2002 Duck Season
The 2002 season was one to remember, not so much for the quantity of ducks but the quality of the hunt. The opener had some pretty fair weather but the mid October hunt never saw temps higher than 40 degrees. The lows on a couple of mornings were in the mid to low teens, freezing up most of the smaller water. Each day was different than the next, some days lots of ducks and bad shooting and on other days few ducks and good shooting. This year we saw a real mixed bag of ducks, especially on the opening weekend. Below are some pictures and some short stories on this years hunt.
The Opener
Greg and Jonny joined me for the opener this year. We worked Friday and Saturday morning to get our stuff hauled into the pothole we were hunting. The summer floods made it pretty tough going. On Saturday we set up for a northeasterly wind. The hunting was slow as usual for the noon opening day but did get 3 pintails to decoy, we each dropped one. Also had a flock of geese come right in without a honk and did some poor shooting, only getting one goose. The second day was much better, we had 15 ducks and 3 geese by 11 AM. We decided to call it a day and haul the stuff out as the walk in was getting pretty tough in the knee deep muck. Monday we hunted the river, Jonny and Greg in a beaver hole and I took a dead river. We were going for teal and we had them raining in before it was light enough to see them. We had limits by 8 AM. Tuesday we did a quick hunt in pool 2. It had been pressured pretty hard the opening 3 days but we were the only ones hunting it, the rest had packed up and left. Had a good morning shoot, had to work the call hard as the ducks were pretty shy by this time. We worked one lone goose 10 minutes. He hovered like a kite in the stiff wind, 50 yards up. We probably could have dropped him but I wasn't going to shoot unless I could get him to commit. I quit calling and about 30 seconds later he left......As he was flying out of sight here come another loner, this one was not so smart.
Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
Them little teal are tasty.
The Mid October Hunt
Erik and I drove up on Wednesday the 9th. Sue and Brianna followed on Thursday. On Thursday I took Erik on his first hunt. We were out to find some teal in a ditch and sneak up on them. Erik followed close behind and we managed to get some teal on our first try. And Sunny and Buddy were quick on the retrieve.
On Friday and Saturday I hunted in pool 2. Had a good shooting on both days, got mallards, wigeon and gadwalls. Sunny made a great retrieve on a live greenhead that made it into the cattails. It was around a point so I didn't get to see it but didn't really expect her to return with a bird. Sunday was a work day. Cleaned up the cabin yard and cut and split oak I had cut for the power lines. Sunny and cold, the kids played out all day. All were tired and ready for bed early. Monday through Wednesday I spent on pool 2. Wednesday was an incredible morning. The temps were in the low teens and there was a good quarter to half inch of ice. It had been a long time since I had to break ice that thick, especially that early in the season. There was a plug in the ditch that made it hard to get to the big water so I decided to open up a spot and see what daylight brought. It was an incredible sunrise, but not many ducks. It was about 9:00 when a flock of gadwalls flew over and laughed at the frozen in blocks, that is when I decided to try make it to some open water as the decoys were freezing up in the spot I opened up. It was not too hard in the daylight, lots of ducks sitting in the open water. In the next 2 hours I did not get a lot of shooting but managed to get a ringneck and a pair of greenheads, one with a band. Did some really poor shooting that day, then double on the greenheads.
Thursday was spent with Brianna and later with Erik. Brianna went with to scout the river and try find some teal. It was not long and we had a few teal. Later in the day we found some gopher mounds and tall grass to play in. Greg Elseth arrived later in the day for a couple of days of good hunting.
We were up early on Friday for a hunt in pool 2. It was cold and snowing, one of those days you knew was going to be good. Normally it would be kind of crowded on MEA weekend but this time we had the pool to ourselves. It was a good thing we got an early start as it was dark (no moon) and snowing pretty hard. We got turned around a few times but soon found our way to where we wanted to go. We set up on an island of cattails, not much cover but had a good setup. Soon after first light a flock of snow geese came right over the top of us. We did some poor shooting but managed to each drop one. Soon we had a mallard and I dropped two bills in one shot. It stopped snowing and the wind had switch a little so we decided to move. About 10:00 we started getting lots of diver action. They were buzzing us from every direction. Bluebills, ringnecks and goldeyes. It was a diver day. A classic day of hunting in the snow and cold. Definitely a day to remember. Sunny made some more great retrieves, she really seemed to enjoy it, maybe she knew it may be her last hunt. Buddy, well he got a few of the ducks but was not thrilled about the cold water. We had our limits by 11:00 and headed in.
On Saturday we decided to hunt the river. I have always wanted to hunt the river late season and with most stuff froze up I was hoping it would be good. It was a good hour paddling the shallow water. The dead river we wanted to hunt was froze up so we picked a wide spot in the river. Green wing teal were landing feet away as I was setting up the decoys. We held off on the GWT waiting for some bigger ducks. It paid off. Soon a flock of bigger ducks zoomed in. They looked like mallards in the low light. I dropped one and Buddy was right on it. Before he even got it to shore I could see it was a Black duck, my first ever. The action was fast and furious. Flock after flock of GWT landed in our decoys and swam to the far bank to try find some sun. We could have shot them by the basket full. There were mallards to be had though and we waited for them. We had our limits by 11:00. A frosty morning but a pretty nice day. On Sunday we returned for a quick hunt before we had to pack up the trip back home. We were going to take the first teal we could and finish early. We had a lot come in early but could not see for a good shot. We ended up with a couple of flocks of ring necks providing some good action, missed terribly on some mallards, picked up a pintail and finished with some GWT. We had our limits by 8:30 and had to head back. It was really cold with temps in the mid teens and a brisk wind. Buddy was not thrilled about getting in the water, there was skim ice forming, even with a good current. A good way to finish up the season.
All done for the year, lots of good memories.
