Weekend duck report

[Al Bundy]

Saturday morning arrived and my team showed up ready to go.  Somewhat of a trek to the water but I was ok.  I was not quite ready so the crew headed to water with me coming in five or so mins. I got my shit together and headed out o dark something. My naughty lab took off for the water and didn't look back. Sadly I did not know this and called and looked for her and wasted a bunch of time. Grrrr bad lab. 

birds were flying while placing decoys. Got done and waited for 10 mins or so. Heard early shots and passed on some shots before legal. 20 or so mins after legal, a pair of blacks dropped in just on the edge of shooting range. Nobody shot so I said let's take them. All you was the reply. Raised the gun and the pair flew. I touched off a round and splashed one black.  It was swimming so I got up and went to waters edge, commanding my lab to heel. I didn't want her to swim out as I touched off another round to finish the job.  It was pretty far and that shot didn't seem to slow it down. Commanded my lab "back" and out into the water she went. She swam hard after it  and it became obvious the duck was losing steam. In her mouth and heading to land. One in the bag!!! My lab shook shortly after coming back to land and instead of water, small ice crystals came off her.... never saw that before.  Ducks flew great but only two more shots that morning. Two misses.. oh well. 

This morning saw lights out in the water as I approached. Got closer and saw a gang of guys setting up 100 or so yards from me. Weird setup really. Redheads and canvasbacks on threee different lines. Rarely see redheads and even rarer see a canvasback.  Some other ducks mixed in but those were prominent. Also this morning was ice. I had to bust up 20 or so yards of ice. Not fun.  Ice kind of screwed things up and nothing came in. Less birds flying also. It got real real cold when the wind started blowing and the snow came down.  Today was real late season winter duck hunting to me. 

Overall good weekend but not many ducks. I think I'm done with ducks til next season.