Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
With hopes of shallow ponds and swamps freezing my father Pete (74) and I decided to hunt the river as the temperatures dropped in the low teens this past weekend. We were very optimistic on the way to the landing, but after arriving and seeing only one other boat at the landing our hopes slightly dropped. We thought we may have guessed wrong.
With all of our Drake Waterfowl gear on we managed the 19 degree boat ride really well. Once, we got to our hunting spot, my dad and I starting throwing out all of our Drake Breeze-Ryder duck decoys. I was very interested to see how well this year's models would work. We got the decoys out and got situated into our hunting spots and waited on daylight.
Shortly after day break, we had a pair of mallards fly across the river. I picked up my RNT Short Barrel and started hammering them. They responded immediately with a wide turn. They circled several times and within minutes they were feet down and wings cupped over the decoys. I hollered to my dad, “Wreck em!” and wreck’em he did, getting both of them one right after the other.
After retrieving his pair of mallards and getting settled back in we had two different pairs of Mergansers to work our spread. We managed to harvest three out of the four mergansers. During the next thirty minutes or so, we had a lull in the action not seeing many birds at all. Around 8:30, I heard a single "honk" and my dad hollered "Start calling". I picked up my RNT Warbird goose call, and started calling. Shortly, we spotted him up the river, coming down wings cupped and feet down. He sailed the last 200 yards and started to light in the decoys and I hollered to my dad again, “Wreck em!” and, again, he did just so.
This was the coldest day of the year so far and one I will remember forever. Hunting with my dad, is truly a blessing.
Good Hunting Team Wrecking Crew