Al Hansen
Well-known member
I remember how much I looked forward to hunting ducks on Friday. I had to teach on Thursday. With my truck already loaded with a full cord of firewood, as soon as school was out I dropped that load before I went home. It was a long hard day by the time I got home and to say the least, I could hardly wait for Friday morning!
With our weather being so constant for the past month I really didn’t know what to expect. It is normally around 25F where I hunt on the Rio and by noon it will have climbed into the 50s. Then when I am through cutting firewood the temps will be in the 60s. The only thing that had me really excited was that on Wednesday I had taken 3 ducks and had seen a few more.
I had made a decision to use one of my spinning wing decoys when I was setting up my spread. I had already put in place my lucky decoy, which is the one Jim sent me. That drake widgeon has pulled in a lot of ducks as far as I am concerned. After much debate, I finally decided where to put the spinner and at what height. With 13 decoys in place, I walked back to my “blind”. Well, it really isn’t much of a blind at all. All I did was put my chair in a bunch of willows that were growing in front of a massive expanse of sand dunes and cocklebur plants with a little bit of water flowing. I broke down some of the tops so I could see better and then I just sit----sit very still.
Much time was spent drinking coffee in my vain attempt to see some ducks. Oh, I did see a small flock of mallards flying quite high heading north but that was about it for ducks. Thank goodness for the cranes. I sometimes wonder how still/quiet it would be without them. They roost on the nearby islands. I looked at my cell phone when I heard the distant cries of snow geese. It read 7:22AM, which meant I had been sitting there for 52 minutes since season opened. I was staring in the direction of where I thought the geese were flying when I first saw them. Seven mallards had flown behind me and were looking my spread over when I happened to spot them. I gave a couple of soft lonesome hen quacks on my MLBob call and they peeled off one at a time just like a squadron of P-51s. It was so cool in how they did that. I found out that morning how great my tunnel vision was. The very first duck was a handsome drake and I never let him out of my sight. In he came with the rest following. I jumped up as he began backpedaling with those orange feet extended out in front of him. My first shot seemed to wake up the world but to no avail because I missed. Oh crap! I sent another volley at him and missed again. Finally my third shot put him down some distance from where he had been at first. What was I going to tell Bev? She always asks me how many shells I shoot each time I go hunting and going 1 for 3 now, I will catch some grief from her—no doubt about it!
Habi was after him in a split second and I was scrambling to get my camera. I snapped some shots off as my pup, after all she is still 10+ months old, was heading back with my first duck. What a proud moment to watch her do what she was bred for.
Well, I poured another cup of hot coffee, sat up straight, took a breath of fresh air, and just plain enjoyed the moment. It was then that I heard their cries and I looked up to see another flock of geese flying north towards their feeding grounds. They were about a half mile high or at least seemed to be.
I had just set the camera down when I happened to spot four mallards heading up stream. They were over the main part of the channel which put them about 200 yards away. I gave them a greeting call to listen to and watched them swing towards me. As they approached there happened to be something I just didn’t like when they flew by, so I opted not to shoot even though they were within my shooting range which is 25 to 35 yards. This time I gave a couple of lonesome hen quacks and they made another huge swing and came back to my spread. Well, I should have waited but I didn’t. They decided to fly directly over head and I picked out one of the two drakes in the bunch. It is good that I hit him in the head. I’ll bet he wasn’t 30 feet from me when I nailed him. When Habi brought him to me, I noticed that his beak was only hanging on by a couple of threads!
Funny how your mind works----or at least mine. When I’m in my blind waiting on birds, I sometimes find myself thinking about past hunts and things that happened. This time was no different because I had flashed back to 2005 when I was hunting another area and seeing so many ducks that you would have sworn that you must have been hunting Stuttgart, Arkansas. That morning I had taken a greenhead, a bull sprig, and a banded Mexican/mallard hybrid and I thought to myself, “Hey duck gods, why don’t you send me just three ducks. I’ll take three greenheads because that is all I need.” It was right then that I was snapped back into reality because in came a pair of widgeons. Without hesitation they were in a comfort zone. I stood up and nailed the drake, which fell among the decoys. The hen I took out with my second shot as she was heading back towards the main channel. I grabbed the camera and captured Habi bringing back the drake. Then when I gave her the command to go get the second duck, I could tell she had not seen it fall. Well, I got her on the right track for the area and then stood there taking pictures of a pup with innate quartering abilities and a nose to go with it. Sometimes I am amazed at what good retrievers are blessed with. In no time at all, Habi found this great looking hen and was bringing her back to me.
Habi gave me the hen widgeon and I looked her over. I thought it would be nice if she posed for a shot, so I gave the duck back to her and had her sit there with it.
After checking out my 4 ducks, I once again poured another cup of black java, sat in my chair and resumed my dreaming of that one hunt 7 years ago. I can remember it like it happened yesterday. In came 3 greenheads, just like I had asked for. When the smoke cleared from my 1956 Browning A-5 3" magnum with a 32" barrel and ventilated rib (my paper route gun), all I had for it was 3 empty shell casings on the ground as I watched the fat old drakes fly away. The last laugh was on me. Ah, but the coffee was good, life is good, and I was thinking about how successful I had already been. I decided to look at some of the pictures I had already taken and that was when the pair of Mexicans came hell bent for election into my spread. Habi was the one that let me know about them as she came to full attention. I put down my camera and the ducks took off. I picked out the one I thought was the drake but ended up taking the hen instead.
I grabbed my cell phone to check the time and thought I should get going because I had a lot of wood to cut. It was then that I thought that another half hour would be just fine. I couldn’t help but think of a couple of those 4th grade boys who made me earn my keep the day before. I found out that one of them loved to hunt with his father and from that time on he never gave me any grief. He kept coming up to my desk to tell me about his deer hunt this fall.
The morning was warming up and I was about to go when I saw this single duck flying right over the main channel. I gave a few quacks on my call and watched it come straight in. This time I was ready and dumped her in the water. Once in a while a guy gets lucky and this time it was taking pictures of Habi going after this duck. It was head shot and the wings were flopping in the water which really got my girl excited.
Hey, Jim, there it is!
This marked the very first time during our main season that I was able to take a limit of ducks. That made me a lucky duck hunter. Life is good!
Al
