Wow, what a morning! Glad the forecast changed yesterday, because I was thinking today was not going to be huntable because of strong south winds. But yesterday afternoon the forecast changed to light winds with a chance of fog.
My boy wanted to sleep in, so I was going solo today.
Woke up at 3:00 to find the winds had in fact laid down. Headed out to where we hunted yesterday afternoon. Water was slick calm and thankfully no fog.
The tide was out but a little higher than yesterday, so I moved farther up on the flat into as shallow as I could get the boat, knowing the tide would turn early.
Reset the blind, got the decoys out and settled in about 5:30, with shooting time at 6:15. I could hear gadwalls, hen divers and Canada geese talking all around me in the dark. Its was a beautiful sound!
Right at shooting time I was standing up when a big puddle duck came straight at me out of the dim light and almost took my head off! If I had quickly raised my hand, I think I could have grabbed it. I was so startled I didn't even think to shoot. It landed about 75 yards behind me and started making that distinct quack that told me it was probably a mottled duck. Grabbed the binos and sure enough it was. Well dang it, wish I had been quick & got a shot off, I haven't killed a mottled duck in over 12 years. Oh well.
About 6:30 a drake greater scaup came into the decoys and I killed him. When I shot, all the geese, which were about 500 yards to the north, took off for parts unknown and never came back. More on that later....
About 7:00 another greater scaup came in & got him too.
Then the gadwalls started flying. From 7:15 to 9:00 it was pretty steady action with flocks , pairs and singles of gadwalls coming to take a look. A lot of them would not come close but other didn't hesitate.
Had a flock of about 10 gadwalls decoys perfectly and I doubled. The second bird helicoptered down about 40 yards out and started swimming east with the current. I emptied the gun on it, reloaded and started chasing it on foot (too shallow to run the motor). After about 100 yards and 3 more shells, I wasn't gaining on it. So I turned around, went back & got the boat out of the blind, walked it to barely deep enough water to run shallow tilt and cranked up. Got to deep water, dropped the motor and took off. Ran a couple of big circles and didn't see the bird. Then I spotted 3 birds on the water about as far out as I could see. I headed that way, two got up and flew off leaving one swimming, which turned out to be my bird. He was, a good 1/2 mile from where he went down! One more shell and into the boat he went. A total of 7 shells spent on that one bird but not losing a cripple is worth it.
Back in the blind, I continued to have gadwalls come in every 10 minutes or so. Some would work, others wouldn't. I missed an overhead single and passed up some shots on birds that were probably in range but figured I would wait for some to really decoys. About 9:00, a pair came in like they were on a string: 2 shots, 2 gadwalls feet up & I am done with a limit.
Thought about waiting to see if the geese came back so I sat for a while. A flock of greater scaup buzzed the decoys. I said boom, boom, boom to myself.
Then the wind started wind picking up, and I was beat, and the tide was turning, so I decided not to wait on the geese & packed it in.
Cant remember the last time I killed a limit on the last hunt of the season. One hell of a way to end what has turned out to be the beast season I've had since 2004-05.
Driving home, I go past the USS Battleship Memorial Park, which is west, across the river, from where I was hunting. Out on the big lawn there were the geese, about 50, feeding. Go figure!
Here's Little Miss Butterball riding the waves on Mobile Bay. Time to clean her up and finish my journal entries. She's in great shape, a few scratches but overall great for being all over the country this season!
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The back bench pic with LMBB. I dropped one scaup into the mud on the floor, he looked terrible, so I left him out.
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