I know that it's been forever since I blogged about anything, but I have been so distracted at work with a new boss and the holidays, not to mention Anderson is growing like a weed and I am enjoying more and more time with him...which means less time for blogging!
Anyway, I had a great time this morning hunting right off the Savannah River with my Neighbor, Kevin McGuire. He is quite a duck hunter. I will be the first to say that I am not! Now don't get me wrong, I consider myself an outdoorsman first and foremost, but duck hunting has never been a passion of mine-I guess one can pick their own, and mine happens to be deer and turkey hunting. However, I enjoy the outdoors in general and with the end of deer season complete, it was a chance to get out of the house and try something different for a change. The short of it is I had a great time, and can't wait to go again(maybe next Sat)! Here's a quick story about the hunt:
My alarm clock awoke me bright and early at 4:15am this morning. I was actually excited and ready to go, so it didn't take me long to get out of bed, into my warm undergarments, and make my way downstairs to my hunting room to finish getting ready. The outside temp was about 34 degrees, so I had to bundle up. While I was slipping on my waders and getting my gun and shot together I put the coffee on. You know, nothing beats a good cup of coffee early in the morning before heading out for a hunt of any kind, whether it be duck, deer, turkey, or something else. Sometimes things just taste better in different situations, but I guarantee you the coffee this morning tasted better out of my hunting thermos than it does out of those styrofoam cups back in the office at work any day of the week!
Anyway, I headed over to Kevin's with my waders on and gear in tow. I was greeted by Kevin and his black lab duck dog "Remi." You could tell that Remi was ready to go, he was as excited as we were to be heading out to the duck hole.
We loaded up and headed out to the Savannah River Marsh, off Hwy 17. It toook us about 30 minutes or so to park the truck, and almost 45 minutes to an hour to walk to our hole in the middle of the marsh! It's funny, but on our way down Hwy 17 there are a number of gentlemen's clubs that we passed, and would you believe at 5:20am their parking lots were still packed!
Once we parked the truck we made our way into the marsh. This is no easy jaunt...there was a nice natural pond right by the road that we could have hunted, but Kevin wanted to go where no one else goes, and this was an adventure, especially in the dark,with full gear and heavy waders on! The marsh is a beautiful environment, but at times I believe one that is just not made for man's entrance, at least not the two times I stepped into sinkholes almost up to my waist, getting myself, gun, and gear wet and muddy in the process!
As I said, it took us almost 45 minutes to get to our hole, after trudging through the saltmarsh pluff mud and jumping not one but two creeks. I guarantee you we are the only humans to ever hunt this spot of land, at least since the clovis people anyway! Once we arrived, we positioned ourselves in a patch of reeds for great concealment on the edge of an open water hole, and waited patiently for 6:57am to arrive, which is legal shooting time. in the mean time, I got a few pictures of Kevin and his dog Remi.
A few minutes before the ducks began flying, the horizon began to turn beautiful shades of Blues, Oranges, Yellows, and Reds.
Once shooting time begain, this was the beautiful scenery we were presented with:
After shooting time we began to hear shots off in the distance, probably from a few wood duck holes way off to the other side of Hwy 17,but it was quiet at first for us. A few minutes passed, and we saw several twosomes and threesomes fly by, way to far off for a shot, and we could not turn them either. About that time, a ringneck flew from behind me to my left and flew over the water hole in front, I attempted a shot, but the bird kept flying, although he teterred to the left after my shot, almost if I had hit him. A few minutes later, another ringneck flew towards us and Kevin put a few #4 steel shot in him, dropping him out of the sky like a firecraker! As Remi went to retrieve the duck, 4 birds flew towards us and we both fired, my shot exploding on the side of a duck and dropping her like a sack of potatoes. Remi retrieved my first(and only) duck of the 2009-2010 hunting season, a nice Hooded Merganser hen!
We had a number of other sets of ducks fly over, albeit well out of gun range, so our action this morning was rather limited. But the thrill of the hunt and the experience within the outdoors is much more important and as enjoyable than the success of taking a limit. It's amazing, however, that a good cup of coffee and a common Hooded Merganser hen made my morning, but that they did!
