Opening day in FL

Dani

Dani

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Well, without too many prospects since there aren't many ducks around down here, I headed out to a lake near by that I'd never hunted. I've heard it can be good but it is one of the more heavily hunted lakes and it's almost always a zoo. I stopped by there last week one day after work and took a look around. Real pretty and if we get some cold weather, I could see it holding ducks but I didn't see but perhaps 100 ducks or so total.

Saturday dawned very very foggy and I had planned to head out there right at legal to see what there was to see and see if I could find out where birds might be working where people weren't already in. I was surprised at the number of vehicles at the ramp....had to close to 35-40. And that's just one boat ramp on the lake. Anyway, got out on the water and realized I had forgotten my paddle at home. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH. I had my foamy boat with the trolling motor to get me out to the lily pads and then I had planned on paddling around from there. Weeeeeeelllll with no paddle, I didn't have a whole lot of options. Luckily (I guess) the water level is down about 2 ft from normal levels so I was able to wade through waist deep water.

The fog out there was thick and I couldn't really see where birds were flying but I could definitely hear that there were lots of hunters on the lake based on the shooting. I decided to just wade out and pick a spot. It didn't pick the best location but I did get some shooting. There was one majorly obnoxious coot that kept giving Drake fits, kept getting up and leaving and then flying back into the decoys so I very happily obliged to get him his coot. The fog didn't lift until almost 11 that morning and by then most of the hunters were off the lake. So it wasn't smoking hot opener, but Drake and I had a nice time and we got some birds....

View attachment Lake M.jpg

View attachment fog finally lifting.jpg

View attachment Got it.jpg

View attachment got me one.jpg

View attachment mixed bag.jpg
 
Nice to see you got a little shooting in.
Lets hope these cold fronts bring some more birds down to the coast!
 
Thanks Al! Happy Thanksgiving to you too. Hope your season is going well.

Yup there be monsters in that lake. It was definitely not my preferred way of moving around but it was either take the chance, knowing that gator metabolisms are slowing down quickly this time of year, or go home and admit defeat on the opener. I wasnt gonna do that.
 
Nice mixed bag. Way to make lemonade out of lemons.
Drake is a good looking dog, love those eyes.

Tim
 
Nice coot and a snipe to boot! I lived in Lauderdale in the early 80's and used to hunt at Loxahatchie and at Uncle Joe's fish camp on Okeechobee. Good stuff Dani! Miss those Fulvous Tree ducks! They were really pretty and great eating.
 
Good morning, Dani~

Thanks for the tale and spectacular photos!

I assume wading is safe now - because the Burmese pythons have eaten all of the gators?

All the best,

SJS
 
Thanks y'all

Steve, thankfully there have been no wild python sightings up in my neck of the woods in FL. It may just be a matter of time but I hope that they don't make a home up here.

Greg, one of the things I really am bummed about in moving up to the big bend of FL is that it's now a long drive to get to where we used to have some good whistling duck hunting. I love blackbellies and fulvous are gorgeous and it's so neat to watch them come into the decoys, almost in slow motion. We actually do have a small population of blackbellies that breed up here in the summer but then they disappear for the winter. I'm not sure where they go and no one I know gets more than maybe a single chance at them during the first phase of the season. After that, they've moved somewhere else.

Tim, thanks for your comments about Drake. He is a ham and loves hearing all about himself and having people prove what they say by loving on him.
 
God bless you, I don't know how you do it in those temps. I can't even hunt the early goose season on Long Island because it's too warm and buggy...
 
Well, I don't know how all y'all do it up in the frozen white north [sly] I'd rather hang out in the sunshine with my alligators than deal with rain that falls as fluffy flakes, water that turns solid (only reason to have solid water is an accompaniment in drinks or keeping stuff in the cooler cool) and temps that ensure your skin won't see any sunlight for months. Once in a while is livable but all the time conditions like that? No thank you.
 
When I lived in Gainesville I would forego early duck season. As things cooled down I would wade some of the small ponds and swamps around the River Styx and Orange Lake. All the reptiles, legged and legless, were pretty dormant by then. I don't think I ever stumbled across a submerged gator. My biggest challenge was a bull, bovine, that didn't want me and my lab to get out of the water one time. I just wondered what would be left of me by the time I was found, probably just a few scattered bones.

Tom
 
Any chance that was Lake Iamonia? We used to drive down there from south Georgia when I lived there many years ago. It was always a zoo with wall to wall hunters but it wintered lots of ringnecks who flew around and got themselves shot at all day. Glad you got some shooting and that is a good looking dog you have
 
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Dani said:
Thanks Al! Happy Thanksgiving to you too. Hope your season is going well.

Yup there be monsters in that lake. It was definitely not my preferred way of moving around but it was either take the chance, knowing that gator metabolisms are slowing down quickly this time of year, or go home and admit defeat on the opener. I wasnt gonna do that.
Click to expand...

LMAO, I've had the pleasure of hunting with you and your comments did not surprise me at all! Ain't no gator keeping you home. Glad you got some shooting in. It's cool you still have your foam boat.
 
Nope, not Iamonia, but Iamonia is close by. I imagine that lake is still a zoo as well, since one of my co-workers says it sounds like a war zone out there during duck season.

Thanks again y'all
 
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