Opening day

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ralphie
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Opening day

Post by ralphie »

Another opening day in the memory bank- Up at 4am my son and I had to get to our buddies place for 5am. We have hunted his farm for a dozen years or so-every now and again we have a great opener- no limits but generally everyone gets shooting,including his 84 year old Dad
Still can't remember to put any bug repelant in the pack- Our group paddles out in various directions of the south branch of Rideau- very high water this year for a creek, that borders his farm south of Oxford Mills. Lots of woodies and the odd mallard showed us we should have shot more skeet and practiced a bit. But we faired out OK. Beautiful morning , no rain or high winds,back in a 10am for a feast prepared by our host-
More geese moving in everyday, so next outings should be more productive- we love to hunt he big water of the St Lawrence. I hope others got out and shot a few-its the start of a long ( according to my wife) season.We tradionally hunt the geese until the very end if we can find open water.
Right now if you can find a cut corn field- it will be a gold mine for geese
this rain lately may delay more coming off- but the geese will hang and keep returning to the fields available.
Leaves are turning, geese are in the air- life is good for us hunters
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Out4trout
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Post by Out4trout »

Good stuff
Fri evening we checked our blind, delivered the dekes and added a GPS waypoint.
Sat came early, on the lake at 5am, in our blind by 5:30 Plenty of time to have a coffee and snack under the cloudy but moonlit sky. Intermittently the moon would reflect off the waves. When the eastern sky started glowing, we were in position, rested and ready. A few distant booms signalled that the birds were in the air.
First ducks to come through were a pair of Woodies, 15 minutes before sunrise. We missed, they snuck through but now we were alert and ready.
Had some teals, woodies, and mallards flying, we got 1 teal and a wood-duck drake, and then a surprise. A flock of about 10 Ring-necks came through, we dropped 3. Recovered the birds, retreated to the blind.
Several more woodies were taken then at 11am we left. Back on the water at 3pm, in the blind by 3:30.
Things got crazy between 4:15 and 5:30. We were expecting the typical evening where the last half hour is best, so this was a surprise. We downed 3 wood ducks, 2 of which were a double. Then some teal winged through, we got 2 of them. Somewhere in the mix 4 larger ducks decided to fly over us, into the wind. I thought they were mallards, shot, and one dropped. It wasn't a mallard, but a Pintail hen. Nice surprise, my first pintail.
A great hunt for the opener, sore shoulder this morning... love it.
:D
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Hookup
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Post by Hookup »

These stories are awesome!

I've only been wing hunting for 2years now, but have to say I love it. Just got a pup as a family dog and plan on training her to retrieve for me. A goldendoodle... Allergies..


Anyhow, great stories... Thanks very much for sharing.

Tim
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fish and hunt
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Post by fish and hunt »

I found it was a slow day for the opener. We got three 5 in the morning and five at night. Mallards and woodies mostly, one gadwall, and one that we arent sure whther it was a woddy hen or a ringbill. Nice to get out though, as always. I was exhausted after going out with my buddies the night before and then meeting the guys in the morning, self inflicted though. Hopefully the hunting gets better soon.
Fish and Hunt
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