Had a great group of guys this morning. 

Made a mistake today that, if you have hunted with me in the past, I would have had some fun with you on - I forgot to put my shotgun in my truck this morning. LOL

Thanks goodness for a landowner that checks his text messages at 6am.  He let me borrow his for the morning.

Anyway, back to the story at hand...

Fog and little wind made it tough.

First couple groups slid in on us in a hurry and well, let's just say it was just their day to keep flying to parts unknown. 

My shooters had never hunted out of layout blinds before so I felt bad putting them at a slight disadvantage. 

Thankfully it wasn't long until they made the adjustments and birds started falling for my anxious to work retrievers.

Luci & Blaze got covered in the clay/mud/mess.  LOL

Fed, bathed (so the wife wouldn't kill me) and resting up for the next adventure.

Started out with a decent sized spread but as the sun continued to rise I noticed the birds were not finishing like earlier.

The sun was at our backs and we were all tucked into the cover  real well BUT - there was zero wind.

So, I pulled all the decoys but three wonder duck motion decoys and 2 regular decoys.

That did the trick.  Didn't take long after that.

Many of you that have hunted with me in the past have seen me use this at the end of a hunt where:

A) A decoy or 5 floated out too far for me to retrieve by hand without taking water over the top of my waders.

or

B) I'm being a sissy-boy that day because it's too cold and I don't want to get into the water.

No matter the reason, if you are a serious duck hunter you owe it to yourself to go down to your local Ace, Home Depot or Lowes and spend $12 in PVC and glue.  Heck, I'm betting most of y'all already have scarp parts around the garage.

I made it with 1/2" pvc.

Get after it!

​Danno

Oh, and if your rope is not long enough... see below:

*Do NOT try this at home.  These are obviously trained professionals.

Thick fog early bad it tough.  Shot what came in.  Luci can't count past 3 so to her it was a great day anyway.  And to that, I must agree. Blessed to sneak in a mid-week hunt.  Until next time...  "Shoot em in the lips"

Started out like any other duck hunt morning.  All three of us rendezvoused at the appointed meeting time & place...EARLY!

Being seasoned duck hunters we understand that 5 minutes early is on time.

So as we arrived at the property and began to unload our gear it came as quite the surprise that one of us (not named Sheldon or Dan) informs the others that he left his waders in his truck - back at the meet up spot. 😲

Eh, we just filed it under "life happens" and hustled double time back to his truck.  We could really tell that the guy (not named Sheldon or Dan) felt bad so we tried not to remind him that we will be cutting it close to be set up before legal hits.

We still managed to get set up with with a smooth 15 minutes to spare so we just enjoyed watching group after group of ducks begin dropping into our decoys.  Was both beautiful and painful as time really seems to crawl the closer we get to legal shooting time.

The ducks continued to drop in and presented some amazing shooting.  The dawgs, Blaze & Luci, both performed flawlessly.  Not a single blind retrieve was required all morning as they stayed on top of their game.  Competition tends to do that to these two.

Like the dog work, the shooting was flawless as well. Well, mostly...

There was only 1 bird that really stood out all morning.  Mainly because it was the first and only Greenhead we would see all morning.  As it continued its approach seemingly on a string directly towards the shooter not named Sheldon or Dan, I could swear that as a sliver of early morning sunlight hit its legs and I saw a sparkle.  Sheldon seems to think it was doubled banded.

It was such a gimmie shot that Sheldon and I didn't even take the guns off safe.  We just wanted to enjoy the show. Well, it was a show alright... and not in a good way.  Poor guy had a rough morning that we will never let him live down. LOL

In the end we finished the hunt in less time than it took to get back to the truck, towel off the retrievers and take pics.

Sheldon sporting a slick River Pattern on his waders while shooting a new "stacked" steel load to put things together this morning.  He continues to raise the bar when it comes to apparel and equipment.  #VeilCamo#Simms #MigraAmmunition

Luci & Blaze don't care about taking photos.  They are more interested in the ducks that continue to drop into our hole.

Love these retrievers and family members.  Makes amazing mornings like this even more enjoyable.

Looking forward to next time fellas! 

Welp, the best laid plans and all...

We show up with high expectations based on the previous afternoon of scouting.

It became evident 15 minutes before legal that the innitial setup wasn't going to work as we watched group after group dump into open water approximately 100 yards to the south of us.

We could sit, wait and hope that they would change their pattern and offer us some shots...  OR    pick up and move to where the ducks obviously wanted to be.

It was a no brainer.

We left the spread and set up in the brush close to where we saw the early action.

We were presented with only passing shots and quickly had a bunch of birds in the bag.

As things became clearer we noticed what had attracted the early flights - the receding water levels revealed a crappie condo above water.  Thats all we could come up with .  The ducks were keying on the exposed white PVC.  Strange.

The retrieves for my big engine Blaze were literally exhausting as she had to fight through thick vegetation the entire way out and back.  I felt bad for the girl as one of our flyers went sailing 100 yards away on the opposite bank.  Tough swim and then had to navigate over and around a bunch of timber.

She is at my feet now as I type (washed of course - my wife would kill me if I let her in the house w/o bathing het first.  The mud and weeds had a skunky smell to them.) She gets the spoiled princess treatment the rest of the day.  She earned it!

Had a great mid-week hunt with some awesome friends.  Being able to view 300+ birds in the sky was awe inspiring.

​Can't wait to get out and do it again!

Had a cool group of guys schedule a hunt for today about three weeks ago.

After scouting yesterday I had to make "the call."  You know, as a guide that makes a living on - guiding, I had to tell them "fellas, best place I have today is only holding 12 birds;  just not enough birds to put on a good hunt.  I'd rather we reschedule for a better hunt."

They said, "nope, we are still good.  When and where do we meet?"

I reluctantly agreed.

Turns out, they were great shots.

Had 2 birds come in before legal.  Ugh...  In my head I'm thinking that leaves us 10.

Then three came in and they splashed em all.  Not bad I'm thinking.  At least we didn't zero.

Then we saw a single high with no intention of giving us a look.

Another single came screaming by at mac 12.  Couldn't turn him.

Two more came in and never left.

Another single from the opposite direction. BOOM!

A pair drops in out of nowhere from over the trees.  Never had a chance.

Finally a single to finish the morning.

(We are sorry to report, we lost a bird to one of the ravenous turtles that inhabit this particular pond. Errr.)

All things considered, a great morning with a fun group of guys.

Sure, they look good now but once the shot is called - all bets are off.  LOL  

Season starts less than 2 weeks.

Can't wait!!!!

Book your groups now because the schedule will fill up quick based on these early fronts pushing a ton of birds down already.
​Text: 817-703-3689