Great Weekend

[wasonzhao]

Great Weekend

Made my way up to Amy and met up with a good friend, Jam Simpson, Friday afternoon. Jam and his friend, my soon to be new buddy, Kevin , were ready to head to Tennessee for a weekend of early teal and wood duck hunting. This was my second time to make the trip and last year was going to be hard to beat. You can never really compare two hunts because they are so unique to their self but the anticipation of the new memories is always high when hunting with Jam and this year was no different. We drove up to Jam’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gene Simpson, Friday evening/night and met Jam’s nephew, Hunter Simpson. We got in kinda late so we hit the sack quickly in anticipation of the following morning’s hunt. Like kids the night before Christmas, we had dreams of ducks flying in our heads as we slept and it didn’t take much to get us up after the short, and I mean SHORT, sleep we had. Jam Douglas met up with us early Saturday morning and off to the duck hole we went.

Now in Tennessee you can kill wood ducks along with teal. 2 Woodies and 2 Teal or just 4 Teal. We were hunting a slough and knew it would be all woodies. This was Hunter’s first duck hunt and man were we excited. All we can have been use the hunting camera . Just like clock work, right at shooting time the tree tops started buzzing with woodies flying by. Boom, Boom, Boom!! Some ducks fell, many didn’t. One big group of about 10 to 14 woodies came in right in front of me. I shot and they split, half went left and half went right. I continued shooting in there amongst them but not sure if I ever hit anything. Hunter found one that peeled off to my left and boom …. I saw the duck sailing out of the corner of my eye. I watched it sail and crash in a bush/tree about 5 foot high. I pointed Jam to where I saw the bird crash and there it was. Hunter’s first duck! We were pumped !!! I started hooping and yell’n (think I may have scared him a little) and man were we pumped.

Hunter holding his first duck! I was blessed to be there for it.

A few more rounds later Kevin knocked this out of the sky….

Kevin with his first banded duck.

Yep, it was his first ever banded duck. I can honestly say I’ve heard a lot of things in the hunting field but this was a first. Kevin was so fired up about the banded duck he started telling each and everyone of us men that he Loved Us…. Thought that was just kinda cool to say the least. Two first on one hunt and two such emotional first…..hard to compare that to anything.

We finished up the opening morning with 7 woodies. We all limited out except for Hunter. He has to spend a little more time at the shooting range but he was good enough that once to get him one under his belt. We hunted Saturday and Sunday morning before church. I think we finished out with 11 that we brought out and 2 or so we couldn’t find. It’s always good to remember to keep things fun and casual, especially with a young person involved….

Hey, Us Mississippi boyz had to fit in

Had to show our true colors and let it hang out a little know? Many stories could be told about this trip. Actually a mini series book could be written about it. There was an old goat with a a huge goatee in the middle of a one lane gray road and many other stories/events that occurred on this trip. Way too many to mention here but there was one more thing that I was really looking forward to before we got there and man was it all I was hoping it would be….

The Feast!

Yea, that’s right… going down the table 1. Cream Corn 2. Chocolate Gravy 3. Light Brown Gravy 4. Fried Chicken 5. Fried Apples (freshly picked that morning from her front yard) 6. Biscuits and 7. Mashed Potatoes. All this was home made and flat out some of the best vittles I’ve had in a while. To say it was the perfect finish to one of the best hunts I’ve had the experience to share is a huge understatement. Best part is we got her to commit to do it again next year!!!!! Man, it’s gonna be a long year waiting on that meal again!

This was a great kick off to the 2011/2012 Hunting Season. Young Hunter got his first duck and hunting camera…. Could you think of a better start?