Only-----

[Al Hansen]

189 days until our early teal season opens for nine days and 228 days until our regular season begins. Fun to think about when thinking of ducks and geese. What will the pond count be this year? How is the PPR going to fare this year? How is Canada looking this year? Are there any drought areas to be concerned about?
I was cruising through some of my pics and came across this shot that made me think of two hunts. Did anything like this ever happen to you?

A couple of seasons ago on a very windy day while hunting the Rio, I had a mixed flock of light geese fly right over me bobbing up and down in the heavy gusts. I put a lead on a Ross' goose and when I squeezed the trigger watched three of them come tumbling down. That so amazed me that I forgot to shoot the remaining two shells in the gun.
Back in the 2005/06 season I had a dozen mallards come into my decoys and quite spread out. I put the bead on a big old drake mallard on the left hand side of the flock, pulled the trigger and then watched the greenhead along with the hen on the far right side of the flock fall into the marsh. An errant bb found her head and that had to be a good 18 to 20 feet apart. Once again I did not fire the other two shells.
Al

 

[Gene Jr.]

This season I had an experience like that. I was set up for old squaw and had already shot three and was hoping to finish out my limit with another three. It had been slow as the tide changed but birds were starting to move again. I saw a flock of five coming in, drake,hen, then three drakes. I picked the second drake back to shoot first and hoped to be able to double on another one. It's not uncommon to hit the bird following the one you are shooting at, that's why I passed on the lead drake. When they cut around the tail end of the spread I picked the drake I wanted and fired... all three drakes folded in unison. I had to smack two of them on the water to finish them off. In hindsight, it finished the day off much to quickly. I'm just glad I still had three left to shoot in my limit!

Gene

 

[Chuck Cooper]

Al from whwt I'm hearing on the news and what I'm seeing as far as water levels go ,they are going to be low this year in Southern Ontario.
On a good note I'm looking out my living room window at thousands of bluebills here in my bay as the ice went out last night.
Ten of thousands stage here until warmer weather in the north I guess,don't have a very good camera but will try to get some pics,,,,Chuck