What's your biggest mistake "Uh Oh" moment duckin'?

[rbsdrake]

One morning hunting the woods I snagged my waders and ripped them right above the boot. It was around 18 degrees that morning. We broke ice on the way in. Water started pouring in my waders. I said fi_ick it I'm going anyway. Bout an 30 min after shooting light I couldn't take anymore. I took off toward the truck soaking wet freezing to damn death. It would have taken forber to go back the way we walked in so I just made a straight shot toward the truck. Got to the ditch tried to find some where to cross that wasn't over my waders but I could see the truck so I bailed off in it water started pouring in the tops oft waders. I had no extra clothes so I was butt naked on the side of the highway with people riding by honking and shizz. It took me almost an hr to warm back up in the truck on the way home. I'm glad I didn't get pulled over that morning or they would have been in for a surprise when they say my fat naked booty. My wife couldn't stop laughing when I walked in the house butt naked. Always take extra clothes with you

[Barq's]

I remember one trip back in the late 80's when it was in the single digits...My Uncle Sonny and I stayed in late and let the sun get up. He drank coffee at the little hole in the wall at the edge of the lake all the while, i was glued on the window looking out over the water with anticipation of what was going to come. When he finally got done reading the paper, he said "load up" and we were gone to the ramp. I remember the ride across the lake that day...The wind was out of the Northwest at a good and steady 15+mph with gusts into probably the upper 20's. The lake was covered in whitecaps and we rode the waves all the way to the western shore were the water was slack.
We started spreading the decoys one by one and I can still see mallards trying to come in on us while we tried to set up. Well, by the time we got finished setting out all of the decoys and got into the blind, the flights had slowed down. The wind started changing direction on us and the decoys were showing ice all over them....It was all wrong. What ducks we did have trying to work were flaring over the island to our rear and didn't have enough room to work like they wanted too, which just upset my Uncle.

He went out into the decoys 2 or 3 times trying what he could until his hands were about frozen. I remember him standing in the blind in a blue pair of ski suit overalls complaining that his right thumb was numb. I remember that distinctly because he poured a cup of coffee out of his thermos and stuck his thumb in it to try to get it to stop throbbing. Well, it didn't work.
Finally, he called it and we loaded the boat back up and started the chore of picking up all the frozen decoys....This was one of those days were you felt like there was 200 of them because it was just that cold.
On the way in, we passed another island and on the southern shore in slack water was at least 1,000 mallards.....I can remember putting along, riding the waves, and looking over and seeing them jump and take flight towards the clouds....when they got up a couple of hundred yards in the air, they started funneling like a tornado and poured right back down where they were to begin with....
Well, I hollered and my Uncle had seen them too....we took a hard left and he gunned the motor and before you knew it, we were sliding down from where they were at about 100 yards away.....Both of us jumped out of the boat....I grabbed my gun and a couple of decoys and went running for the hole that they were still pouring into.
By the time we got on our knees beside a cypress tree....Here they came....Boom, boom, boom,,,,,boom, boom, booom.....Load up! here come some more.....boom, boom, boom.....
Dead mallards floated not far from us....i started out into the hole to pick up ducks when my Uncle said "look at this guy"....I looked up and sure enough, here came a boat.....A boat exactly like ours....

Next thing out of my Uncle's mouth was "That's our freakn boat"!!!!!!!!!!!!! he took off as fast as he could and at the last step, caught it and took water in over his waders....Well....we still had mallards coming in and while he was lolly gagging with the boat I shot another one or two mallards....I can still hear him cussing me to get my butt in the boat....That was a short ride back to the ramp.

After I got finished getting chewed for the remainder of the day and he finished thawing out....Our #1 and #2 rule became....#1...Tie the boat up #2....Make sure someone tied the boat up
That was one that he never let me forget...
Barq's

[Chuckle12]

Been stranded on the river 3 times. The worst was with Big Timber, we were in straight up survival mode. Timing belt broke on the old Terry bass boat we used back then. We had no business taking that thing out on the river, but didn't realize that until it was too late. We were stranded on an island in the middle of the ol' Mighty Mississippi until 5am the next morning. No food, little water. The only thing we had was a fire, which was a God send given it was about 20 degrees that night. We had to use gas from the boat tank to start a fire with soaking wet wood. We tried to shoot a beaver at about 3am to have something to eat... that didn't work out. It was a bad situation that was made worse by a river on a fast rise and a very small island. Thankfully help came before the island went completely under.
I also ran out of gas while shooting a very legally questionable hole on the Big Black. Had to walk/swim in 30 degree weather back 3 miles to the truck, only to realize I had left the keys to the truck in the boat. I walked all the way from the ramp on hwy 49 back to Flora to get gas. It was brutal. Now I always keep an extra gallon of gas in my boat.

[rjohnson]

[hntrpat1]

[Seymore]

Went with a friend once and it was about as cold and windy as I can remember. He stepped off in a beaver slash and went all the way to his neck. He had a layer of ice on him when I got him back to the truck. I literally had to crack the ice from his wader buckles to get them off. I thought he was dead. Luckily we were hunting very close to his parents and we got him inside and warming up.

[the tree]

On a "casual" afternoon shoot, sent my lab on a retreive. While swimming thru some brush, her collar got hung up on a limb. The harder she swam to free herself the more the limb restrained her. Water was deep and cold. As I was undressing, limb snapped and she was free. From that point forward, Ive always removed dog's collar when near water.

[Barq's]

I'm sorry....I'm still picturing that train bearing down on that boat!

[Deltamud77]

Not my moment...but a friends...

Hunting an old, old elevated duck blind in cypress in a delta brake to remain nameless. Blind had probably not been hunted in years. It had some old folding chairs in it from years ago...and a very sketchy floor. My friend assured me that the structure was sound. We had boated in a quarter mile. Shooting light comes, gray ducks are flying and few hit the water...then a loud cracking noise and my friend...sitting to my left disappears and then a very large splash followed by the worst cussing tirade I have ever heard. The rotten floor gave way to his ample girth and swallowed him whole...digesting him about 6 feet down into very cold water.

He was okay...but the hunt was over as he was soaked to the bone.

I could not have hunted anymore anyway from laughing so hard.

It was awesome...though he was lucky he didn't impel himself on a cypress knee.

[Barq's]

classic.....

[Barq's]

Back in the early 90's we hunted a blind south of Lake Arthur, Louisiana that was on a man-made pond in the middle of the marsh. That marsh was floating and if you ever stopped moving while walking it, you were done. Well, I was the third person out of the blind and when the first 2 guys stopped, I went up to my armpits. I was a good 30' from open water and there wasn't a single thing to grab hold of. I wound up being left in that hole with my dog for a good thirty minutes while my buddy's went and got a guy to come after me with a mud boat. I will never forget when the boat pulled up and Big Mike shined his light across the marsh, I heard him say "where the hell is he, I see the dog"....that's when I hollered I'm under the dog!

Well, Mike threw me a rope....the only rope on board....it was about 15' long...hence, I was thirty+ away....I can remember Mike hollering at me that dinner was going to burn and to get my a@rs out of the hole....

That left me no option but to say the hell with it and get down and dirty...When I say that I was covered from head to toe, that is an understatement. I still remember the headers glowing when I got in the boat and by the time we pulled up at the camp I was about frozen. I know that I had to be stripped because I didn't have the energy to take my own clothes off and I can still remember just how bad the shower was warming back up.

[Seymore]

[rebelduckaholic]

One trip it was about 30 degrees on a honda (like any honda has brakes). Was backing up and apparently there was a ditch behind me. Well long story short six foot free fall and water broke my fall. Wheeler lands on me and hurts like crazy to say the least. Bent handle bars with my chest. Get it running and head to truck. Change clothes while others set decoys, went back and think we killed 6. Have more will add with time

[.tadpole]

You all need to hunt with Bigwater every day is an uh-oh.

[Barq's]

My Uncle Sonny had an hunting buddy back in the early 70's that was named Jimmy. Now Jimmy was a different type of hunting buddy...he had funny quirks that my Uncle always complained about and he never really told me "why" he hunted with Jimmy, cause all he ever did was complain about him come to think about it. Anyhow, my Uncle and Jimmy were in the blind and had hunted most of the morning....killed a couple of mallards and some greys, but the flights had stopped for about an hour and Jimmy kept hearing ducks back behind the blind inside the island. Well, the water was up in the trees and finally Jimmy had enough and he told Sonny that he would be back..."he was going after em".

Well, Sonny watched Jimmy slide out the back of the blind and wade off into the trees....Sonny said that Jimmy hardly left a ripple in the water he was soooo "stealthy". My Uncle said that about 30 minutes passed then he finally heard Jimmy, BOOM....BOOM....BOOM.........Then......

"JEEZ SIR!!!! I'M SORRY I SHOT YOUR DECOYS!!!!!

My Uncle never let him live that one down....He said Jimmy stepped out from behind a big ole cypress tree and just blew 3 of them decoys slap out of the guys spread.....The man saw Jimmy the whole time coming towards the decoys, but never said a word cause he wanted to see how close he would get before he saw that they weren't real......Fail......