Posted by Rick H. on October 04, 1999 at 18:14:43:
Age 40, married to an understanding wife of 14 years.
Of course, she knew what she was getting into way before walking the isle! Have three boys ages 12, 11,
and 9. I'm a Certified Financial Planner with my own company specializing in retirement plans.
Chase most everything that walks, swims, or flies. Measuring by hours in the field, duck hunting has moved to the top spot over the last seven or eight
years. Used to be just an opening day hunter at Martini Flooding project followed by a couple outings per year of jump shooting with my father and brothers beginning at age 14. We weren't fancy but we always brought home ducks. Had a regular milk route of potholes and riverbends that we worked as a team with consistent results. About ten years ago I met an old timer who has been hunting Saginaw Bay for more years than I have been alive. It didn't take long to get hooked on the full program!
Now I have three boats:
16 1/2 ft. Sea Nymph with a tubular welded blind with Fastgrass.
14 ft. Pointed bow flat bottom jon boat set up specifically for managed waterfowl areas. The pointed bow slides right between the corn rows and this rig has a great corn camo paint job. The front has a dog platform that my yellow lab can sit on high and dry, hidden in the corn, yet he can see great.
10 ft. jon boat for solo trips into hard to access spots. I can drag or carry this little rig into remote areas. Works great for me and the dog along with a bag of decoys. Can be rowed, poled, or cruised with a three horse motor. No big water for obvious reasons.
Have a four year old yellow lab named SIMBA, that has earned his rightful place in the family and field. Does a super job on ducks with the softest mouth anywhere. Could use some improvement on long retrieves of sailing downed birds because he starts hunting too short. But heck, nobody's perfect. If it wasn't for my shooting he wouldn't have to deal with those "distant horizon" retrieves.
Reload everything I shoot in shotgun, rifle and pistol. Use an American Arms 10ga OU with backbored barrels and Clearview chokes for waterfowl. Except when floating rivers, when I switch to a Rem 1100.
Really looking forward to the 1999 season. My 12 year old son will be going "for real" this year and can't wait. All three boys have been going along in the boat as obsevers a couple times a year for several years. My youngest son used his favorite (come back)
call last year at eight years old to bring one back around for dad, which I promptly dropped. What a thrill!