The bluebill strikes again.

[Paul W]

I have had a few good days in the bluebill, and have enjoyed the low profile hunting, and the fuel economy over the 70s Johnson 85hp on the big water Lund.

Today's hunt from the bluebill was looking pretty dismal, everything was leaning with a massive raft of coot. I got bored and was calling back and forth with the hen mallards in the raft when a hen gadwall swam in to see what the ruckus was about. I stood and shot her on the wing.

Then when all hope was lost (there were about a hundred cans and redheads in with those dang coot...) this big boy came in - he was planning on landing on the other side of the bullrush stand I was in - and he went belly up on a 45ish yard sliding shot. A wigeon this nice is hard to come by (at least where I hunt) in Minnesota.

Once the coot clear out the ducks should decoy easier. I have no idea why I keep getting puddlers over my diver spread, but hey, beggars can't be choosers!

 

[Pete McMiller]

He's a beauty Paul. I used to shoot a lot of them in Pool 8 many years ago but haven't in some time. Just last Friday when coming back from Tom's I stopped at Goose Island and the refuge held a big flock of Widgeon. Too bad the cans wouldn't fly for you.

 

[Carl]

Wow, nice widgeon!

I have had days when the divers all landed in the puddler decoys and the gadwalls all came in over the diver decoys. Makes you scratch your head and wonder if they just do it to mess with our heads.

Some years we have 20,000-40,000 coots wintering down here. Makes things tough.

 

[Al Hansen]

Sure looks like you had a perfect day duck hunting to me. Congrats on that great looking drake baldpate.
Al

 

[Gerald N]

Awesome drake wigeon. One of my favorites that I seldom get a crack at and never that nice. You had a better day in the Bluebill than behind a desk even without the birds.

 

[Brad Wainscott]

Congrats!!! Sweet

 

[Jeff Reardon]

Nice looking bird! A friend's daughter got her first duck ever a couple of weeks ago--a full plumage drake widgeon. It's the first one any of us buddies can ever remember seeing in Maine.

 

[greg setter]

We don't see a lot of them here in Jersey either, beautiful bird and a nice complement to the day.

 

[Jon Yenulonis]

I'd say that Baldpate is nice a bird as anyone has ever taken anywhere!


Congratulations!


Nice story and pics, thanks for sharing.


Jon

 

[Craig F]

That is a stud wigeon!

 

[Kristan]

Nice cotton head

 

[Paul W]

Thanks everyone, I felt a little bad cleaning Jim instead of taking him to the taxidermist, but I haven't even gotten my scoter back yet. Hopefully I will shoot another one this nice!

 

[Cody Williams]

That is a mounter-quality wigeon for sure! I love when those drakes get that long pin in their tail feathers. I'm sure it's all the more satisfying to shoot such a great bird out of your own boat too. I hear you about dealing with the coot rafts-one of the WMA's that I like to hunt gets ridiculous rafts of thousands of coots on it and it makes it really hard to pull birds away from the coot armada.