Chris_H

Aight fellas... some more stories/pics from where the ducks don't come! A long but VERY interesting story. Pics at the bottom.

I woke up this mornin at 3am feeling accomplished/anxious for reasons known by me and someone special. My buddy Zack picked me up at 3:30 and we headed out for the hole. We arrived around 4:45 after taking a pit-stop at the Huddle House. We made the treacherous mile walk carrying our gear weighin in the triple digits. If theres any way to get fit, its duck hunting 4 or 5 times a week! Rain had risen the water level by a good foot, and the cold front pushed more birds down. This combination made for a perfect day. No wait... the worst day... aw heck youll see what I'm talkin about in a minute!

It was about 5 or 5:15 when we finished setting up, so that made good time just chillin, talkin and listening to the owls and other animals in the woods. Sunrise came and it was just a little overcast. Not enough to make the birds fly later though. We saw about3 pairs of woodies in about 10 minutes, but we couldn't coax them into our spread (which I kept small btw, and it worked out perfect later on). Right after that I looked up and saw about 10 diving ducks burning about a skybuster distance over the top of us, but they paid us no mind. About 5 minutes later we heard hundreds of geese comin in, and other hunters blowin their goose calls. There was an explosion of shots... musta been like 20 or 30. We saw them get up way off in the distance, and two stragglers came right towards us. I gave em some single honks, but when they got close to the spread, they didn't see any geese so they flared and hightailed it. We didn't see much of anything else for about 30 minutes other than a pair of mallards, which is a miracle. Sittin there with my mind wandering, I heard the unmistakable sound of ringnecks. I looked up and saw about 20 of them comin over the top of us low and fast. I hit the woodie call once and the lead two drakes broke off from the group, cupped their wings and were about to light just to the north of our spread when we threw up and dropped them with one shot each.

Now the real problem began... I wasn't expecting the water level to be so high, and the ducks were in some very deep water. No fishing pole, no canoe, nothing. The only thing I could do was try mu luck and wade out there to go get 'em. That didn't work out to well. I was almost there when the mud at the bottom got real soft, and my body got really cold because water had started to fill into my waders. I paniced, said some dirty words and had to swim back until I could touch the bottom again. Thats exactly why I got waders with a safety belt!I was still wiggin out when I looked towards the spread and saw that 7 or 8 more ringnecks had lit in the spread! I was shocked. We didn't move for about 3 minutes when they finally spotted me and decided it was time to go. I got on the edge of the drop off and tried tossing the decoys out there to slowly hit pull them towards me. That also didn't work. My buddy swam for his high school for 5 years, and mentioned that he had his wet suit for surfing in his truck. Long story short, Zack was the elected bird dog for the day and swam out there and got those things! We were both soaking wet in the freezing weather and agreed that our hunt was done for the day.

Don't ever do this... [8D]what we did was stupid and dangerous, but thats why we did it. We're young and think we're invincible, but we're not. However, it will make a great story for our grandchildren. "We were hardcore back in the day."


Lessons learned:

1.Always plan for the worst. If its been raining, the water has gone up... bring a fishing pole or a small boat.

2. When the water gets to be and inch or two away from overflowing your waders, turn around.

3. Bring a change of clothes.

My kill


Zack's kill

huntnteen

those are smart lessons learned though i think you should add one more: get a dog, or hunt with someone who has one, it makes life so much easier then having to retrieve those birds yourself, espeacially when you only break a wing. And just be thankful you didnt fall in that water! its deadly...

Rory/MO

Nice! I killed some honkers this morning.

Chris_H

Believe me... I want to get a dog and so do the people I hunt with. However, most of us are full time students in college and just won't have the time necessery to give the dogs proper training and caring.

Aha! Finally whacked some of those elusive MO honkers huh?! Great job man!

dkhunter8383

I got the same thing going on, I want a dog so bad, but being a full time college student it just isnt worth it. I bought a pair or Drake Waterfowl waders this year, and filled those more than I have ever filled any waders. Just because you have good waders doesnt mean you are water proof...

Rory/MO

IL actually. Thanks bro, merry Christmas to you

AR 34 eight point

Rory/MO post your kills on the contest page so we can get them entered.... Merry Christmas everyone...

huntnteen

That why i got and trained mine well in highschool, next year he will be my dog for good and my dad will have to get a new one

PSE_Shooter_117

I don't like playing around with waders in deep water. A friend of mine accidentally filled his up by leaving them outin the rain. Those things were so heavy when i picked them up, i can't imagine trying to swim for my life with filled waders on.

jim1966

Nice birds. Congrats.