Opening Day Pictures

[Springhill Duckman]

Opening day is always a good time. We saw a good number of birds but couldn't get anything to finish. We had two nice groups of geese that came all the way in and ended with 6 geese and 1 gadwal. Here are some pics.

[Fish Taxi]

Nice Honkers! Your breakfast also looks a lot better than the peanut butter crackers I had.

I only saw a few birds on Saturday morning, so I passed up all of them hoping they would come back this morning when I took out my first-timer. No luck there. I had gadwalls and divers coming in Saturday, but this morning we had Canadas and mallards. Go figure... I guess the moral of the story is, "don't put off til tomorrow what you can shoot today?"

It was a fun day for my newbie. He got to break in his new waders, and didn't even fall down or get stuck in the mud. He took his first shot at a cupped bird while it was still about 80 yards out and coming in on a string... I think he was just a little too fired up to get that first bird under his belt... He exercised a lot more restraint after that, and managed to get a 12#+ Canada and a very pretty mallard drake.

The important thing is that now he's hooked just like the rest of us.

[dedawg1149]

congrats looks like alot of work for birds?

[Fish Taxi]

Work??? I'll take a day of waterfowling over honey-dos every time! It only feels like work if you don't see any birds.

[DuckHuntingUSA]

Heres one of a 14 year old I took out on his first duck hunt. This one did fall down on his second day. Told him not to fall down, forgot to tell him what to do if he did. He swam till we came and righted him again, scared him a little. Ducks really cooperated. Scouting the day before was no indication of what was to come. Opening day we had many flocks on the water straight in front of the blind, perfect for the kids. Sunday we sat up wrong for the wind and they were finishing a little right, but kids still had a big shoot and saw a great show. Heard that Whooosh sound a lot, and got to hear a lone mallard and a woddie and a teal calling back to the call. No geese anywhere close.

[Fish Taxi]

Old hunter... and a new hunter. The old hunter has the white facial hair, and the new hunter is the one who DOESN'T want to swim.

[slingshot]

nice pond, any crappie in there?

[Fish Taxi]

Originally Posted by slingshot

nice pond, any crappie in there?

I wish. Plenty of beavers though.

[Springhill Duckman]

:d

[Fish Taxi]

I always like seeing your pics, Nick. You got me looking back through the years at pics of some of the hunts I've enjoyed in the past. Here's one of my all-time favorite pics of Rusty. This is from 5 years ago. He sure was a ball of fire in his prime!