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DUCK HUNTING WAS SLOW
BUT STILL GOOD
By:
Ron Wilson
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Here's a decoy setup |
November 11, 2004.... Duck hunting was so so last Saturday. We downed a
pair of Woodies and then nailed a half dozen mallards to finish out
the morning.
Around noon I started traveling and looking for ducks. There were plenty
of them in the foothill ponds, no great numbers but a couple here and
there. It seemed like every rain filled puddle in the foothills had ducks
in them. I would assume they were locals that had headed to higher ground.
Checked a private river access and never flushed a bird in a half mile
walk. Went to the back of Turlock Lake to have a look and found the gate
locked, denying general public access because the lake was so low.
I
don’t know who pulled this illegal act but the back inlet was a trade-off
for the public’s use of the lake and should never have a locked gate on
it! Looks like someone will have to spend a dollar or two to wise up the
county on this injustice.
Goose hunters are using the ramp just to get to the sand so they can
travel out to the channel to launch their boat load of decoys.
Just had a thought here we spend all kinds of public money to save the
fish from Woodward Reservoir when it was drained and now they are leaving
them and the Turlock reservoir fish almost high and dry! Maybe they should
send all the fish back to Woodward as it has plenty of water for them now!
Down in the grasslands it was the same, usually a few spoonies and teal
scattered around the clubs but not a lot of big ducks.
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A picture is worth a 1000 words |
I
get a kick out of the lazy club hunters who leave there decoys out all the
time. I can’t help but wonder do they really believe that the ducks don’t
get accustomed to seeing these phony ducks day after day.
I
know they know the difference as they have plenty of time to investigate
the phony ducks on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday when we don’t
hunt!
I
just realized that duck hunting and fishing is pretty similar. When
fishing you have to feed the fish what they want and where they want it
at, depth, speed etc. etc. etc. and you have to be able to use all kinds
of tricks to help entice them to take the bait.
Duck hunting is the same thing. Do you use spinning wings to attract them,
do you have decoys make ripples in the water or how do you call them. Do
they want a hi-ball call, chuckle or a whistle?
To be successful at your sport you must be adaptable and able to change
approaches at a moments notice. Those that can understand the game and
play it well usually have the most fun!
Sunday my partners and I compared notes and went back to our regular duck
blind to hunt. The problem with having too many places to hunt is making
the right decision. With not that many ducks around the decision was easy,
go where we could be comfortable and just enjoy Mother Nature if nothing
else!
By 8 a.m. that was all we were doing, then one of my partners spotted some
mallards flying by high. “Don’t bother looking Ron you can’t seem them
that high.”
For lack of anything better to do they started hi-balling as loud as they
could and a flock of 15 mallards came down to see what all the commotion
was.
They worked us a couple times and then flew over and lit in the decoys of
some friends. Boy my partners were upset, here they had done all the work
and lost them to the guys nearby!
Pretty soon another flock was spotted and the same thing happened, they
ran out of breath and the ducks went next door to get shot! Now the old
pros were pissed, “we aren’t letting that happen again!”
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B.B. in training |
They called the next flock and stayed on them hard all the way into the
decoys, I don’t know how they could shoot as good as they did, being out
of breath, but when the guns were empty we had a pile of ducks on the
water!
The next flock they managed to get just a single drake mallard to light
into the decoys to start with, then they called in another pair and were
waiting for the rest of the flock but a pair of widgeon came along and
took them to the other guys!
At round 11 a.m. they called in another flock of 6 birds that had 4 drakes
in it! The birds fluttered into the spread from 30 yards up and came
straight down. Our leader said “get ‘em,” 4 shots rang out and 4
greenheads were on the water!
I
looked at one of my partners who stood there with the breach of his gun
open; he said, “I must be getting old, I forgot to load my gun!”
Well maybe, you see my partners are also pranksters. They’ll slap you with
wet camouflage netting or knock your hat into the water, accidentally of
course.
Now was old age creeping in or did someone help him with an empty gun! It
must have been the other guy because it wasn’t me! |
