Almost met my maker this week.

[Marc]

It’s taken me a couple of days to get myself organized and reflect back on what’s transpired. This is going to be a long one but I think we all need to hear this.
It all started on Wednesday after work. I’ve been putting in overtime every week since I can’t remember when and I finally took some time off for me. My plan was to take Thursday off to go waterfowl hunting; this would be my first duck hunt of 2023.

I had spent over 3 hours hunched over the boat weaving camo grass and making sure it was blended and on their good. I was exhausted by 10:00 PM and we to bed knowing tomorrow wouldn’t be an early morning shoot as I still had tons of things I needed to do.



The next morning, I pull the boat out of the garage and do some touching up with some camo grass now that there was natural light and I got to see what everything looked like. OK that as good enough for my first hunt.
I unload the goose field decoys that have been in the back of my truck from the first two days of the early goose season and load the boat in the back of the truck. Grab my kayak paddle and lay it next to the boat in the truck.

I then move on to stripping down my shotgun and giving it a good cleaning, collecting my shells, calls, and ear protection etc. and load it into the truck.
Now to decide on what decoys I need to bring. Teal and widgeon are a good bet as they are around early and a hand full of mallards. I decide to take 7 Canada floaters as there are some geese loafing on the bay as well. I get all the decoys placed into the boat.

I wipe the dust off the outboard, fill a garbage can full of water, and top up the motor with some fresh gas and give it a pull. OK it’s running but the water pump isn’t shooting water. Turn the motor off, give it a poke around the inlet and outlet start it back up again and its now shooting a good stream. Load the motor into the truck. It’s now 2:30 PM, I’m losing my day of hunting. I rush to get dressed, collect my dog Skadi, and head off to the bay.

This is where things get messy and I blow caution to the wind. I’m excited, I’m at the water and I know that in about an hour I’m going to be set up and hunting. I back the truck down to the ramp, offload the boat, motor, my hunting gear. I park the truck, put my life jacket on, grab my gun and dog and head to the boat. I start the motor and it sputters, I thought it will get better as I go along so I’m focused on the motor and start putting along when I notice about 200 yards from the boat launch, I left my kayak paddle in the truck. I think to myself, I’m losing day light and I don’t want to waste time heading back in and grabbing the paddle as I had about a half hour boat ride ahead of me yet. What are the chances I’ll need my paddle I haven’t needed it for the past 10 years or so I’ve taking it along so I keep heading into the marsh.

I get to where I want to hunt; take off my life jacket and tuck it at the front of the boat out of the way, remove the motor and place it on shore tucked away out of sight. I set up the decoys and tuck the boat in along the shore. I notice a fishing net and think this may come in handy if I need to chase any birds so I place it in the boat. Dog is positioned, I’m positioned, and I load up the shotgun and now we are hunting. It’s now 3:08 PM and I have just under 4 hours to enjoy my first time out hunting waterfowl during the general 2023 season.

[Marc]

Being the first time out i decided that it would probably be wise not to be picky the first time out and take what's offered for the dogs and my sake as we are both need the practice. Not to long afterwards a Hen mallard lands in the decoys. OK safety off, sit up, duck jumps, bead just above the duck and "click", quickly eject the shell, line up again and "click" WTF? It was working flawlessly a month or so before during the early goose season. I google the break down of the shotgun and I see my error, re juggle the pieces and put back together. I picked up the new shotgun from Nechako's Outfitters since my shotgun of 15 years was causing me more frustration then I could handle.

The next birds in the spread is a pair of Hen Mallards, we go through the same routine, safety off, sit up, birds jump I aim at the left bird first pull the trigger and the bird falls to the water. I swing to the right bird, line it up, pull the trigger and the second one hits the water! First double of the season on my first trip out for the general season!

The dog heads out and grabs a bird and I walk out to finish off the second bird. As I'm walking back to the layout boat I can hear a flock of geese getting up about 400 yards to my left. I still can't see then but they are getting louder. I load some 3 1/2 Score BB's and hunker down and wait. the cress the corner and they are maybe 20 feet off the water and 25 yards out. I focus on a pair and aim for the lead bird. I pull the trigger, the bird looks like I hit it but keeps flying. I let another fly and this time there is a puff of feathers and the goose starts to tumble and falls just outside my decoys. Then I notice that it's partener is in a downwards glide to the water as well. I try and give the goose outside the decoys a finishing shot but it takes off with he dog chasing it. I watch for a while to see if the dog is going to be able to grab it but it now looks like the good is getting further away from her.

I run back and grab my motor out of cover and rush putting it on the boat as I"m now starting to worry about the dog as she has a heart defect. They are a good 300 yards away from the blind and i close the distance. I decide to grab the goose first as I"m unsure I'd get the dogs attention with the goose out there. I slow the boat down but keep the motor running to catch up with the good. I look back and there is the dog closing fast and she's heading straight for the running motor. I swing the motor to the right and give it a shot of gas to get out of the way of the dog. Remember I said I rushed putting the motor on? Well when I gave it a shot of gas it flipped the motor off the transom and into the drink.

[Marc]

I can easily see the bottom so I jump in to grab the motor, well shit my head goes under and I don't touch bottom. My head pops out of the water as water is rushing into my chest waders. Life jacket is nicely tucked in the boat and I'm wearing a t-shirt an a camo sweater. I muckle on to the boat and try and ift myself to stop the water from filling my waders as the dog tries to use me as a boat ladder to get into the boat. I still have my call lanyard on and it's hanging in front of me and there is a lip around where the top and bottom halves are fiberglassed together and my calls are stopping me from getting into the boat as they are under the lip and my chest is pushing against the boat. i let myself roll back into the water enough I can grab my call and pull it off and toss them into the boat.

I'm getting tired and heavy as hell with the full waders. there is a angle iron that separates the cockpit between me and the dog. I reach up with both my arms and pull myself in the boat as much as I can being careful not to flood the boat in the process. I know I've only got one, maybe two tries left in me before I"m to tired to pull myself into the boat. I have to get a leg in soon or I'm done I"m thinking. first try almost get it but not quite. Second try I give it all I have now knowing the extra weight of the water that's now in my wader boots. I finally get a leg over and manage to roll myself back into the boat. I kneel in the boat and grab the dog by the collar and pull her in. The nest thing I do is grab my phone and take a waypoint so I have a general idea where the motor went down.

So now I"m in the boat with the dog and the goose is still swimming and I"m now in survival mode. Paddle is in the back of my truck remember, I have my shotgun and a salmon net for a paddle. I start paddling with the salmon net and luckily the wind was in my favour and blowing towards the shore. I see another hunter set up a couple hundred yard away from me but I didn't see another boat come in so I assumed he was on foot. When I got about 30 yards from my decoy spread a boat shows up behind me, it was the other hunter and he had collected the bird we were chasing and he handed it over to me. I explained to him what happened and that I didn't even have a paddle and if I could get a tow out at the end of the hunt and he said sure.

[Marc]

I'm soaked from head to toe, I took off the jacket when I was paddling to shore and hunkered down again into the boat to wait out sunset and see if I can pick up more birds. I managed another couple widgeon and started packing up around 5:45pm. When the other hunter came over to collect me he handed me the other goose that sailed. It was stone dead and a massive bird.



On the way back to the boat launched I showed him roughly where I had taken the waypoint and we were lucky enough to see the motor again. I took a more accurate waypoint and started making plans on how I was going to be able to recover it the next day.

I decided on taking the momarsh again. It's nice and flat and stable. I have a electric 40 lb trust trolling motor and a deep cycle battery. I also had a grappling hook and some rope so I was all set to head out at low tide to try and recover the motor.

Once I was where I had taken the waypoint it didn't take me long to relocate the motor. I put my kayak paddle down next to it to see how deep it was and it was still a good 5 feet of water and this is at low tide. when I jumped in it was probably another 5 feet deeper then that. What was frustrating to see is that at low tide the sand bar was maybe 15 feet away from it, and it would have been probably wadable. looking at the picture it's very deceiving it only looks like 2 or 3 feet of water.



I set the anchor on the boat so I'm floating pretty much over top of the motor and toss the grappling hook and manage to snag the handle on the first try. I lift up the motor into the boat, took a breather, pulled up the anchor and started my journey back to the boat launch which is probably 2 km away.



Shortly after I get on the way the trolling motor stops on me, the battery is dead. At least this time I have my paddle and spend the next hour or so paddling the boat back to the launch. you would have thought I would have learned my lesson from the day before but I was so focused on the mission again and watching the timings for the tides that I had left my truck leaving my lifejacket on the passenger side seat the entire time I was back on the water.

Guys take it from me, stay focused. As embarrassing my story was to tell I thought it was important to share as things could have easily have gotten worsts instead of better for me. Let it be an example how fast things can go to shit. I will never again risk possibly losing my life for an hour of hunting because I don't want to turn around to grab my paddle, nor will I rush putting the motor on and I will be making a safety tether so I tie the motor off incase it ever pops off again. Same goes with wearing a life jacket while operating the boat. That being said I"m not sure if it would have helped or hindered me trying to get back into the boat. Hopefully I never have to be in the same situation to find out. I'm also going to make a gears list on my phone like a safety check off list to make sure I have everything I need before leaving the launch.

I cleaned the motor and got it up and running. Plan is to head out again later this week.

There is a $50 reward for anyone who finds my custom goose call made by Claude Lachance. It's green and orange. it's made of acrylic, not sure if it would float or sink but it's out there to be found.

Be safe guys, your life is worth more than a limit of birds.

Cheers,

Marc.

[Johnny G1]

You are one Lucky Guy, could have drowned doing that, hope the next hunt is dryer???

[Marc]

You are one Lucky Guy, could have drowned doing that, hope the next hunt is dryer???

A lot dryer and a lot less chances taken. I still can't sleep on my left side as my ribs are still bruised from trying to get back into the boat. All those thoughts were going through my head it's strange all the options / outcomes were playing in my head. For the moment I was pretty cool headed and didn't panic. what's the problem and what's the best solution to fix the problem.

It's hard to believe that at 56 I can still get so worked up about going duck hunting.

[Treed]

That was close…Damn. I have gotten better at listening to that internal voice saying ‘not a good idea’. For me, after I do something dumb, it’s usually after I overrule my warning voice. Which still happens too often. Glad it turned out okay for you and I appreciate that you’re sharing the lesson rather than hiding it in embarrassment. Stay safe and happy hunting!

[VLD43]

Marc
Another thing you should put on your to do list, is to ensure you wear a tight belt on the outside of your chest waders. Most experienced guys do that. Waders can fill up very quickly. Stay safe

[Husky7mm]

Right crazy…… I am glad you’re alright!!!

[landphil]

Dang. Quite a story. At least you didn’t get skunked.

Reminds me of the one time I took my boys fishing a few years ago about an hour from home. Boat on the water, all ready, except, where’s the pfd’s? Oh crap, forgot them at home, over an hour away with unload time. Oh well, small enough lake, I’ll stay close… weather whipped up out of nowhere, there was a mini water spout and all as I flogged the Minn Kota toward shore…