the spank
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
Day 1
Season Opener: My wife Deb and I set up the A-frame and decoys in a silaged barley field we had been watching the past few days that had been holding a small number of honkers & ducks knowing once the other hunters shooting the pea fields holding big numbers of birds around the area started thumping at them we'd see a good show of birds moving around looking for new spots to feed and sure enough the numbers of birds that we saw and the number that worked us were 10 fold to what had been using the field.
My buddy Ben who this past week got the call to start working night shifts at a turnaround, found out his scheduled days off were to be sundays and being as his shift ends at 05:30 and the drive home is 40 minutes he would be able to join us a few minutes after legal shooting time if we didn't mind him coming along so we picked up his gun, chair and shell bag saturday night as he cannot have a gun in his truck on the worksite and security checks vehicles entering site.
Shortly after setting up the blind and decoys, parking my truck down field and returning to the blind Ben arrived.
He parked at the end of the field, started walking out to join us and was only about 150 yards from the blind when I called a pair of honkers into the decoys. Ben hit the dirt to allow me to work the birds and they sailed in wings cupped, feet down. I said to Deb you take the bird on the right and we rose and fired a milisecond apart and both birds tumbled stone dead in the small spread at the shots.
Ben picked the two birds up on his way into the blind and the three of us got settled in for the show.
It was a beautiful sunny morning spent with my wife and a good friend in the blind watching the sunrise, smelling that familiar smell of the fresh cut crops, grass, the early season fall air all the while listening to the world around us come to life. There is no other season of the year that stirs up so much anticipation of whats to come or awakens deep seated memories of seasons past and especially so with each passing year as I age knowing each season could very well be my last.
A few minutes passed and birds traded back and forth, some working in beautifully, others looking to go to some other destination or circling and circling us on the edge of "in range" only to decide there was safer options elsewhere.
We heard gunfire faintly rumbling in the distance several times as the pea field shooters let loose and moments later the sky would be full of birds moving in all directions.
A few times there were so many flocks of ducks and geese working us at the same time it was hard to decide which to focus on and alot of good opportunities were passed up trying to make up our minds.
When we finally decided to call it a morning we had 17 of an allowed 24 honkers on the ground and 13 of 24 ducks.
It was a great morning!!
Season Opener: My wife Deb and I set up the A-frame and decoys in a silaged barley field we had been watching the past few days that had been holding a small number of honkers & ducks knowing once the other hunters shooting the pea fields holding big numbers of birds around the area started thumping at them we'd see a good show of birds moving around looking for new spots to feed and sure enough the numbers of birds that we saw and the number that worked us were 10 fold to what had been using the field.
My buddy Ben who this past week got the call to start working night shifts at a turnaround, found out his scheduled days off were to be sundays and being as his shift ends at 05:30 and the drive home is 40 minutes he would be able to join us a few minutes after legal shooting time if we didn't mind him coming along so we picked up his gun, chair and shell bag saturday night as he cannot have a gun in his truck on the worksite and security checks vehicles entering site.
Shortly after setting up the blind and decoys, parking my truck down field and returning to the blind Ben arrived.
He parked at the end of the field, started walking out to join us and was only about 150 yards from the blind when I called a pair of honkers into the decoys. Ben hit the dirt to allow me to work the birds and they sailed in wings cupped, feet down. I said to Deb you take the bird on the right and we rose and fired a milisecond apart and both birds tumbled stone dead in the small spread at the shots.
Ben picked the two birds up on his way into the blind and the three of us got settled in for the show.
It was a beautiful sunny morning spent with my wife and a good friend in the blind watching the sunrise, smelling that familiar smell of the fresh cut crops, grass, the early season fall air all the while listening to the world around us come to life. There is no other season of the year that stirs up so much anticipation of whats to come or awakens deep seated memories of seasons past and especially so with each passing year as I age knowing each season could very well be my last.
A few minutes passed and birds traded back and forth, some working in beautifully, others looking to go to some other destination or circling and circling us on the edge of "in range" only to decide there was safer options elsewhere.
We heard gunfire faintly rumbling in the distance several times as the pea field shooters let loose and moments later the sky would be full of birds moving in all directions.
A few times there were so many flocks of ducks and geese working us at the same time it was hard to decide which to focus on and alot of good opportunities were passed up trying to make up our minds.
When we finally decided to call it a morning we had 17 of an allowed 24 honkers on the ground and 13 of 24 ducks.
It was a great morning!!
