Here's a few more pics from our trip this week. It was similar to our trip earlier in the season. People everywhere we went. Finding huntable numbers was tough and it seemed like the instant we found some, there was someone right up our rears every time. People out scouting relentlessly. The furthest hunters that we ran into were from NY. At times it feels more like you're on a public land elk hunt than a simple duck hunt. No matter how much effort you put in, there's people everywhere around you doing the same thing.
We made two morning hunts and two afternoon hunts. Got into the teal good one morning but otherwise slow. Running 2-3 birds on the other sits. Got some funny looks from the guys in mud boats but sure was nice to tab down and cut through the nasty north wind waves without rattling your teeth loose.
On the second to last afternoon, I saw a flight path forming and jumped in the boat and followed them. Most of the birds were leaving to night feed in fields but I found a few dropping back into the lake. We slept in the next morning and got on the lake at 1pm to get the spot. Figured no one would get out that early for an afternoon hunt. At 3:00 we shot our first bird, then another, then unsurprisingly, spot a guy glassing us from a nearby hill. They grab their stuff and come down to setup nearby. About the time they get set up, the flight starts to leave the refuge, heading our direction. For the next hour, Adam got to have his first experience of seeing what mallard calling and hunting can actually be. Flocks of 100 would pass over 200 yards up. The loudest, most obnoxious calling you can muster would get 1-3 to break off and start spiraling down. Decreasing calling and intensity as they got closer, and a couple minutes later we would shoot them. Or the other group would shoot at what seemed like the most inopportune time and we'd have to hit the rest button on the next flock. During the melee of the last 30 minutes of shooting time, we had a group of three canadas come in. We got one. When legal light ended we were one short of our mallard limit. All with five decoys and no spinner. A little disgusted with the other group of hunters interfering but ecstatic to have birds work like that. Calling them down from that high is just something completely different than shooting them at their predetermined destination. Something I hadnt seen since we used to see mallards migrate high down the Mississippi river 20+ years ago.
