I went hunting with Olive this morning. We went to a new spot, which was at the confluence of two rivers. The smaller river is laden with rice, so I had high hopes of catching ducks that were flying the larger river and going to feed in the rice. I saw four ducks and never came close to taking the safety off of my scatter gun. After killing mosquitoes for almost 2 hours, I decided a change in tactics was necessary. So, we pulled up the dekes, and paddled through the rice for some jump shooting.
Olive let me knew when the ducks were close. The breeze was blowing in her face and she got antsy smelling the ducks. A pair of ducks got up and I dropped a beautiful drake woodduck. No less than 50 woodies got up from the rice in the same area. I didn't fire another shot, though, as I knew finding one duck in the rice would be difficult. After a few minutes of searching, I saw the duck and sent Olive on a blind retrieve. She brought it back like she knew what she was doing.
Where I jumped the gaggle of ducks was less than 200 yards from where I had set out my decoys in the dark. I've never hunted this spot, but have paddled it and riced it this year. This underscores the importance of being on the X. When you're on the X, it can be an exciting hunt, but if you miss it by even a little bit, it can be a disappointing hunt. Finding the X takes, experience hunting ducks, knowing your area, watching the weather, and scouting before and during the season.
It's fall up nort', so take a kid or a friend hunting!!
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