The final weekend,

I told dad i was going after them this weekend, which means if birds land around me i will be going after them on foot. The days total was 7 Mallards one banded hen Mallard that was banded five years ago.

2: I chose 1 south, "BHatcher shot this pond the previous weekend and only got one bird". I put all the decoys out splitting the main boat channel. A pair came in right at shooting time and bammo drake down, bammo hen down,,, the hen was banded with a 1500 series band.

3: Another pair came in and landed way south east of me,,, i started after them and came to the area where i new they were and both got up next to me at 20 feet. I shot the drake or so i thought,,, Nope it was a hen. It was an easy double even for a 20 guage.

4: Several pairs laned in the slot, so i started off after them. When i got there all i could see after sneeking throught my toolie spot was pair of cinnamon teal "20 feet". I climbed up to get a better view and infront of me again a pair got up. I shot at the drake, he started down but wasnt dead, bammo again, this time down for good, dead. This walk from my pond was 20 minutes "one way".

5: Back at the pond now, another pair came in landing in the pond just east of me. I started out right after them and watched them tuck into the toolies. I got very close to where they went in and both jumped, bammo drake was downed.

7: I was done now but just before I got back into my hid another pair came in and landed in heavy toolie cover just east of me again. I knew i could easily sneek up on these cause i already walked there eariler. After i felt i was close enough i looked ahead and saw the drake on the water prening. I took one shot and with that the drake went to the right "alive" and to the left went the hen "alive". Crap, I thought i was going to loose both birds honestly. I ended up getting both birds with out firing another shot.

Then i motored up to BB who was in S Vietnam asked how he did, he had one mallard then i held up my bag of birds. His jaw dropped!!! I gave him a hen and we were off.

Awesome morning as good as the opener.

Single shot 8 birds, great morning, smoking gun!

Shot with BB in New Discovery today and ended up with 11 birds plus one "C" bird.

Very foggy morning, the spinner worked great early in the am as soon as it was turned on we had birds landing in the pond. It was turned on 9 minutes before shoot time, first i had a pare land 30 yards forn me then another 4 came in over the top of me no more than 20 feet over my head. They too landed in between Bill and I, then came another pair that landed off to the side of Bill,,, 8 birds on the pond before shoot time. When it was time I was trying to figuyre which group to shot first but bill beat me to the punch, his first shot was at the 4 on the pond but nothing stayed down. then he turned to the other parir off to the side of him. BB got the first drake. With that i was ready for the other pair next to me to get up but it took along time I could hear them struggling to quickly get out of the deep toolies, the drake got up an flew straight at me, bamo toast, i tried to shot at the hen but my gun didnt shoot.

2 Next Bird was a hen that landed on the pond, head shot.

4 Next was 2 pairs that came in, i couldnt wait for the first pair to pass over me as they were in my sweet spot. First double of the year.

5 Next was the "C"birds

6 3 teal flutter in, bammo first one in the air in over 2 years

7 A hen came in and landed very far away from us, she was quacking so i quacked back and she kept answering for the next 5 minutes. Quacking very fast then she flew over and Bammo toast. I should have let her get farther away.

8 Phill cripple was next, i was out trying to jump up some birds when 4 going into him in 3 in the North came over 30 yards. They we into he and guest and they barly got one... Two other flew away hit hard one ofwhich came over me. Flying down wind very fast " a right ot left shot" at 35 yards Bamo he too was toast.

Drake came in and dropped right on top of me, bill shot it started down but gained again,,, 3 secconds went by then he donwnd it with a final shot. This bird was a hybred bird, Greenhead but tons of white onthe chest and very dark coloring on the breast. Dog duck.

Bill had another pair come while i was out and he took the Drake.

The rest of the club didnt get much, i think out of 10 guns on 15 birds were shot and we go 11 of them.

Kayaking

First day out I went into the south were the first wood duck duck box was positioned as soon as i got back onto the boat trail I jumped two wood ducks, two feet from me. Then went up one in the south boat trail, cut across across "to right" a small pond to the south then towards the west, back across the trail to the west and jumped my first birds. the first was a drake that i downed with one shot then another jumped up even closer to me but my 2nd shoot seemed ot miss. I paddled over picked up the bird then went toward the GH hill. nothing over here. Then went into Six inthe south Loafing pond then up to dalkie where i jumped a pair but counld shoot cause they were teboned to me and a shot whould have flipped me over. Nothing further into the shalllow end on the pond nor at the figure that went up north.

Then into 6, loafing, Dalkie,,, nothing in any of these ponds.

When I went into 7 in the south I immediately jumped another pair but couldnt shoot cause they tooo were Tboned to me, as i entered the pond i saw a hen that had watched me come in. she too was Tboned to me thought, i tried to turn but she took off with out a shout. Then i went into 5 nothing on the way out however i jumped 5 birds and the last was a drake Bammo, he was coming down with a borken wing, my last shot didnt appear to hit him. Then he skimmed across the pond out of sight, i paddle quickly to get arount the coner and found him in a clump to toolites dead. Interesting in that he seems very alive but quickly dided whtne out otsight. Two in the hand now!

I paddled to the cross section, the first area i went into i looked had to the west then glance to the the east and saw a drake 15o yards away, he was looking right at me, slowly i back out of his line of sight. When i got to the area i thought was paralle to him i tried cutting through a small toolie break, then saw him aobu t 30 yards to the side. I was trying to figure out how to turn the boat to shoot when another appear 10 feet infornt of me. bammo number 3 wass downed and I was done with my first hunt from the boat for the season.

3 birds and 5 shots.