Nice work Jake!
We ended up with 5 total. Drake and hen mallard, two hen woodies, and one drake woody. It was an amazing hunt for a novice who went out on a limb and built a $400 blind in the middle of nowhere! We had birds flying past almost every 30-45 minutes from daylight to noon when we left. The first birds to get shot at was a group of 5 mallards that buzzed the hole and on the second pass, we lit them up. It was pretty foggy, so there was no getting Remi after them. We managed to get the birds, which were on the opposite bank by the time the fog lifted, thanks to my buddy braving the wade across unfamiliar waters! Once he drug them out of the brush and muck, Remi had no problems taking them to the blind.
Right before we left, we got buzzed by 8 woodies and we dropped 2 right in front of the blind. One was winged and I was surprised to see Remi's killer instinct come out when he saw it flopping around. That was his first experience around a wounded bird and he was all over it. He was starting to redeem himself when he really caught us off guard. His eye sight is horrible, to the point he bounced off trees in the dark on the way to the blind, so he relies on his nose. While we were picking up decoys, he started sniffing around and disappeared in the cattails and high weeds near my buddy. Next thing I know, I hear my buddy say: "Remi! Good boy!!!" Without being prompted, he sniffed a downed bird out of the weeds that we would have never found. He brought it right over and dropped it at my buddy's feet. I don't have a finally tuned hunting dog, just a good companion that moon lights as a duck dog. Today, that sum bitch made me proud!
Our hole...
The accommodations were just right. It is a very comfortable sit...
Me and the boy on the retrieve...
The crew and our bounty.
