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DUCK OPENER HIT & MISS!
By: Ron Wilson
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Shane with a few of the days take. |
November 5, 2004.... The Duck Opener for
the rest of the state in California was not very good and in some areas
was down right terrible!
The season opened a couple weeks later but
it seemed that most of our local birds had migrated south due to the early
storms that moved through the valley.
By the time the geese showed up, most of
the local hunters had picked up their spreads and headed for home with
their tails between there legs. However the diehards that stayed until
late afternoon slaughtered them!
The full moon had the ducks and geese
showing up later than normal to get a drink at the refuges, ponds and
reservoirs.
If we had been pass shooting on the opener
we would of pounded them pretty good, but that's not our definition of
hunting. I am not saying that the guys who pass shoot are not hunters, I'm
saying that's not our style of hunting them.
Our style is setting out a spread of
decoys, marking an invisible x on the water, then calling the ducks until
they come fluttering into that x. It's an awesome site and one that can be
deadly as long as you can shoot worth a lick!
A couple hunters that came along this
weekend were Buzz Ferrarese and his 14 year old grandson Shane.
Shane wanted to call ducks, but I told him,
" You definitely don't want to try and learn while you're hunting." I also
said, "If you want to learn you should buy a tape and a good wooden duck
call and learn at home. It might drive your parents nuts but at least it
wouldn't frighten the ducks away!"
One of the best friends a duck has is a
lousy duck caller, I guess thats why I hardly ever put one of those noise
makers to my lips. I give them enough of a chance with my shooting, I
don't need to warn them too!
I told Shane the best thing he could do was
sit, listen, watch and learn. There was over a 100 years of experience
sitting in the blind with him. However, I'm not sure the lad paid that
much attention to my words of wisdom.
We had our blind set up between two trees
overlooking a pond with decoys around the edges. It's nice to have private
land or a designated place to hunt where others can't encroach upon you!
Shoot time came and the ducks were flying,
a drake came floating in and was downed, a pair came in and dropped about
25 yards out and 10 feet off the deck. A pair of greenheads finally
committed to the hole after several passes and were dropped. A pair of
hens fell in and died!
It seemed like no-time at all and we were
down to just one more hen to limit out, when 4 mallards, two hens and two
drakes, came into the calling and lit within two feet of the blind. We
were concealed so well that we could hear the ducks, quacking softly like
they were whispering to each other. One could just imagine one old drake
talking to the other saying, "Hey Joe, look at them silly looking ducks
out there, they sure aren't very friendly now that we settled onto the
pond, just moments ago they were yelling at us to come on in!"
Something or someone moved and the ducks
jumped up to fly off. Three or four shots rang out and 3 of the 4 birds
hit the water while the hen, we didn't need flew to freedom.
By 11 a.m. we called it a day with 16 ducks
in the bag. I have seen better and worse waterfowl openers but when you
can get the ducks to decoy in close enough to you where you could almost
reach out and touch them it adds that little something extra to the
excitement of the hunt.
Yes I like to shoot ducks but there is much
more to hunting than the killing of game, its playing the game, getting
the birds to do what you want them to, watching them and the other
wildlife that mother nature has given us to enjoy! That's what makes a
successful hunting trip for my hunting partners and me.
I guess if you get right down to it one of
the things I love best about Mother Nature is being out and listening to
her silence! That might be a little deep but if you give it some thought
the next time you are out in the field with some friends hunting, try just
sitting and listening for a while and I think you will understand what I
am talking about! |
