We started with a great opening morning that got the kids on the board. Here are my two boys with their best hunting buddy - all making like "Killers, Inc."
Saw this pair on the way home:
Due to lack of water in my preferred places, I branched out and hunted some new terrain. This limit of mallards took 30 minutes.
Found ducks in some unusual places, too. It looks ducky, but I walk by this spot all the time and there's NEVER more than 5-10 ducks on it. This day, though, plenty!
I was able to take a couple of "first" ducks this year. A mottled duck and a black duck:
I'm completely blessed that all of my children, even my daughter, have a passion for duck hunting. Jordan joined me for a great mallard hunt on this cool morning.
The kids all want to share duck hunting with their friends and I try to oblige as much as possible. This is Jordan with one of her home school friends. It was his first duck hunt and I think he's hooked. Calling me all the time now.
We had Lady Madison for a few days. The conditions were tough, with a lot of new water and mild temps. We took a chance on the timber one morning and got skunked. I know better than to hunt without scouting first, but it was all we could do...
I took Lady Madison out by myself a couple of days later. The birds hadn't been finishing well for a couple of hunts, so I took some advice from TJ and changed the spread to include three mallard pairs using my best decoys. Lady Madison was a bachelorette on this day and was set alone at 20 yards. They finished like a dream and I got out quickly, deciding to take hens due to an impending thunderstorm.
The highlight of the season was the day both of my boys took me to school. Ryan had an all-drake limit of mallards and teal and Aaron had two mallards before I had killed anything (and I had run through a box of shells). I thought I was just having one of "those" days. Later on, I learned my recoil spring had backed out a little bit and I was getting wobble between the stock and receiver. The boys don't give me any slack for that and have already reminded me plenty about the day they outshot me. Ryan had his full limit and Aaron took 3 mallards and a teal with his single shot, while I managed just two ducks.
More pictures from that hunt:
