I met Casey and his friend Adam in Burbank today. They had already arrived by the time I had gotten there. More than that, they had already been down to the waters edge and found that someone was already in the spot that we had talked about and Casey was concerned that the water had come back up so much that there would not be a dry patch to hunt from. I found them at the cove where I usually make my way into water. After going out into the cove and making a left, I found my favorite spot open. The water had also come back up to normal levels, making this a good spot for the day.
Slow would not even begin to describe the action today. As soon as the sun came up, we realized what our biggest obstacle would be. Directly in front of us, about 1000 feet toward the main channel, there was a raft of close to 1000 birds already on the water. We heard wigeon and mallards in the mix. I am sure there were coots as well. Having the raft in front of us, we had trouble getting anything to stop into our decoys. A few flew overhead, followed by shots from Casey and Adam. Neither one was able to connect with anything.
After a few hours of sitting, Casey left the blind to see if he could find a spot to jump shoot a bay to our left. While he was gone, I leaned back in my chair and kicked my feet out to relax. Directly in front of me I saw a big silhouette coming straight for me. At first, I didn't move. I thought it was a cormorant. It finally dawned on me that it was not acting like a cormorant, so I leaned forward, grabbed my gun, waited for the bird to come closer and fired. I crumbled up one of the biggest mallards I have ever seen. He was a big boy, for sure. I went out to grab my duck and on the way back I saw Casey coming back from his hike. He had a smirk on his face, as if to say "I knew you would get some birds in if I left."
For quite a while this morning, a bald eagle sat on a limb right behind our blind. If it was more than 100 feet behind us, I would be surprised. What an awesome creature. I have never seen one sit that long. I half expected it to swoop out for our dead ducks if we managed to shoot one while it sat there.
We sat for a while longer. A few birds worked their way in, with Casey and Adam shooting as soon as they were near. Again, nothing was killed. Then, a boat went down the river and stirred up the raft we had been watching all morning. Birds went north, south, east and west. Some came toward our blind. I thought to myself, "I only need the dumb ones. Just send me the dumb ones." Well, one dumb one came closer and Casey and Adam both shot long before I would have called the shot. After the drake greenwing teal flew out a little ways, I let a shot go. The Patternmaster choke on the end of my Benelli never ceases to surprise me. The duck fell, dead instantly. That would be the last duck of the day...for anyone.
Today, I figured out another thing that draws me to duck hunting. I love the finesse that is required to fully work a group of ducks into decoys. Sure, sometimes they come in without any effort, but I really enjoy the times when I interact with the ducks and convince them to land only by using my decoys and calling to them. While I will do it every once in a while, "skybusting" is just not my thing. I don't like shooting at ducks that are close just to try and "get one." For me, its much more about the effort of working ducks than shooting ducks just for the sake of shooting them because they happen to be flying close. Duck hunting is definitely not a sport where you can force results. The hunter has to be willing to talk to the ducks and have patience.
I also realized today just how fortunate I am to have the wife I do. I usually hunt two, sometimes three days a week. The vast majority of the time, she supports my outings. Occasionally, however, there are days when I know it wears on her nerves...and rightfully so I think. She understands the importance that duck hunting has to me. She realizes that my sanity and ability to reset myself mentally depends on my being able to hunt as much as I can, since it is not really a year-round activity. I truly do appreciate the freedom that she affords me in my quest to be the best duck hunter that I can be. For that, thank you Jodi. I love you.
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