Boatload o' Mallards

  Dec. 30, 2010

  

I was back in Manhattan for a few days around New Year's, so I decided to spend a morning duck hunting with a few local experts. 

  They had been scouting and found a bunch of ducks tucked back in a cove on the main lake at Tuttle Creek.  It was pretty windy as we took the boat across the cove in the morning darkness, but we eventually had the spread set out and got to quackin' at some ducks.  

  
The action was steady all morning, with lots of ducks in the area.  Any ducks that played the wind right when approaching our decoys ended up dropping right in.  Here's a shot of Bayes taking a quack at one.  

 


We took our time getting our four-man limit.  There were enough ducks coming in we could basically take turns shooting.  

Left to Right:
T. Shilling, Marty, Danger Bayes

    Had to get one with me in there.  It was my first and last duck hunt of the year.  Finally I brought the luck.

Bayes looking not so dangerous in his "hunter orange" life preserver.   He and Travis, being co-captains, argued over who should drive the first load of gear across the cove.   The wind had picked up considerably by late morning, and we were stuck on the wrong side of the lake. 

They set out from the calm water, but decided to hug the shoreline all the way around the big cove instead of trying to cut straight across.  Marty and I waited and watched.  Eventually we saw them come back into sight, heading straight up wind along the opposite shore.  It didn't look fun, and they said they had the boat completely out of the water at one point.  Marty and I were content to walk back around after neither one of them were too excited to come pick us up.