Opening Morning Success!
 

Well...

Garen (G-Dawg 02) and I headed to a spot last night and got there at 12:15 am. We were about the 20th boat in line...waited awhile, launched...and dodged a zillion hunters to get a spot. Stuck out the decoys and tried to get as much sleep as we could, laying in the boat til sunrise.

Well...it rolled in after about 5 hours of waiting...

Once the first shot rang out, it sounded about like WW3. It was as if all kinds of hunters were waiting with slack already taken up on the trigger to shoot at ducks.

Shortly thereafter I had my limit. Not of mallards like we expected, but 5 green-wing teal and a woody hen.

Later on in the day Garen got his limit...4 green-wing teal and a blue-wing teal.

So the wait paid off I guess. Even though we ended up with teal and not mallards, and we had to wait the night out...and didn't get any sleep. We had a heck of a fun time this morning shooting these speedy little ducks. Here's the pics...

RE: Opening Morning Success!
 

Congrats on the hunt!!! Sounds like you guys knew what you were doing. Wish I would have been that successful on our opener.

RE: Opening Morning Success!
 

congrats .... buncha good eatin there !!! id rather shoot woodies and teal rather than mallards tp be honest .... but ya gotta love how the mallards work .... is it common for yall to be shootin bluewings this late ?

RE: Opening Morning Success!
 

does that tornado decoy swinger work?

RE: Opening Morning Success!
 

I'm not sure about the bluewings. I have never actually shot one before. We only shot that one, and the rest were greenwing.

Yeah, the Vortex works. We hunted Kansas last year and saw some guys who had one. Had mile-high ducks dropping in on them after flying right past our spread. Garen went out and bought one.

Hunting with it Saturday morning, the ducks would come into it to check it out, but wouldn't light in the water. But once they were close, they were in shooting range and most of them died. So I would say that it worked.

Arkansas has banned spinning wing decoys next year though, so it looks like it will be heading on EBay or into the shed.

RE: Opening Morning Success!
 

wow ..... cant believe they outlawed all spinners ... figured would be like cali and ban motor operated first .... well .... by next year im sure sumbody will have out 10 more motorized decoys that will be legal ..... im in the work on one right now that actually goes out and hunts for ya .... retrieves the birds ..... brings em home .....plucks em .... singes em ... AND cooks em ;) make sure ya keep an eye out for it ..... :D

RE: Opening Morning Success!
 

When it does dishes, laundry, and cooks em GOOD. Gimme a call...

Word of advice, get em young, they're easier to train that way. ;):D

RE: Opening Morning Success!
 

Must be talkin wifeys now.... what a change of topic....and yes i know i have been there!!!!!!

RE: Opening Morning Success!
 

Congrats on what looked like a great hunt!

RE: Opening Morning Success!
 

Teal ducks are always fun...my opening morning wasn't too great, only 5 ducks, 1 mallard and 4 grey ducks...

Canis...no, it's not common to shoot Blue wings this late, they are usually long gone by now...we need some cold weather!!!!