fellsmere marsh

when i hunt with andrew higginbotham its always an adventure. finally made it out to fellsmere marsh this season. andrew had hunted it the day before and had crushed the teal. i think the best way to describe it is like taking a leisurely 8 mile bike ride through hell. i think i will be recovering from that bike ride for about a week. we didnt crush the ducks but had a great time and a lot of laughs. not a bad way to end the season. big thanks to brian jones for letting me borrow his bike.

and the birds disappear

well the day started with heavy fog and the birds never came. it ended with blue bird skies and the birds never came. in the end benders lucky donuts only produced this one drake ringer. maybe it was my fault for not eating any but then again im the one that shot the ringer.

solo hunt

had a nice solo hunt this morning. plenty of ringnecks working. probably could have had a limit of them if i had set up early for ringers but i stayed shallow most of the morning to get my mottled. all the ducks worked the decoys nicely. had a lot of fun watching all the mottleds decoy while waiting/hoping for a greenhead to come in to the spread. finally went out on the main lake around 11 and set up for ringers. all-in-all a pretty good hunt on a public lake considering i have had less than a stellar season on public water.

bluewings by the bucket

hooked up with bob and derek this weekend for a couple of shoots. we shot 3 limits of bluewing teal. all drakes save one hen that bob couldnt help doubling on. we put out about 100 decoys and the birds worked them so well. we had plenty to pick and choose drakes and all the birds we shot were over the decoys cupped up and feet down. after we finished our limits we stood there and watched the birds light in till the sun went down. what a great time and it couldnt have been spent with two better guys.

ringer shoot

bob and i got into the ringers today. boy were they decoying like crazy. wings cupped and feet out. we got out about 8 am and finished our limits about 9 am. i shot one mottled as well

fern on duck hunting

best hunt of the season...

and i never even fired a shot






all photos below by fern





fern has been wanting to go duck hunting since she could talk. this season i promised her i would take her. i made sure she knew that we would be getting up earlier than she had ever gotten up before. when i woke her up at 4 am, i was immediately greeted by a huge grin and a question. "are we going duck hunting daddy." those might be the best words i have ever heard. we got set up about 45 mins before legal which gave us lots of time to talk and listen to the birds. i set up on the edge of the cattails rather than in them so fern would get a good look at all the birds even though i knew that would be less shooting. we were about 50 yards away from where i thought i was setting up and sure enough all the ducks piled into the intended spot. i never fired a shot but we sure enjoyed watching the birds work the area. i gave fern free reign of the camera and was proud to find a few self portraits when i uploaded the pics to my computer. my favorite quote of the day after telling her about all the birds she pointed out to me was; "daddy, there sure are a lot of birds we cant shoot." by far the best hunt of my water fowling career. i cant wait till she can handle a gun.

twins on the marsh

took the fullgraf twins out on their first ever duck hunt this morning. we started the day of with a big group of mottleds that gave us all shots. kurt dropped a beautiful drake mottled and i shot a nice looking drake mallard out of the group. later in the morning we picked up a drake bluewing teal. not a bad day considering the lake has been pretty void of ducks on my last few trips out. kurt and alec seemed to have a good time. i caught alec checking out all the retention ponds on the way home. think we might have a couple more addicts.