A day to remember- "add a thread Hunt Brothers Style"

[BTH284]

Had been sick as a dog the past few days. Laid out of work Monday thru Tues. It was gettin right for the winter birds to get here according to past records. Temps were in the mid 50's around home but a cold icey push was up north and I knew we had only 3 days to capitalize on it before the front would have our birds that were still here from November on the move and probably keep the new birds pushing along past us. I was on the road to recovery just dreading how much work I had missed when I got the call from my brother. "The opener is tommorow and you know what is going on up north, you wanna give it a shot?" It took me all of 2 seconds to feel bad again and not be able to make it to work in the morning. "YEP" I will pick you up in a few hours let's say 330 ....yeah that right boys and girls 3 a.m.!

Upon arriving at my brothers earlyasswaybeforenormalpeopleareup I saw that SHUNT could not pass the oppurtunity to load the game strap as I saw our other partner D. Taylor ready and willing to draw blood as well. The chill in the air was a welcome feeling to my nose. My dog was going apecrap in the crate as if he could smell the the blood and feathers that would be flying this morning. I tell ya, I miss that dog. He turned into a machine when it was business time.

Got the gear together, got to the spot, loaded the canoes and proceeded to make the 1 1/2 mile paddle to our hunting place in the pitch black foggy early morning dark.

Upon arrival eveyone got their crap in order and proceeded to set the stage to turn the pothole in killing central. I was on the decoy duty after I aired the dog and stowed my gear. SHUNT was on blind duty and D Taylor was on brush collecting duty after he stowed the canoe.

Upon getting the last of the 7 dozen decoys out I could just barely see the sky starting to lighten up in the east. Angus was going ballistic as we were already getting bombared by GW teal on their way to us from their roost.

I climbed in the blind, donned the facemask, SHUNT already had both 10 gauges of mine and his loaded. D Taylor was out behind the blind answering natures call. SHUNT and I passed the next 15 minutes with some strategy for the day all the time looking at the sky to see what the good lord was preparing for us as widgeons, a single sprig, tons of mallards, teal, woodies, gadwalls and blacks were filtering in and out of the wetland.

I look up in the distance and here they come. Blacks tons of them. These stupid birds are always the first ones to visit right after the teal are in the decoys. Time check the watch. 10 minutes to go. CRAP!!!!! No go on the blacks just yet as I see the last one hit the water and start bathing immediately. The others take a bath as well and settle in for a nap. Ah ha! new birds I told myself. This is going to be a good morning. A few minutes to go,........D Taylor is in the blind now and we are all ready when legal time arrives it is going to be game on!

First teal BOOM! water swat! All birds clear except one We did not see many more blacks the rest of the morning. Oh well, next time Mr. Black, next time.

Things settle down a bit and the mallards start to pour in 3,4,6 at at time. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! More birds down. Angus is running a relay now as he picks up bird after bird after bird. Next group in.... mallards again. First shot, one down the rest fan up and try to gain air under their wings......grievous error here folks, two 10 gauges IC chokes. 3 1/2" #2 steel, 1 12 gauge #2 steel IC choke 15 yds out front. It acutally does rain green from time to time believe it or not.

Another group of teal come in I hit one and we stop for a second to get a bird count and undo the community group pile that Angus has at my feet. I try to give him a "good boy pat on his noggin' but he wants nothing to do with anything but blood and feathers at this point pure focus looking up, left, right and all around.

Now that teal I just killed fell in the brush and I would not let the dog go because of the potential slaughter that could continue.

We finally get a break and I am off to get the teal with black dog. I finally get to him and hear the backpeddle of wings and BOOM, BOOM, BOOM again. Angus catches one of the splashes out the corner of his eye and off he goes. Can you blame him, the dog is so jacked up at this point the gunning is like mainlining cocaine to him. I let him go, haul butt back to the blind and finish out my limit to catch up with Dtaylor and my brother as I send SHUNT to fetch the teal since he is part retriever anyway. From legal to 730 a.m. we had 15 ducks not bad for feeling sick huh? Almost forgot, the 15th bird was jack that did a flyby over the pothole. Silly ringneck We decided to leave while we were ahead and SHUNT had to go to work. We were 3 birds shy of 18.

Some of you may have seen this picture before but it is one of my favorites. Yours truly on the camera. Angus on the left, SHUNT in the middle and D Taylor on the right.





If I will ever get a camera. I willtake some pictures of my duck and goose hunts and write some tales of our waterfowl adventures.

We came back to this place 2 weeks later after another weather push and not a bird in site. And to think, we almost did not go. What a tragedy!

[hunt4fish]

Great write up Brian,nothing like a hunt like that with your dog and family by your side. Bring on the killing season.

[JMS-ILM]

same brothers, same black dog, same canoe.....more carnage!

[JMS-ILM]

same spot, same canoe, same brothers.....just a few weeks earlier.

[Dink Bait]

Great write up. The story and the photos stir something up inside of me that
I am convinced only a waterfowler can understand. I may have to check on
my decoys and the duck skiff tonight.