Michigan.....

[MarketHunter]

The lower Michigan duck season opened today. I'd gone out last night and scouted the infamous "Mud Hole" and gone ahead with the plan of working up a temporary blind in another part of it as that's where the majority of the ducks all seemed to be using the past couple of years. Was a bit of a chore as the walking is painfully treacherous but I finally got the job done after a couple hours of thrashing around in the mud and slime.

Things hadn't looked good, I'd not seen a bird the whole time I was there, but we were going to give it a try anyway. Picked up Jim at 5:30am and met the other boys in the field. I'd marked the path to the new blind and we finally managed to get the sled and decoys there through the rough cover. Let me tell you, to hunt this place you've really got to want to hunt as it's torture to get around in.

Daylight brought a few flights of wood ducks then later some bluewing teal worked the spread. I was pleased with how the big Parker performed just as I had been up in Quebec last week. I killed a pair of teal and two drake wood ducks in 7 shots, pretty good work for me I assure you.

Later a single goose worked right in and one of the other boys killed him. Just as we were starting to talk about getting out of the heat and going for breakfast a flock of four geese appeared in the distance. Some hard calling brought them right in but they were off to the side so only Jim and I could shoot, still we managed to knock out one each on the odd angle. Much to my surprise, the other two seemed reluctant to leave the area and made a swing around the pond out of range. I started calling hard and managed to coax them back over us in range again. I gave mine two barrels and he came down like a sack of potatoes, the other two boys poured it on the remaining bird and killed him as well.

We ended the morning with 7 wood ducks, 4 teal, and 5 geese. Not too bad considering the conditions, we were pretty pleased.

We'd noticed quite a few wood ducks setting in across the slough. So, after we picked up, I slogged over to investigate. The water is particularly high this year and has backed up on a long point of land that has some red oaks at the tip. As I approached, about 30 birds reluctantly flushed from along that tip out from under the flooded trees. I walked on in and found feathers everywhere, they're apparently going in under the oaks picking fallen acorns. Good spot for a natural blind nearby so we're going to give that a try in the morning and see if we can't pick up a few.

This was a bittersweet hunt actually. Good shooting, but probably one of the last times we'll get to use the spot. Jim has had it leased for years from the farmer but it's recently been sold to the county for a bird sanctuary. We were only able to hunt because the closing hadn't happened yet. Chalk another private spot off the list just like my old strip mine cut down in Southern Illinois where we hunted for years. It's now partially filled in and has a huge motel sitting next to it. At least this one will be preserved but no more hunting obviously. We have our memories......


Destry