Finally Got A Sprig Worth Stuffing

[Flatfish]

6 Years ago, I decided to shoot a nice Pintail, and have it mounted. Well, I wont go into the gory details as to why it has taken 6 years to get a good one, but I finally did.

It started yesterday at 6:20 am. I was late, by their standards. But there was plenty of time to say "Hi", and get my waders on. Everyone had their second cup of coffee and talked duck talk as I pulled my suspenders over my shoulders and slid my Quad on.

We had to bust ice to make it to the blind. At one point, maybe 20 feet from the blind, I whacked holes in the ice with the gun. It was hurting my shins breaking it with the standard kick and walk technique. So the Mossberg got the nod. Thank goodness for cheap pumpguns.

Dad and I sat in his favorite blind. We drank coffee. We laughed. We talked of friends and family. Business too. He smoked a pack of menthols. This is why they call his blind " The Ashtray".

The shooting was poor at best. Only a few birds worked in earnest. And my shooting let a lot of them get away. But I did shoot the bull out of a pair if sprig that came in like they were on dope, and we were the crackhouse.

The bird has good (not great but good) plumage. His Pin is not memorable, but average. I can't think of a better way to spend the last day of the year. Nor abetter way to remember 2003 with.

So, in a few months, after the rush of hunting season is over. I will head to the taxidermy guy's house and give him a bag full of duck and a couple hundred bucks.

The bird will go in our office. Dad wants to put it above the Woodie he had done last year. The biz would buy it then too( decorations are tax deductable).I want to keep it home. But where aint important.

See ya in the snow.

Mark and the dog.

[Gun Rod Bow]

So what do you know about Crack Houses?

When you said you were going to stuff it, I was thinking, apples, celery, onions, garlic...

Did the large headed dog slobber all over it?

[Get Bit]

Way to go Mark ! Sounds like a great day even though the bird numbers are down. We have the same thing at our club.

Get Bit

[Flatfish]

The bird numbers are not down where we hunt! We saw a minimum of 4000-5000 ducks on Wed.

Sure, some of them are the same flights trading back and forth. But there are a TON of ducks to be had.

We stayed til about 5:10 pm. Honest to goodness, they started POURING in at about 4:55( literally about 8 minutes after legal light). For 20 minutes nonstop ducks beehived into our bits of open water until it looked just like the refuge....Except it is dark.

It was just like a goose tornado....except they quacked.

When we left to go home, we figured there was about 700-1000 ducks on the water. There is about 1 acre of open water. The pond might be 3 acres total....maybe. But only 1/3 of it is not frozen.

Every morning we kick about 300-500 birds off about 15 minutes before legal light. They leave at the same time every day, no matter if it is a hunt day or not.

The fella who owns the place lives right there. He says they act this way from about Thanksgiving on til the end of the season. Really cold weather helps( Oh please Oh please Oh please), but they know when legal light ends.

Now there are not so many birds as the mid 90s when limits were the rule. But I sure have no excuses. At least no lack of duck excuses. I do have "poor shooting", and "not paying attention", and "should have taken them on that last pass" excuses. But the birds are there.

Interestingly enough. 85-90% of the birds we saw flying during the day were pintails( almost all of these were high flying ducks in large groups. None of them were within calling range. Let alone decoy range). But at night, when they came in to feed all night long, it was pretty much a mallard show. Probably 80% greenheads. The rest was a mix of Sprig and Widgeon mostly.

Hope Ya'll kill a bunch this weekend. I gotta go play in the crackhouse GRB is mentioning.

Good killing to ya.

Mark and the dog.

[ 01-02-2004, 03:29 PM: Message edited by: Flatfish ]

[Swamp Puppy]

Originally posted by Flatfish:
So the Mossberg got the nod. Thank goodness for cheap pumpguns.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">yes, thank goodness for them.

sounds like a great time.