Duck Report from Secret Spot 'X'
Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 1:13 pm
I took a personal day Friday and hunted with a co-worker out of his duck blind in Secret Spot 'X'. He brought along his 5 year old chocolate lab, Emma, who was ready to go.
We met up at 5:00am and took his truck to the hunting grounds. The thunder and lightning show was impressive in the black, cloudy predawn sky. The lightning was close enough we stayed in the truck until the storm front passed before we made our way to the blind. It was well hidden amongst the reeds with a nice section of open water in front of us.
Though we weren't out as early as we had planned due to the weather system, we were still plenty early as the ducks seemed to stay hunkered down later than we expected.
The first ducks into our honey hole were a pair of wood ducks. They were at the far side of our piece of paridise so we patiently waited for them to swim into us. This never happened and off they went.
The next group I remember seeing was a good flock of teals. They didn't want to come visit us either but it got my blood pumping.
Then it happened. Two woodies came right into the sweet spot. We both fired simultaneously and we had two ducks down. Emma knew what her job was and bolted from the side of the blind before the birds hit the water. I took pictures of her as she made her way back to the blind with my nice mature drake wood duck. What a beautiful bird. Upon delivering my bird Emma knew her job wasn't done. She took off with intensity in her eyes as she lept into the water in an effort to retrieve her master's duck. Unfortunately, this bird was wounded but not incapacitated. Emma and her master searched relentlessly but were unable to locate it. Every reasonable effort was made to no avail.
While my hunting partners were searching I stayed put in the blind. Even though they were communicating with eachother and made no effort to conceal themselves, a pair of mallards came right to me. They were passing over and without saying a word I pulled up my gun a took my shot. A nice drake fell less than 25 yards from my perch in the blind. Hearing my shot, Emma pulled out of 'search' mode and went right into 'retrieve' mode. It took her a minute to reach me as she was 75 yards away in thick reeds. Upon pointing her in the right direction she was off to get my bird. I swear I could see her smile and it was a nice reward for her after such a long search for the wounded bird.
There weren't a lot of birds moving where we were but we ended with up with two wood ducks and a mallard, all drakes. Though our numbers were lower than we hoped for, spending the morning at Secret Spot 'X' sure beat a day at work.
My wife and I are having company this evening and I'll be making some appetizers with my harvested birds. I'm going to prepare it the way my friend suggested. Cube the meat, take a piece of chunked pineapple, duck, wrap with bacon and spear with a toothpick. Place on a cookie sheet and throw 'em in the oven. I'll give a report on how they came out later in this thread.
We met up at 5:00am and took his truck to the hunting grounds. The thunder and lightning show was impressive in the black, cloudy predawn sky. The lightning was close enough we stayed in the truck until the storm front passed before we made our way to the blind. It was well hidden amongst the reeds with a nice section of open water in front of us.
Though we weren't out as early as we had planned due to the weather system, we were still plenty early as the ducks seemed to stay hunkered down later than we expected.
The first ducks into our honey hole were a pair of wood ducks. They were at the far side of our piece of paridise so we patiently waited for them to swim into us. This never happened and off they went.
The next group I remember seeing was a good flock of teals. They didn't want to come visit us either but it got my blood pumping.
Then it happened. Two woodies came right into the sweet spot. We both fired simultaneously and we had two ducks down. Emma knew what her job was and bolted from the side of the blind before the birds hit the water. I took pictures of her as she made her way back to the blind with my nice mature drake wood duck. What a beautiful bird. Upon delivering my bird Emma knew her job wasn't done. She took off with intensity in her eyes as she lept into the water in an effort to retrieve her master's duck. Unfortunately, this bird was wounded but not incapacitated. Emma and her master searched relentlessly but were unable to locate it. Every reasonable effort was made to no avail.
While my hunting partners were searching I stayed put in the blind. Even though they were communicating with eachother and made no effort to conceal themselves, a pair of mallards came right to me. They were passing over and without saying a word I pulled up my gun a took my shot. A nice drake fell less than 25 yards from my perch in the blind. Hearing my shot, Emma pulled out of 'search' mode and went right into 'retrieve' mode. It took her a minute to reach me as she was 75 yards away in thick reeds. Upon pointing her in the right direction she was off to get my bird. I swear I could see her smile and it was a nice reward for her after such a long search for the wounded bird.
There weren't a lot of birds moving where we were but we ended with up with two wood ducks and a mallard, all drakes. Though our numbers were lower than we hoped for, spending the morning at Secret Spot 'X' sure beat a day at work.
My wife and I are having company this evening and I'll be making some appetizers with my harvested birds. I'm going to prepare it the way my friend suggested. Cube the meat, take a piece of chunked pineapple, duck, wrap with bacon and spear with a toothpick. Place on a cookie sheet and throw 'em in the oven. I'll give a report on how they came out later in this thread.
