KThompson
Active member
I spent a long time tonight on the laptop "working from home" (one of the many downfalls of modern technology is you can't leave work at work) and can't seem to get wound down enough to go to sleep. Why not fire up the desktop and browse duckboats.net and further increase my adrenaline levels with pics of ducks, guns and boats right?
Anyway, I noticed a lot of folks reflecting on their most memorable hunts of the season and figured I would share mine, whether it is worth your time to read it is another story...
I am fortunate enough to be off work every other Friday with my job. Our oldest child is in the 1st grade and our 3yr old is still at home with my bride. We get somewhat of a free day on these Friday's since one "blessing" is at school and little brother loves getting the attention of both parents to himself. My wife has recently started duck hunting with me again, something that we hadn't done since getting engaged (I proposed to her in a boat blind while hunting divers on the river) and this particular Friday she said, my favorite 3 words, "let's go hunting" (get your mind out of the gutter.)
I normally spend too much time prepping for a hunt and only have to worry about getting myself dressed so adding her and my 3yr old to the plans at 730AM for a hunt where we have to be home by 1115AM because of a half day of school seemed improbable but not impossible. The car ride to the ramp is roughly 20min and then boat ride depends on where we find ducks in huntable numbers, weather is terrible; 60 deg,0-3mph winds, cloudy, and to top it off we don't have any Cheetos... a tradition I started with my kids on any hunting or fishing trip. Fast forward and we're finally at the boat ramp around 900AM, with no Cheetos.
I called a buddy before we left home who happened to be hunting the area and gave an awful report of what he'd seen that morning... nothing. He called again right before I cranked the boat motor and said he had just crippled a bufflehead and asked if we'd pick it up when passing by because it was along my normal path. My wife got new shotgun this summer and she's only shot a half box of shells through it so a water swat on a cripple was a good way to get rid of her "duck fever."
We drove a mile up river until realizing there were literally no ducks in the area and moved back to an island where I scared up about 18 bluebills in hopes that we'd get lucky. I quickly threw out one longline of foam bills and a few single bobtail corks I've hunted pretty hard since in 2005. I pushed the boat up next to the island, made sure my wife was loaded up, put hearing protection on little man while she broke out a bottle of flavored water and some dried banana chips (he reminded us that we didn't have any Cheetos), and then loaded my gun.
Within 5 minutes a group of 3 greater bills swung, from behind the island, right across the top of the decoys left to right and then made that wonderful wide 360deg circle and headed back our way. I told my wife to get ready and when they passed over this time (right to left), I dropped the 1st bird but she couldn't get a bead on them quick enough to pull the trigger. Note: I might or might not have missed with my other 2 shots. We were excited to have knocked one down, it was 950ish at this time, and for all accounts thought the hunt was over but decided to sit until 1015-1020 before heading home and beat the school bus.
1st duck of the day
We said if anything else worked the decoys we would let them land to give her time to put a bead on one and no sooner had we finished the conversation then 7 more greater bills come out of nowhere and land 70 yards away. She cut her hunting teeth on deer and knows the routine when it comes to sitting still so I whispered to just wait and see if they swim in. Within about 5 minutes, a young hen decided our decoys were more interesting than her live friends and swam right to us. When she was about 30yds from the boat my wife "skillet shot" her and another round of shouts came from all three of us!
By the way, our son was still being surprisingly good for a 3yr old with no legos or superhero toys to keep him entertained and still enough to let that duck swim in without a "real" blind on my boat. At this point, we should have bought lottery tickets because we had just seen 10 ducks return to an area where we had bounced the only 18 ducks we had seen on the lake about 25 min earlier. Heck, usually I'd be happy to have 10 return after bumping 100 from a location. It's now 1010 and we stick with our plan to hold tight until 1015. Not 30 seconds from 1015, I see movement off the right side of the boat and a single duck is heading towards the decoys... something unusual. Because it's cloudy and the sun is not hitting us in the face at this particular location like it would have been otherwise, I can tell this is either the biggest ruddy duck I've ever seen or one of those "scoters" that I only read about online or in magazines.... please be a scoter! Anyway, we let it fly right in and hit the water and I tell her to shoot... and boom, it's in the bag. I practically run out to retrieve it and sure enough it's a hen black scoter, in North Alabama, and my wife just shot it! I was ecstatic! My wife couldn't understand why I was so excited until I explained to her that I've been duck hunting for close to 20 years and had only seen one and never killed one myself. She "got it" then but our enthusiasm was bittersweet because it was time to GO!
Wife's scoter
We had a blast on the car ride home talking about how unlikely it was that we went on this day, with no prior planning, poor hunting conditions, and then have 11 ducks show up where we only bumped 18 total and come home with 3 of them... and of course how bad we felt that we couldn't stop and get some Cheetos because we might miss the bus (that was our 3yr old's contribution to the conversation). I was literally on cloud nine when we pulled up to the house and parked the boat just in time to see big sister getting home (whew, talk about timing!) At times I feel a little selfish knowing that my son is still young enough to be influenced into liking "my hobbies" if I can make these types of outings as fun as possible. On the other hand, my dad died right before I turned 12 yrs old. Some of my fondest memories were sitting beside him on dove stool or walking across a field while our beagles ran, seeing his big farm-callused hands holding that Winchester semi-auto and the sound of his voice speaking of childhood memories and guidance on trusting the Lord with EVERYTHING in life.
Sorry, I'm almost done... the first thing big sister said when she walked down the sidewalk and saw us unloading gear was say, "aw, yall went hunting, I wanted to go!" My solution to this problem, "who wants me to drive to the gas station and get Cheetos?!"... you can guess that answer to that question.
Anyway, I noticed a lot of folks reflecting on their most memorable hunts of the season and figured I would share mine, whether it is worth your time to read it is another story...
I am fortunate enough to be off work every other Friday with my job. Our oldest child is in the 1st grade and our 3yr old is still at home with my bride. We get somewhat of a free day on these Friday's since one "blessing" is at school and little brother loves getting the attention of both parents to himself. My wife has recently started duck hunting with me again, something that we hadn't done since getting engaged (I proposed to her in a boat blind while hunting divers on the river) and this particular Friday she said, my favorite 3 words, "let's go hunting" (get your mind out of the gutter.)
I normally spend too much time prepping for a hunt and only have to worry about getting myself dressed so adding her and my 3yr old to the plans at 730AM for a hunt where we have to be home by 1115AM because of a half day of school seemed improbable but not impossible. The car ride to the ramp is roughly 20min and then boat ride depends on where we find ducks in huntable numbers, weather is terrible; 60 deg,0-3mph winds, cloudy, and to top it off we don't have any Cheetos... a tradition I started with my kids on any hunting or fishing trip. Fast forward and we're finally at the boat ramp around 900AM, with no Cheetos.
I called a buddy before we left home who happened to be hunting the area and gave an awful report of what he'd seen that morning... nothing. He called again right before I cranked the boat motor and said he had just crippled a bufflehead and asked if we'd pick it up when passing by because it was along my normal path. My wife got new shotgun this summer and she's only shot a half box of shells through it so a water swat on a cripple was a good way to get rid of her "duck fever."
We drove a mile up river until realizing there were literally no ducks in the area and moved back to an island where I scared up about 18 bluebills in hopes that we'd get lucky. I quickly threw out one longline of foam bills and a few single bobtail corks I've hunted pretty hard since in 2005. I pushed the boat up next to the island, made sure my wife was loaded up, put hearing protection on little man while she broke out a bottle of flavored water and some dried banana chips (he reminded us that we didn't have any Cheetos), and then loaded my gun.
Within 5 minutes a group of 3 greater bills swung, from behind the island, right across the top of the decoys left to right and then made that wonderful wide 360deg circle and headed back our way. I told my wife to get ready and when they passed over this time (right to left), I dropped the 1st bird but she couldn't get a bead on them quick enough to pull the trigger. Note: I might or might not have missed with my other 2 shots. We were excited to have knocked one down, it was 950ish at this time, and for all accounts thought the hunt was over but decided to sit until 1015-1020 before heading home and beat the school bus.
1st duck of the day
We said if anything else worked the decoys we would let them land to give her time to put a bead on one and no sooner had we finished the conversation then 7 more greater bills come out of nowhere and land 70 yards away. She cut her hunting teeth on deer and knows the routine when it comes to sitting still so I whispered to just wait and see if they swim in. Within about 5 minutes, a young hen decided our decoys were more interesting than her live friends and swam right to us. When she was about 30yds from the boat my wife "skillet shot" her and another round of shouts came from all three of us!
By the way, our son was still being surprisingly good for a 3yr old with no legos or superhero toys to keep him entertained and still enough to let that duck swim in without a "real" blind on my boat. At this point, we should have bought lottery tickets because we had just seen 10 ducks return to an area where we had bounced the only 18 ducks we had seen on the lake about 25 min earlier. Heck, usually I'd be happy to have 10 return after bumping 100 from a location. It's now 1010 and we stick with our plan to hold tight until 1015. Not 30 seconds from 1015, I see movement off the right side of the boat and a single duck is heading towards the decoys... something unusual. Because it's cloudy and the sun is not hitting us in the face at this particular location like it would have been otherwise, I can tell this is either the biggest ruddy duck I've ever seen or one of those "scoters" that I only read about online or in magazines.... please be a scoter! Anyway, we let it fly right in and hit the water and I tell her to shoot... and boom, it's in the bag. I practically run out to retrieve it and sure enough it's a hen black scoter, in North Alabama, and my wife just shot it! I was ecstatic! My wife couldn't understand why I was so excited until I explained to her that I've been duck hunting for close to 20 years and had only seen one and never killed one myself. She "got it" then but our enthusiasm was bittersweet because it was time to GO!
Wife's scoter
We had a blast on the car ride home talking about how unlikely it was that we went on this day, with no prior planning, poor hunting conditions, and then have 11 ducks show up where we only bumped 18 total and come home with 3 of them... and of course how bad we felt that we couldn't stop and get some Cheetos because we might miss the bus (that was our 3yr old's contribution to the conversation). I was literally on cloud nine when we pulled up to the house and parked the boat just in time to see big sister getting home (whew, talk about timing!) At times I feel a little selfish knowing that my son is still young enough to be influenced into liking "my hobbies" if I can make these types of outings as fun as possible. On the other hand, my dad died right before I turned 12 yrs old. Some of my fondest memories were sitting beside him on dove stool or walking across a field while our beagles ran, seeing his big farm-callused hands holding that Winchester semi-auto and the sound of his voice speaking of childhood memories and guidance on trusting the Lord with EVERYTHING in life.
Sorry, I'm almost done... the first thing big sister said when she walked down the sidewalk and saw us unloading gear was say, "aw, yall went hunting, I wanted to go!" My solution to this problem, "who wants me to drive to the gas station and get Cheetos?!"... you can guess that answer to that question.
