L&C Duck story, w/pic's

[Jellyhead]

Well, I managed to talk my father into buying a hunting license and his stamps this year, so we went on our first duck trip of the year.

All was going pretty well, We were downing a few widgeon by laying out in the scull boat and my marsh rat. Here's a pic of my dad next to the grassed up sculler. (Yes that's actually a boat he's standing next to :grin: )



My father was shooting exceptionally well (considering he hasn't duck hunted in 20 years!) He downed another widgeon, so I started after it in the marshrat. As I paddled after the bird that was drifting with the tide, I turned to look back at my dad, and BLOOOOOOP!!!! Oh crap! My shotgun now lay on the bottom of the marsh, under 6' of water. :depressed:

I took the kayak paddle and reached down under water and shoved it as far down in the mud as I could, to mark the position of my sunken gun. I yelled at my dad to paddle out and come get me. He paddled out and towed me in. Luckily the tide was going out, so the plan was to switch off with my dad's gun and attempt to retrive my gun at the bottom of the tide.

Switching off worked well for us, I could call and ID birds for my dad and he would shoot. And when I was shooting he could brush up a bit on his ID'ing.

We ended up with two limits. All widgeon except for a pin a piece and a lone greenwing.
It was a day we'll both remember for a long time.



Oh, yeah I got my shotgun back and used it on sunday. Gotta love the old clunker mossbergs.


Aaron

[ 10-28-2002, 09:29 AM: Message edited by: Jellyhead ]

[Flatfish]

Aaron,
cool story and nice pics too.Love them pumpguns too.Good to see you and the old man going at it .My dad has a pretty good blind this year,and the ducks are showing in respectable numbers.Lotsa fun.
Oh yeah the dog wrote a poem about his favorite 107 days...."Kill Kill Kill the Greenheads"
Hey he is a dog,don't expect too much.
Mark and the Midnight Feathered Express.

[Bounty Hunter]

Hey Aaron.

Thanks for the story and pictures looks like you guys had a great time. Makes me think that I need to drag my father into the outdoors this weekend. He just can't take to the duck hunting because he doesn't like the cold... Do you think this coldfront is going to push all the Widgeons south before the weekend?

[Lured In]

Sweet pics! Looks like from the background you guys were hunting up near Brownsmead? I can only think of a few places down there that have houses in the background.

This is my first year hunting down there and so far I love it.

Hopefully some mallards will move in before too long.

[Jellyhead]

Lured-In,

Good Observation. You're pretty close.......

Looks like I'm gonna have to start cropping pic's, or I'm gonna lose my honey hole

We never even had a mallard circle that day. It was a widgeon and pintail show. Sunday wasn't near as good down there for me.

This time of year is the best to take people that aren't hard-core duck hunters. The weather is still pretty decent, and not too many 36 degree, pouring down rain days.

Aaron

[Baldpate Basher]

Those are the fun ones. The hunts where you survive disasters. :shocked:

Glad to hear you got your gun back.

Something similar happened to my dad and brother. They built a portable, adjustable blind and set it up in 3 feet of water. They had argued over the size of the feet for each leg. My father overruled my brother and got 5’ plates for the feet. [img]graemlins/icon_argue.gif[/img]

When they had the blind set up they put the dog, the guns, the ammo and their coffee on the blind platform. Finally they climbed on and were adjusting the burlap curtain around the blind when the blind started to slowly sink and pitch forward. :shocked:

“Splash!” Everything and everyone went in. The dog got tangled up with my father’s feet and almost drowned the both of them. [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

They found everything but my dad’s jamamtic and the thermos of coffee. However they were cold, wet and stuck because my other brother and I had the boat about half a mile away.

When my other brother and I decided to go for lunch we found them in their misery and took them to the van. They got dry clothes on, eat some lunch and went back to hunt the rest of the day.

In the end they shot quite a few birds. When they were picking up the decoys they found the other gun and the coffee. The coffee was still hot!

[Tilla]

I know a gun of Fishalot's that the Walleye have hanging up on the wall. Something about that "Bloop sound".

[Fishalot]

The shot guns Tilla shoots all look as bad as the one I droped over board 5 years ago. I bet the one at the bottom of the Columbia is probably in better shape then his :grin:
Thanks for the post JellyHead and I hope the good hunts hold up for you and your Dad. I have always wondered what that lower Columbia hunting would be like?. I have never done it and I am not equiped for it, I will just have to stick to the inland puddle duck hunting. Where I hunt we have been doing good so far this year. I have been out 2 times and have shot 13 ducks and 3 geese.

Fishalot