The Opener
Posted 10/26/2011
This year I was blessed and duck season opened while I was home on leave from Iraq. Luckly, it also happened to be three weeks earlier than any date I can remember. As soon as I heard the news of the opener, I couldn't help but think of all the good days and the not so good days spent in the duck blind. I remembered hunts from the past, dogs I've hunted over and the friends I shared these experiences with. This one was sure to become one of those fond memories.
After scouting images from aerial photographs and from past knowledge of my chosen hunting area, I decided to hunt an island on the St Louis river in Northern Minnesota. Along with my cousin and long time hunting partner, Tom, we experiment with the area a week before the opener on an early goose hunt. That morning the two of
us loaded up a canoe with goose decoys, our shotguns and my yellow lab, Mini. An hour before sunrise we set our decoys and got comfortable and waited to see what the first hint of sunlight would bring us. To my surprise, many ducks filled up the sandbar in front of our island. Mallards would cruise past over head, wood ducks were in a
group of about fifty or so not far away from us and green wing teal even came and visited our goose decoys. We saw few geese and the ones we saw were shy, but with the opener less than a week away, we considered the outing a success.
The night before opener reminded me of Christmas Eve when I was a young boy, hoping Santa would bring me that Red Rider BB gun I just had to have. Once again, we loaded the bed of my pick up with the canoe, a pile of decoys, snacks, lanyards with calls and just about anything you could ever possibly imagine needed to hunt ducks. I put Mini in her kennel and I went off to bed to get some rest for the night.
The five hours of sleep before 3 A.M. seemed to come a little sooner than I wanted until the realization set in. It was the opener! I jumped out of bed and put on my camo. I took a few extra minutes to put my camo face paint on, or "war paint" as I call it, because you just have to look good in the blind. Tom was waiting for me at the door. We grabbed a few last minute things, loaded Mini into the truck, and we were off.
The drive was about a half hour down some rough roads. We bounced around, drank some coffee to wake up, and chatted about the years growing up on our river. When we got to our location we unloaded the truck and drug everything we had down to the river bank. The air was cool and thick with fog. What a perfect morning I thought to myself as the two of us loaded our vessel. We pushed off shore, probably exceeded the canoes weight limit by a couple hundred pounds, and set off to that honey hole we found a week prior. Once arriving we found a good spot for a blind hidden by five foot tall reeds with branches from a willow tree hanging over us. The spot was perfect for ambushing ducks.
Now before I tell you how we set up our decoys, you must understand that a good decoy spread takes a lot of thought and consideration. Sometimes even arguing. Any die hard duck hunter would agree. After debating and rearranging and more rearranging we had a good looking spread. Thirty yards to our right, we set mallards up in
the shape of a letter "J". To our left, another thirty yards, out we set more mallards in group of about a dozen with the closest ones about ten yards off the bank. We set four goose decoys just outside the pocket slightly to the left side just in case a goose or two flew over. The slight current from the river gave the goose floaters motion and kept them in a line with each other. They looked like a small family group swimming up stream making our spread come alive. Usually I leave the pocket of my spread empty, but because of the woodies we had seen, we decided that it might not be a bad idea to add a couple wood duck decoys in the center of the pocket about 10 yards out in front of us. This would still give the birds plenty of room to land inside shooting range and if need be, it would be a fast process if we needed to remove them. I looked at my watch
and the wait until shooting time began.
As we waited, mother nature made a call to me that sent me racing into the trees in search of a perfectly fallen log. Those of you who have been in this situation in a pair of neoprene waders can appreciate my urgency. Luckily I had prevailed and found myself a log. As I proudly came walking back, I could hear something walking in the tall grass in front of me. Tom yelled up to me and ask, "where ya at?". "Up hear!" I shouted back. In a concerned voice he said, " you might want to cut strait down to the river, there's a skunk headed up your way!" I took his advice. When I returned to our blind, I learned the skunk had worked its way along the river bank and wandered into the blind. Thankfully Mini just held her spot at watched as it passed through. We where able to continue our mission. Good girl, Mini!
Three minutes out from shooting time we were yet to see a duck. We saw other duck hunters, but no ducks. As I watched the final seconds tick down, I heard shots fired from our right. Somebody was getting some action. Then more gun fire off to our left! Someone else is here and they are shooting at ducks too! Just as I started to have
that feeling of epic failure come over me, two ducks come in from the right. "Shhhh," I whispered, "let 'em come in". As the two wood ducks dropped into land with the decoys in our pocket, I shouldered my 12 guage and fired a load of 3 shot, stopping the first hen wood duck of the year! She was dead before she hit the water. I sent Mini to pick up the first duck I had shot for her to retrieve. As my little yellow lab was delivering my prize, two more came in from the right, we both fired and I made a clean kill on a beautiful mature drake woody. Tom folded up the hen that was with him. I helped Mini with the retrieve and we were right back in the blind. Mini is good at doing double marked retrieves, but hunting a river you have to get on them quickly. The current carries the ducks down stream and a hunter must recover what he kills. Waiting until after the hunt to pick up ducks isn't an option. We settled back into our hide out and waited for more to come. A few minutes later, a lone wood duck came into our spread, Tom folded her up with the first shot. I sent Mini out on the retrieve and she made short work of the hen wood duck as she she tried to get further into the river. Not a bad start at two wood ducks a piece. Another thirty minutes or so went by and the the sun started to break up the fog that blanketed the river. We could see the other hunters up river from where we sat. As I was spying on them through my binoculars, I could see a flock of a dozen or so ducks headed in their direction. The flock of mallards circled their decoys once and swung down the river strait to us. I got on my call and blew a loud hail call in hopes they would hear it. Sure enough, they cupped their wings, and drifted over our pocket. The first mallard tried to set down between the bank and the group of mallard decoys we had placed there in the dark a couple hours earlier. I shouldered my shotgun once again and fired, dropping the lead duck on the muddy bank. The rest of them flaired off to our right strait in front of us. I fired a second shot putting the large mallard into the water. Yes! I just got a double. An hour or so went by and the action was winding down. We discussed how the mallards over shot the pocket and decided to pull out the wood duck decoys we had set in it. We both decided to walk out there to stretch our legs and let the dog get out a little for a bit. What could it hurt? We were off to a good start and besides, we haven't seen anything in an hour right? As soon as Tom fastened the keel weight onto the last decoy, we saw more ducks coming. Sure enough, just as I had done in years past, I was caught standing in the middle of my decoy spread and ducks wanted to land. Realizing there was no way we could make it to the cover of our hide out, we crouched down in the water. The ducks flew past. I blew a hail call and the group of about ten mallards circled us. One was quacking back but the two mysterious blobs and the yellow dog had them a bit leary so they flew past again. I got back on the call and here they came, forty yards out. I'm not one to take long shots on a duck so I said to hold off and wait for a better opportunity. They circled past with one of the youngsters still quacking at us. Third times a charm right? I blew a convincing hail call and they gave us one last look. They thought the better of it and decided not to come into shotgun range. Maybe this time I will learn from the mistake, but I have a feeling I might make it again some day. We waited another hour and saw nothing accept a young whitetail doe come into our decoys. It was fun to watch her even though she wasn't the animal we were looking for.
At 11:00 A.M. we packed our gear back into the canoe and paddled back to the truck. We came home with six ducks, most of which were hens, and a few of missed opportunities. It wasn't the best day as far as shooting goes, but we had some success. I got to spend some time with a hunting buddy I grew up with. I also got to work with one of my Labrador Retrievers, who did an excellent job. I had finally made the opener after three, what seems to be long years of serving in the Army. Two of those years being in Iraq. As I sit here, back to work after my mid tour leave, I think about all those great adventures and the ones still to come. I had set out to accomplish a mission, which was to go on the hunt of a life time. Mission Complete.
-Sgt Michael A. Smith, United States Army
After scouting images from aerial photographs and from past knowledge of my chosen hunting area, I decided to hunt an island on the St Louis river in Northern Minnesota. Along with my cousin and long time hunting partner, Tom, we experiment with the area a week before the opener on an early goose hunt. That morning the two of
us loaded up a canoe with goose decoys, our shotguns and my yellow lab, Mini. An hour before sunrise we set our decoys and got comfortable and waited to see what the first hint of sunlight would bring us. To my surprise, many ducks filled up the sandbar in front of our island. Mallards would cruise past over head, wood ducks were in a
group of about fifty or so not far away from us and green wing teal even came and visited our goose decoys. We saw few geese and the ones we saw were shy, but with the opener less than a week away, we considered the outing a success.
The night before opener reminded me of Christmas Eve when I was a young boy, hoping Santa would bring me that Red Rider BB gun I just had to have. Once again, we loaded the bed of my pick up with the canoe, a pile of decoys, snacks, lanyards with calls and just about anything you could ever possibly imagine needed to hunt ducks. I put Mini in her kennel and I went off to bed to get some rest for the night.
The five hours of sleep before 3 A.M. seemed to come a little sooner than I wanted until the realization set in. It was the opener! I jumped out of bed and put on my camo. I took a few extra minutes to put my camo face paint on, or "war paint" as I call it, because you just have to look good in the blind. Tom was waiting for me at the door. We grabbed a few last minute things, loaded Mini into the truck, and we were off.
The drive was about a half hour down some rough roads. We bounced around, drank some coffee to wake up, and chatted about the years growing up on our river. When we got to our location we unloaded the truck and drug everything we had down to the river bank. The air was cool and thick with fog. What a perfect morning I thought to myself as the two of us loaded our vessel. We pushed off shore, probably exceeded the canoes weight limit by a couple hundred pounds, and set off to that honey hole we found a week prior. Once arriving we found a good spot for a blind hidden by five foot tall reeds with branches from a willow tree hanging over us. The spot was perfect for ambushing ducks.
Now before I tell you how we set up our decoys, you must understand that a good decoy spread takes a lot of thought and consideration. Sometimes even arguing. Any die hard duck hunter would agree. After debating and rearranging and more rearranging we had a good looking spread. Thirty yards to our right, we set mallards up in
the shape of a letter "J". To our left, another thirty yards, out we set more mallards in group of about a dozen with the closest ones about ten yards off the bank. We set four goose decoys just outside the pocket slightly to the left side just in case a goose or two flew over. The slight current from the river gave the goose floaters motion and kept them in a line with each other. They looked like a small family group swimming up stream making our spread come alive. Usually I leave the pocket of my spread empty, but because of the woodies we had seen, we decided that it might not be a bad idea to add a couple wood duck decoys in the center of the pocket about 10 yards out in front of us. This would still give the birds plenty of room to land inside shooting range and if need be, it would be a fast process if we needed to remove them. I looked at my watch
and the wait until shooting time began.
As we waited, mother nature made a call to me that sent me racing into the trees in search of a perfectly fallen log. Those of you who have been in this situation in a pair of neoprene waders can appreciate my urgency. Luckily I had prevailed and found myself a log. As I proudly came walking back, I could hear something walking in the tall grass in front of me. Tom yelled up to me and ask, "where ya at?". "Up hear!" I shouted back. In a concerned voice he said, " you might want to cut strait down to the river, there's a skunk headed up your way!" I took his advice. When I returned to our blind, I learned the skunk had worked its way along the river bank and wandered into the blind. Thankfully Mini just held her spot at watched as it passed through. We where able to continue our mission. Good girl, Mini!
Three minutes out from shooting time we were yet to see a duck. We saw other duck hunters, but no ducks. As I watched the final seconds tick down, I heard shots fired from our right. Somebody was getting some action. Then more gun fire off to our left! Someone else is here and they are shooting at ducks too! Just as I started to have
that feeling of epic failure come over me, two ducks come in from the right. "Shhhh," I whispered, "let 'em come in". As the two wood ducks dropped into land with the decoys in our pocket, I shouldered my 12 guage and fired a load of 3 shot, stopping the first hen wood duck of the year! She was dead before she hit the water. I sent Mini to pick up the first duck I had shot for her to retrieve. As my little yellow lab was delivering my prize, two more came in from the right, we both fired and I made a clean kill on a beautiful mature drake woody. Tom folded up the hen that was with him. I helped Mini with the retrieve and we were right back in the blind. Mini is good at doing double marked retrieves, but hunting a river you have to get on them quickly. The current carries the ducks down stream and a hunter must recover what he kills. Waiting until after the hunt to pick up ducks isn't an option. We settled back into our hide out and waited for more to come. A few minutes later, a lone wood duck came into our spread, Tom folded her up with the first shot. I sent Mini out on the retrieve and she made short work of the hen wood duck as she she tried to get further into the river. Not a bad start at two wood ducks a piece. Another thirty minutes or so went by and the the sun started to break up the fog that blanketed the river. We could see the other hunters up river from where we sat. As I was spying on them through my binoculars, I could see a flock of a dozen or so ducks headed in their direction. The flock of mallards circled their decoys once and swung down the river strait to us. I got on my call and blew a loud hail call in hopes they would hear it. Sure enough, they cupped their wings, and drifted over our pocket. The first mallard tried to set down between the bank and the group of mallard decoys we had placed there in the dark a couple hours earlier. I shouldered my shotgun once again and fired, dropping the lead duck on the muddy bank. The rest of them flaired off to our right strait in front of us. I fired a second shot putting the large mallard into the water. Yes! I just got a double. An hour or so went by and the action was winding down. We discussed how the mallards over shot the pocket and decided to pull out the wood duck decoys we had set in it. We both decided to walk out there to stretch our legs and let the dog get out a little for a bit. What could it hurt? We were off to a good start and besides, we haven't seen anything in an hour right? As soon as Tom fastened the keel weight onto the last decoy, we saw more ducks coming. Sure enough, just as I had done in years past, I was caught standing in the middle of my decoy spread and ducks wanted to land. Realizing there was no way we could make it to the cover of our hide out, we crouched down in the water. The ducks flew past. I blew a hail call and the group of about ten mallards circled us. One was quacking back but the two mysterious blobs and the yellow dog had them a bit leary so they flew past again. I got back on the call and here they came, forty yards out. I'm not one to take long shots on a duck so I said to hold off and wait for a better opportunity. They circled past with one of the youngsters still quacking at us. Third times a charm right? I blew a convincing hail call and they gave us one last look. They thought the better of it and decided not to come into shotgun range. Maybe this time I will learn from the mistake, but I have a feeling I might make it again some day. We waited another hour and saw nothing accept a young whitetail doe come into our decoys. It was fun to watch her even though she wasn't the animal we were looking for.
At 11:00 A.M. we packed our gear back into the canoe and paddled back to the truck. We came home with six ducks, most of which were hens, and a few of missed opportunities. It wasn't the best day as far as shooting goes, but we had some success. I got to spend some time with a hunting buddy I grew up with. I also got to work with one of my Labrador Retrievers, who did an excellent job. I had finally made the opener after three, what seems to be long years of serving in the Army. Two of those years being in Iraq. As I sit here, back to work after my mid tour leave, I think about all those great adventures and the ones still to come. I had set out to accomplish a mission, which was to go on the hunt of a life time. Mission Complete.
-Sgt Michael A. Smith, United States Army
