Back lake marsh pond

[Laguna Madre]

I found a back lake marsh pond that I've never hunted and decided to give it a try. The wind was coming out of the South so I wanted to hunt the South shoreline but there wasn't enough cover so I was forced to hunt the mangroves on the North shorline. The marsh pond was about 100 yards wide so I initially thought it would be a good idea to set the decoys on the South Shoreline thinking the incoming ducks would land in front of our blind on the North Shorline. I was wrong and they landed amongst my decoys so I redeployed them closer to the blind on the North shoreline. I was expecting pintails but was delighted to fold a drake widgeon in full plumage on our first pass. After that we had quite a few flocks come in but they were landing in the middle of the pond just out of shotgun range. We managed to bag a few and we missed a few but overall it was a fun day with some good shooting. Since it was Sunday and I had in laws in town I called it early but I wanted to make a quick scout of another location. As I was pulling up a covey of quail flushed but landed only about 30 yards from the jeep. I got out and walked through the brush and they busted and I managed to drop one before the rest flew in some heavy cover. I went in after them but felt a puncture in my hip waders so I stopped plus we have BIG rattlesnakes down here and its not wise to bust the brush without snake guards. As I was driving back to the house I passed the marsh pond and sure enough it was full of pintails. Scouting out new locations, coming up with a plan on the fly, then executing that plan and bagging a few beautiful ducks is what its all about. I am blessed to have my hunting area within sight of my house. Its been a long time since I've flushed a covey of quail and it got me fired up to do some quail hunting. In a couple of years I'm going to start shopping for a German Shorthair that can both retrieve and point. My camera quit working so I only took one pic on my cell phone when I got back to the house. Hope everybody had a great holiday weekend and its back to the grind tomorrow.

[assateague]

[Flightstopper]

Fine job down there

[OGblackcloud]

Good job

[Ajverret]

It's like one off those guess what doesn't fit pictures lol.

Nice job killed 2 birds with one stone

[huntfishnv]

Good looking widgeon. I never have killed a nice looking drake before.

[Laguna Madre]

I was seriously considering mounting that drake but I've been harping on the wife to only spend money on necessities. Kind of hard to argue a duck mount is a necessity.