Duane G
Active member
Below is my versions of Blake's hunt this past weekend. Ohio's Youth Waterfowl Weekend.
Blake and his dad, Bud, made it out to Port Clinton, Ohio on Friday afternoon, Oct. 1, for the youth duck hunting weekend, at the Winous Point Shooting Club. Winous Point is the oldest hunt club in North America, founded in 1856. I am lucky to be a punter (guide) there. The past few years, the members have opened the club for the youth hunt. What a great thing they are doing. Again, here is my version of this past weekend.
Friday evening started with a trap station being set up at the Pond (a friend of mine is a charter capt and he has condos for his clients to stay at when they are fishing with him. These condos are called, The Pond.) and several kids were invited to sit and practice standing, to shoot at ducks. Over 400 rounds were shot by the four kids, including Blake. Next came lobster and steak tips, brought from the east coast by Hank Garvey and his family, Mary and son, Lil Hank, AKA, Skeeter.
Saturday Oct. 2, Blake, Bud and I arrived at Winous Point at 5:30AM and we were greeted with coffee, orange juice, hot chocolate, doughnuts, home made cookies and 14 or so other young duck hunters. After hunting sports were drawn for, we had number 2 pick, and a gun safety talk was given, we traveled by truck out to our hunting spot for the morning, Bunker Hill. The morning brought a light breeze, followed by rain showers and a wind switch. We were set up for a south wind and after it switched to a west wind, we moved a few hundred yards to the west and let the rain hit us in the back. We saw a few ducks and after shooting 25 or so shells, Blake ended the morning with a shoveler, a bluewing teal and a hen pintail.
All the hunters, punters and parents present, returned to the club house at 11AM to clean ducks and have lunch. After the burgers, home made mac and cheese, chicken, baked beans and brownies were eaten, a duck and goose calling seminar was given by Zink Pro-staffers. The late afternoon and early evening were spent napping and drying clothes. Bed came early and easy.
Sunday morning brought high winds, after a night of heavy rain. Only 5 other youth were there to hunt on Sunday. Again, a draw for hunting spots was held and as usual, we drew number 2. With the high winds, and before sun-rise, I didn't feel safe boating south across Mud Creek Bay, so I decided to stay on the north side and hunt an area called Horseshoe Island. Lots of ducks normally use Horseshoe as a resting area and Sunday was no different. As we did on Saturday morning, we took a power boat made by the Canard boat co. of Canada, to hunt out of. With a 15 horse surface drive motor on it, the Canard can handle most any winds in this marsh. The wind was out of the NE, blowing over 20 mph, for most of the day. I put out 10 decoys, including my feeding teal, number 142. Blake had 20+, 28 gauge shells left after Saturday mornings shoot. The ducks flew all morning. His first duck taken was a hen mallard. After a few more misses and flocks of 20 and 30 teal buzzing us, Blake shot a blackduck. My ol chocolate lab Bear, age 11, jumped out of the boat to "fetch-it-up". She swam 20 or so yards out toward the downed black, which had it's legs kickin in the air, when it suddenly righted itself and flew away. Ol Bear turned and looked at us like, "what the heck just happened?" We watched it fly out of site. I was hoping it would drop out of the sky dead. But it didn't.
Now with only a hand full of shells left, I was praying for young and dumb ducks, to come visit our spread. The next duck in was a nice greenhead and Blake took it with two shots. With only two shells left, a pair of blackducks came too close. Blake stood and shot, hitting one with his second and final shell. It fell 40 yards out, head bobbin in and out of the water. As Bear neared it, it kept its head up longer and longer. We were all yelling for her to get the duck, before it too, flew away. Well Bear got it and returned to the boat with a trophy blackduck.
The smile on Blake's face was worth a million dollars. I wish I had my camera out and gotten a picture of that smillin face. It is burned in my mind forever. Blake is a very nice young man. One, I know, Lee would be proud of. I Thank the Duck Boat page and the MLB crew, for all they have done to help Blake and his waterfowling endeavors. Eric, Pete and all the others who have supported Blake, are to be commended. It was a very memorable time for me. I hope Lee enjoyed it was much as Blake and I did.
View attachment BlakeYouthDay1WPSC.jpg
View attachment BlakeYouthDay2WPSC.jpg
Blake and his dad, Bud, made it out to Port Clinton, Ohio on Friday afternoon, Oct. 1, for the youth duck hunting weekend, at the Winous Point Shooting Club. Winous Point is the oldest hunt club in North America, founded in 1856. I am lucky to be a punter (guide) there. The past few years, the members have opened the club for the youth hunt. What a great thing they are doing. Again, here is my version of this past weekend.
Friday evening started with a trap station being set up at the Pond (a friend of mine is a charter capt and he has condos for his clients to stay at when they are fishing with him. These condos are called, The Pond.) and several kids were invited to sit and practice standing, to shoot at ducks. Over 400 rounds were shot by the four kids, including Blake. Next came lobster and steak tips, brought from the east coast by Hank Garvey and his family, Mary and son, Lil Hank, AKA, Skeeter.
Saturday Oct. 2, Blake, Bud and I arrived at Winous Point at 5:30AM and we were greeted with coffee, orange juice, hot chocolate, doughnuts, home made cookies and 14 or so other young duck hunters. After hunting sports were drawn for, we had number 2 pick, and a gun safety talk was given, we traveled by truck out to our hunting spot for the morning, Bunker Hill. The morning brought a light breeze, followed by rain showers and a wind switch. We were set up for a south wind and after it switched to a west wind, we moved a few hundred yards to the west and let the rain hit us in the back. We saw a few ducks and after shooting 25 or so shells, Blake ended the morning with a shoveler, a bluewing teal and a hen pintail.
All the hunters, punters and parents present, returned to the club house at 11AM to clean ducks and have lunch. After the burgers, home made mac and cheese, chicken, baked beans and brownies were eaten, a duck and goose calling seminar was given by Zink Pro-staffers. The late afternoon and early evening were spent napping and drying clothes. Bed came early and easy.
Sunday morning brought high winds, after a night of heavy rain. Only 5 other youth were there to hunt on Sunday. Again, a draw for hunting spots was held and as usual, we drew number 2. With the high winds, and before sun-rise, I didn't feel safe boating south across Mud Creek Bay, so I decided to stay on the north side and hunt an area called Horseshoe Island. Lots of ducks normally use Horseshoe as a resting area and Sunday was no different. As we did on Saturday morning, we took a power boat made by the Canard boat co. of Canada, to hunt out of. With a 15 horse surface drive motor on it, the Canard can handle most any winds in this marsh. The wind was out of the NE, blowing over 20 mph, for most of the day. I put out 10 decoys, including my feeding teal, number 142. Blake had 20+, 28 gauge shells left after Saturday mornings shoot. The ducks flew all morning. His first duck taken was a hen mallard. After a few more misses and flocks of 20 and 30 teal buzzing us, Blake shot a blackduck. My ol chocolate lab Bear, age 11, jumped out of the boat to "fetch-it-up". She swam 20 or so yards out toward the downed black, which had it's legs kickin in the air, when it suddenly righted itself and flew away. Ol Bear turned and looked at us like, "what the heck just happened?" We watched it fly out of site. I was hoping it would drop out of the sky dead. But it didn't.
Now with only a hand full of shells left, I was praying for young and dumb ducks, to come visit our spread. The next duck in was a nice greenhead and Blake took it with two shots. With only two shells left, a pair of blackducks came too close. Blake stood and shot, hitting one with his second and final shell. It fell 40 yards out, head bobbin in and out of the water. As Bear neared it, it kept its head up longer and longer. We were all yelling for her to get the duck, before it too, flew away. Well Bear got it and returned to the boat with a trophy blackduck.
The smile on Blake's face was worth a million dollars. I wish I had my camera out and gotten a picture of that smillin face. It is burned in my mind forever. Blake is a very nice young man. One, I know, Lee would be proud of. I Thank the Duck Boat page and the MLB crew, for all they have done to help Blake and his waterfowling endeavors. Eric, Pete and all the others who have supported Blake, are to be commended. It was a very memorable time for me. I hope Lee enjoyed it was much as Blake and I did.
View attachment BlakeYouthDay1WPSC.jpg
View attachment BlakeYouthDay2WPSC.jpg
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