Hey All;
The last two evenings have really opened my eyes when it comes to hunting small little water holes! I have shot 8 ducks in this beaver pond and two of them have been banded black ducks!!! The ducks have been a mix of mallards, blacks and one wood duck... The first hunt was me and a friend, last night I hit the spot by myself.
As you'll see from the pics, I use a camoflaged 10 foot flat bottom boat that I easily load and unload by myself and gets into even the shallowest water... I do get ALOT of puzzled looks with it riding on top of my Chevy Tracker, but hey, IT WORKS!!!
This spot is a small beaver pond and has two active beaver huts... The first evening, having never hunted the spot before, I simply sat on the hut. I quickly found that the ducks were screaming in from behind me, so the second evening, I set up facing the hut, about 20 meters away from the hut, and BOY, did that work. I simply sat in the center of the pond on some logs and put out 6 decoys! I found it easier to shoot as I had more time to see the ducks coming and was standing on solid ground!!!
The shooting was fun as the ducks would fly by, looking for a spot to roost and hear my calls. They would then circle, see the decoys and come screaming in to the pond. They really do look like fighter jets with their wings locked and dropping from the sky!!!
In short, I would say to anyone looking for a good evening shoot, "Look at small ponds more carefully and with a couple of decoys, you can have a hell of a shoot!" All 8 of these puddle ducks were taken in the last hour of light. That makes for some quick, fast action!!!
Me and my buddy are going to let the pond "rest" till next tuesday, I don't want to pressure this spot too hard. Our guess is that the migrating ducks will keep hitting this pond till it's frozen, YAHOO!!!
Cheers
Jay
Getting ready
Just about to set in
The "spot"... You can see my boat, decoys and the hut I sat on. The second hut is to my left out of the pic about 20 meters. Like I said, it's NOT a big spot...
The 4 ducks I shot, two mallards and two black ducks, one of which is banded! It is the second duck from right.
The last two evenings have really opened my eyes when it comes to hunting small little water holes! I have shot 8 ducks in this beaver pond and two of them have been banded black ducks!!! The ducks have been a mix of mallards, blacks and one wood duck... The first hunt was me and a friend, last night I hit the spot by myself.
As you'll see from the pics, I use a camoflaged 10 foot flat bottom boat that I easily load and unload by myself and gets into even the shallowest water... I do get ALOT of puzzled looks with it riding on top of my Chevy Tracker, but hey, IT WORKS!!!
This spot is a small beaver pond and has two active beaver huts... The first evening, having never hunted the spot before, I simply sat on the hut. I quickly found that the ducks were screaming in from behind me, so the second evening, I set up facing the hut, about 20 meters away from the hut, and BOY, did that work. I simply sat in the center of the pond on some logs and put out 6 decoys! I found it easier to shoot as I had more time to see the ducks coming and was standing on solid ground!!!
The shooting was fun as the ducks would fly by, looking for a spot to roost and hear my calls. They would then circle, see the decoys and come screaming in to the pond. They really do look like fighter jets with their wings locked and dropping from the sky!!!
In short, I would say to anyone looking for a good evening shoot, "Look at small ponds more carefully and with a couple of decoys, you can have a hell of a shoot!" All 8 of these puddle ducks were taken in the last hour of light. That makes for some quick, fast action!!!
Me and my buddy are going to let the pond "rest" till next tuesday, I don't want to pressure this spot too hard. Our guess is that the migrating ducks will keep hitting this pond till it's frozen, YAHOO!!!
Cheers
Jay
Getting ready
Just about to set in
The "spot"... You can see my boat, decoys and the hut I sat on. The second hut is to my left out of the pic about 20 meters. Like I said, it's NOT a big spot...
The 4 ducks I shot, two mallards and two black ducks, one of which is banded! It is the second duck from right.
The name on the boat cracks me up :lol: Thanks for the pic's...KF
