DuckSouth.com

TJ, good thread!

greenheadgrimreaper wrote:That time when the ducks have commited and for that few seconds everyone is frozen... waiting... watching the lead ducks twist in first. The only thing breaking the sound is the sound of moving air and waterfowl trying their best to light in the right spot. I remember that moment and how time literally stopped. No other hunting is like that, no other hunting in the world takes you to a crisp cold morning in a marsh and for that 5 or 6 seconds time transcends reality and you are watching with no other recollection of your surroundings except for that noise...

GHGR, That has to be one of the most vivid and well described posts I have ever read on this site. And 100% true. I could hear the duck coming down thru the trees while i read that.

I don't really know if there is one singular aspect of the hunt that I enjoy more than another. I would say the companionship, but as of late, i have enjoyed the solitary hunts as much as any. Then I think the dog, which is a big part of it for me, the calling, the sunrise, the whistling wings, and I can't pick one aspect. So I think GG hit the nail pretty squarely on the head. It is the sum of all things that makes it so enjoyable. If you take away or lessen any one part, it detracts from all others. The companionship, the memories, the dogs, the ducks, the sights, the sounds,,, they all come together to equal the thing we all live for each year, duck hunting.

I guess my favorite part is being set-up in the hole an hour before sun-up, sipping on 'Community' Dark Roast and looking over to see my wife's nose glued the dialface of an 'Indiglo' watch while the dog (with cocked ears) attempts to identify everything in the dark.

I guess the best part of duck hunting (to me) is the anticipation.

I DO like to work ducks with a call, whether I actually shoot or not. That's the game - getting them close enough to see their facial expression the moment they realize that they've been fooled.......or to watch'em swim around until my dog (or wife) starts to whine.

I also like to see people squirm - I was given the opportunity to call the shot on a 6-man (3 hunters / 3 idiots) group hunt in SK years ago. Somebody else in the group thought they were capable of calling the shot (when that was what we paid a local guide to do) and blew everybody's opportunity on a 250-bird flock. I raised hell. So the guide came over and laid-down next to me (probably so I wouldn't shoot the idiot). Another 100-bird group started working into a landing approach pattern consisting of the typical 6-7 'dips' and a couple of close passes in range. As they were getting closer with each pass, other groups had fallen into the spiral pattern you normally associate with a mass of snow geese. The first group finally got close-enough and I could see that everybody would have opportunities at multiple kills. The guide asked me, "You want to get these right here?" - I told him "Not really - those are gadwalls and I'm waiting on that group of mallards and pintails right behind them.

After the gadwalls dumped all over us, the 'know-it-all' on the other end of the line hollered, "What the hell are we waiting for, guys?" I hallored back saying, "Those were gadwalls you Dumba$$ - we're gonna get this group of 500 mallards when they get 'right' - you just be still and keep quiet!" Two more passes and I called the shot when about 75 of the 500 birds pulled the rip-cord at 25 yds.

I love to hunt, there is not doubt about that, And doing it with people i love is what makes me a fanatic about it! but even when the ducks are laying eggs, and there deers antlers are still fuzzy, i really enjoy, fine tuning my equipment, building deer stands. Working food plots and building levees. Working on the boat, and dreaming of how awsome its going to be once you are running down Grand lake at 50mph in a sleet storm and you sitting high and dry in the cab ready to set and blow some beaks off. My Favorite is the same as Anatidae's, the anticipation, Not only are they going to show up? its is more or less like this. "If this plan really works, its going to awsome!"

sunrise is pretty hard to beat,except for a sunset over the rockies

i love it all and cant get enough no matter how much i get it aint never enough...... i can only think of one other thing that I love every time but never get enough.... they say meth and crack cocaine hook you on the first hit... that is how duck hunting got me..... I had a goal when I was 20 that I would retire at 45 and move to the mountains out west and live a rustic basic life....that was before I witnessed my first flight of greenheads dropping into cypress trees..... hell what I spend on hunting I will have to work until I am 90.....I had a guy call me today wanting to buy a boat... He said he got into duck hunting this past season on January 11th and hunted everyday til the end of the season and he is hooked.... I asked him if he loves his wife and he said "yeah, why?" I said cause she will run you off after one full season of duck hunting.... I just love it all and cant get enough.... Nothing else in the outdoors compares, not monster bucks, not fishing, not pheasant hunting nothing I can find hooks me like the ducks.... oh well great post TJ