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Featured Article Continued

 We grabbed something quick to eat and threw in a hunting video.  It had been a busy year for him and we had not spent anywhere near the amount of time we usually spent in a summer together.  We used the time before heading out to catch up and look over some of the photos for the past year.  I asked him if he had been shooting at all and he said some and asked why.  I told him there were a boatload of teal in the area.  He said no problem, I’m a natural.  I chuckled and said we will see now won’t we.  

5:45 am and Jade was up and on her way downstairs.  She wasn’t at all happy that we had been up for a while and watching videos without her.  I grabbed something for her to eat and drink and we headed out the door.  Everything had been loaded the night before so I wasn’t worried about anything and we jumped in and headed for the pond.  

I pulled into the field and stopped by the fence to get the gate and could hear birds flying.  It was a great morning with the wind out of the north/northeast just like I wanted it.  I pulled down to the pond and hurried to get the boat out of the back of the truck.  The whole time Jade was trying to spot what was flying so early.  I was sure they were teal but it was still pitch dark so I told them don’t worry about the birds we will be ready for them soon enough.  I dropped the boat into the water and told Justin to jump in.  I pulled the boat out into the corner and was setting decoys as he was taking the weights off them.  The wind setup for a perfect spread in the northeast corner of the pond.  We lined the East side of the pond with the majority of the goose floaters and had a few ducks near the corner on the East side.  Then we lined the North side of the pond with the majority of duck decoys to create a hole for the ducks to get gear down in.  Justin headed to the south side to stow the boat up against a high bank and I did some touch up work on the spread.  Justin pulled the truck down behind some trees and I started working on getting the bank spread setup and Jade helped get everything just right.  Jade and Justin grassed in both of the layouts and we were almost ready. 

A few instructions about safety and using the layouts and we were primed for a good morning.  I was going to lay behind the layout blind Jade was using and told Justin I would not be able to take any shots so it would be up to him.  He again said those two words, No Problem. I got Jade comfortable in her layout blind and told her to keep her call near her mouth and not to be moving around.  She had on a camo hat and a face mask so I wasn’t too worried about it.  The hole we setup the decoys in should put the ducks straight out in front of us and she should have a great view.

It seemed like hours but it was only 25 minutes that we had to wait until legal shooting time.  We had a few ducks land in the decoys before legal shooting time and I wasn’t even real sure what they were.  They flew out about 15 minutes before and I figured they would return.  I gave Jade the signal that legal time was here and she began calling on here Foiles double reed Legend with a wood barrel.   I told her to keep it in 3’s or 4’s unless I told her different.  I let loose on my Foiles single reed Straight Meat Mallard to let them know we were there.  We didn’t have to wait long.  A pair of young wood ducks was coming from the far west side of the pond.  I told Jade to hit 3 and she hit it perfect.  I told Justin to be ready when I called the shot.  Jade hit the legend two more times and both woodies were feet down when I called Take Em Just!  He pulled the ripcord on the layout, shouldered his gun, got a bead on the lead woody and pulled the trigger.  He looked dejected and said he forgot to load his gun.  Jade gave him a good chewing (more razzing then chewing) about not shooting the ducks she nearly dropped in his lap.  I just chuckled and told him it happens to the best of us.   Justin loaded up the old Mossberg 500 and this time was ready to rock and roll.  I had chosen 2 ¾ inch, 1 1/8 oz #4’s for the early ducks and had a box of 3 inch, 1 ¼ oz BB’s sitting by his side incase the geese came early.

Just about the time we were starting to relax Jade spotted something out front.  “Dad two ducks 11 o’clock low”.  I couldn’t see um and told her to hit them with a 2.  I rolled to my hip and could see them heading away to the left right before she hit them with the legend.  Man talk about a full back hard left turn.  They locked and committed at 60 yards and were feet down the whole way.  They were on the mark and Jade called the shot.  Justin pulled the ripcord, shouldered his gun and commenced to blasting away at two young gaddies.  I thought for sure he would connect on one of them but no joy on the gaddies.   Jade gave him another chewing and asked if they needed to switch if we were going to eat any ducks for dinner tonight.  He smiled and said yeah right.  I told him to not be in such a hurry with that first shot and to follow through the duck and not pause after each shot. Justin barley had the layout closed up when I spotted 4 ducks south over the hill and told everyone to get ready.  I hailed them with the SMM and they turned our way just about the time Jade spotted a group of 20 ducks off in the distance to the north.  I told her to get going on that legend and keep it to 3 and 4 at a time.  I watched the 4 ducks (ring necks) to the south and told her to keep any eye on the ones to the north.  The 4 were working the west side (creek entrance) of the pond and looked like they were going to gear down near the middle of the pond.  Jade said leave um dad the whole mess is coming around the trees.  She wasn’t kidding, no sooner then she got it out of her mouth then 30 to 35 teal were breaking hard left around the end of the trees and heading right for the hole.  I told Justin to pick out a bird and not flock shoot them.  Jade backed me up and said man you can’t miss this many.   They cut hard and came right down the north bank and were rocking and rolling the entire way.  I got so hung up watching them that by the time I was going to call the shot they would have been too far right for Justin.  He said where are they and I said let them swing around again. Jade picked them up north and said they were heading out.  I hit my best version of a come back call when out of the corner of my right eye I see the ring necks on final approach with the wind at their back.  I told Jade not to move and told Justin to be ready.  I told him when I call it they will be right above you at mere feet.  Let them get up a bit and take the lead bird.  Jade asked what are they dad and I said wait a second and you will see.  They looked a lot bigger coming in on the sun with wings out and feet down right over our heads.   I let them get about 10 feet out and 5 feet up from Justin and yelled take em.   He rose up out of the layout and pulled up on the lead bird and as soon as we heard the noise we saw the lead bird crumple and Jade and I yelled “Way to go Justin”.  Mere seconds after the first bird hit the water we hear another shot break loose and watch the second bird rock but not go down.  I yelled hit him again bud, and he didn’t disappoint me.  We all rejoiced for a while and I told him to run get in the boat and get that second bird.  I ran out and picked up the first one and brought it back to Jade. She had never seen a ring neck and was checking it out close.  It was very hard to see that early in the year but if you looked close you could see its ring around the bottom of its neck.  Justin made it to the downed bird and picked it with a loud yoooohoooo.  I told him to get moving we had a lot more work to do on a limit of ducks.