Duck opener 2014

Better late than never... The opening day for ducks started like most of the other ones. Up early at five am. Out of the Sammy by six. Lugged sixteen newly rigged decoys about a quarter mile to the spot. Set up and ready about ten minutes before shoot time.

Just me and the Old Man today. I set up the decoys to hunt the south side, but wouldn't you know it, the Old Man got stuck in the mud, and couldn't make it across. I should of switched the decoys around right then, but I didn't.

The first duck came in right after shoot time, a hen pintail. My first one at this spot. Not too much longer, and we had a group of four gadwalls circling.  They came right in, but on the wrong side, got two more down.  A group of seven gadwalls were next, right in our face. We got four more.  I finally switched the decoys around, and the next group was four hen mallards.  They all came to the decoys, and we shot the same bird.  One more down.  It slowed down quite a bit after that until a pair of woodies came in right behind me.  The old Man got the hen.  All in all a great opener for us.  Eight birds in about two hours.

Walking out

A little opening day drama. Apparently some goons were shooting too near a house down the river from us.  Not us, we were "way over there"

Surf and Turf...

Northern Nevada style.

Met a couple of friends last night for some doves, crawdads, and frogs.  A regular Trifecta!! the doves were basically a no show, no surprise there. This is still the worst dove season ever. Me and the boy showed up at about five pm. We got the report...two frogs spotted, none hit. 

We decided to try a foggy looming spot across the river. We pulled our crawdad traps, and let about six or seven go. We headed over just before sunset, and I was able to get one dove on the walk back to the car.

The boy was the first one to the water, and before I could even get the light on it, he had the first frog. He was on fire all night, he nailed four more, and let me get two with the gig. This kid is quickly becoming my hero.