Another day of tribulation

[Marc]

I was convinced to head out hunting on Sunday morning with the guy who towed me in the day I lost my motor. I’m not sure if he’s on here yet so I don’t want to call him out by his real names. He wanted to set up before legal time so I told him I’d meet him out there at daylight. I like to be able to see where I’m going especially with all the sealions in the bay right now.

I collect my stuff together Saturday afternoon. I decided to see if Skadi’s vest is adjusted to her since she’s put a few lbs on since she last had it on. Xander my 9 months old male will not leave her alone he’s constantly picking at her vest so I decided to put Marshalls 3XL vest on him to distract him. He hasn’t totally filled it out yet but he’s still young. He was like a statue for the first 10 minutes he had it on lol He’s dwarfs his sister from another mister who is 72 lbs herself.



I cover up the boat with a tarp as it’s supposed to hit -2 degrees overnight and don’t want frost to get on my decoys inside the boat. I flash up the outboard, turn off the gas and let itself run dry before I top up the tank on the outboard and place it in the garage overnight so it doesn’t freeze.

The next morning, I load the motor into the back of the truck, grab my gun and dog and head out to the boat launch. Launch the boat, get the motor on and the rest of my kit and put my life jacket. I open the vent to the top of the tank, turn the fuel line open, choke on and start pulling, and pulling, and pulling. The motor just sputters. I’m thinking what the hell is going on it ran perfectly last night. After about 20 minutes of pulling and no success I load the boat back into the truck and make my way home. The tide is now on it’s way down and I don’t want to get stranded out on the mud flats so no use in continuing my frustration at the boat launch.

I get home, put the motor on the stand in the barrel and go back to the house, peel off my waders and go pout for a while lying on the couch. A couple hours later I decide to go back outside and pull the plug. I give the plug a shot of brake cleaner, give it a quick wipe and screw it back in. first pull it flashed back up. I take the plug out this time and give it a scrub with a green pad to get any fouling off of it. It’s possible the plug got compromised when the boat went for a swim a couple weeks ago.

It's now 1:00 pm and I’m like you know what the day is young and the tide is now on the rise so I can make it back to the boat launch for around 2pm, legal shooting is until 6:29pm and that gives me roughly 3.5 hours of hunting once I’m set up. I put a spark plug kit together, socket wrench and a sparkplug socket and a piece of green scrubby and some paper towel tucked into a freezer bag to keep things dry.

Fast forward I’m now set up at 3:30pm. Decoys are set out and the wind it starting to slow down, and a sunny blue sky. I don’t see a duck until almost an hour of setting up and it’s a hen mallard. It lands in the decoys and the dog is on razor focus. I don’t have the heart of passing up what may be her only chance of retrieving this afternoon. So I sit up, duck jumps, I pull the trigger and the duck hits the water with a broken wing. It’s heading for shore and into the grass before I could get another shot off at her and I send the dog in to get her. The shot has sent more birds in the air and I collect the duck from the dog and get her set back up into her cockpit.

We see or hear nothing for about a half our when I noticed about a half dozen Scaup swimming in the decoys. I’ve never shot one since I was a teenager and never on this coast. I pick a bird that I thought was a male because it had some color on its face to later find out that it’s the hens of that species that has the white patch next to the beak. Scaup numbers haven’t recovered to historical like the remaining species of ducks and I would have never intentionally targeted a hen of that species but here we are. Even the dog knew we had something different as she was acting more excited when she got it back to the boat. I take a quick picture and get set back up as the day is getting shorter and the hopes are high to bag more birds.



With about a half hour left of legal time I have a drake mallard land on the outside of the decoys. The dog holds tight but she knows there is a bird out there. Eventually the mallard swims into the decoys within what I’m comfortable shooting and I sit up, aim and wait for the drake to take to the air. On shot and the duck hits the water. I send the dog off and she brings it back. We set back up but that was the last chance we got that afternoon. Again, it’s not all about the limits but the time spent in the marsh with man’s best friend that keeps me going there.

[lorneparker1]

Did you talk to the guy you were supposed to meet? lol

[Marc]

Yes I did, he shot a limit of widgeon by the time I had packed up from the boat launch to head home when my motor wasn’t working. I texted him to let him know it was a no show from me that morning and he was already picking up to head back to the boat launch.

It’s funny hue limited out on Widgeon and I didn’t even have one check out my spread that day.

I can’t be the only one hunting ducks? There are 68 people viewing the duck forums what’s happening with your hunts?

[FishandSticks]

Nice story, just catching up on some reads. ^ I was one of those views but had no duck stories until a few weeks ago

[labguy]

I can’t be the only one hunting ducks? There are 68 people viewing the duck forums what’s happening with your hunts?

Lots is happening but for myself and many others I know (good hunters with multiple B+C animals to their credit and pictures to go with incredible stories) the posting of pictures here is too cumbersome.

Before anyone chimes in with how easy it is and “all you need to do is”……..well…..everything is easy once you know how.

To expect members to go through this convoluted song and dance to support the site is backwards. The onus should go back to the site owner to make this as simple as possible.

You want more participation????……make posting photos as easy as it is on most other sites…..period.

[silveragent]

I can’t be the only one hunting ducks? There are 68 people viewing the duck forums what’s happening with your hunts?

Since I limited out two weekends ago at Boundary it's been nothing worth crowing about.

I was kindly invited onto another farm last week and it was another nice experience - just no big numbers. Just nice being able to change it up from the bay. When I got back to the bay this Sunday it was very slow. Same set up and same location as two weeks ago and had very little action.

[FishandSticks]

When I got back to the bay this Sunday it was very slow. Same set up and same location as two weeks ago and had very little action.

Yes slow for me too on Sunday ... like zero I wonder if the snow played a part or more flooded fields