So id just like to start this thread out saying ive had my good days and the bad ones out hunting. Just like an ebb and flow of the tide i float on while duck hunting or the waves that throw me around in 40km winds, i can say yesterday i had one of those (crappy) days.
Well I planned to go out with my lady duck hunting, traveled and got dinner. I found after that dinner both made us sick the Sat. morning. We woke up to what looked to be a nice day 20 km wind to start, got out to the boat docks where 3 other boats were waiting and deciding to launch because they thought it was too windy for them and the small aluminum boats they had. After that they left, I still got my boat ready, loaded guns and ammo into it, and waited a bit till i could see slight bit of light to see the waves as the wind was picking up. While waiting my lady got sick and felt better, i wasn't too bad at that moment. Set the boat out in the launch and one other guy decided to fallow and launch his boat but not venture too far. We went a bit further about 1.5 km from the dock and set up about 250 yards from shore. Set the anchors and started putting decoys out, that's where i started feeling sick and remember thinking hopefully this wont be a Crappy day.
It all started to go downhill from there, one of my 2 anchor lines broke at the hook and the boat started floating off slowly as i was 20 yards away, had to throw the bag of duck decoys back in the boat grab it, find my yellow anchor line and tie it all back up while the boat thrashed around. I had got that all tied back up, set the decoys out, got back in the boat with her and sat down. Birds came in, tryed to hit a couple of the first ones but ended up being behind on the first few by about 2 ft. Had a few bufflehead come in, almost land on the water and we took a shot, had a good pattern at 40 yards, but nothing happened. The duck flew off unscathed which seemed to continue through the day for a bit and using 10 or so shells finally downed my first bird. A couple mallards came in and one shot each we dropped them at 35 no problem. Had another ruddy duck come in, i shot once, he folded and hit the water like a good hit. About 5 sec later i see it get up and fly off into the distance as I get out of the boat to get it. My lady did the same, the duck hit the water about 150 yards from us, we go to try and find it and cant find it anywhere and return back. Set the anchors out and nothing wants to grab, had to get out and find good ground to catch it in instead of the muck we were sitting over. What a pain that was in the waist deep water pulling the boat through, 8-12" waves.
A bit later my stomach turned, felt so bad it seemed to distract me and was about to crap myself in the boat. Ran off to the closest spot which seems like forever when its only 200 yards in waist deep water to shore. Felt better and came back to hit 2 more each and used around 30 shells myself felt like i was just making noise that day, where most days id use 10-13 shells to hit 6. By the end of the day the wind picked up faster the rain moved in my lunch, we had hit 6 total between both of us. A pair mallards, a canvasback, greater scaup, a ruddy and bufflehead. We had enough by lunch and went home, quite the experience for that day and quite a bit to learn from the good and the bad.
Well I planned to go out with my lady duck hunting, traveled and got dinner. I found after that dinner both made us sick the Sat. morning. We woke up to what looked to be a nice day 20 km wind to start, got out to the boat docks where 3 other boats were waiting and deciding to launch because they thought it was too windy for them and the small aluminum boats they had. After that they left, I still got my boat ready, loaded guns and ammo into it, and waited a bit till i could see slight bit of light to see the waves as the wind was picking up. While waiting my lady got sick and felt better, i wasn't too bad at that moment. Set the boat out in the launch and one other guy decided to fallow and launch his boat but not venture too far. We went a bit further about 1.5 km from the dock and set up about 250 yards from shore. Set the anchors and started putting decoys out, that's where i started feeling sick and remember thinking hopefully this wont be a Crappy day.
It all started to go downhill from there, one of my 2 anchor lines broke at the hook and the boat started floating off slowly as i was 20 yards away, had to throw the bag of duck decoys back in the boat grab it, find my yellow anchor line and tie it all back up while the boat thrashed around. I had got that all tied back up, set the decoys out, got back in the boat with her and sat down. Birds came in, tryed to hit a couple of the first ones but ended up being behind on the first few by about 2 ft. Had a few bufflehead come in, almost land on the water and we took a shot, had a good pattern at 40 yards, but nothing happened. The duck flew off unscathed which seemed to continue through the day for a bit and using 10 or so shells finally downed my first bird. A couple mallards came in and one shot each we dropped them at 35 no problem. Had another ruddy duck come in, i shot once, he folded and hit the water like a good hit. About 5 sec later i see it get up and fly off into the distance as I get out of the boat to get it. My lady did the same, the duck hit the water about 150 yards from us, we go to try and find it and cant find it anywhere and return back. Set the anchors out and nothing wants to grab, had to get out and find good ground to catch it in instead of the muck we were sitting over. What a pain that was in the waist deep water pulling the boat through, 8-12" waves.
A bit later my stomach turned, felt so bad it seemed to distract me and was about to crap myself in the boat. Ran off to the closest spot which seems like forever when its only 200 yards in waist deep water to shore. Felt better and came back to hit 2 more each and used around 30 shells myself felt like i was just making noise that day, where most days id use 10-13 shells to hit 6. By the end of the day the wind picked up faster the rain moved in my lunch, we had hit 6 total between both of us. A pair mallards, a canvasback, greater scaup, a ruddy and bufflehead. We had enough by lunch and went home, quite the experience for that day and quite a bit to learn from the good and the bad.
