Cheech Kehoe
Active member
I work with DU here in Topeka KS and one of the young men that I met through DU goes to college in Great Bent Kansas. Cheyenne Bottoms Marsh is in Great Bend and is a huge marsh. However, like any public area, lots of idiots so mid week is the only time I will go. The wind was shifting out of the North and picking up on Tuesday, so I decided to wake up a 2am and drive the 2.5 hours to the marsh and meet the boys. The boys offered to get things set up and let me roll in later, but I'm not that old yet so we met a 5am.
I know Hayden from DU and he introduced me to his college buddy Layne. We walked out to the marsh to find some guys in an expensive looking boat had beat us to "the spot" so we walked another 250-300 yards past where we intended to set up and made the best of it in the tall grass on the side of an island. Decoys deployed and everything set up we retreated to the island the rest up and BS for an hour before legal shooting. I mostly listened to these college freshman talk about dorm life and the late night shenanigans that were 30 years in my rear view. It took me back and I tried not to inject any guidance as today we were peers today and I didn't need to tell these young men much anyway. We headed down to get on our marsh stools 15 minutes before legal. As expected, there were some hunters in the marsh that morning who needed new watches as we heard MANY shots 5 minutes before legal shooting time...
And it was pretty quiet for us for about 20 minutes with no birds giving us a look....then all hell broke loose. Let me tell you, those young men can shoot! Hayden and I were done and Layne had one bird left. The boys workded (my calls never left my jacket pocket) a flock of Gadwalls until we had them straight overhead and Layne reached out and brought down #18 with a fine shot. Chewie made his 18th retrieve of the day and we were taking pics by 9 with a mixed bag of Gadwall, Spoonies, Green Wing, Blue Wing, Redheads, and Ringnecks.
It was different to hunt with young men when most of my hunts are with men more my age, but it was awesome to see the next generation doing it right... and I hope I represented the "old guys" well enough to be invited back...
View attachment IMG_2498.PNGView attachment IMG_2500.PNG
I know Hayden from DU and he introduced me to his college buddy Layne. We walked out to the marsh to find some guys in an expensive looking boat had beat us to "the spot" so we walked another 250-300 yards past where we intended to set up and made the best of it in the tall grass on the side of an island. Decoys deployed and everything set up we retreated to the island the rest up and BS for an hour before legal shooting. I mostly listened to these college freshman talk about dorm life and the late night shenanigans that were 30 years in my rear view. It took me back and I tried not to inject any guidance as today we were peers today and I didn't need to tell these young men much anyway. We headed down to get on our marsh stools 15 minutes before legal. As expected, there were some hunters in the marsh that morning who needed new watches as we heard MANY shots 5 minutes before legal shooting time...
And it was pretty quiet for us for about 20 minutes with no birds giving us a look....then all hell broke loose. Let me tell you, those young men can shoot! Hayden and I were done and Layne had one bird left. The boys workded (my calls never left my jacket pocket) a flock of Gadwalls until we had them straight overhead and Layne reached out and brought down #18 with a fine shot. Chewie made his 18th retrieve of the day and we were taking pics by 9 with a mixed bag of Gadwall, Spoonies, Green Wing, Blue Wing, Redheads, and Ringnecks.
It was different to hunt with young men when most of my hunts are with men more my age, but it was awesome to see the next generation doing it right... and I hope I represented the "old guys" well enough to be invited back...
View attachment IMG_2498.PNGView attachment IMG_2500.PNG