My new rig

Paul Leopard

Paul Leopard

New member
I'm an old duck hunter that retired from hunting 10 years ago when I became a single parent. My daughters are leaving the nest now and I'm trying to get back into the sport. I hope to buy a decent jon boat next year to give me access to big water but I have a great love for hunting and fishing the backwoods swamps and small rivers around SE Madison county AL. So, I bought a 'Big Tuna' made by Jackson Kayaks ... a 'sit-on-top' fishing kayak. Following are some pictures of it. I found an old PWC trailer on Craigslist for $125 that pulls it great. I also bought a trolley so that I can portage it long distances. The trolley folds up and fits nicely in the rear compartment. I can pull it out and use it to portage between fingers in the swamps fairly easily. It has ball joints all around it for securing fishing rod holders and these work great for draping cam netting over the boat to make a blind. It's a great tool for hunting and fishing near home ... the only thing I don't like about it is the limited range. Paddling more than a 1/4 mile becomes a pain in the butt.

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Paul

Glad you figured the pictures out.

I hope your luck has been better than ours. We've covered a good bit of Morgan, Madison, Marshall, and Jackson County, both private and public, over the last 10 days looking for ducks and it has been terribly slow. Most seasons we run into dry spells but this is like nothing I've ever experienced. We were in Crow Creek a few days back and watched a steady stream of new arrivals from the northwest flying the river. Non-stop massive "Vs" right over the river way way up high. Easily could have been 10,000 ducks. I thought that meant our luck would change and we'd start seeing huntable ducks. No such luck. You picked a bad season to get back into it :)
 
That last pic I took yesterday evening down at Clouds cove. I didn't see a single duck but I heard some folks hammering something ... probably 50 to 60 shots in the span of 30 minutes. I had a general idea of where they were based on the direction the sound came from so I pulled out Google Earth this morning figured out where they were hunting. Based on that I am absolutely positive they were killing woodies ... all locals for sure.

I monitor the Flint water level from the Brownsboro station (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?03575100) and its staying steady around 9 feet. If it drops more than 3 or 4 feet that area will no longer be huntable ... Looks like rain though so I hope to go out there here in the next few days and try that spot myself. If you are free and interested come on with me, my boat holds two :)
 
Paul

Thanks for the offer. Maybe a quick hunt before work would be possible. I've got a pretty good idea of the area you are talking about. We weren't that far away, across from Ditto just off the river.. If the wind had been different we probably could have heard the shooting as well.

Eric
 
Downstream from launch about 200 yards, cut into the timber, channel goes way up in there

I like the idea of going before work ... It only takes 20 minutes to get there from my house. Maybe wed/thur or friday, let me know if you get the itch and I'll be game
 
Not much luck on the big water either. One group of broadbills that we have been shooting at for the last three weeks. Haven't seen a season this bad in a while.
 
I went to that spot on the Flint this afternoon. I saw 4 drake woodies and nothing else. No sign of any big ducks at all
 
If I can manage a morning away I'll give you a shout. Hope to know something by tomorrow.

We did find a few ringnecks today. They flooded in after hours. Wish 1/10th of them came in before sunset and we would have had a blast. Thomas managed a nice double so he's quite satisfied with the hunt.
 
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The water level just peaked at about 3 feet above what I saw yesterday. It'll settle back down quickly ... probably 3-4 feet per day

I posted a report on the DU migration map and got a response from a Mitchell Gentry ... "I hunt in that same general area, and just a heads up, the islands flooded timber is still holding woodies. Bout 50 a morning, with some small numbers of teal. No big ducks to be found though."


 
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