Taking a Mental Health Day

Carl

Well-known member
Staff member
back at it. Same area as Sunday just farther north where the gadwalls seemed to want to be. Water is blown out, north wind has it about a foot below predicted and a full 3? less than water levels on Sunday. My blind from Sunday is high and dry. I set up as shallow as I could drag the boat tide is incoming all day.



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Damn, I just miffed what should have been a gimmy shot on a single gadwall dropping straight into the decoys. Humiliating
 
I planned on pickings up at 3pm. At 2:45 I hadn?t seen much flying for a while and a big raft of gadwalls out on open water was sucking in all the flocks that came up the bar. So I decided to pick up. Almost had the gun unloaded but I had to pee and on second thought I loaded it back up. Dropped the wader and was about half way done when a flock of gaddies heads my way! I hurry up and finish, pull up the waders and grabbed the gun just about the time the whole flock was straight overhead. Picked out a drake and dropped him with one shot. Great way to end the day!
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Here in NE Ohio, that would be a banner hunt. Nice job!

BTW, I shot a goose, right in front of our wildlife officer, part way thru that same basic position a few years ago. ALWAYS take your gun!

Jon
 
Don't understand why you bothered to pull up the waders. You will never know, that last Gadwall might have died from laughter and saved you a shell. [whistle]
 
Hah!!
I was kneeling down so I had to pull them up to stand and shoot!!!
 
Thanks Jon, patience paid off, I was in the blind from 8:30 to 3:00!
Given all the gadwalls I saw, it?s looking like we are going to have a good season. But I didn?t see a single big diver which is very strange given where is was setup. It?s normally a good spot for scaup Redheads and cans.
 
I hunt with a friend that knows if I have to take the worm out to pee he better cover me. Seems every time I do that the ducks come right into the decoys.

Tight Lines ... Fred
 
That was a nice day Carl. How about them hogs? [w00t] I'm hoping for a ducks and pigs report! [smile]
 
Haven?t made the trip north to hunt pigs again yet. Might wait until duck season goes out. We can hunt them on the WMA until the end of February.
 
Sounds like fun, and you guys have decent weather for February hunting. Another item on the bucket list.
 
Carl

Sticking it out paid off. I find it hard to stay all day when the action os slow. Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to move to give up.

Eric
 
If I hadn't been seeing flocks off gadwalls come off the open bay moving north, I would have given up sooner.
But I knew that sooner or later they would start moving up on the flats to feed.
Just didn't expect them to be so blind shy already.
Getting flocks to decoys is already next to impossible and I miffed on the two singles that were crashing in!

Still baffled by our lack of big divers, very strange.
 
Eric Patterson said:
Carl

Sticking it out paid off. I find it hard to stay all day when the action os slow. Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to move to give up.

Eric

I have found sticking it out is often fruitful.... but many times, it just prolongs the agony! LOL The last hunt I was on, was VERY slow, and very little shooting. I almost picked up 3 times, but kept scratching out singles every now and again. It often depends on if there are time commitments that I have to be home for.
 
Ya just never know. A good buddy of mine was put recently, horrible duck hunting weather. Warm temps, no wind, bright sun. He stuck it out for a while just enjoying the scenery. He started packing up when he noticed movement. In comes two of the most beautiful drake Redheads to be seen. He dropped them both.

Ended up being a good day.

ANY day out beats a good day sitting at home on the couch staring at the boob tube, or worse yet WORKING!

Jon
 
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