Al Hansen
Well-known member
I can distinctly recall the day I was out at the ranch telling the rancher about my morning hunt on the channel. It happened to be one of those days where I had taken a pair of mallards, followed by two drake baldpates and two drake gaddies. There were lots of ducks in the air that morning and smiling so much was taking its toll on my facial muscles!
Tele looked at me and said, "Have you been to the Beaver Pond yet?" He then told me how to get there and off I went. Once getting to the spot I found myself totally in awe. Picture living in the high desert of the southwestern quadrant in New Mexico. This spot was in an area controlled by the Rio Grande. If the river was running at around 400 cfs it would begin filling up by seeping underground. Over the course of several years I found out that the depth of the Beaver Pond was no more than 15 to 18 inches and the bottom was such that it was relatively easy to walk in.
I found an area on the eastern side of the pond that had a spot that seemed ready made for a duck blind. My blinds are crude. I need a spot behind me to break my silhouette and then I can use sticks of varying lengths to hold up my camo burlap. For incoming ducks making circle flights just checking the layout of where they want to be, they could not see me from above or while they were on the water, if they landed in the pond. That allowed me the luxury of sipping coffee! Chili, my yellow female Labrador, sat on my left hand side that had a great view of the pond. It was easy for her to dash out and make a quick retrieve. Please know that my pup would sit and not move around in the blind.
Because I was taking notes of my hunts at the ranch, I found out that hunting it about every 4th day normally let me see enough ducks to get a limit IF my shooting was on! Oh, by the way, I never was skunked when hunting this spot. As the season waned into the month of January and the ducks were getting a lot smarter when they left the refuge which happened to be one mile south from where I had my blind, I found out that staying off of my duck call helped and of course reading body language of a duck telling me what is about to happen. This spot was extremely magical and had my full attention. Everytime I went out there I had fun.
On one particular morning there were some very dark clouds above me and to my west. It was when a spot in the eastern horizon allowed the morning sun to shine on the pond that I took this particular picture of my environment. Like I mentioned when you live in the southwestern desert region, sometimes you need to pinch yourself that what you are seeing if for real!
Al
To the left of this picture, the pond extended another 50'. Since that area had a fringe of large cottonwood trees and some salt cedars growing in the pond, most of the ducks would land in the opening where I was. There were times when woodies would fly in and drop down without a moments hesitation. They, I welcomed to this site. There is nothing in this world like having live decoys getting the attention from ducks above. From reading the ducks, they told me about how many decoys I should be using. I did not have many, maybe 9 or10 and those that I used were found sparingly in that opening.
This was my luckiest day at the Beaver Pond when I began with this.
A few years ago, maybe around 2015 or 16, we had some major runoffs and this entire area was flooded. Because of that followed by my diagnosis of AFib, I have never been back there. But like I have already talked about, this place was magical and I began hunting it ever since 2007.
Tele looked at me and said, "Have you been to the Beaver Pond yet?" He then told me how to get there and off I went. Once getting to the spot I found myself totally in awe. Picture living in the high desert of the southwestern quadrant in New Mexico. This spot was in an area controlled by the Rio Grande. If the river was running at around 400 cfs it would begin filling up by seeping underground. Over the course of several years I found out that the depth of the Beaver Pond was no more than 15 to 18 inches and the bottom was such that it was relatively easy to walk in.
I found an area on the eastern side of the pond that had a spot that seemed ready made for a duck blind. My blinds are crude. I need a spot behind me to break my silhouette and then I can use sticks of varying lengths to hold up my camo burlap. For incoming ducks making circle flights just checking the layout of where they want to be, they could not see me from above or while they were on the water, if they landed in the pond. That allowed me the luxury of sipping coffee! Chili, my yellow female Labrador, sat on my left hand side that had a great view of the pond. It was easy for her to dash out and make a quick retrieve. Please know that my pup would sit and not move around in the blind.
Because I was taking notes of my hunts at the ranch, I found out that hunting it about every 4th day normally let me see enough ducks to get a limit IF my shooting was on! Oh, by the way, I never was skunked when hunting this spot. As the season waned into the month of January and the ducks were getting a lot smarter when they left the refuge which happened to be one mile south from where I had my blind, I found out that staying off of my duck call helped and of course reading body language of a duck telling me what is about to happen. This spot was extremely magical and had my full attention. Everytime I went out there I had fun.
On one particular morning there were some very dark clouds above me and to my west. It was when a spot in the eastern horizon allowed the morning sun to shine on the pond that I took this particular picture of my environment. Like I mentioned when you live in the southwestern desert region, sometimes you need to pinch yourself that what you are seeing if for real!
Al
To the left of this picture, the pond extended another 50'. Since that area had a fringe of large cottonwood trees and some salt cedars growing in the pond, most of the ducks would land in the opening where I was. There were times when woodies would fly in and drop down without a moments hesitation. They, I welcomed to this site. There is nothing in this world like having live decoys getting the attention from ducks above. From reading the ducks, they told me about how many decoys I should be using. I did not have many, maybe 9 or10 and those that I used were found sparingly in that opening.
This was my luckiest day at the Beaver Pond when I began with this.
A few years ago, maybe around 2015 or 16, we had some major runoffs and this entire area was flooded. Because of that followed by my diagnosis of AFib, I have never been back there. But like I have already talked about, this place was magical and I began hunting it ever since 2007.