Mississippi's Teal, my story

[missed mallards]

Hunting Mississippi’s September Teal

Mississippi allows sportsmen to take advantage of the blue wing teal’s early migration by giving hunters a short teal season in the middle of September. This year was the first time I took the opportunity to hunt Mississippi’s teal season. Being a newbie to teal hunting I decided to hunt one of my favorite hunting places “the north pond”. The north pond has been a place of it’s on. Nestled in the heart of the delta the pond has served as my stomping ground in the way of water fowling. I only saw fit that I should hunt this area for my first teal experience.

Arriving at the pond brought back many memories of years past. The duck’s, friends, and dog work of those memories brought a smile on my face. As I unloaded my truck I just couldn’t help but to think what the morning was going to bring. Hurriedly, I strapped the decoys on my back, grabbed my gun and headed for the pond. The dog was wagging his tail like it was a frozen December morning; I just had to admire his excitement as we double timed it to beat the rising sun.

Placing the decoys was something I hadn’t been prepared for. The pond was one large mud flat. The pond that has always held a generous amount of water had dropped about 2 ft in depth leaving a soft muddy ground. The dog was even hesitant to take the plunge into the murky pond, but the decoys needed to be placed. As I made step after step through the murky pond I knew that the time I spent training my dog was soon going to pay off. After the decoys where set and the blind built we settled in for the mornings hunt.

First light brought the first flights of the migrating blue wing teal. With ever pass the flock was edging closer and closer to the end of my spread and I was getting trigger itchy the closer they got. The teal finally committed to the decoys and at the last minute I slung my trusty Remington 870 to my shoulder and locked on the lead bird. The mornings silence was soon broken as I shot round after round trying to hit my quarry. My attempt failed as me and my dog stood in amazement as the teal left the pond doing mach 3 all the while making evasive maneuvers that would make an air force pilot blush. It was soon realized that I had underestimated the flight of the blue wings. Several minutes went by when a larger flock decided to tempt fait. Only this time I was prepared for them and managed 2 out of 3 shots.

The morning finally came to an end with me holding my limit of blue wing teal. It was an achievement that I didn’t think I was going to accomplish but good fortune and luck shined on me this morning. I would highly recommend waterfowl enthusiast try to hunt the first teal season, the dog will thank you later.

[Wingman]

Good story.

[duckkiller]

nice read, are you starting a hunting journal?

[Nash]

Good read,

[cwink]

Great read.. You should definilty start a journal..

[Warren]

good read but hey you should of hollered at me