Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
Just recently, the Lancaster County Ducks Unlimited had their 1st annual ?Green Wing? event which consisted of 57 kids.
We had four different educational staging locations, where the kids rotated through each one gaining not only valuable lessons but a ?butt? load of fun. We had DNR, who brought their Laser Gun Trailer and went over gun & boat safety and allowed some laser shooting. Lancaster Co. Soil & Water District, who provided land conservation tips and some ?wood crafts & painting? session. Oak Ridge Kennels of Monroe, NC came and brought two trained labs and allowed the kids to throw out the ?bumpers? or fake ducks, to retrieve for them and to catch a lot of water being shaken off by the dogs!
The last location was our ?Wrecking Crew? calling & decoy placement area.
We put out several different species of duck decoys in the water for a game called, name that duck. We also used full body Mallard & Goose decoys in the field, along with our ?lay out? blinds, which the kids loved getting in and covering up! My dad Daryl, would circle the spread of decoys and lay out blinds, flapping one of our goose flags, while I was calling. This really excited the kids and most of them remained motionless, until he said ok, ?Take ?em?! Even the girls came up quick looking for geese!
During one of my goose calling demos, I had a pair of geese come over and actually landed on the pond and started swimming towards our group. I was thinking, man how cool is that?
I used a RNT MVP duck call for a Competition calling demo, a Hobo World Championship duck call for a hunting demo, and a Tim Grounds Goose call for both Competition and Hunting scenarios.
The kids just loved blowing their lungs out on the calls and I?m sure their parents and grandparents haven?t forgiven me yet! Oh well, that?s how we roll!
After leaving our area, everyone had lunch which consisted of hamburgers, hotdogs, baked beans, chips, cookies and drinks. All the kids received t-shirt, and a gift bag to take with them, as they left the event.We handed out green duck calls to the boys and pink to the girls which were donated by Ducks Unlimited. Drew Winn of Winntuck Waterfowl, donated duck call lanyards for all the kids too. Ricky T. of Decoy Outdoors, donated t-shirts and stickers as well. Wehuntsc.com donated stickers, and as everyone knows you can?t have too many stickers. Love to put ?em on everything!
I would like to give a big ?shout out? to these people for this special event, it definitely put smiles on everyone?s faces.
Hal Crenshaw ? for the use of his land.
Robbie Boone- Lancaster Co. Ducks Unlimited Chairman and committee members.
Drew Winn of Winntuck Waterfowl Lanyards, Ricky T. of Decoy Outdoors ,Wehuntsc.com and Ducks Unlimited.
Good Calling & Hunting- Blake
A while back I told Daryl Hodge of Wrecking Crew Guide Service that if he ever had an open spot on a trip that I?d love to go with them and get some video of one of their hunts. Well, Daryl contacted me and said he had room so I told him that I still wanted to go. Daryl said that he would let me know what time I needed to meet them sometime on Friday. We were on the way to play Strom Thurmond and Daryl texted me and said that I needed to meet them at 4am Saturday morning. As I was on the bus I started doing some figuring and it didn?t look good for the amount of sleep that I would be getting Friday night. The Eagles won again and we ended up getting home at 2am in the morning. Since I had to drive a little ways to meet Daryl and the rest of the Wrecking Crew I had to get up at 3:15. I set my clock and took an hour nap and then got up and hit the road. Needless to say I was struggling, but I was still kind of pumped from the game so I was able to make it, plus it was opening day so I had to soldier up.
We were obviously in some kind of a valley and there were creeks at the bottom with some flooded areas as well. We had 6 people in the bottom and we got there in plenty of time so that we wouldn?t be rushed. I didn?t have any waders so I stayed on the side of the creek closest to the trucks and the rest of the crew crossed the small creek and set up on a small island. They scattered out to cover more ground and we had about 80 yards worth of swamp covered with shooters. We hoped to keep the ducks on their toes from both ends of the creek! There were trees everywhere and it was pretty thick. It wasn?t like the open scenario over water that you might anticipate, but rather was more like hard woods with creeks running through the bottom.
Before it was daylight we could hear them coming in already. I tried and tried to get some footage of them coming through, but I?m not quick enough and the lighting was too low to get birds on camera. Blake did some calling and the birds periodically came in around us. You could even hear the wood ducks splashing the water when they landed in various parts of the creeks. The sound of them landing was louder than I imagined it would be, but I think it was because of the angle they had to take to get to the water since the trees made them come from a more vertical angle.
Every couple of minutes I heard a ?BOOM? coming from one end or the other. Where I was setup gave me the closet view of Blake. I kept trying to get him on film, but he kept hiding behind trees and made it tough on me! Though, I was able to get a few shots of him throughout the morning. And yes, as you would imagine, Blake did the calling for the team throughout the morning! I guess it doesn?t hurt to have a world champion duck caller in the swamp with you.
After a while of shooting the action slowed down and it was time to go find some birds. In total, Daryl said that they shot 7, but we were only able to find 4. Sometimes it?s just tough to find those birds and I mean we searched high and low! I think one of them went under water and grabbed a root. After the birds were all rounded up it was picture time. Daryl, Blake, Robbie & his daughter posed for some pics in the swamp and then we headed back out. Daryl and Blake had to be down at Schofields in Florence for a show that morning so we didn?t have time to stay in and wait on any mallards.
It was a good trip and a great opening day in the swamp. I was dragging by the time I made it home, but I?d do it again if I could! So a big thanks to Daryl Hodge and the Wrecking Crew for letting me get in the swamp with them.
Below is a video collage of the trip
Regards,
Clint