I thought we were going to hunt rice fields but we were greeted with this:
Even after breakign ice the fields refroze quickly.
The Ice pushed all the ducks off the rice and bean fields and onto big water.
Lukly the guy who invited me had access to a Lake Blind on Beaver Dam... a historic oxbow lake hunted by Nash Buckingham!
Nash Buckingham is arguably the most important writer in the history of waterfowl and Beaver Dam was one of his "home lakes"
We shot from a blind named "Tripple Tree"
They plywood walls were fantastic in the windy 16 degree weather!
With only big lakes and the river open ducks poured into the lake.
The first day the water was mostly open and we quickly shot a two man limit of gadwall and a teal.
Here is one stud Gaddy -
Day two was colder and a lot windier and more ducks were flying. We shot a 3 man limit including 10 species of waterfowl to include a Speckle Belly goose!!
Yes a ringer and a bluebill ended up in the bag.
With the shooting getting better and the weather getting colder we decided to invite three more to join us the last day.
There was one small hole in the ice and the ducks wanted in
Shot a 5 man limit of mostly Gaddys
A few more fun shots-
Hulls on the ice:
Count they decoys and count the ducks
Ice building up on the Cypress
Eating Peanut Butter cookies my Bride sent up with us - they were lucky. Any time it got slow I pulled out the cookies and the ducks started flying again.
Stacking Ducks like wood
A video of the run in at noon breaking ice all the way.
I can tell you hunting in cold like that is rough. I came home tired, beat up but very happy.
And I can't wait for my next rip to the Delta!
