Hunted Old Monroe on Saturday morning. It warmed up just in time for the weekend. Damn. Didn’t expect to have much luck, but Hubbard and I hunted blind 1 on the north side.

There were small ducks flying early on - mostly wood ducks and teal. Saw lots of them fly into the little pothole back in the woods, where we can’t hunt. Did have one hen wood duck come by us, and I drilled it. Finally, first duck of the season for me. It only took 4 trips. Geezo, that’s bad. Then we pretty much waited and waited and waited. Didn’t seem like much else was going to happen, and then …

We heard one of the owners on the south side of the pool say that they were going to walk back to the pothole and flush the birds out. After about 10-15 minutes, wood ducks started flushing out of the woods. Lucky for us (and not them) a group buzzed by us as they were lifting out of the pool. Hubbard and I both swung on them, and we each drop one behind the blind. Jessie took off to make the retrieves. As she was heading for the first bird, a single drake flew by in front of us, and I wacked it on a cross shot. Jessie got back with the first bird, which was mine, and then forgot where Hubbard’s bird was. So, I got out of the blind to help. As she was looking for the second bird, another woodie came over the top of the blind and Hubbard unleashed the black cloud for a bulls-eye. Jessie saw this bird go down, and it was crippled, so I sent her off after it. As she was making the retrieve on it, I found the second woodie and picked it up. It was an absolutely beautiful drake that Hubbard had shot. Very mountable if he had $200-300 bucks lying around. Took these woodrows back to the blind, and then sent the dog to make the retrieve on the last woodie that I shot. She found it, and came back with wood duck #5 for the day. Not too bad at all. Hubbard shot 1 drake and 1 hen, and I shot 2 drakes and 1 hen.

Good times, and looking forward to the upcoming cod weather. I’m hunting Grand Pass on Friday with Schoenekase, and it should be a dandy of a hunt.

Jessie scanning the skies

Jessie waits for more

Taking a break at blind 1

5 wood ducks: 3 drakes, 2 hens

On Sunday, Oct. 5, I went out to the duck club lease near Old Monroe that I share with my George, Jeff and Dan. The area had been flooded three times during the year, so it was pretty much a mess and had no established crops.

All six blinds were full of water and needed to be pumped. Luckily George rented a waste/water pump which helped out a ton! After pumping as much water and river sludge out of the blinds, we scooped the remainder out with a bucket and snow shovel. It was definitely a dirty job, but someone had to do it.

Next, we pulled all the old brush and blind materials off the blinds to prepare them for brushing the following week. We did manage to attach grass mats to blind #1 to see how it would look. Looked OK, but would be better with some natural grass on top of it to break it up more.

Panoramic view of the club

Blind 1

Blind 1 from a Distance

Blind 2

Blind 5

Blind 6

Blind 1 with grass mats

Checking out Blind 1

Jessie decided to hunt while we worked

Looks like we have a lot of work to do…