Duck Hunting thread

[Swampbuckster]

Just figured I'd start posting my waterfowl hunts here. Went out this morning to my duck blind and shot my first Blue Wing Teal. She came in all alone and touched down ten yards in front of me. Exciting to kill a duck out of the blind considering it was bone dry as of a week and a half ago and was all of the summer. We brushed it then while it was dry, in hopes of it possibly filling up this year and well, it did! Buffies are starting to show up and some bluebill. Gonna set up for divers tomorrow. We may actually get a migration this year!
By the way, the first pic was wednesday, the duck was from this am.

[cp]

Nice duck, but how do you intend too shoot divers out of that hole?

[Swampbuckster]

Hahahaha. I never mentioned it was THERE I was setting up for divers! Hahahaha. I could see forty old squaw locking into that pothole,can't you?? Hahaha ;D

[SPLASH]

Congrats.

[Swampbuckster]

Well saw around 80 divers this morning hit up the center of the lake comprised of buffies and bluebills. Picked up my buddies one man layout and heading out to a private lake holding around 40 blue bills and a mess of mallards. Mainly concentrating on divers but maybe we'll wack a few mallards if we are lucky. This North winds we are receiving will hold into Wednesday. Perfect duck hunting weather. I've pre arranged to hunt Mon and wednesday mornings as well. then it's away to northern mi to layout hunt lake MI, bowhunt,ad steelhead fish for 5 days. I will post pics of tomorrows hunt afterwards!

[Swampbuckster]

Got back yesterday from the Manistee area. Duck, bow hunted and chased a little steel. Saturday we hunted just the one layout and killed ten, all buffys

Sunday we hunted 7 guys and two layouts and ended with 42. Again all buffys

Monday Lake Michigan was calm enough to get out on and we ended with 36 and hunted 7 guys again with two layouts.

Shot a nice mix of white winged scoters and long tails. This drake is going on the wall

And my buddy is mounting the nicer looking scoter

[ScoutB]

Wow, that's a lot of ducks. It looks like you guys had a lot of fun.

[Swampbuckster]

It sure beats chasing around the same ol fifteen local mallards! I have not hunted since I returned from the north! Gonna give her a go in the a.m. Imsa thinkin we are gonna get a push of ducks the way this front is coming in. . . . I'll post results!!!!

[Swampbuckster]

It was great to get back into the swamp today after trying to kill a deer for 3 days and no success. Shot 10 green wing teal and a mallard hen. What an amazing morning. The ducks were just appearing out of the fog. We had 2 rounds left each with one more to finish for a limit and a pair came in we ended up both flubbing the shots! Oh well, other than that we shot great and i pulled my first hat trick this morning. We ended up having group after group of mallards dumping into the hole we were hunting as we were making our way back to the truck. Hopefully I'll be posting a good mallard hunt Friday morning!

[SPLASH]

I bet you're "happy happy happy".

[Swampbuckster]

Hahaha. Definitely am!

[woodeye]

Very nice!! I love the kayak in the fog!!

[davess1]

Congrats on the hat trick and thanks for sharing your adventures. I must ask, what do you do with all those ducks?

[Swampbuckster]

EAT THEM. Breast them, pluck them, bake them, grill them, pan sear them, make jerky outtathem. No wasting here!

[Swampbuckster]

Another great hunt. I was joined by two good friends and we met up at 4:30 am and began our hour and a half trek back to our destination with 3 layout blinds, kayaks, decoys and gear. Shot a total of nine. Quite the mixed bag of puddlers. 1 hen gadwall, 1 hen wigeon, 2 drake green wing teal, 2 mallard drakes and 3 mallard hens. Some beautiful full plume birds too!