Just a few pics from this past season to help pass the time till the next:
My own personal "Great Day in the Morning" while out with Kaas and McCormack. A clean double on black ducks, a clean double on mallard drakes (one banded), a clean double on geese, and a single snipe. Also two more mallard drakes to finish my Quebec limit. All shot with the big Parker 34 inch #3 frame 12 gauge.
McCormack on the same trip, in the middle of Lac St Pierre fishing for walleye.
Me out for walleye on the same trip, I'd managed to hook up a few despite also trying to smoke that giant cigar at the same time.
Lake St. Clair in Ontario, Canada rowing my sneak boat picking up decoys.
My father Dwight Hoffard a couple days after Christmas with a clean triple he shot on mallard drakes. This was classic, we had five drakes sneak right in on us low. It was about 20 degrees and blowing hard, we were huddled in the bottom of a pit trying not to freeze to death. Dad happened to just catch them as they were tipping into the decoys on the only open water anywhere nearby. He had three killed before our friend Russell and I could even get stood up. I managed to get two barrels in on what was left and missed clean, Russell never got off a shot as Dad had killed all three on that side of the pit. Dad looked at me and said "How many did you guys kill?" I replied that I'd missed, Russell showed him that his gun was still full of shells. Dad just smiled as he was reloading and never said a word. Yeah, the old man can still shoot.....
Week between Christmas and New Years down Mississippi way. The first specklebelly geese I've ever shot in my life. This was a strange limit, weren't many good ducks around so we sorta had to make do. That's a limit of six Hollywood mallards, and a pair of drake sawbills along with the geese. My big Parker 34 inch gun did the deed.
Another day in Mississippi, not a great pic but also showing a first for me. We finally managed to find some mallards and I killed my first ever Ross Geese.
My last hunt of the season, on the channel, St. Clair River, Ontario in mid January. It was 9 degrees when we slid the boat off the trailer, I believe that might have been my coldest duck hunt ever. Three of us killed 14 mallards, a redhead, a canvasback, and 7 geese. I'd have taken more pictures but my cheapo camera actually froze.