The Rest of the story

jode hillman

jode hillman

Well-known member
I thought you guys would get a kick out of this.

Wow, talk about crazy, this is a true life "The Rest of the Story"

10 years ago I was hunting one of the most desolate sections of the Delaware bay. Weather was bad, wind was howling and somehow a diminutive hen Green wing teal from my personal rig was lost. I assumed the anchor line parted in the weather. I scoured the immediate area, but never found her. I often tell the story and wonder what became of the "drifter"

Well today I found out. I got word from my wife's uncle who struck up a conversation with another hunter at a Funeral. He asked the fellow if he knew me. The guy replied "No, but I did find a nice decoy with that name on it years ago on a lonely Mud flat in the Delaware bay"

Wow, talk about shocked. He has had it on his mantle all the past years. I have no idea how much time transpired between it's loss and being found, nor how far away it was located. But I thought it was a great ending
nonetheless!

I am so glad it found a proper home! Some things are meant to be!


If memory serves it was from the same rig as the blocks in this pic.........



 
That is cool. I purposefully left one of my decoys out in a grassy bay several years ago now just to see how long it might take someone to find it.

Mike
 
Jode, that's really neat on your decoy. I've found a handful of plastic decoys over the years. I've lost and found my blueyed-teal that Lee Harker made for me far more times than I'd care to admit. Luckily though i've always found her.

Neat to hear about your decoy finding a good home though.
 
the old weather beaten Wildfowler bluebill with the broken anchor line shown in my avatar was found after being left to the elements for a long time.

it eventually ended up in the hands of an antique dealer we often deal with and became a Christmas gift from my wife.

I wrote a fictional short story about its "life" for the Parker Pages (magazine of the Parker Gun Collector Assn), how it's travels may have ended up with me.

I am not a big collector, but I enjoy having this one around more than the little used ones with better paint.
 
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Thanks all, I thought it was a good story everyone would enjoy.

Mike, let us know if your decoy ever turns up!

Dani, I have found plastics before and corks too, but there was always somebody at the boat ramp looking for them!

Rick, That's a cool decoy and I am sure the story is great!
It is funny, I wrote a story about a lost decoy years before this ever happened. Mine didn't have quite the same ending though........

Talk about life imitating art. LOL.

I guess its a common occurrence given the conditions we face but pretty neat anyway.


You can read the old story here:


http://jode-hillman.tripod.com/id12.html
 
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Jode~

Great story! I have a similar saga - but am still waiting for my "rest of the story".

The last season I lived on Long Island (1994), I hunted the Opener by myself. In mid-afdternoon, I noticed a Black Duck sleeping about 200 yards below my rig in the bright sun. I scolded myself for not having seen it arrive. Later - at quitting time - I found only 9 cork Blacks in my rig. The Tenth Bird was one of my sleepers - and I had let it drift off to leeward thinking it was a live bird. That old Wiley cork, when charred, sure fooled me!

I keep hoping someone has it - and will somehow find that S J SANFORD burned into its keel.

All the best,

SJS
 
Great story Jode.

I only ever seem to be on the tail ends, never see the loop close.

Watched to bluebills dance and dive in the surf... are they decoys? No, couldn't be....

After pic-up, did a little recon: 2 Herter's 72s escaped my pod. I guess that's what happens when "eyes to the skies".

Judging by your work, the finder on this one quickly invoked "finders keepers". I'd guess he even wondered what blamed fool was hunting with such a beautiful piece of work ;-)

Hope he's one of the good guys and feels the blessing of such a find.

Best,

Rob
 
Thanks Steve, Thanks Rob.

I truly never thought I would hear of the decoy again. As a matter of fact I hunted the area with a friend this Saturday and told him the tale of Woe...........so funny to have it come to a close a few days later.........Hopefully some of the other tales here will conclude with such a fate!

The guy did impress how much he likes the decoy and has enjoyed it all these years............
 
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That is a great story Jode and an excellent ending to it. I was thinking about it and I have lost more decoys then I realized. I lost a foam decoy along with a few herters many years ago. Blew out of the boat? Anyway I got a call years later with the person on the other end asking if I had lost anything near Bergland MI. I responded that I lost some decoys up there once. He said he had them and just got internet and looked me up. My name was on the bottom of the decoy. He returned them a month later when passing by my area. I lost my very first decoy a black cork scaup on Lake Erie. Got tore off the long lines when they got tangled in the dark and we were pulling them with the boat to try and set it heavy winds. I suspect it washed up on the beach in Canada.

The only other decoy I have lost might look familar to you. I lost it in Manitoba. My theory is the dog drug it into the brush on a retrieve and it went unnoticed. Others packed up the decoys that day so I did not realize it was lost until later. Here is a pic before it was lost.

2011-09-10-Canada-Trip-477.jpg

 
That is a really cool story Jode!


I've lost a few, and I've found a few. And ALWAYS, I wonder what the story is that goes with the blocks found, and wish I could share the stories of the decoys lost.


Thanks for sharing.


Jon
 
Brandon......HA HA those darn hen teal got a hankerin' to roam. Nice looking bag and decoy too............maybe youll get a call in 6 years or so.

Jon, I've lost more than I've found, ;>) but only one that meant something to me........
 
Here's a similar but more recent story for you all.....About 10 days ago, myself and a friend were hunting here in Champlain and a horrendous snow squall hit us several hours into a really nice hunt. We decided to pick up and did so by dragging all the decoys to shore and stacking them up till we could put them in the decoy bags. Once we verified all the pockets were filled, we put the bags in the boat and shoved off. It wasn't till several day later on a following hunt that I realized one of my very early bufflehead decoys had been left behind, probably on that hunt. My theory is that that once we stacked them on shore in the blizzard, that the snow covered it up and we didn't notice it wasn't in the boat (as the boat was also filling up with snow). Since it doesn't ride in a pocket, there weren't any pockets empty and we figured all the deeks had been picked up.


It took me a week to be able to get back up there. Luckily we'd hunted not too far from a seasonal camp and I drove around for 30 minutes trying to find the driveway to that camp. When I finally did, I hiked along shore till I was about where we'd hunted. I saw tons of boot prints and dog prints and figured it was long gone, and just as I was leaving, I noticed it was right in the surf line, mostly covered in frozen slush. But none the worse for wear. :) :)


John
 
I've lost quite a few plastic decoys in the past, it's just part of the deal. The geese bigfoot heads are usually the worst for me.

I made my first set of decoys a few years back - a set of cork wood ducks. I lost one of the hens either on the Susky or the Delaware in the first season. The wooden keel has JTSD stamped on it and maybe a shamrock. They are definitely beginner grade but I hope it made someone happy somewhere.


If I found a Hillman, Sutton, or Strunk decoy on the Delaware I would be struggling to make that phone call too!
 
Such a common thread, I am sure we all have lost decoy story's. Perhaps no one put it as eloquently as this poem written more than a half century ago




THE DRIFTER by Steve Ward

I’m just an old has been decoy,
no ribbons have I won.
My sides and head are full of shot
from many a blazing gun.
My home has been by the river,
just drifting along with the tide.
No roof have I had for a shelter,
no one place where I could abide.
I’ve rocked to winters wild fury;
I’ve scorched in the heat of the sun.
I’ve drifted and drifted and drifted
for tides never cease to run.
I was picked up by some fool collector,
who put me up here on a shelf.
But my place is out on the river,
where I can drift all by myself.
I want to go back to the shoreline,
where flying clouds hang thick and low,
And get the touch of the rain drops
and the velvety soft touch of the snow.
 
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