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TOO Waterfowl Chronicles

We were all over them this morning. Then 15 minutes before shooting light, some lazy ass bums showed up and walked in on us, then turned and walked through the worst spot. They flushed a good 100+ ducks right over us minutes before shooting light. We saw a total of 10 ducks after that. Killed on gadwall while picking up dekes. We are heading back this afternoon to see what an evening hunt is like.
 
I have a friend taking me on my first duck hunt tomorrow since the 8 bit Nintendo. Looking forward to the day and the cookery.
 
On my way home from work at 5 I see between 20 and 30 geese in corn fields. Do you think they are there in the morning too. I want to try to get permission to hunt this field.
 
Wmiller07 said:
On my way home from work at 5 I see between 20 and 30 geese in corn fields. Do you think they are there in the morning too. I want to try to get permission to hunt this field.
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They may be there in the morning but you know they are there in the evening. I'd try to set up in the afternoon for em.
 
We are headed down to the Ohio for the dirty south opener. Have very little expectations, but odds are better there then here. 2 am is going to come early.
 
Mao said:
They may be there in the morning but you know they are there in the evening. I'd try to set up in the afternoon for em.
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This may be a dumb question but it wouldn't be my first. What time would you set up if you see them fly out of the field about 10 after 5pm.
 
We ended up with 1 greenhead. Got caught with our pants down and should of killed a group of four that snuck in on us. Saw maybe 40 ducks total. By far lowest numbers I've ever seen where we hunted.
 
Had a few give us a look this morning but none would commit. Icy, cold, and blustery. Had everything we needed except for cooperative birds. So sick of these stale ducks up here...
 
Guess I should feel better about killing 2 when the veterans had rough days too. The ice really screwed us today. It left by 10:30, but we never saw any more birds. We had a group of 15 that wanted in bad, but wouldn't commit because of the ice. One more pass and I'd have called the shot. Later on I broke 4 off a group of 7 and probably should have called the shot, but I lost them in the sun and by the time I realized they were in range, it was too late. We almost got to shoot some hoodies, but they held up about 20 yards short of our shooting lane.
 
Yea it's been a tough season for sure. Started off great, but when you're hunting the same ducks for two months because nothing North pushes down, it gets awful pretty quick. Hopefully this front brings some new ones with it and we can salvage a decent shoot or two before Christmas.

On another note, I wish I had a dollar for every time I didn't call the shot when I probably should have. Lol. I've long been a fan of shooting birds right square in the face and it's been somewhat a detriment to my hunts over the years. I love to see the birds work and if they don't finish in the pocket it's just not as much of a success in my eyes. It's not really a great approach when hunting extremely pressured birds like right now but I just can't help it. I've been accused of letting birds work too long without calling the shot before. I get it. I do hate seeing cripples get away, though. One thing about waiting til they finish....they're usually belly up when you send the dog.
 
I've got more patient as a shot calling because I want to see them work and put my calling (or lack thereof) to work. We missed a lot of birds in our early days because I was too anxious to let it rip. Now we're missing them because I'm trying to get the perfect opportunity. LOL.
 
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