|
EXCITING KICK-OFF TO THE
WATERFOWL SEASON
By: Ron Wilson
November 14, 2010....
Mother Nature has
given waterfowl hunters the best Christmas gift she could with three
straight weekends of storms during the first three weeks of waterfowl
hunting in California.
My old hunting buddies and I can not ever
remember having such great weather for duck hunting this early in the
year. Yes there has been some hot t-shirt days so far to hunt in but the
storms have caused the waterfowl to move around more than they would
without the weather.
My waterfowl season started off on a
Sunday as I spent the Saturday opener traveling back from
Wyoming in the
rain from Utah to California from a fruitless elk hunt where we had
t-shirt weather.
Sunday my son Don Wilson, his son Derick
, a friend of Derick's, Tyler Dorset, hunting partners Brett Boetto all
from Waterford and Jim Fernandes of Oakdale went to Woodward Reservoir
to hunt from there floating waterfowl blind.
 With
a half dozen guys and
Shrek, Donald's half cocker and Brittany Spaniel dog it took two
boat loads to get out to the 10 man blind they have floating in the main
part of the reservoir.
As shoot time arrived the morning started
off with a stiff breeze and a smidgen of rain, perfect weather for the
pair of mallards that worked the spread and then fell in a hail of gun
fire. Shrek hit the water and retrieved the drake while Jim had to get
the boat out to retrieve the hen as it floated away.
The wind picked up steadily and by
8 a.m. there were
whitecaps everywhere. A flock of spoon bill ducks came in and when we
got done shooting there were ducks on the water all over the place.
Shrek made a valiant attempt to retrieve one but the waves were to high
and he quickly turned back to the blind after he took the
second wave over
his head. Jim and Derick went out and picked up a half dozen birds.
The wind picked up more and the harder it
blew the better the ducks flew. Mallards. teal, spoonies and sprig were
all heading south into the wind and we were pounding them.
Shrek would just sit in the blind and
whine as the boys went out in the boat to retrieve the birds. Even thou
he had a life vest on he knew that there was no way he wanted to get out
there and have any more waves wash over his head. Some times a dog is
smarter than the people they hang out with.
As the day wore on and the wind got
stronger, we decided to call it a day after downing 35 ducks. No limit,
but we had a great day.
One of our hunting buddies, who was not
used to hunting in a floating blind and a little gun shy of riding in a
boat with such big waves, plus big waves crashing into his end of the
blind that was throwing a small stream of water down onto him was more
than ready to call it a day. We had plenty of birds to clean and as it
was almost noon so we figured the flight was pretty well over for the
day.
Here are a few tips. You want to know how
to call the ducks, are they whistlers are quackers. Sometimes you can
call all the species with the same call and it will work, but rule of
thumb is to talk the ducks language.
Watch your decoy spread if the birds are
not working the s pread
right get out there and change the spread some and watch the birds until
they like the way your decoy spread is set up and they come in feet
down.
During windy days the ducks seem to
really like open water and during sunny days they like shade like trees
and tule's. I have had mallards come into the spread and lite next to
tule's and swim right into them for the shade they provide.
The best advice I can give you is watch
the waterfowl, they will tell you what they don't like. A prime example
is when they flap their wings hard, climbing higher and higher to leave
the area because they see you hiding down below. |
