Halloween marked the opening day for duck season. I have to be honest, I wasn't as fired up as my dad and brother. My experience with hunting is walking or sitting in the freezing cold winter of Nebraska, and watching Geese fly way over head, or Pheasants cruising just out of range. We were all awake by 4:30 am and on Lake Quitman by 6:00. It was cool, but not unpleasant. The lake was spewing fog into the air, a nice effect on the morning of halloween. My gear included hand me down waders, borrowed jackets and cycling clothing that works well for the outdoors. My Remington 870 express has seen a lot of shells go through it, but I love that gun and I am good with it, so no expensive automatics for me.
We were loaded down with the four of us, Kota, guns, enough ammo to start a small war, and 48 decoys in my dads duck boat. We found a nice little cove to hunt out of with natural cover, seats and a great view of the lake. Setting up decoys was easy enough and we settled down with minutes to spare before sunset (when you can start shooting.) As we were sitting there waiting, a couple of wood ducks flew into our decoys. Kota wanted to go check them out so bad she was shaking! They disappeared before we heard the thunder from Lake Fork made by all the hunters there. Not 10 minutes after sunrise we saw some Wood ducks coming in. Everyone else worked the calls and I waited. My dad yelled "take em" and I stood up and blasted the lead duck. My adrenaline was pumping and I was ready for more! But since this was Kota's first hunt too, we settled down. She did an excellent job on the retrieve, even though she didn't see the duck come in! A year of work finally paid off for my dad. When she brought it in it was a beautiful drake wood duck. One shot, one kill, one retrieve, one fun morning. I was nice to Kota for the rest of day since she was nice enough to swim the cold water to get my duck!
The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful as most of the ducks are still up north. I had the only kill for us, but considering most of my stuff was borrowed and stolen, the duck was all of ours! When we get enough duck meat to eat I suppose we will take a weekend for dads special duck recipe. Most of all, I enjoyed hanging out with "The Guys," and generally acting how men act.
The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful as most of the ducks are still up north. I had the only kill for us, but considering most of my stuff was borrowed and stolen, the duck was all of ours! When we get enough duck meat to eat I suppose we will take a weekend for dads special duck recipe. Most of all, I enjoyed hanging out with "The Guys," and generally acting how men act.
Thanks for reading. And please vote YES or NO on the beard! I hate it.....
