The Great Canadian Merganser Shoot!
08-06-2007, 06:45 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Winnipeg Manitoba Canada
Posts: 1,837
The Great Canadian Merganser Shoot!
This is a true story as it happened to my friends and I. I just found it again so I thought I`d share.
This will be known as the Great Merganser shoot of 2001. Our guns loaded our senses keen, we waited for the mallards and widgeon that had rained down on Shawn and Lenny’s diets the week before. Shawn, our host, invited us to enjoy his four man above water blind he’d built last winter by snow mobile. We also looked forward to seeing his new pup, Chili, a gold lab, do his stuff. The previous year at Shawn’s invite we had limited out on ducks and snows in the 15 minutes before dark. We looked forward to a possible repeat surrounded by corn fields, the D.U. impound is a magic place for waterfowl shooting.
Well, first came endless flights of red headed mergansers. Those sharp ended fast flipping, fish eating, critters that look so much like ducks, which are edible.
Repeatedly, we each barked out, down from the south, only to plead, “sorry, it’s only mergies”. Then, “Two right out front, No! No! just fish heads”. On looking back on the day, over 100 cries and let downs for these four fowl were on the nerves till we finally became numb only to let a big flight of red heads go freely past us at 30 yards unscathed.
It sounded like, “look mallards! Nope mergies, Mallards I tell you…Nope Mergies” Then on realizing they really were eaters, “those were red heads!, Yup Red Heads. I told you they weren’t mallards”. I don’t believe it!
The whole afternoon was the same. Adrenaline and letdowns wore us to numbness. Our big hope was the last 15 minutes of light when all ducks decide they want to sleep in a wet spot and pour back into the marshes, their crops full of some flat land delicacy.
Well hundreds did, pivot doom southeast of our blind. We watched in dejection mumbling curses about their ancestors. It was dark and time to pull the dekes.
Peddling solemnly through the channels and cuts, the big gold lab “Chili’ sitting on our feet, my 50 year old back needed a stretch. I leaned back and exclaimed “my God, look up guys”. The northern lights were on fire. Magnetic mercurial washes of red and green bonded across the sky blinding the stars. All peddling stopped and four grown men faced skyward with the open mouthed wonder of 10 year olds. Even the dog looked up and uttered a long basso moan. And there across the middle of the gods splendor passed a flight of mergansers.
Good Night!
Ron
This will be known as the Great Merganser shoot of 2001. Our guns loaded our senses keen, we waited for the mallards and widgeon that had rained down on Shawn and Lenny’s diets the week before. Shawn, our host, invited us to enjoy his four man above water blind he’d built last winter by snow mobile. We also looked forward to seeing his new pup, Chili, a gold lab, do his stuff. The previous year at Shawn’s invite we had limited out on ducks and snows in the 15 minutes before dark. We looked forward to a possible repeat surrounded by corn fields, the D.U. impound is a magic place for waterfowl shooting.
Well, first came endless flights of red headed mergansers. Those sharp ended fast flipping, fish eating, critters that look so much like ducks, which are edible.
Repeatedly, we each barked out, down from the south, only to plead, “sorry, it’s only mergies”. Then, “Two right out front, No! No! just fish heads”. On looking back on the day, over 100 cries and let downs for these four fowl were on the nerves till we finally became numb only to let a big flight of red heads go freely past us at 30 yards unscathed.
It sounded like, “look mallards! Nope mergies, Mallards I tell you…Nope Mergies” Then on realizing they really were eaters, “those were red heads!, Yup Red Heads. I told you they weren’t mallards”. I don’t believe it!
The whole afternoon was the same. Adrenaline and letdowns wore us to numbness. Our big hope was the last 15 minutes of light when all ducks decide they want to sleep in a wet spot and pour back into the marshes, their crops full of some flat land delicacy.
Well hundreds did, pivot doom southeast of our blind. We watched in dejection mumbling curses about their ancestors. It was dark and time to pull the dekes.
Peddling solemnly through the channels and cuts, the big gold lab “Chili’ sitting on our feet, my 50 year old back needed a stretch. I leaned back and exclaimed “my God, look up guys”. The northern lights were on fire. Magnetic mercurial washes of red and green bonded across the sky blinding the stars. All peddling stopped and four grown men faced skyward with the open mouthed wonder of 10 year olds. Even the dog looked up and uttered a long basso moan. And there across the middle of the gods splendor passed a flight of mergansers.
Good Night!
Ron
08-06-2007, 04:24 PM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Waipahu HI USA
Posts: 2,915
RE: The Great Canadian Merganser Shoot!
Nice story, thanks for sharing it with us. it reminds me some of a fishing trip I took a few years ago to the Columbia R. One day, while fishing along the Wind R. we were buzzed all day by'mergie singles & pairs. They were a sight to behold as they made fast banking turnsas they passed in frontof us.
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