Early Teal and Woodduck Season...

[bman]

I go away for a day and we turn into Gaff... Ducks fellas ducks

[lonesouth]

[Harmsway]

I have my spot picked out...


anyone else hunting next weekend?

I heard you out there this morning, so I've got a bead on your secret spot.

[rocket]

Y'all can have it. Something about duck hunting in shorts turns me off. See y'all when the real season opens!! Good luck

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THAT WOULD MAKE FOR A BEAUTIFUL MOUNT

[rocket]

Reading this thread reminds me why I quit duck hunting 20 years ago.

It hasn't been 20 years, but I agree wholeheartedly TC.

[MudDucker]

While I hate hunting public land on the opener, I've been too busy to check out some of the ponds that have recently filled with water around here, so my hunting bud and I went to the mud hole.

This is the least prep I've done preseason, but everything was rolling along fine, until we got almost to the turn off and I realized that I had not seen the paddles in the boat when I pulled it out from under the shed. When we go to the check in line, I confirmed my fear. No paddles. With my hunting buddy having a bad arm from a bad accident early in the year, I had to make danged sure we didn't get stuck. A feat that is not so easy to do at the mud hole. We pull up at 4:45 AM to what looks like a single file parking lot. We were truck #60. Go to launch and we had to unhook the trailer, turn the truck and the trailer around and then back the boat in. To say it was a zoo would be an understatement. With the problem with the paddles we stayed in the main lake in clumps of rushes. Set out our decoys and we were ready 30 minutes before daylight.

We sat back and watched the zoo in action. Boats moved and lights flashed everywhere until well after shooting time. Shooting time ... well some of these guys were on Grinich meantime, because they started shooting at 6:30, instead of 7. We had 4 teal come to the deks and they all died. We had one make an overhead pass and while we both hit it and watched it sail off, we couldn't find it. My bud had to shot a 28 gauge due to this bad arm. He reloaded the shells himself. He had to shot them more than once, but he was able to bring two to the table as was I.

From daylight on there were 4 boats that paddled around aimlessly in front of us. Must have had too much nervous energy. At 9AM the armada began to emerge. I saw a flash of color, but could not believe my eyes, but yes, someone was hunting from an ORANGE kayak. As I was shaking my head, another flash caught my eye and here comes a tri-colored kayak. Red, yellow and orange. If my phone had not been buried deep in my bag in a waterproof pouch, I would have taken pictures of that one.

We eased back up to the ramp to watch 20 people trying to take their boats out all at one time. Turns out the guys in the orange kayaks had killed two a piece. One guy proudly held up a blue wing and a cormorant for picture taking. Guys were cussing how people came in on top of them and set up, including the guy who tried to get in right behind us in the same clump. Mud was everywhere. There were a FEW good men, who like me and my bud had been there, seen that and gotten the t-shirt who were watching the show with a sly grin. Open Day Idiots ... coming to a ramp near you!

As usual, Hardees had good biscuits.

[Salty Gator]

A comorant? I thought it was highly illegal to kill one of those. Do people eat comorants? Thanks

[MudDucker]

A comorant? I thought it was highly illegal to kill one of those. Do people eat comorants? Thanks

It is illegal and I hear it tastes a lot like spotted owls (j/k). Ignorant yahoos shot them regularly. Pulled up to a ramp in middle Florida two years ago and there were 20 dead ones littering the landing that some slob had shot and dumped.

[onefishtwofish]

We did not bother scouting much as both our normal spots were without water, so we just decided on our plan C. We set up and managed 3 woodrows, but they were few and far between. No yahoos in sight, we did not bother getting there real early, so we gave everyone a wide berth (wish others would do that). Just hard to get too pumped up in the warm weather any more- if it were not for thermacells, i would not even go any more. Was a nice day on the water, but not a lot of action. I expect that will happen in 2 weeks (going to Canada). Did not even bother to go on Sunday, just slept in at the duck camp after a day of college football, ribeye steaks and rum.

[BlindHog]

I scouted the mudhole Friday, saw some ducks and marked a good-looking spot. Camped out Fri night -- I hate camping there, but it beats driving over twice especially with $3.75 gas. Son had pooped out on me but I was itching to go.

I was vehicle #19 going in. Got to my "good-looking spot and launched. What had appeared to be water was 1 inch H2O top of mud of course. Wore myself out getting in position all of 200 yards from vehicle. At least noone encroached too close. Had ducks in the dekes all around me 1 hr before legal and couldnt believe it when people shot 45 min early (that's bad even for out there).

My next door neighbor group tore it up while my spot was only luke warm. They fired about 50 rounds before I shot at all. But that just allowed me a longer hunt as I eventually dropped my 4. Lost one swimmer that landed beyond a patch. I was moving about 12" per paddle-stroke, so I was pretty easy to out-distance.

So I brought home 3 one-pound birds for my 1 1/2 days of effort, spent a whole tank of gas and somehow considered it to be fun. Where I was, there was good manners and the ya-hoo quotient was way down for an opener.

I did see one three-man group unload what appeared to be a straps containing 18 birds. FWC was checking diligently at a roadblock and I fear they did not just give a warning for the old "But officer I thought the limit was SIX - honest I did!"

P.s. Barry -- this was The Shocker's maiden voyage under my command. Aye Aye Capn!

[WolfeMan]

P.s. Barry -- this was The Shocker's maiden voyage under my command. Aye Aye Capn!

Love it.