Speaking of mottled ducks

[Rick]

Mine is a love/hate/love relationship with them. As the blacks were up home, the mottleds are my favorite ducks down here. But I hate them for acting as pilot ducks, wittingly or not, and pulling others away from us with their pond hopping - which makes tripping them up just that much more fun than other ducks.

Liking that dead mount.

[Deltaman]

Love the dead mount!

[Rick]

Boy they will work beautifully in teal season,but they know when it is game time for sure when it comes to regular season

From my September teal log:

Took this shot of a mottled sitting with a working spinner, because it's something one won't ever see here come the big season:

In the "Way back when..." I last had a morning blind in the rice, it wasn't far north of the Intracoastal and the farm was loaded with mottleds, some of which became audacious enough to land in stubbles just beyond my buffaloed strips and might even stay there, forgotten, through shooting until a retrieve brought the dog too close. I finally rigged a trolley, of sorts, with a continuous loop of 400# test mono passing from inside the blind through bilge pump hoses buried in the levee out into the pond and through a pair of eyebolts staked perhaps 20yds apart. Between those eyebolts were a pair of pintail decoys on droppers of differing lengths, so they'd begin moving at differing times. By pulling on one side of the loop hanging into the blind, I could swim them to the eyebolt on that side, then pull on the other side to reverse their course to the other eyebolt. When I'd worn out my calling tricks to trip the mottleds, I'd just remain silent when they showed and swim the pintails in the spread.

Most of those birds probably knew damn good and well that it was a decoy spread, but the swimmers apparently convinced quite a few that no one was guarding it. I didn't keep species records in those days but couldn't forget that we shot six banded mottleds one season after I'd devised that rig - and you've got to shoot a lot of mottleds to collect six with bands.

Tried for each of my first two years in the marsh to rig something similar, but friction from the sludge the line had to pass through made pulling it like trying to drag a cinder block across the bottom.

[Rick]

Always had hunters with me, and while everyone said they'd get back to me with that info, only one did, and that bird was banded in Gillcrest, TX. The few I've shot when by myself or with others who did follow up were all banded nearby.

[Bud]

I remember that pintail rig that swam back and forth. Our first visit's mottled duck is right here on the wall. I'll have to post a pick of that mottled when time permits. That must have been in the late nineties. That farm was my most favorite place to hunt. Feel blessed to have hunted/shared that blind a few times...and the friends. Thanks for all that, Rick.

I like all the mottled mounts, but in their order posted. The stories that come with the mounts are half the reason I mount them. Helps bring a smile on a gloomy day sometimes.

[Rick]

And I remember one of those bands being shot while you were playing the good husband and father and taking the gals sightseeing or shopping. Would that all trips worked out as well as that one did in the end, with br'er Ronnie saying, "Bud, you're going to want to shoot this one."

[Bud]

There is still a pellet shot hole in one lowered foot, too. I ate crow about that band, but it was all worth it.

Brought my love for mottled ducks to LA with me. We are graced with a very few of them, so we know the drill. I've been known, as well as Kevin, to stalk them in late season. He called one in late season to my gun long time ago, so that one was mounted as well.

"I'm waiting on a mottled duck!" Shooting mottled ducks over Ronnie's mottled decoys is like the ultimate experience over here. We are allowed one a day, or one black duck, which feels great to have one of either on the strap.

[Bud]

Try again...
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