Craig F
Well-known member
Now that we are sufficiently dug out of the 20+" a lot of places got here in NJ I can reflect a bit on a fun pre-storm shoot my dad and I had.
Having a gunning partner who is in retirement has many benefits, one being that when I am at work he can do a little scouting and see what's going on. Well earlier in the week he found an old haunt holding some birds and after scratching out a few himself the day before I had to try my boss' patience one more time and see if I could finagle an early departure from work.
I had hoped I could gun Saturday morning before the storm really picked up, but after consulting the weather maps and the wind models I knew it would be blowing 40 knots Saturday morning and being a littler wiser these days I knew I'd be staying home. So that left Friday as my one shot to get out before we got dumped on. Thankfully I have an understanding boss and by lunch time I was flying out the door to get the boat together.
By the time I had met up with my dad we had about two hours left of gunning time and the birds were starting to filter in. A few single drakes sucked right in, talking all the way and they quickly went in the bag. Next we had a couple pairs slide in and they too had their migrations ended. It's always nice to have a day when you are both shooting well and on this day everything that decoyed was folded in short order. Surprisingly we had no black duck action, but we weren't about to complain.
One week left to go for ducks so we'll see what happens before the fat lady sings...
Having a gunning partner who is in retirement has many benefits, one being that when I am at work he can do a little scouting and see what's going on. Well earlier in the week he found an old haunt holding some birds and after scratching out a few himself the day before I had to try my boss' patience one more time and see if I could finagle an early departure from work.
I had hoped I could gun Saturday morning before the storm really picked up, but after consulting the weather maps and the wind models I knew it would be blowing 40 knots Saturday morning and being a littler wiser these days I knew I'd be staying home. So that left Friday as my one shot to get out before we got dumped on. Thankfully I have an understanding boss and by lunch time I was flying out the door to get the boat together.
By the time I had met up with my dad we had about two hours left of gunning time and the birds were starting to filter in. A few single drakes sucked right in, talking all the way and they quickly went in the bag. Next we had a couple pairs slide in and they too had their migrations ended. It's always nice to have a day when you are both shooting well and on this day everything that decoyed was folded in short order. Surprisingly we had no black duck action, but we weren't about to complain.
One week left to go for ducks so we'll see what happens before the fat lady sings...
