Mark(mo)
Active member
The write up for the first day is in the log book but this will go along with it as the schedule was tight and I didn't have any time to get it in the book before it was shipped.
Pics from the 15th.
November 16, 2008
I knew Sunday morning was going to be a quick shoot and since the day before had been good but tough “Rob” hung out at the camp with his buddies by the fire place. “Rob” didn’t miss anything by not going as a lone pintail drake (could barely ID it as a drake on the wing) was the only thing in the bag. We said our good byes to all his buddies and dad (Ira) and headed back home to pack for the next three days.
I talked to Mike on the phone for a bit as he was coming up from Memphis as I was headed south. When he called back an hour later I knew something was up. Mike had borrowed my trailer a year and a half ago and, if truth be known has probably put more miles on it than I have. The squeak he had heard earlier turned out to be the passenger side wheel bearings being chewed up. 5:00 Sunday evening 45 minutes south of St. Louis isn’t the time or place to break down. Mike and I tried over the phone to work through the problem but in the end it wasn’t going to happen and would have to wait till Monday morning, so Mike would miss the first day shoot. I pulled into the farm just north of town to pick up my boats and made it to the house just before dark. A few minutes later I received a call from Wade Bourne letting me know there had been a change in our itineraries. Wade was driving himself, and the camera and sound guys were coming from Oklahoma so we would hunt without Mike.
November 17, 2008
Arrangements had been made that we would hunt at a private club owned by 6-8 wildlife biologists about 3 miles north of WHERE I HAD JUST COME FROM. The owners have been long friends of mine and had shot limits of birds off the marsh the morning before so hopes were high. I was instructed to meet them at the end of a gravel road where it dumps into the creek that runs along our west property line at 5:00am. Wade calls back and asks if I can grab another boat as the producer wants a boat for more gear. Sure, I can swing by the camp and grab one on my way up, just means a 2:30 wake up call. It’s 10:30pm. I better get some sleep, if I’d have stayed at the camp instead of coming home I’d get 2 more hours of sleep, but I’m out of time now! After muscling a boat up on top of two DP’s and 2 bags of decoys loaded in the bed of my truck I made it to the ramp about 5 min. late. The next part of the triathlon was a pole across the creek followed by unloading the boat and carrying it 75yds followed by a launch of everything all over times 6, then pole a third of a mile down into the marsh. The rig looked great winds were building to 10-15 out of the north and temps were hanging about 45 but, it appeared the birds moved off the day or night before and the only shots fired were by Wade at a flaring Green wing at 50yds. I begged them to leave the rig so we could hunt here the next day but they seemed intent on poling back and repeating the process that just about killed all of us just hours before. In all the moving of gear some how my camera bag gets left at the ramp. Thank goodness no one drives down there so it was awaiting my arrival. Not really too much to take pics of just people.
On my drive home I talked to Mike who had been able to make the necessary repairs and get back on the road. We met at my house and he headed off to join Wade at the hotel. I stayed at home and would meet them at the draw area the next morning. The idea of the show was to hunt managed public ground operated by the Missouri Department of Conversation (MDC). DU has been partners with MDC for many years and works together on many projects trough out the state. Almost all of our medium to large state areas allow hunting by a daily lottery. Show up, draw a number and if you’re low enough you get to hunt if not you go home. Tough to make a show about something there are no guarantees on!!
November 18, 2008, The front had passed the wind had died and we’ve got ice to deal with now!! Wade drew pill 41 they’re hunting 27 parties????? By the skin of our teeth we make it out but, are the last group in and as one can imagine virtually every spot is taken, it’s dark and none of us have been here in over 5 years. We make a plan and launch at the lot with the fewest trailers / trucks. There are maybe 3 groups ahead of us and there are 3 good spots that I can remember and a couple sleeper spots. By the time we get close to spot one I quickly figure out the 3 good spots are gone!! DAMN, if I were by my self I’d excuse myself and pass through to find the spot but dragging 2 extra boats with cameras we didn’t think too many guys would appreciate having DU TV screw up their morning hunt. We pulled back opened a spot up and managed to shoot one GWT and a mallard drake 15 minutes before stopping time. They caught the mallard on tape but the GWT was too quick. I’m thinking to myself this whole show is going down the tubes in a hurry and I’d hate to stake an entire episode on one last day.
I ran home and checked the farm north of town and turned on the pump so we would at least have an ice free place to hunt if we needed to. Maybe it filled up with birds, hey a guy can dream can’t he?? Three wood ducks was it. We better draw low or I’ll be remembered as the guest on the lamest episode of the show!!
November 19, 2008, T minus 12 hours from the wake up call and this torture will be over! Let’s change the Karma and have Mike draw. It’s a good thing they can image stabilize the shot because Mike was shaking like a dog shitting ice cubes. The first pill out of the box was #8, A collective sigh of relief we’ll finally be in an area that has plenty of birds and with only one other party in our unit we could keep our distance and we talked in the parking lot make sure everyone knew where everyone would be. We get the decoys out and hide the cameras and then ourselves. Finally we’ve got green heads hanging over the decoys and when the 12th one hit the water 3 hours later we were a wrap. The guys think they got 10 solid bird shots on tape and lots of great decoying action. Wade had to pull out quick to attend a funeral so he shot his interview sitting on the front of the boat and poled out while Mike and the camera guys finished up shooting some more close ups and both of our interviews. Mine should be very interesting as the scratch in my throat on Sunday had turned in to laryngitis and my voice was shot!! I totaled it up and I got 16 hours of sleep in 5 days and drove over 600 miles to kill 4 ducks. Some days you’re the windshield and some days you’re the bug. It felt good to finish it as the windshield.
Pics from the 15th.
November 16, 2008
I knew Sunday morning was going to be a quick shoot and since the day before had been good but tough “Rob” hung out at the camp with his buddies by the fire place. “Rob” didn’t miss anything by not going as a lone pintail drake (could barely ID it as a drake on the wing) was the only thing in the bag. We said our good byes to all his buddies and dad (Ira) and headed back home to pack for the next three days.
I talked to Mike on the phone for a bit as he was coming up from Memphis as I was headed south. When he called back an hour later I knew something was up. Mike had borrowed my trailer a year and a half ago and, if truth be known has probably put more miles on it than I have. The squeak he had heard earlier turned out to be the passenger side wheel bearings being chewed up. 5:00 Sunday evening 45 minutes south of St. Louis isn’t the time or place to break down. Mike and I tried over the phone to work through the problem but in the end it wasn’t going to happen and would have to wait till Monday morning, so Mike would miss the first day shoot. I pulled into the farm just north of town to pick up my boats and made it to the house just before dark. A few minutes later I received a call from Wade Bourne letting me know there had been a change in our itineraries. Wade was driving himself, and the camera and sound guys were coming from Oklahoma so we would hunt without Mike.
November 17, 2008
Arrangements had been made that we would hunt at a private club owned by 6-8 wildlife biologists about 3 miles north of WHERE I HAD JUST COME FROM. The owners have been long friends of mine and had shot limits of birds off the marsh the morning before so hopes were high. I was instructed to meet them at the end of a gravel road where it dumps into the creek that runs along our west property line at 5:00am. Wade calls back and asks if I can grab another boat as the producer wants a boat for more gear. Sure, I can swing by the camp and grab one on my way up, just means a 2:30 wake up call. It’s 10:30pm. I better get some sleep, if I’d have stayed at the camp instead of coming home I’d get 2 more hours of sleep, but I’m out of time now! After muscling a boat up on top of two DP’s and 2 bags of decoys loaded in the bed of my truck I made it to the ramp about 5 min. late. The next part of the triathlon was a pole across the creek followed by unloading the boat and carrying it 75yds followed by a launch of everything all over times 6, then pole a third of a mile down into the marsh. The rig looked great winds were building to 10-15 out of the north and temps were hanging about 45 but, it appeared the birds moved off the day or night before and the only shots fired were by Wade at a flaring Green wing at 50yds. I begged them to leave the rig so we could hunt here the next day but they seemed intent on poling back and repeating the process that just about killed all of us just hours before. In all the moving of gear some how my camera bag gets left at the ramp. Thank goodness no one drives down there so it was awaiting my arrival. Not really too much to take pics of just people.
On my drive home I talked to Mike who had been able to make the necessary repairs and get back on the road. We met at my house and he headed off to join Wade at the hotel. I stayed at home and would meet them at the draw area the next morning. The idea of the show was to hunt managed public ground operated by the Missouri Department of Conversation (MDC). DU has been partners with MDC for many years and works together on many projects trough out the state. Almost all of our medium to large state areas allow hunting by a daily lottery. Show up, draw a number and if you’re low enough you get to hunt if not you go home. Tough to make a show about something there are no guarantees on!!
November 18, 2008, The front had passed the wind had died and we’ve got ice to deal with now!! Wade drew pill 41 they’re hunting 27 parties????? By the skin of our teeth we make it out but, are the last group in and as one can imagine virtually every spot is taken, it’s dark and none of us have been here in over 5 years. We make a plan and launch at the lot with the fewest trailers / trucks. There are maybe 3 groups ahead of us and there are 3 good spots that I can remember and a couple sleeper spots. By the time we get close to spot one I quickly figure out the 3 good spots are gone!! DAMN, if I were by my self I’d excuse myself and pass through to find the spot but dragging 2 extra boats with cameras we didn’t think too many guys would appreciate having DU TV screw up their morning hunt. We pulled back opened a spot up and managed to shoot one GWT and a mallard drake 15 minutes before stopping time. They caught the mallard on tape but the GWT was too quick. I’m thinking to myself this whole show is going down the tubes in a hurry and I’d hate to stake an entire episode on one last day.
I ran home and checked the farm north of town and turned on the pump so we would at least have an ice free place to hunt if we needed to. Maybe it filled up with birds, hey a guy can dream can’t he?? Three wood ducks was it. We better draw low or I’ll be remembered as the guest on the lamest episode of the show!!
November 19, 2008, T minus 12 hours from the wake up call and this torture will be over! Let’s change the Karma and have Mike draw. It’s a good thing they can image stabilize the shot because Mike was shaking like a dog shitting ice cubes. The first pill out of the box was #8, A collective sigh of relief we’ll finally be in an area that has plenty of birds and with only one other party in our unit we could keep our distance and we talked in the parking lot make sure everyone knew where everyone would be. We get the decoys out and hide the cameras and then ourselves. Finally we’ve got green heads hanging over the decoys and when the 12th one hit the water 3 hours later we were a wrap. The guys think they got 10 solid bird shots on tape and lots of great decoying action. Wade had to pull out quick to attend a funeral so he shot his interview sitting on the front of the boat and poled out while Mike and the camera guys finished up shooting some more close ups and both of our interviews. Mine should be very interesting as the scratch in my throat on Sunday had turned in to laryngitis and my voice was shot!! I totaled it up and I got 16 hours of sleep in 5 days and drove over 600 miles to kill 4 ducks. Some days you’re the windshield and some days you’re the bug. It felt good to finish it as the windshield.
