One of those days

[flight control]

I decided to do a solo hunt today back to one of my favorite spots I used to shoot as a teenager. There was always a limit of black ducks to be had there, and since none of my other haunts were producing, I thought why not? Andrea and the kids are out of town for the weekend and I've got nothing better to do.

My alarm rang at 4:45. I got up and put some coffee on. I put her mutts outside to do their buisness and made breakfast. When I went to let dumb and dumber back in, dumber is nowhere to be found. It's now 5 o'clock and I spend the next 45 minutes walking around the neighborhood with a flashlight looking for her. I finaly find her, nervously wagging her tail on my front step. Now I'm late. No time for coffee. Not a good start.

Next stop is my dad's house to borrow his canoe. This goes smoothly and I'm off to the marsh. A faint glow begins to show on the horizon. I'll have to hurry.

A few minutes later, I'm padling into the tidal marsh. 150 yards from where I want to set up, I hit skim ice. Did I mention it's cold? It is. I figure if I want to make it before LST, I'll have to walk the rest of the way. So I throw my layout blind on my back, sling my shotgun and blind bag and grab 6 decoys, including the East coast traveller. Just as I think I'm going to pass out from all the straps around my neck choking me, I trip and fall on my back into a sinkhole. Have you ever seen a turtle on it's back? That was me.

After setting my decoys and brushing my blind, I settle in with 15 minutes to LST. The black ducks start showing up. 5 minutes to go, and I've got a hen quacking six feet from my toes, her mate 15 feet to my right and three more just out off range. LST and she's coaxed all of them within 20 feet of me. This is an easy double, maybe a triple. I sit up, and in a flurry of steel and feathers, I manage to cleanly miss with all three shots.

The rest of my morning goes much the same way. Easy shots and I keep missing. I blame society. The sunrise is beautiful though, andsome buffleheads buzz my spread. I had never shot one before, and today was no exception.

Thoroughly disgusted with myself, I decide to call it quits. People could be watching, and this is downright embarassing. Just as I'm about to leave, a flock of hoodies lands in my decoys. If you think I'm above waterswatting a drake hoodie to avoid getting skunked, you are wrong. I take him, then manage to dump four more with my next two shots.

On the way back to the truck, I stopped to pick a few oysters in the shallows and ate them there, sitting in the canoe, the sun warming me and watching some ducks feeding on the far shore.

It turned out to be one of those days. Had I known it would be like this, I would still have gotten up at 4:45 and paddled out into the icy marsh.

[flight control]

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[assateague]

That's karma. For even thinking it's ok with me for you to consider a black duck triple. Legally.

[flight control]

[flight control]

On a Sunday, no less.

[Bootlipkiller]

Got to love days like that.

[Feelin' Fowl]

Great write up, FC. Sounds like it's been one of those weeks for a lot of us!

[RonE]

That was a good recovery to a crappy start. I would blame your wife for owning that stupid dog.

By the way, do you eat hooded mergs?

[flight control]

That was a good recovery to a crappy start. I would blame your wife for owning that stupid dog.

By the way, do you eat hooded mergs?

Yeah I really like them actually. I wouldn't shoot them if I wasn't going to eat them. I smoked a common merganser and a prime black duck the other day. My dad and brother tried both, not knowing what either one was, and both said the merg tasted best. I don't know if its diet related or just the cook, but they taste just fine to me, especially hoodies. I've never had a fishy one.

[QH's Paw]

That was a good recovery to a crappy start. I would blame your wife for owning that stupid dog.

By the way, do you eat hooded mergs?

Yeah I really like them actually. I wouldn't shoot them if I wasn't going to eat them. I smoked a common merganser and a prime black duck the other day. My dad and brother tried both, not knowing what either one was, and both said the merg tasted best. I don't know if its diet related or just the cook, but they taste just fine to me, especially hoodies. I've never had a fishy one.

It's a misnomer by the people of the lower 48 that hoodeds are fish eaters like their common cousin.. They eat, nest and generally live in all the same places as woodies in these parts.
Sounds like a good ending to a hunt. Nice write up.