A friend and I hit a local spot to try and get a few dabblers. We were there early enough and were set up by 6:15 with time to spare. As per usual we could hear the sound of various shotguns going off well before legal. By 6:38 it was game on. Only problem was, no birds. We were in the quiet zone for the first 30 minutes. It was business as usual for many others by the sounds of it. Once the birds found us it was fast and chaotic. We finished the morning by 9:30 with 9 birds. As is customary, we were buzzed by a big flock of teal and another flock of pintails as we were picking up dekes and our harvest. Beautiful morning. Although I felt like it was quieter than other openers. Not the usual noise I’m use to. We went home with 2 widgeons, 6 woodies and a green wing. First hunt I’ve been on to claim jewelry. The green wing teal was banded. Bonus!
I went out for the night hunt as well, this time accompanying my brother. He wanted a feed of duck tacos and I agreed to tag along as his caller. We were setup by 4 and he should have limited out by 5:30, but an endless stream of excuses explained the reasons why I was still there. Funny thing happened as well. We were in a public spot and we had a pair of guys come up to our spread and hang out for ten minutes, talking about our decoy placement. When I finally asked them what they were doing, the one guy said he was trying to show his buddy how “pros” set up. After I graciously accepted the compliment, I asked him to move on so he wouldn’t interfere with our hunt. He lingered for another 5 minutes and yapped about common sense and not shooting at anything until they were gone. Very strange pair. Doesn’t YouTube have anything for them to watch? Anyhow. My brother ended up with 4 nice ducks for the table (2 woodies, a nice blue wing and a hen mallard).
The positive thing of the whole hunt was the terrible calling by so many hunters. I mean it was awful. Goose calls were flat, and duck calls lacked the guttural grunts. This could only mean that there’s more newbies getting in to the sport. Wonderful to hear new guys getting out and not sitting on the couch at home.
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