together and lost touch after we graduated. One night while reading thru the posts on this forum, I noticed that a guy from North Carolina had the same name. I sent this member a PM and asked if he was the same guy I went to school with. A few days passed and I got a return msg that he was so we exchanged #s. Dave decided to come up last season and hunt with me. He brought up his late 60's Higbee sneakbox and at the time I had my 12' Clem Sutton sneakbox. Now that I went with a larger boat and sold off my sneakbox, Dave just hops in with me or one of the other guys that he has become friends, some of which are also duckboats.net forum members. Dave now comes up often during hunting season and we hop scotch around South Jersey and try to hunt any and all species of fowl. Getting Dave up here to hunt over the Traveling decoy was important to me. I'm glad he made the trip.

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Mike

I think you may have set a new record for the number of DHBP members to hunt with you during one Traveling Decoy host spot...congrats, and good job getting Lady M onto some birds.

Best
Chuck
 
Just trying to help you validate the comment that you made about a month ago. Something about a large number of duckboat.net members residing in NJ. :)
 
Just trying to help you validate the comment that you made about a month ago. Something about a large number of duckboat.net members residing in NJ. :)
Click to expand...


Yeah, and they're still here...what's up with that?
 
We changed gear this this morning. Set up a Canada Goose spread in a pasture/pond. 4 guys, 3 of which are members here. Benny Patten, Dave Anzaldo, myself and our friend Chris. We used layouts, full bodies and floaters. 3 of our floaters were duck decoys. 2 drake Mallard corkers of Benny's and Lady M. No ducks today, but 4 limits of Honkers.


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We got a late start on the morning of the 30th. This put us behind too much to set out for the planned spot to hunt so we improvised and headed for a spot much closer to the launch. This morning's weather was much like the past few weeks. Warm temps, light wind and clear skies....... not very good for duck hunting. It wasn't long after shooting time and we were sitting on mud and losing water quickly. The ducks just haven't really been flying and the ones that have are heading out of the creeks and ditches for larger bodies of water where they are safe. Even though the flight was below average, we managed to decoy two seperate Black Duck hens into Dave's spread of cork Blacks and our guest of honor, Lady M.

This was my last hunt over the Traveling Puddler, Lady M. It has been alot of fun hosting it. My thanks to everyone who has had a hand in making this possible. Today, Saturday Dec 30th, I shipped out Lady M to Sam Ekis in Pittsburgh, Pa. She was expected to be delivered on Tuesday Jan 3rd. I hope she has a good migration.

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Mike,

You had some good times with Lady M, thanks for taking us along with your reports and pictures. You have a nice area to hunt.

Too bad your last hunt only consisted of those "Mallard Wannabes".
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Looks like you had some good times! I especially like that setup in the pasture pond! Looks like a fun spot! I love the "sleeper" decoy with the head underwing!!! Very lifelike! :)
 
Mike,
Thanks for posting the awesome pics of your adventures with Lady M. It looks like you guys had a good time with her and made some memories.
 
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