Ugh. The weather. Is anyone else over this rain? I know I am! If it’s going to rain in January, I think it should just go ahead and snow. Anyone with me on that? Thankfully, we had good weather over the weekend to do a little duck hunting in Georgetown. We didn’t anticipate a crazy, barrel burner of a hunt, but knew there were some ducks on the pond and knew it would be worth a try. At the very least, it was shaping up to be a beautiful day.
Feather in the sky
A few blinds got some shooting early on, but John and I were having a pretty slow morning. We moved to a few different spots, but our luck did not improve. He had killed one duck, and I had not pulled the trigger. Woof.
In the perfect storm of events, John and I had successfully killed one stud of a drake canvas back, together, and Prine had made a great retrieve. How about that?! We rarely see cans around the area, much less get a shot at one. I’d never killed a drake before, and the only one John killed was in North Dakota a few years ago. Woohoo! Quite the family event, huh? Needless to say, we were super excited. And, wouldn’t you know? The excitement didn’t stop there…
Oh yes. When we finally did make it back to the truck, we were greeted with more exciting news – Parker had killed an incredible drake pintail that morning! John and I had seen a group of 7-8 of them earlier in the morning, but they were no where in range for us to even attempt. Luckily, someone else was able to make a great shot on a great bird. Congrats, Parker!
Talk about some trophies, right?? Other ducks killed that morning included ring necks, a ruddy duck or two, and gadwall, but these two really took the cake. Coming out with a duck like this definitely makes it worth the price of admission for a slow hunt. I’ve been after a trophy duck all season, and now I have it. Actually, we have it. Pretty great morning, if you ask me.
Our day of duck hunting didn’t stop there, either. A buddy of ours from college was in town with two of his friends for a duck hunt elsewhere that morning, and they came out to hunt with us in the afternoon with a few other guys. It wasn’t a successful hunt (only 1 gadwall between all of us), but we had a really fun time just hanging out in the blinds.
Par for the course, the ducks started coming in about 2 minutes after legal hour, so we hung around (with unloaded guns) for another 10-15 minutes watching them cup up and light in a few of the ponds. We even saw one massive group of ducks – I am talking 500+ – heading out towards the bay and (I assume) on to the ocean. I have never seen that many ducks at one time, and it was really a cool sight.
Not a bad day of duck hunting in my book. Since it was the first duck hunt there without her, we like to think Scotch was the one who made sure we had a good one… And that, we did!
Great post Hollis….beautiful pictures…and it is the about the experience….nicely captured as always!!!