Marc
12-20-2009, 09:09 AM
At 5:40am Field Marshal, Duck Buster & Bill (Dog), NEAS, Islandbowhunter and Marshall & I meet up at the Safeway Parking lot. We transfer some gear and park a few vehicles and make our way from there.
We set up the blind, set up the decoys, poor the coffee and wait for legal time. This was the first time that Islandbowhunter and NAES have shared a blind with Feild Marshall, Duck Buster and I. It was also the first time that NAES had ever been out waterfowling so it was great to get some new blood out there.:mrgreen:.
At first light / legal time we had a flock of swans circle us with a snow goose in the mix but we didn't want to take the chance of any stray pellets accidentaly taking down a swan so we just watched as the first opertunity at taking a white bird passed 25-30 yards infront of us.
We had some geese visit the spread and had flock after flock after flock fly over the area but not intrest in what we had to offer. It probably didn't help that the night before someone had gotten their car stuck in the mud not 100 yards from the blind :confused:. We didn't see it until it was daylight but the geese would flare when they noticed the car on the edge of the field.
Later in the day we had ducks flaring and we were wondering why when we looked from behind and there was someone walking across the field from the car in a red hoody on. They wanted help to get their car out. As much as I would have liked to have left them to their own demise for even thinking of trying to drive a car where they did we were better off to get that car out of there or the field wouldnt' be any good to hunt anymore until it was gone. The road was narrow and there was no way they were going to be able to go forward as there was a puddle ahead of them I waded that was past my knees. The car was sitting in a puddle and water was up to the doors so we had to push the car back out of the water before we could put a rope on it. The car wouldn't start as well.:confused: I got the truck, put it in 4 low and had to back up 400 yards to the car, having to stop and go forward a few times to get the truck straightened up as the rear end was sliding sideways in the mud. We put a rope on the axal of the car and the other end of the rope to my trailer hitch and pulled them backwards right out to the main road. While all this was going on we had a couple of flocks of widgeon visit the decoys.
We mad some good shots and some not so good shots that kept both dogs busy. It was good having a few new guys in the blind to raz instead of getting all the flak. We managed to sucker in a couple flocks of geese and scratched 6 of them in total. We also managed to scratch 15 ducks (5 mallards & 10 widgeon.) Unfortunately Islandbowhunter had an appointment he had to attend to so he wasn't around when the pictures were taken.
Good day of hunting and a hard hunt with 5 guys in the blind. We missed a couple of good opertunities because of confusion of who was making the call or who's turn to shoot. We had a flock of about 7 mallards hovering over our heads and no one fired a shot :mrgreen:. I won't bring up the geese because it gets Field Marshal's blood pressure up.
We managed to sucker in a couple flocks of geese and scratched 6 of them in total. We also managed to scratch 15 ducks, 5 mallards & 10 widgeon.
We had a few swans sucker into our confidence decoys. One swan stayed in the spread even after several shoots on ducks. He didn't lift until the dogs went out to recover birds.
http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/huntingbc/decgooseopener.jpg
http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/huntingbc/Swaninthedekes.jpg
We set up the blind, set up the decoys, poor the coffee and wait for legal time. This was the first time that Islandbowhunter and NAES have shared a blind with Feild Marshall, Duck Buster and I. It was also the first time that NAES had ever been out waterfowling so it was great to get some new blood out there.:mrgreen:.
At first light / legal time we had a flock of swans circle us with a snow goose in the mix but we didn't want to take the chance of any stray pellets accidentaly taking down a swan so we just watched as the first opertunity at taking a white bird passed 25-30 yards infront of us.
We had some geese visit the spread and had flock after flock after flock fly over the area but not intrest in what we had to offer. It probably didn't help that the night before someone had gotten their car stuck in the mud not 100 yards from the blind :confused:. We didn't see it until it was daylight but the geese would flare when they noticed the car on the edge of the field.
Later in the day we had ducks flaring and we were wondering why when we looked from behind and there was someone walking across the field from the car in a red hoody on. They wanted help to get their car out. As much as I would have liked to have left them to their own demise for even thinking of trying to drive a car where they did we were better off to get that car out of there or the field wouldnt' be any good to hunt anymore until it was gone. The road was narrow and there was no way they were going to be able to go forward as there was a puddle ahead of them I waded that was past my knees. The car was sitting in a puddle and water was up to the doors so we had to push the car back out of the water before we could put a rope on it. The car wouldn't start as well.:confused: I got the truck, put it in 4 low and had to back up 400 yards to the car, having to stop and go forward a few times to get the truck straightened up as the rear end was sliding sideways in the mud. We put a rope on the axal of the car and the other end of the rope to my trailer hitch and pulled them backwards right out to the main road. While all this was going on we had a couple of flocks of widgeon visit the decoys.
We mad some good shots and some not so good shots that kept both dogs busy. It was good having a few new guys in the blind to raz instead of getting all the flak. We managed to sucker in a couple flocks of geese and scratched 6 of them in total. We also managed to scratch 15 ducks (5 mallards & 10 widgeon.) Unfortunately Islandbowhunter had an appointment he had to attend to so he wasn't around when the pictures were taken.
Good day of hunting and a hard hunt with 5 guys in the blind. We missed a couple of good opertunities because of confusion of who was making the call or who's turn to shoot. We had a flock of about 7 mallards hovering over our heads and no one fired a shot :mrgreen:. I won't bring up the geese because it gets Field Marshal's blood pressure up.
We managed to sucker in a couple flocks of geese and scratched 6 of them in total. We also managed to scratch 15 ducks, 5 mallards & 10 widgeon.
We had a few swans sucker into our confidence decoys. One swan stayed in the spread even after several shoots on ducks. He didn't lift until the dogs went out to recover birds.
http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/huntingbc/decgooseopener.jpg
http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/huntingbc/Swaninthedekes.jpg