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Welcome to the Duck Hunting Article Page of Outdoors Louisisana. This ducking hunting article was sent in by Chad Walker from New York, thanks Chad for your article! We look foward to hearing from you, and reading your articles as well! |
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Those sending in articles will recive a free "Team Outdoors Louisian" window decal, please include a mailing address with your e-mails |
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I consider each day in the fild to be a great day. Somehow, I get the feeling from my wifes sheepish grin and rolling eyes that she doesn't believe me. I really mean it though! Duck hunters are a strange breed. They go to bed late, after packing decoys, laying out cloths, checking waders, and loading boats. They don't sleep well because of anticipation. They get up in the middle of the night to drive an hour to some frozen, muddy swamp or lake. Upon arrival, they either work up a sweat walking or paddling out, or they freeze their tails off on a long boat ride out to a hidden cove or back bay that is always "just around the next point". Then if they aren't laying on frozen ground, or standing in waist deep water and mud, you're way ahead of the game. Now do everything in reverse, and that should wind you back up at home after the mornings hunt is over. This is usually the time when your wife is rolling her eyes and asking just how enjoyable could that possiably be. She always gives me "the smile". The one that seems to say, "I love you, but sometimes I'm not sure why with that little duck obsession thing of yours". You can't make someone understand. They either get it, or they don't! |
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We had a few days this year we usually describe as, "it was great to just get out". That's my normal response to, "How come you don't have any ducks?". Those are the days that you feel the cold just a little bit more than when the birds are flying. We also ahd the kind of days when the questions turn to, "Don't you get tired of all that work just for those two ducks?". The normal response to that question is a quick "non!". Then you wonder down to the cellar to hang up your gear, tryin to ignore that salt that was just rubbed into the wound. The best things in life usually don't come easy, and duck hunting is one of them! It's the process leading up to it that really makes it complete. |
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Truely remarkable days of duck hunting don't just fall into you lab everyday. The week before Christmas, we had one! We had a few of the previously described days leading up to it though. After an extremly slow Sunday hunt, we made a quick scouting trip around the lake. We had seen birds through out the morning, but they weren't intrested in our location. As we drove along the lake shore, we finally found the ducks! We had just stumbled onto around a thousand blacks and mallards hanging around a shallow bay. As luck would have it, I had friends that lived right there, and own a nice point that juts out into the lake. A quick phone call, and we were in buisness! |
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The point was essentially bare except for one big tree half way out onto the point. The tree was just to far back to use for cover though. So we decided that the only way to do it was lay out on the the rocks along the shoreline. The plan was set, and the only variable left to question was the weather. The weekend had been cold, but crystal claer with blue skies. Tuesday morning turned out to be a perfect day. Overcast, windy and COLD! It was eight degrees when I picked up Stu! There was a nice stiff wind, but it was out of the West, which would be in our faces. |
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When we arrived, we could hear quacking in the distance. That always helps to take the chill out of the morning air! There's nothing like adrenline to warm you up and get the blood pumping. With the wind in our face, we ended up having to set the decoys off to one side, trailing out to the front of the point. The ducks seemed to be in smaller groups, so we put out magnum mallards, three magnum blacks, a pair of feeders, and two sleepers. We've got motion decoys, but in that wind you'd just be wasting batteries! |
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There is that five or ten minutes just before shooting time, when you can see the silhouetts dance throughthe air, and hear whistling wings above your head. There isn't a duck hunter alive that doesn't cherish that moment! We were tucked into the rocky shoreline hopeing we didn't stick out like a pair of sore thumbs. When shooting time arrived, the action turned on! We had birds in the dekes within minutes, and we were quick to take advantage of it. The plan was coming together perfectly. The birds were coming in from the left, from the right, and even straight in from open water! There were a couple of times when we were looking to see if Browning Arms was behind us taping a commercial! It was perfect! An old Belgian A-5 16 gauge, and a new Japenese A-5 Light 12. Two mallards came in, two shots fired, two birds dead. We would have been more happy to strike a pose for the camera. Of course, it isn't hard to come back to reality when the next rounds yeild nothing but duck butts shrinkingin the distance! |
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We had mallards in our face through-out the morning, with a handful of blacks too! At one point, we had a flock of 8-10 come in and commit. We both pulled a bird out of the bunch, but one was only crippled, so he got our attention. Rarely do you see a duck that is actually bullet proof, but this was the case here. The patterns seemed to skate all around this duck, as he laid out flat on the water trying to put distance between himself and the shoreline. Stu grabbed his canoe and went after him. As I watched him get further and further out, I finally had to get the binoculars! I couldn't help laughing, as I watched him take three shots at the bird. I could see the plash where the shot was hitting the water, ten feet in front of the canoe. I thoguht he was hitting so close accidentally, because of the rocking of the boat on the waves. It wasn't until he got back with the duck, that he told me that the bird was actually that close, and just wouldn't die! If there were an award for the toughest duck of the year, he would definitely be a nominee! |
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