Weasel and I took a few hours yesterday and went duck hunting out at Colmer Island.  As it turned out it was a day in the swamp enjoying each others company.  We had a total of six ducks act like they might come into the set, but didn’t.  We did have a flock of geese act like that as well and so we took a couple shots at them….sky busting for sure.  I don’t understand where the ducks are.  Monday we kill 10 and ever since “nothing”.

Well, I’m going out again today with Trevor.  Conner and Weasel have a family party to attend in the Provo area and so that just leaves Trevor and I to hit the swamp.  Trevor is 15 years old and has yet to bag his first duck.  He also has a swan tag, just in case.  But I have only seen a few swans fly over where we will be hunting.  We will have a better chance at seeing geese than we will swans.  But, you never know.

Yesterday there were a LOT of guys out hunting.  I think we counted 12 boat trailers in the parking lot and more came out after we were set up.  A lot of guys!  Today I expect the same and more with a bunch of “walkers” as well.

The weather?  Gusty to 20 mph expected and right now it looks like a pretty good 10 mph consistently out there.  The clouds will build during the day and there is a storm expected tonight and tomorrow.  Maybe that is what we need to get the ducks moving.  That is my hope for the hunt today.

Also, I’m going to do something very different with the decoys spread.  Usually, I make a “U” or “J” hook with the decoys right out from the blind and I have placed the spinning wing in the big opening landing zone.  Today I will make the “J” farther away from the blind, more into the direction the wind is coming from and about 30 yards away, with the spinning wing outside the bottom of the “J” and on the opposite side of the landing zone.

Why?  I want the landing zone clear of any decoys or spinners to keep the birds attention on where they want to place their feet.  The landing zone will be right in front of the blind and with the birds coming in at a parallel line to the front of the blind, they will not see us stand to shoot.

Wish us luck!

Bears Butt

November 29, 2014

POST HUNT:

Well, there were a ton of folks out hunting today but 99% of them were in boats and went WAYYYYYYY out.  We had the swamp to ourselves, which was good…and bad.  At least today there were some ducks flying around.  They kept our interest right up until closing time.

I shot 3 shells, Trevor shot 4.

We saw, Spoonbills, Mallards, Pins, Teal and Widgeon.  Our few shots were at Spoons, Mallards and Pins.

By days end Trevor had bagged his first ever Spoonbill!  He made a fantastic shot on one as 4 decoyed in.  I missed mine….what’s new?

And at days end, God gave us a very nice view:

Bears Butt

I’ve told you about the duck hunt Brek and I had three days ago.  It was a blue bird day between storms, a slight breeze and there seemed to be a lot of big ducks moving around…by days end Brek had 6 birds and I had 4.  All in all a very good day of duck hunting.

Well, yesterday was to be one of the same.  A relatively blue bird day between storms.  We had a great stormy day on Tuesday, with a mix of rain/snow and wind.  Yesterday would be partly cloudy with some breezes blowing and everything in anticipation of a fully overcast day on Thursday (Thanksgiving day) and pretty good winds.

What better to do than take Conner and his friend Trevor out for a great duck hunt?

The plan was made and off we went about 10 a.m.  I was full of anticipation that the two young hunters would get their first ducks.  Weasel and I were fully prepared to allow them to take the first shots and get lots of ducks.

Because there were 4 of us, hunting the box was out.  We needed to set up across the small pond of water away from the box and then sit on buckets in the toolies.

Well, we got everything set up and even used Dry Dogs, spinning wing decoy to help attract the birds.  Our biggest issue was the lack of cover to hide in.  We figured it would be better to sit in the low bull rushes closer to the decoys, rather than nearly 50 yards back in the higher grasses and reeds away from the decoys.  We hadn’t been there long before a hen mallard dropped in on us from out of nowhere and we figured our disguise in the reeds was going to work just fine.  By the way, Weasel and I both missed that easy shot on her.

Well, as the day progressed it became quite apparent that the ducks were not going to cooperate.  We sat there from about 11 a.m. until nearly 4 p.m. without seeing more than a half dozen ducks and most of them were ducks the two boys jumped up while they traipsed around in the swamp.

Around 4 p.m. and with only an hour left of shooting time, a few birds began to show up.   Almost all (not quite) were singles and doubles and when they just would not finish and come into the decoys  we moved back into the taller reeds to hide ourselves.  We still only got a shot at two ducks even after moving into the reeds.  Still we did see quite a few last minute birds.

The sunset was pretty for sure last night.

I left my shotgun and went inside the phragmites in order to see any birds that might be approaching from the West of us, I think it paid off with me seeing the birds coming our way and alerting the others of them approaching.

Phragmites is thick and nasty stuff….huh Brek?  Brek and a friend were lost in a forest of phragmites a few weeks ago and it required search and rescue to come and find them.  It could have been a real disaster had they not called to get help when they did.

So, with the season closed for the day, I took a last picture of Trevor and Conner with the sunset in the background.  Sorry guys!  No birds today!

Bears Butt

November 27, 2014

November 24, 2014

A blue bird day for the most part with just a breeze blowing enough to make the water ripple….what water there was.

After the storm we had on Saturday I figured there had to have been some Northern birds come in and with the forecast expected to be snow this morning tapering off to nothing by this afternoon I was going hunting!  There just wasn’t two ways about it.  I hate to hunt by myself, but I was going to do it today, no matter what.  Winemaker was not happy with my decision.

Well as luck would have it, Brek came down the road just as I was taking the trash can out to the street.  He showed me what he had gotten for his Grandpa, Bob, for Bob’s birthday and we talked about that for a little while.  I asked him what his day looked like and he said he was off and his next shift would be days.  Perfect!  I asked if he wanted to go duck hunting with me!  SURE!  Was the answer.  Ok, we are leaving at 9 a.m.

Well, he had to wait until Grandpa got out of bed but he would meet me in the swamp.  Of course my first statement to him was that he just wanted to get out of the work of bailing the box and setting the decoys.  He assured me that was not his intentions.

So, about 9 I helped Weasel with a small moving project and then headed down to the swamp.

Blue Bird day was not the word for it.  Everything was in place for mosquitoes to be flying except for the cap of thin ice that was everywhere.  I arrived at the box and decided I would set out the decoys first and then bail the box out, maybe Brek would be there to help with that.  First things first, I had to break the ice up and try and get a “hole” for the birds to land in.  I dragged the sled around and around breaking the ice, that took a good half an hour, but once it was done, a slight breeze was blowing and made a pretty good little hole for the decoys.  I set the duck decoys up and then started on the goose silhouettes.

The goose decoys aren’t exactly silhouettes, they are what was called “Johnson Fold Out” decoys and they are my favorite.  I can carry two dozen over one shoulder and have a really nice goose decoy spread when I’m done.  I have fooled many a goose with those old decoys.  Someone really should “re-invent” them.

Goose decoys set, I looked up toward my truck and still no Brek….dang, I best get started bailing the box.

These boxes measure about 4 ft X 4 ft square and about 4 ft deep….how much water is in that 4 ft cube?  Almost 500 gallons of water….at 4 gallons p/bucket (5 gallon bucket)….125 dips of the bucket.  And once I was sitting in the box, Brek was still nowhere to be seen.

My butt was kicked by now and so I just sat there looking across the swamp wishing something would fly in.

Brek showed up about 2 hours later…by then it was nearly 1 p.m….I had seen some ducks but not too many and all of them were way out of range and for some reason just would not decoy in.  I figured it was the slushy ice that was still around the decoys, so I got out and tried to scurry it away with the wind.  The wind had actually started to blow a little harder by about noon.  The ice hurding did me good in that it got me busy doing something besides thinking I had made a big mistake by coming out duck hunting on such a nice day.

Well, when Brek got there I had not seen a duck close enough for a shot, but I had seen several “just out there”.  I said we needed a spinning wing decoy and that it would draw the ducks….he said he had one up in his car!!!  And he had more decoys up there too….Well, go get em!  I said and off he went.

About 15 minutes later he was there and we set the decoys out.  The spinner was way cool and I had never hunting by one before.  It was fun to watch….Well, it wasn’t long after that a nice big fat green head came swinging in for a look see….BLAM!  I missed!  It was too easy of a shot and I should have had it.  I think my head was up, as I don’t remember seeing my front bead…heck I don’t remember even seeing the barrel.  I was so confident in the shot I was looking for the place it was going to fall instead of shooting at the bird.  Oh well…Edjukateed….

From that point on we had several onesy’s and twosy’s come in and around.  Several came in and surprised us for no shot.  Some came in and then veered just out of range….everything you could imagine was going on, but every once in awhile the birds would do just what we wanted them to do and they folded up in a heap.

We took turns with the first shot when we could and by days end, I had shot about nine shells, while Brek took nearly a box to lunch.  As I have heard it said before….No Lead…No Dead….That must have paid off for Brek because at quitting time he had 6 birds and I had 4.

Of the 10 birds we had between us, 6 mallards, 2 pintails and 2 green wing teal!  And I kept Brek from shooting at a very large flock of teal that came right in and landed just on the edge of the decoys.  I did that because we had a nice flock of mallards swinging in for a final approach, which didn’t happen when the teal set down.  Brek would have had his limit for sure had he shot at those teal.  They came in low on his side of the box and right over the decoys!

All in all it was a super day to be out in the swamp.  This picture is one when the sun was perfect, but doesn’t show Breks final drake mallard that he bagged right after the picture was taken.

A duck hunt doesn’t get much better than that!

Bears Butt

November 24, 2015

Today’s weather is going to be extremely mild.  Warm for late November as well and no wind.  It is supposed to begin clouding up this afternoon and then after midnight tonight a storm front moves in and it will be raining by tomorrow morning.  BUT….Conner and I are going duck hunting today!

My thoughts are this:  There are quite a few northern ducks in the area.  Most of the lakes are frozen with a pretty good cap of ice on them.  The area where we are going to be hunting will also be capped with ice, but as the day time temp rises, our little pool of broken ice should clear and any ducks flying around should decoy in.  My biggest thought is that most hunters will be waiting for tomorrow to go hunting.  That means the swamp should be all ours today.  My other thought is that the geese should be looking for a feeding spot and when they see our decoy spread, they should come right in!  Let’s see how my thoughts on the subject turn out.

I’ll post up some pictures of our bag later on!  In the meantime, wish us luck!  Today should be Conner’s day to bag his first duck and maybe even a big old honker!

Bears Butt

November 21, 2014

UPDATE:

The hunt was warm…but…we had to deal with 3 inches of ice everywhere.  Breaking up the ice to place the duck blocks was a killer of a deal and then there was all the chunk ice around.  No way would the real ducks think that was “open water”.  It wasn’t until way late in the day that water could actually be seen.  But then, it was a great day to be out with my oldest Grandkid….They are different when a parent isn’t around.

And so, what was it like to be out on such a warm late November day?  The sky was as blue as could be until late in the afternoon, when it began to get rather hard to distinguish a duck from a “floater” passing in front of your vision.  We saw thousands of ducks mostly flying into other peoples setups.  We also saw 3 swans get knocked out of the sky by some folks way to the West of us.  We had one hen mallard come over extremely quick and low and Conner couldn’t get on it quick enough….it’s still out there somewhere.  The rest of the ducks that did venture in close enough for us to get excited and even to shoot at, were green wing teal.

I ended up shooting 4 times, Conner 3, and only because his gun had not been cleaned from the last hunt and was hanging up with rust.  DAD!!!!!!!

He knew ahead of time that the first shot on all ducks was his to take and I would only act as a backup….I bagged my first double!  Both male Greenwings.

I think the most exciting thing for the day was the sunset.

The weather Saturday is supposed to be more “ducky” and maybe we will go out and try again.

Bears Butt

November 22, 2014