I looked at the forecast for Saturday morning: 100% chance of rain. Called Jake. We would play it by ear if it was fit to hunt in the morning we would. 4:30AM came early checked the radar there was light rain to the west but it looked like we had window of a few hours to get the hunt in.
Jake Groth had scouted the geese and they had been hitting a corn field on a daily bases, also duck season had just reopened and he said that there were a few wood ducks in the area. Corey met up with us at 5:30AM and we headed for the field. The official plan was to get the decoys out and layout blinds, get ready and wait on the 200 geese that had made this field there first stop every morning for the last week or so.
Corey and myself with our day’s take
As we set up we could see lightning off to our west, now rain is one thing, all of us had hunted in the rain. Waterfowl on rainy days? Some of my best duck hunts have been on nasty weather days. We didn’t hear any thunder but we did check the radar. Got to love smart-phones! There was a bit more rain in the area but it still looked like we would get a short hunt in.
As night faded into light, all three of us jump into our blinds waiting on the first flight. Soon a few wood ducks started to work the field and before we knew it we had four large groups of ducks. We let the first group land and two groups become one monster group of wood ducks. Jake was the guide for the day and he was the one who was to call the shot. As I looked out my blind the decoys were loaded with wood duck feeding franticly in the cut corn. Jake called the shot as the monster group passed over, we all shot, as ducks rained down.
Jake and his dog, Savanna
After the first volley we were unsure on the number of ducks shot, we had a limit of 3 per hunter and our counts had us anywhere from 4 ducks shot to 6. With the help of Jake’s dog, Savanna, we head in to the field to figure out just how many we had. After picking up the ducks we had 6 wood ducks. A half hour went by without any other waterfowl and then a crack of lightning. “That’s a little too close for comfort” I said. Again to the smart-phones, Jake exclaimed, with a choice word or two, “we have got to get out of here, now”, we grabbed our guns, blind bags, and ducks and ran for the trucks. Corey yelled out did you hear that, you could hear the rain a half a mile away and closing. When it got to us it may as well have been an open faucet running on our heads. We all made it back to the trucks wet but safe. At least we had a few ducks to show for it.
