I went duck hunting with two friends, Mike and Matt (father and son, respectively) this morning at my duck lease. My lease is located in Palo Pinto county, and although the water is down significantly due to drought conditions, the water is still bigger than anything around. The lease is strategically located between Possum Kingdom lake and the Brazos River, so there is pretty much a consistent flow of ducks coming in and out of the lease.

Prior to the hunt, I had e-mailed Mike and Matt, making sure they knew to bring face masks to the hunt, as the forecast was for sunny skies and light wind. Under these conditions, duck hunting is usually difficult at best because the bright sun exposes you more to the ducks(especially movement), and the lack of wind gives the ducks more time to survey your spread before deciding to land. I had told both of my guest hunters that they would likely have to shoot their ducks early to have any hope of getting a limit of birds. I told M/M to meet me at a preordained location at 5:30 this morning.

M/M were on time, and we got to the blind by 5:50, where I worked on the spread. The forecast had called for SSW winds 5-10 mph this morning, and I set the decoys accordingly. The blind sits on the west bank of the lake, perpendicular to the North and South. North is to the left, and South is to the right of the blind. I set out about two dozen teal to the north of the blind in a thin string, and placed about three dozen large ducks (primarily mallard hens and widgeon) to the south, along with a motorized duck decoy. I also place a small group of three widgeon decoys outside the teal, in deeper water.

As daylight progressed, I noticed a change in the wind. The wind started to shift and lightly blow out of the north. This movement caused some of my decoys to become un-anchored from the bottom and drift toward the opposite bank. I also became concerned with the placement of my motorized decoy, but was afraid to leave the blind because the normal time for ducks to pour into the lake was upon us. Early, a group of three widgeon came into the spread without hesitation, only one flew away. Almost immediately, a single gadwall came in and was quickly dispatched. At this point, I did not release my Chesapeake Retriever, Laverne, for fear of losing birds. A large group of teal came in, four were downed. A few minutes later two more gadwall went down.

By this time, the sun had come up pretty well, and the wind was non-existant. The decoys just sat on the water, and we were exposed by a bright sun shining in our faces directly in the east. There was a lull in the action, so I released Laverne. Lavern is not quite three, and still has a lot of puppy energy, so it took me a moment to reel her in, but she quickly got down to work and picked up all nine ducks that we had down.

Back in the blind, we were six birds away from a limit, and the conditions were horrible for duck hunting. Two green wing teal came in, both did not make it out. More waiting. 8:40 a.m., and it is starting to get hot. Another gadwall single, another bird down. Things really slowed down to a crawl, no birds. We sat, and waited, "only three more birds", I said. We waited. 9:15, a large group of ducks flew WAAAAAY overhead, we skybusted, on dropped. Halleluja! Two more for a limit. I released Laverne, she brought all the birds back. Thirteen birds. It was hot, we quit. We get out of the blind, M/M picked up spent shells, and I moved to start pulling decoys....I kid you not, TWO WIDGEON LANDED IN THE SPREAD. We stood there and laughed as no one had a gun. That's duck hunting!

Later, when I picked up the decoys, Laverne found another greenwing that had been crippled and wandered off, so we actually had fourteen birds on the day. Not bad work for such pitiful conditions.

Images and Files: View all 10 photos / videos here.