Some want it easy. My hardest hunt this year was just this past Saturday. My boy (his first season) and I hunted this lake a couple of weeks ago and it was choked with weeds -- you had to stop every hundred yards or so and clear the prop of the foxtail. We shot a quick limit that day. Last week we hunted a field and shot a quick limit. This week he wanted to hunt the "long lake" again. Now it was not only choked with weeds but a quarter inch of ice too.
I was saying," This might be too tough. It was hard going last time, this will be worse."
"AW! But it was our best hunt ever!"
"Okay, we'll try."
Got halfway out and was stuck.
Paddling, poling, getting out in shallow spots and pushing - I got the boat to the area the ducks had kept open all night and was able to thread my way up to the shooting site an hour after legal light. We shot a quick limit -- me concentrating on greenheads and the boy shooting whatever was legal. Problem was now the ice was thicker in the main part of the lake and we had to try and exactly retrace our path through the weed ice. It took us an hour and a half to make 1 km of lake back to the truck -- again assisted by paddling, poling and pushing -- the marine battery for the trolling motor was almost dead.
I shot well and the boy was tickled pink that he'd nearly taken me out with a falling spoonbill that literally bounced off of my knee on its way down. I guess it was worth it. He was happy (so was I after a well earned whiskey at home and a nap). Even the wounded birds "hit and stuck" as they cracked into the ice.
The upside is, he does a lot of the cleaning now. (9 mallards, 5 spoonies, a bluebill and a canvasback).
I was saying," This might be too tough. It was hard going last time, this will be worse."
"AW! But it was our best hunt ever!"
"Okay, we'll try."
Got halfway out and was stuck.
Paddling, poling, getting out in shallow spots and pushing - I got the boat to the area the ducks had kept open all night and was able to thread my way up to the shooting site an hour after legal light. We shot a quick limit -- me concentrating on greenheads and the boy shooting whatever was legal. Problem was now the ice was thicker in the main part of the lake and we had to try and exactly retrace our path through the weed ice. It took us an hour and a half to make 1 km of lake back to the truck -- again assisted by paddling, poling and pushing -- the marine battery for the trolling motor was almost dead.
I shot well and the boy was tickled pink that he'd nearly taken me out with a falling spoonbill that literally bounced off of my knee on its way down. I guess it was worth it. He was happy (so was I after a well earned whiskey at home and a nap). Even the wounded birds "hit and stuck" as they cracked into the ice.
The upside is, he does a lot of the cleaning now. (9 mallards, 5 spoonies, a bluebill and a canvasback).
