10/16/15

[DeadEye_Dan]

Temp 40°
Overcast with sleet/snow potential
Winds WNW @15-20 mph

Was finishing up work this afternoon and got a call from a friend of mine - a fantastic young man who just completed the academy and is now a Conservation Officer in the next county over - this after 2 tours in Iraq and 1 in Afghanistan as a Blackhawk pilot. He asked if I wanted to hunt tonight, and if so if I might know a spot we could go.
I looked at my clock and decided to call it a week at 4 and by 4:20 we were headed to a little spot not far from the house.
My expectations were low. There's a fair number of birds in the area now, but evening hunts are all about cloud cover and luck that the birds come back early enough. And this spot got hammered on the opener 2 weeks ago - I'd let it rest since then and hadn't seen much else for activity

We were set up by 4:45, dozen and a half mallards and a few ringers to round out the little marsh rig.
About 5:15 a lone Suzy locked up and glided into my side of the spread and died with a single shot.
20 minutes later a 3 pack of drakes lined up and centered the spread perfectly, and 4 shots from a pair of guns and they were all floating.
And 25 minutes before the end of LST a group of 50 or so birds worked and worked and worked but just wouldn't finish. I advised that he get shooting on the next pass as I didn't expect they would give us the shot right down the middle. He came up firing and managed to scratch a single out of the group of 10 that had split off from the main flock.
And that was all the shooting that was to be had. I was satisfied with 5 as it was truly 6 more than I expected we'd get.
We were witness to a truly fantastic sight as the sun set through the heavy clouds.

We beat it back to the house and Mrs De_D had a batch of chili ready and a chocolate pie for us to work on - not a bad way to end the work week.

Was a great night, and truly a privilege to spend time with one of Americas fine young warriors.

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[Rick]

Sweet little afternoon, that.

[Weston81]

Great stuff Dan!! We have three more weeks until our opener and this gets my heart pumping

[DComeaux]

Good stuff Dan! Neat looking spot.

[DeadEye_Dan]

Good stuff Dan! Neat looking spot.

I'm pretty fortunate to have it within just a couple miles of the house.
We got picked up and out of there in time to watch several groups pile back into the hole from the truck.

The next several weeks should be good