Craig F
Well-known member
Told the office I would be in a little late today and decided to hit the bay up for a before work puddle duck shoot. 20-25 knots out of the Northwest and temperatures in the mid 30s made it feel like the second split of the season vs. the first split and I was feeling good about our chances.
The benefit of gunning on a Monday morning was confirmed when I arrived at the ramp to see only one rig so I had my pick of where I wanted to go. Setup in a protected cove that looked good to me and had a few teal buzzing the decoys before legal. Everything was shaping up, or so I thought.
Legal shooting time came and went without any flights to speak of. A few black ducks made their way across the bay, but they did not think the cove I was in was the place to be. After some time a lone slender looking puddle duck cupped up and worked into the black duck decoys nicely. I was thinking hen pintail, gadwall or shoveler but when Ozzie brought the bird back to the boat it turned out to be a very small and sickly looking hen mallard. Very strange.
That was the end of the action for the morning and by 9:30 I decided I might as well head to work. Got into the office around 10:45 and went about my business. I was really expecting to see more birds but that's hunting. Nice to get out with my dad on the marsh and it certainly was better than being at my desk!
You can tell how much the birds were flying by how many photos I took!
The benefit of gunning on a Monday morning was confirmed when I arrived at the ramp to see only one rig so I had my pick of where I wanted to go. Setup in a protected cove that looked good to me and had a few teal buzzing the decoys before legal. Everything was shaping up, or so I thought.
Legal shooting time came and went without any flights to speak of. A few black ducks made their way across the bay, but they did not think the cove I was in was the place to be. After some time a lone slender looking puddle duck cupped up and worked into the black duck decoys nicely. I was thinking hen pintail, gadwall or shoveler but when Ozzie brought the bird back to the boat it turned out to be a very small and sickly looking hen mallard. Very strange.
That was the end of the action for the morning and by 9:30 I decided I might as well head to work. Got into the office around 10:45 and went about my business. I was really expecting to see more birds but that's hunting. Nice to get out with my dad on the marsh and it certainly was better than being at my desk!
You can tell how much the birds were flying by how many photos I took!
Last edited: