a wood duck for jed

Jed and I went out yesterday for a quick Christmas eve hunt. Jed had the goal of a nice drake wood duck this season and yesterday he reached his goal. He shot a beautiful drake that is bound for the wall. One of the awesome things about being a new duck hunter is all the new species you get to shoot. Each one makes that specific hunt all the more special. We were off the water by 10 a.m. and back home to help with Christmas festivities. I would like to give a big thanks to Ron Smith for letting me borrow his camera for the remainder of the season. It's so nice to be able to get better quality pictures of my hunts. Merry Christmas everyone and I hope you get many ducks in the new year! Let's not forget the greatest gift of all. Christ was born in flesh and blood, to live a perfect life, and die for our sins. Be very thankful!

finn's first duck hunt

Johnny and I took Finn out on his first ever duck hunt this morning. He had a little trouble sitting still but for the most part it was a fun trip for him. I managed a limit of all drake ringneck ducks. Johnny shot his limit of ringers as well. One of my ducks got a little mangled with a close range head shot. It was a beautiful overcast day and the ducks were flying well. Can't wait till finn can shoot on his own. He kept saying "this would be more fun if I had a gun." It will be a few more years till he's ready for that but this was a nice introduction. I look forward to many years of sharing a duck blind with him. One day he will have to take me hunting.

a mottled for jed

Went out this morning with Jed and Johnny. I was sick as a dog, running a 102 fever but I had a good time nontheless. We managed sixteen ducks between us. Jed shot a nice mottled duck which is a new species for him.

lost in a fog

We got up really early to try and get to our spot first. With as many ducks as we had seen scouting, we knew there would be a good number of hunters on the lake. There was a thick fog on the lake. No problem, we have gps. Wrong! We headed out into the fog and our gps started loosing location. We spent the first hour and a half going around in circles. We ended up back at the boat ramp three times. When we finally got to our spot three boats were flashing us off. There were more hunters than we expected to see out there and all of our back up spots had been taken. We found a pretty good looking spot, threw out the decoys and set up. Then we heard some guys talking. We had set up right on top of a group. I'm not sure why they didn't shine us off. We didn't want to cut them off from ducks so we picked up our decoys and moved out to a terrible looking spot where it was no surprise that no one was set up. We sat and waited for the sun to come up and the fog to lift a bit. We got a few shots off at some woodies then picked up and looked for a spot. We finally found a decent looking spot. We shot a couple ducks but not close to what we had anticipated. Birdie had three very nice retrieves which made it worth it to me. She also took a crap on Johnny's shoe which was another plus (for me). I laughed my ass off for a solid 10 mins.

split phase scout

We went scouting today for the second phase opener. The two week split has been good for the ducks. With the lack of pressure, they have loaded back up on the lake. We saw similar numbers to the first phase opener. We also saw a few wood ducks and mottled ducks. Hoping for a mixed bag, however, I will gladly take decoying ringers any day. I apologize once again for the low res pictures. It's killing me not having a camera but I'm trying to make the best with my phone for now.