Swampbuckster
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
The Master Baiter
Posts: 1,218
|
Post by Swampbuckster on Oct 18, 2013 20:19:19 GMT -5
Ok ok, I've been slacking on the posting lately. I got this new fang dangled laptop and it makes posting pictures and typing up threads one thousand times quicker than my crappy tablet. So anyhow last weekend was the opener of waterfowl and I've hunted every morning but Wednesday and this morning. The opener was kinda messed up. I wasn't able to keep up with a group of woodies long enough to plan on hunting them Saturday morning. I had two spots lined up but as I continued checking them the numbers dropped to only three in one pothole and none in the other. So I checked a last minute spot at 5:30 pm Friday night! It was very very close to a popular duck hunting flooding and I knew I was taking a risk by shooting it Saturday morning. Well Saturday morning rolled around and me and two friends walked on in to our spot an hour before shooting times just to be safe. When we thought we were good to go another party of four walked down the trail to the pothole 5 minutes before shooting time!!! We told them it's taken and they simply walked over the ridge to face the edge of the big swamp and pass shot. The ducks were FREAKED as soon as shooting times came up. We had a few woodies drop in but it was too dark to shoot. We did end up with one hen that my buddy dropped and we left early to scout and get something lined up for the next day. Last Minute Swamp (named the night before we hunted it Sunday killed 4 woodies after I scouted up river from my house and found no one had shot up the woodies that have been hitting the river mouth. Then Monday no ducks. Left the swamp early and did some scouting. Was able to find a hide a few mallards and woodies were hitting up. Ended up with two drake mallards and a drake woody Worked Wednesday and hunted the river mouth Thursday after jumping a dozen woodies at 5 pm the night before as I went up river to sit in my tree stand. Shot another 4 upriver. Scouted a pothole nearby from the river holding a few mallards. That's the plan for the a.m. I'll keep ya posted!
|
|
|
Post by ScoutB on Oct 18, 2013 20:35:18 GMT -5
Great report! Those woodies are some beautiful birds. Like I told you last year, I used to duck hunt some myself. Photos like this get me thinking about trying it again. Do you tie flies? Those wood duck flank feathers are used in a lot of patterns. You should keep them.
|
|
Swampbuckster
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
The Master Baiter
Posts: 1,218
|
Post by Swampbuckster on Oct 18, 2013 20:40:03 GMT -5
Unfortunately I don't. I have a friend who ties and supply him with all the feathers he needs though. Just wish he would send a few streamers my way in return of the favor!
|
|
|
Post by ScoutB on Oct 18, 2013 20:41:37 GMT -5
Yeah, you'd think so.
|
|
Swampbuckster
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
The Master Baiter
Posts: 1,218
|
Post by Swampbuckster on Oct 18, 2013 22:19:13 GMT -5
So far the ducks have represented 3 meals. One was brunch. Wood duck breast grilled and wrapped in bacon, next was Mallard breast sliced and seared in Chardonnay and parmesan with asparagus and the remaining mallard breast and wood duck was ground up two nights ago into duck burger and acted as the beef substitute in the chili I cooked tonight. My friend also took home 4 wood duck breast. So far, no duck meat in the freezer!
|
|
woodeye
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
Backbone 2012 Greenthumb
Catch and Release Straight into the Grease!!
Posts: 250
|
Post by woodeye on Oct 20, 2013 19:18:25 GMT -5
Sounds delicious. Do you use decoys, didn't see any in the river pic.
|
|
Swampbuckster
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
The Master Baiter
Posts: 1,218
|
Post by Swampbuckster on Oct 20, 2013 19:44:30 GMT -5
I don't usually run decoys in the potholes/rivers that I woody hunt. I just pinpoint where the ducks are the day prior and about 90% of the time they land in the exact same locations. Woodies don't decoy too well and even when I'm mallard hunting early season while I'm in the swamps and potholes at the most I'll run is 3 to 6. Again I am always hunting small locations where the ducks have been working day after day so they want to be there to begin with. As the season progresses and the little holes start freezing over, then I'll hunt bigger water with bigger spreads.
|
|
woodeye
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
Backbone 2012 Greenthumb
Catch and Release Straight into the Grease!!
Posts: 250
|
Post by woodeye on Nov 8, 2013 18:26:30 GMT -5
Very nice swamp. I have never duck hunted so the stories are fun and interesting to read. Maybe someday I will give it a shot.
|
|
Swampbuckster
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
The Master Baiter
Posts: 1,218
|
Post by Swampbuckster on Nov 8, 2013 21:44:43 GMT -5
I haven't been hitting the swamps as hard as I usually do this year. Although I did just get back from some layout hunting up north around the Manistee area. I do however plan on doing some duck hunting Sunday morning. The first morning we hunted up north we had an 11 guy group and killed 52. 49 Buffleheads and 2 Mergansers. The second morning we hunted L. Michigan and killed 32 between 9 guys. A mix of Black Scoters, Buffleheads and Long Tailed Ducks. We skipped two mornings and steelhead fished those and the last morning I was up there we killed 21 Buffleheads. I was only able to get a picture of the ducks the first morning. Here is a picture of Lake Michigan from the layout boat
|
|
|
Post by SPLASH on Nov 10, 2013 20:27:05 GMT -5
I too enjoy the pics and stories of your duck hunts. Congrats on the success.
|
|
Swampbuckster
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
The Master Baiter
Posts: 1,218
|
Post by Swampbuckster on Nov 10, 2013 21:19:21 GMT -5
Hunted this morning on the chain. Wasn't expecting much and killed a mallard hen. We packed up around 9 and decided to go and scout the rest of the chain. I fired up the Starcraft and started across the lake when I decided to check the fuel. Well...We were basically out of gas so I turned around and started slowly putting back to the house, three lakes away. Well we lasted about an entire minute before running out of gas and had to paddle the boat to a vacant summer home then walk the street to the trail through the woods back to my street and put two gallons in the tank and walked back. Exciting morning. lol. This cold front moving in will get some birds pushing for sure. Got a private lake lined up for Wednesday morning. Currently there are around 60 Ringnecks and 40 geese using it. We'll see if we can pull it together and kill a few of them. We've hunted this lake on 3 other occasions and couldn't quite get together the final link to an awesome morning. Hopefully this time, after failing and learning each of the other times, we can pull it together and have a great hunt.
|
|
|
Post by ScoutB on Nov 10, 2013 21:28:57 GMT -5
Good luck Wednesday morning. Can't wait for the report. For 20+ years I fished from a 12' rowboat with a 10 HP. I could go all year on a 6 gallon tank. My first expedition with my bass boat was to Hubbard lake and I ran out of gas the second day. I was 8 miles from the launch ramp. It coulda been a really long day but I used the trolling motor to get to a dock, where the homeowner hooked me up with 3 gallons of gas and got me on my way. What a great guy.
|
|
Swampbuckster
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
The Master Baiter
Posts: 1,218
|
Post by Swampbuckster on Nov 10, 2013 21:39:31 GMT -5
Yeah, A 6hp consumes way less fuel than a 35. It really isn't the most fuel friendly motor either.....but then again that boat will plane out and the 6hp and 12ft won't.....So maybe I can conserve more fuel by changing my driving habits...but that just takes too long ;D Yeah, hopefully Wednesday comes together correctly this time! I mean how many times can you screw up a duck hunt?
|
|
Swampbuckster
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
The Master Baiter
Posts: 1,218
|
Post by Swampbuckster on Nov 14, 2013 7:47:49 GMT -5
Well we were never able to hunt the private lake yesterday. My friend wasn't able to get ahold of the owner in time. So that led us to Joslin lake where the day before I saw a nice group of Bufflehead on the lake. We loaded up the layout boat and headed to the launch yesterday morning at 5:30. We get to the launch and notice the canal has about an inch of ice across it to the lake. So we launch anyways and begin crashing through the ice to get out to open water. That worked out fine except for about three quarters down the canal and to the lake I must have wacked an ice chunk and snapped the shear pin to the prop. Luckily I caught it in time before the prop completely fell off. So we ended up having to paddle the boat back to the launch. We get back to my house and pull the Starcraft out, threw the layout boat in it with the diver decoys and headed out to the far side of the lake with shooting times basically upon us at this point. I set my friend Dave in the layout boat and I drive to the far side of the lake to watch. A pair of Buffleheads came buzzing past me and I watch the drake dump right into the decoys and Dave kills it. First duck killed out of the layout boat!
|
|
Swampbuckster
Fish whisperer, scholar, and gentleman
The Master Baiter
Posts: 1,218
|
Post by Swampbuckster on Nov 23, 2013 13:49:35 GMT -5
|
|