Morning Goose and Duck Hunt October 16
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| Sunrise from the blind |
We did something this morning that our outfitter Jeff from Living Sky Outfitters in Bladworth Saskatchewan doesn't like to do unless his scouting tells him to and that is hunt the same field twice in a week. The soybean field we were headed to during another dark morning ride was the same field we hunted on our first evening duck hunt. I wasn't that worried about hunting the same spot again, especially after seeing the amount of time, effort and work Jeff, Trevor and his crew puts into scouting. I knew we'd have a good morning. Unlike our first night were we had to target ducks, the original game plan was to target large flocks of geese that were using the field the morning before. It's difficult enough driving these dirty gravel roads in the middle of nowhere in the dark, but our guide Billy had to be on his game as large cow moose stepped out in front of the old brown suburban towing a 17 foot trailer. It was a good thing Billy was bright eyed and all in because there was a very nice bull moose following the cow. Cool visual, but a little scary!
You can tell after two days we were in a groove as no one had to say a word, we got out and started the task of unloading the trailer, setting up the A-frame blind and laying out 6 dozen full body goose and duck decoys along with a Mojo or two. It didn't take us long to get the spread setup, the suburban and trailer parked and all settled in to the blind to enjoy the first cracks of daylight. My favorite time in the woods, blind or on the water is just as the sun starts to show itself and the wild starts to wake up. The air seems to change, the sounds get louder and the anticipation grows. Love it.
The day started out with a good wind, cold in the 20s and an early flight of 4 mallards that dropped in to the spread only to leave unscathed which was mostly by choice even though bubba did let one fly only to miss. We could hear the snows getting vocal on the roost in the distance as 4 more mallards hooked into the spread. These four weren't so lucky and they quickly became staying ducks. The next group of visitors were two dozen Canadian Geese that were low and on a string right to the spread and we knocked a few of them down as well.
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| That's me |
We had another good group of geese work over the spread high and a few even joined the decoys on the ground but they didn't commit. A small group of 10 broke off and made a swing low off the left corner and we took a few of them. All that action and the sun wasn't even completely above the horizon.
After the flurry of geese came some small flights of ducks and we worked them over to pick off a few here and there to pass the time while waiting for more geese. We did manage a few more small flights of geese including a flock about 8 giants that offered up some shooting off the left side of the blind. We did get to laughing a bit as bubba chased down a running giant goose. I laughed so hard my side hurt and I had tears in my eyes. I'd love to bring the dog on a trip like this but then we wouldn't have enjoyed the bubba retriever show.
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| Not a bad morning considering the X was across the street |
We definitely were not on the X today, because as we looked out the back of the blind across the dirt road to another field that was a couple hundred yards away and it was covered in snow geese, canadas and a load of ducks trying to get in. Watching the ducks work into that field was just incredible. We decided to stick it out and see if we couldn't scratch out a few more geese which we did, but we came up 6 short of a 5 man limit. With nothing really moving and birds out on the feed we decided to pack it up and head back for some lunch.
Afternoon Duck Hunt
After a short break to get some lunch at the local bar which by the way had delicious food and specials every day and was priced very reasonable, we were headed back to the field for an afternoon duck hunt. The weather warmed into the 40s and cloudy but the wind picked up a bit. We setup the A-frame blind on the edge of a pothole in the brush and we were positioned looking up hill at the spread which consisted of a few dozen full bodies and a single Mojo. This setup made for some challenges as the ground wasn't level making standing up a challenge until we flattened things out and adjusted the angle of the front of the blind. Not to mentioned that we were sitting lover then the decoy spread by about 15 to 20 feet. We also had another guide named Ronnie who is a good ol boy from Virgina with us and he definitely got a kick out of or crew. I think they sent Ronnie along thinking Billy needed help wrangling us in but it really was so Billy could join us for a little hunting of his own.
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| I call this Where's Bubba? |
The ducks starting coming back in pairs and small flocks so we picked away at them and got some good shooting. The one rule we had was to not drop any birds in the water as our guide billy wasn't in the mood to go wading as usual we didn't listen. Not really on purpose but those birds flying straight at us had some speed so when they get hit a couple landed in the water. No worries, Bubba put on the waders and retrieved them up for Billy at the end of the hunt
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| Afternoon's results where some nice Mallards |
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| Hands full of Greegheads. |
The area we hunted was covered in potholes and just about everyone of them had birds on them. We also saw a some mule deer. We continued to pick away at singles and doubles while we got plenty of laughs and lots of exercise running up hill to retrieve birds. It was nice to sit around enjoying a slow but steady hunt and we still managed to fill out our limit of ducks which was a good thing seeing we were eating ducks again for dinner tonight. Man were they tasty.
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| A little appetizer of duck before dinner |
Good job!
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