Duck Hunt Opener

After finally getting my brother's LE muzzleloader elk hunt out of the way, it was time to start focusing on some ducks.  Duck hunting has always been my favorite hunting activity, although big game is making a strong push these days.  As you can see above, the pond was in great condition.  There have been some serious phrag reduction efforts going on here for the last few years and quite frankly, they are making great headway in this area.  The pond is a completely different shape and dynamic with a lot of the phrag gone and out of there.  It made it a little harder to set up and hunt, but it was still in great shape.

Although my brother has joined a club to hunt and was hoping to take part in the luxury and ease that situation offers, I am a sucker for nostalgia, and figured it was best to keep with my roots and battle the zoo in the old trusty pond.  I went with my brothers from another mother, the Coopers.  Ryan, Kelly, Brett, Jake, and Riley all were aboard for this one.  I was stoked because I was bringing Cane, my 9 year old lab, with me for the first time in a few years.  He started having seizures a few years back and I have been somewhat reluctant to bring him out into the marsh because of that.

We were set up a few (8) hours early and had exited the water and were on some higher/dry ground.  About 6:50am we decided we would head down to the water and get in position for the shooting.  As we were walking out into the water, the whole area lit up in a war zone!  People were blasting 35 minutes early.  I don't know why that surprised me, but it still never ceases to amaze me how dumb people are with that stuff.  Unfortunately for those of us that follow the rules, this pushed 75-100 ducks off our pond.  And while we were walking out and getting set up, we easily had triple or quadruple that many birds well within shooting range bombing us and the pond.

After getting set up and waiting for a while longer to get to legal shooting hours, the birds were still flying some, but not even close to what was happening for the first 20 minutes of ILLEGAL shooting.  I can't complain too much, because we still saw an enormous amount of birds and got our fair share of shooting.  It was a great time with great friends and I can't wait to do it again!

Old gray beard, enjoying another day in the marsh.