First day of early Teal/Goose season....I shot a boat!

Hurray Its duck season again!

Stayed up too late watching a movie, up fresh at 4:15am after an awesome 2 1/2 hour nap. Things are going sweet!

Got the boat launched after a ritual first day fight with the motor. Cruised to the spot, set out a small spread in front of a pocket of lily pads, hoping to repeat a great opening day last year. Got set up with about 20 minutes before sun up and had the pleasure of watching tons of wood ducks buzz the blind and crash down in and around the spread. Even though woodies are off limits, it was nice to see birds working and flying by at 10-15 yards.
We had 2 blue wing teal land in the spread about 10 minutes from shooting time, 5 minutes later they bid us a found farewell and headed to destinations unknown. Things were looking good as teal generally don't reside in this area like the wood ducks who nested on the lake. Our teal season is a crap shoot hoping that the season will coincide with a migration through the region. So if you see any at all, its likely that more will follow. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. We hung around for a few hours without seeing any more teal. Though the wood ducks continued work the lily pads and open water. At one point, one hopped up on the blind we normally hunt when not hunting out of a boat.

Oh, did I mention some jack wagon tried to sink an old fiberglass Chrysler runabout 20 yards in front of the boat ramp? Ya, thanks buddy!

We got it close enough to the ramp to get some tow straps on it, but we could only get the azz end. Which makes pulling it up a gravel ramp tons of fun! We got it up a ways and let water drain till it stopped still nearly 1/3 full. Puzzled as to how drain the rest of the boat, the little redneck on my shoulder yelled "SHOOT IT!". And who was I to argue? Three 3 1/2" #1's later water was flowing well. We were then able to spin it around and drag it away from the ramp.

Luckily, jack wagons tend to fail often. Not only did he fail to sink the boat all the way, he left the registration number on the boat and a refuge pass sticker w/ individual number. The Deputy Sheriff that came out didn't seem near as eager to bust heads as we were, but said he would run by the refuge office to try and get the info. With any luck the boat will be returned to its rightful owner with some hefty fees.

Anyway..sorry for the long post. Im gonna stop now so i can get some things done and get to bed at a decent hour.
4:15am comes pretty early.

Sounds like quite the adventure !

Good day tator

Is there ever a season for wood ducks?

there is here in mo. or at least there used to be. I always wondered why the point system was so high for them. here they were a lot more plentiful than mallards.

Looking forward to getting in some Dove shooting .... season opened Sept 1st. I am going to take my shotgun back to the city with me and throw some lead at doves.

Reload3006 wrote:there is here in mo. or at least there used to be. I always wondered why the point system was so high for them. here they were a lot more plentiful than mallards.

I've heard its because they are far harder to determine population numbers. They dont bunch up in fields or ponds that are usually counted in flyovers. I guess they would rather be safe than sorry?

On a side note we shot 5 today between two of us. I think the cold front that's coming through is moving birds.