As the final weeks of the waterfowl season drew to a close in the region where my duck camp is located on the Republic of Texas side of the Red River, my time afield was restricted as corporate demands kept me in London for a week as well as trips to Denver and St. Louis during the final week of the season. As a waterfowl conservationist, it was encouraging to see an abundance of waterfowl during my travels. I have to admit that I was also surprised and a bit discouraged to see an abundance of waterfowl aroundDenver the final week of the season as several feet of snow surrounded Denver for hundreds of miles in all directions. The logic of frozen ponds and food sources buried in snow would normally lead to the assumption that all the waterfowl in the area should have been winging south to my Red River habitat; instead they seemed rather content to enjoy the background of the Rocky Mountains instead of taking flight south… The following day as I traveled across St. Louis after landing at the airport, great flights of waterfowl were in the air obviously off a river roost. St. Louis is surrounded by water with great rivers including the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers converging there. Additional outstanding waterfowl habit found in lesser rivers also dominates the landscape. It is a wonder that any ducks find their way within range of either my Benelli or my Canon on my home turf… With only days remaining in the season, from the mahogany row vantage point high above the city of St. Louis I found it difficult to focus on business at hand as great flights of waterfowl dominated the floor to ceiling window view in front of me. I found myself daydreaming about the weekend hunts that I had managed before and after my London trip as well as the misery loves company stuck in the mud trip fresh on my mind from the evening before… Reflecting back, I was fortunate to have a great weekend hunt prior to heading off to London and despite being jet-lagged as I arrived home Saturday afternoon, at 5 AM on Sunday morning, Lydia and I shared our blind with good friends Bryan & Denise. While Bryan and I were both tired from a long week of work, when the girls want to hunt, what is a little jet lag to the serious waterfowler?

Above is one of my favorite camo images from this year. Denise is hidden on the left all camo'd up with her eyes searching for waterfowl while my lens if focused on my girlfriend Lydia's beautiful camo green eyes...

 Bryan & Denise - A couple that waterfowls together, stays together...

Monday afternoon was a scheduled scout trip to prepare for an executive hunt that I was hosting on the final Friday of the season. I had trips planned toDenver and St. Louis on the calendar that would keep me away from duck camp for the rest of the week. I had promised to take Matt, an enthusiastic new duck hunter, afield and since time was running out on the season, I invited him to join me for the afternoon trip. We were both looking forward to hunting a pond that was on my lease that I had yet to hunt all season. It is small scenic lake surrounded by flooded timber, the ideal habit for wood ducks and the ever elusive hooded merganser. Apparently it had rained a good bit while I was in London… Normally a bit of rain would not have been an issue had I driven my very capable Toyota Land Cruiser, equipped with a lift, mud tires, snorkel and most importantly a 12,000 pound warn winch, however, after setting Matt up on the secluded honey hole, I left him to hunt while I spent most of the late afternoon hiking out to find a cell signal so that I could request my good friend the rancher to please bring his tractor to pull my worthless in mud Z-71 4x4 Chevy Suburban out of a deep mud hole that I found myself in…

The following morning I had an O’Dark thirty flight to Denver so thankfully we got pulled out before sunset and I was able to spend the final few minutes in the blind with Matt. When I finally got home on Thursday after my Denver & St. Louis trips, I made a final run up to the duck camp that evening to make sure that I was ready for the final weekend which was scheduled to start off with the corporate hunt I was hosting on Friday at duck camp. I built a new blind and put out a killer decoy spread. While I almost always put decoys out the morning of the hunt, I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my friends that would be hunting with me in the morning so I did all the work Thursday night. The extra effort with the decoys and new blind made for a spectacular final weekend.

Fantastic final Friday hunt. Cal on the left and I'm on the right.

My friend Cal brought his Lab Sydney. She is a master hunt champion but has not hunted for 5 years. I worked it out so that we could hunt an easy private lake so that so he could feel comfortable bringing her afield. Sydney was a rock star retriever that day and it was very difficult to believe Cal when he told us that it had been 5 years since she last hunted. The morning started off with four Gadwalls cupping into our spread a minute after legal shooting time arrived. I call the shot and Cal dropped two with one shot, Charlie and I drop the other two. The rest of morning was more of the same. We all had doubles over the course of the hunt providing plenty of opportunity for Sydney to shine with blind retrieves a plenty…

One of my favorite images that I took of Sydney that day

Another favorite of Sydney

In the final weeks of the season, what limited scouting that my friends and I were able to do was successful as we found a roost on private property with several thousand ducks that had obviously came down with the last artic cold front. We had been looking forward to closing out the season with a spectacular roost shoot but the night before our hunt; our plan was foiled as the rancher that owns the private property that was holding the ducks invited some of his friends over to hunt it. I’m sure they had a world class hunt. The jet lag and 3 hours of sleep a night for the past couple of weeks was starting to take its toll on me. I was hopeful on Saturday or Sunday of getting a trophy to mount. On Saturday we decided to hunt our favorite private lake since it has been so good the day before and since the roost was no longer available. My Benelli was on target as I shot a double pair of Mallards and Gadwalls. I left my last shot for a Pintail drake that never came. My friend Charlie harvested a drake Northern Shoveler. A beautiful little duck that will be his first mounted trophy.

Charlie and his Northern Shoveler

Sunday was very cold and I hunted the last morning with my two favorite blondes, Lydia & Jessie. I passed on several flights of Gadwalls and was keeping my powder dry waiting for a Pintail drake or Hooded Merganser. As the morning came to a close I harvested a Gadwall to give Jessie her final retrieve of the season.

Lydia on Target

Hunting with Two Blondes January 2007

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