Well my last three days have been tough but good. Started off wednesday night drinking way too much with some friends who gave me a birthday party... this put me in a hole from which i was struggling to climb out of almost all weekend. Left mid day thursday and was planning on scoutin that evening. That dinner locate me any huntable birds but I was able to find a spot where i could watch 15-20K birds on a refuge. Decided to go walk a creek that leads about 2 miles back into one of my favorite quail spots that gets ignored by almost everyone else...Usually i can find a couple ducks to jump along the creek but it was empty. bout a 4 miles trek with nothing to show for it... my hunt was starting off pretty poorly. No ducks to hunt and i felt like ****.
So friday i head out about an hour away from my normal haunts and set up in a little bay. i forget my phone in the truck and have no idea when it is shooting light. At what seems like 630 some shooting starts in the distance and i have ducks in the decoys. Nice flights of 15-30 birds working in and finishing tight. I wait until it is light enough to see and start picking off drakes. A double to start, then 1 out of a nice group and i am thinking i will take my time with the nice flights of birds working. Well i shoot a couple more to get to 5 total when everything up and dies... no flights, no wind and i am sitting there finding out that my left leg of my waders has a hole in it... But my head isnt hurting too badly at this point. So the flight dies for about 20 minutes then a small group appears in the distance. I am able to work a pair off the group and they bomb down into the decoys offering a nice right to left shot on the outer edge of the decoys. I pull up and dump the drake and finally I have band number two for the year. A fairly old band 2367 series without the 1800 number on it. I think its 5+ years old. jberry shot a bird 4 years ago that is 40 numbers off. Well i finally get bird 7 quite awhile later and head back to the my godfathers house to get some rest.
The next morning jberry and I head for the same spot with limited expectations seeing how the flight had died the day before. Well it never started on saturday and we left rather quickly with only 2 greenheads and a goose that i missed at 15 yards, Jon wing tipped at 20 and Madison made a great retrieve on totalling about 400 yards. We were not stellar... until about 12 when we went and joined a friend down in tri-cities. He was hunting alone and having some sporadic action. working hard and having few birds to show for it. We joined in and set out our 2 spinners to augment his spread. The birds were flying high and not interested in our location for the most part but we were able to pull some groups down, including a group of 5 bull cans. Jon and i were able to each pick one off. 2 great birds and the first can i have ever shot. man do they move fast It wasnt hot and heavy action but between great stories we were able to limit out just before 4 oclock.
Sunday we werent too excited about going back out but it was the last day of the season so we figured we probably would regret it if we decided to stay home. Up at 330 and craving more sleep I joined Jon for one last trip down to tri-cities to hunt the same spot as the previous day. Met up with B and S for a last day hunt. The morning started off slowly with a few ducks here and there. I think we had 17 by 11:00. Some nice flights of pintails in an area that we dont usually see them but not many mallards and no more cans. About every 15 minutes a few birds would trickle by and peak our interest. Most of the time they would just keep going but occasionally a couple would dump in and we could open up. Often taking the first shot at a lone drake ahead of the flocks because of how unpredictable the birds had been. 1 by 1 we inched towards 28. The BS was flying around all morning with good laughs which i am sure probably cost us a couple opportunities as we listened more to stories about slump busters from highschool than we watched the skies for ducks.
Well at 1:00 a nice group of birds finished well for us. we were able to drop 4 drake out of it with one sailed bird that Madison sniffed out of the brush about 300 yards away.
With one to go things got remarkably silent as well all watched the sky. A solid half hour passed with not a damn thing in the air. At 130 some flights picked up and passed over us with oxygen tanks... 4 guys screaming on calls, pulling 4 spinners and 1 lone bird peals out and dives down into the spread... a nice drake mallard to finish off a great year.
a very tough weekend but a satisfying one for all of us. tough hunting but we got our birds including a band and a first for me with the drake can. a great time in the blind.
Oh well, I save a few thousand salmon and steelhead fry.
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