As some of you know, a recent change has cut my ducky time and kept me around the house. So it took me a little while to compile this Howard and Hank Report. It felt like homework in someways, I got to play, now time for a little work. Assignment completed here it is.
One cool windy night, at a DA meeting in a publicly disclosed location.
I joined the duck brethren for a round of non alcoholic beverages while swapping tales of duck lore and other things damp and cold. I saw my good friend Jokester who told me he had the boys. After a few more rounds of root beer and the duck tales died down, Jokester and I performed the Howard and Hank trade off, now the boys where my responsibility.
They came in a nice, but well used box that looks like its seen some miles. Placing the boys in my truck, I got home late that night to a wife who wonders what happened to her husband since he started duck hunter.
The next morning as usual on a hunt day, I arose at dark thirty, put on my hunting garb, unpacked the boys, loaded the dekes, cart, guns into the truck and headed to the Westside of SI to participate in the morning ritual known as the chip pull.
On this cool windy morning, like many other duckers, I would place my hand in the bag. I wasn’t worried, this was a vacation day, I was hunting with IFISHER drifting and Howlemup’s buddy Cam. As I place my hands in that bag, I knew I was getting a good pull. My overconfidence was seeded in the fact that McDonalds gave me free breakfast since their Debit machine was down. I was on cloud nine and knew exactly what blind I was heading to as I pulled that chip.
Let me first say, there was a 1 on this chip, but it wasn’t the coveted number 1 chip. No, my friends, this 1 had two additional buddies, For the first time this year, and on a weekday which I declared as vacation, I had drawn #131, my buddy Drifting drew something even higher. As I stood there comtemplating what it would be like to head into work at 5:00 am and telling my boss who would be arriving at 9:00 am, that I'm not taking it off. A fella ifisher told me in casual conversation he would probably pass me a chip better than the one I had drawn, although he cautioned it wasn’t a great pull, just better. So as the numbers rang out this cold windy Friday morning, lucky pullers came up and desired blinds left the peg board. Threw the kindness of this fellow IFISHER who I shall refer to as DEEP DUCK, his chip pull of 80 assurred me of a place in a Westside blind and that kept me from going to work. Walking up to the shack, victory in hand, I inquired of a good blind from amongst the pitiful chips left on the board. The recommendation was to take Steelman #9, since it’s on a point, we had a windy day, and oh by the way, its as far as Mud #1. So myself, Drifting, and Cam loaded with guns, cart, and wheelbarrow headed out blindly to a blind neither of us had seen. The walk to Steelman eight is quite nice, not the rocked gravel road to Seal Lake, but mowed short grass nonetheless. However unbeknownst to us the trail ends at Steelman 8, attempting to walk what appears as a trail in the dark brings one quickly to logs and other obstacles impassable with a cart. Circling around we finally found the cart tracks which led to Steelman #9 along the muddy shoreline in front of Steelman #8. So we drag the cart, and wheelbarrel threw the soft mud and water, heading to the barren patch of land with a stake that is Steelman #9. With shooting light almost upon us, we set out a few dekes in what looks like nice diver habitat by all the busted clam and mussel shells.
Shooting light came and as predicted, a lone mallard drake came in with the wind but quickly turned and came in to land. Three shots later he was on the water, head down, still swimming and heading out faster than I could walk along the semisoft muddy bottom. A couple of shots slowed him enough for me to catch up. First bird down, 20 more to go. An hour later some more birds came right into the decoys, dropping one of them revealed a hen shoveler. With the time between birds getting longer, I decided to eat some of my free breakfast. Midway thru an Sausage Macmuffin, gun on the ground, a pair of mallards decide to come in. Dropping the mcmuffin and picking up the gun, I manage to drop the hen with a single shot while the drake gets away. Its roughly 10:00am and we only have 3 birds. As it occurs on most hunting days, there are other opportunities, but we just don’t connect. At the end of the day, 3 birds is all we got. Sitting off Oak island, we can see and hear hundreds of birds, but only three birds sacrificed themselves to keep the flock safe.
End of SI shooting time we head back to the rigs, another hunting day comes to a close.
Our quarry for the day, 3 ducks.
A few days later, back in the SI Westside line. On this day there was four of us, myself, Tar heel, Drifting, and a new duck brother whose post I’ve read but never met DaffyBlaster and his four legged companion. With 4 guys, we were almost guaranteed a better pull than Steelman 9.
Drifting drew chip 9, which made my pull of 36 seem high, I was able to pass my chip to DEEP DUCK which allowed him to hunt that day. There was a lot of low numbers draw that day, and even chip 9 couldn’t get a group in the top 5 blinds. So, we chose the best blind on Seal lake. It started as a good day, cool weather, a little drizzle and most important of all, wind to breathe life in the spinner and decoys in an attempt to fool birds which are use to getting shot out. The boys looked good in the spread. It was a long shot to put a diver on that lake which seems more like widgeon alley. Yea, you might see a Ringneck or Sawbill, but no scaup. Since I packed them out, we put them out anyway in the hope they would pull something in.
Since this was a work day, I only hunted till 9:00 am, in that time, we managed to bring down a few widgeon between myself and Tar Heel.
Here is a shot of the guys and another tail gate shot.
A few days later, I finally got a chance to take a coveted trip down to the lower river. Myself, Capin Dan, Brotherwolf, and BP97211. Anyone whose every hunted the Lower River should know or soon learns that anything not waterproof to 300 ft stays in the boat. You just don’t bring electronics to those island, cause you never know when your gonna step in a hole, or suddenly learn if you can swim with your clothes on. On this day, there was a 10 foot high tide coming around 1:00, so we knew our hunt would end early compared to shooting light. We left the dock at dark thirty on a very low tide and by GPS made our way to one of the many islands. Splitting up into 2 groups we hunted different side of this meager piece of land. As the water tide started to rise with the sun, birds came in . BP?????? and Brotherwolf got the first shots of the mornings. As time passed, I called in a pair of mallards and managed to drop 1. While calling in another pair, they decided our decoys didn’t look as good as BP’s full bodies so without being called to his spread they flew. BP dropped one of them which just so happened to be banded. I haven’t been able to formulate an argument to get my band from him, so he has it, but its mine. Remind him for me.
In addition to the ducks, the guys were able to drop a few geese which sweetened the pot.
Since I mainly hunt SI, it was cool to see that geese can be shot at in some places. The guys managed to get 3.
As the water started getting to deep for comfort, we left that island and headed for another until the tide fully came in. Myself, BP, and BrotherWolf hunted waist deep water on one point, Dan hunted with another guy on the other side. We pushed up a few pulling in and knew they would be back. Those few hours of hunt, we saw and knocked down a few birds, but it was tough. With the wind and current, birds needed to drop in the decoys, or the wind and current pushed them beyond the dogs range.
As the water got almost to the top of the waders, we decided it was probably time to head out, so piling into the boat, we headed back to the dock.
Some pics on the duckers and there respective quarry. Danny got a goose.
I got a mallard and a widgeon
Brian and Lonnie did most of the killing. The closest we got to divers was Hank and Howard on the strap.
Towards the end of my time with Howard and Hank, I headed back to the familiar waters of SI Westside. A decent pull, not mud caliber, but good enough for Seal, so back we went. This was one of those days I left the camera in the car. We managed to knock down a few widgeon, and a Gadwall which was in a flock of widgeon. And so like many others my time with Howard and Hank came to an end. I passed them on to Dixiefisher.
I would like to offer a big round of thanx to Royal Limit and Marshbum for allowing those of us afflicted to hunt, and shoot over these works of art.
Late Howard and Hank Report for End of November
DTSportsman
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