Thursday, January 17, 2013

My First Duck Hunt

On January 15th, I went on my very first duck hunt with my big brother, Doug. We met at Scorpion Bay Marina at a ridiculous hour of the morning. 5 am! Mind you it is a good hour away from my house, so I was up way too early! The sun was not up yet and the wind was horrible, not to mention that it also happened to be during the coldest weather in the valley in a long time; it actually got into the teens. The waves were big and were rocking the whole marina. I had 2 sets of long johns on, jeans and waders over the top as well as about 4 layers up top. As we were driving the boat out to our first location to set out the decoys, any water that splashed onto the boat froze almost instantly. The outside of my hood was frozen solid from being splashed on. So the floor of the boat was frozen, the bottom of our wading boots were frozen and it was just cold and windy. Ugh. But ya know I had enough layers on that it wasn't that bad unless I had to take my gloves off to do something. We drove around in the dark for quite a while trying to find where we wanted to go. Our boat was one of the very few that actually had headlights but still they aren't very bright. We got to our little cove to set out the decoys and parked the boat behind some trees and waited for some ducks to fly in. We listened to 2 owls hooting as we sat in the dark and watched the sun slowly peak up from behind the ridge. It was beautiful being out there and watching the sun rise and hear the lake waking up in hopes of bagging my first animal ever. We tried to call in ducks to our little spot, but weren't having any luck. We beached the boat and hiked around to a little hidden cove and found 2 teals hiding. We got our first shots, but weren't lucky enough to get one. I will tell you the adrenaline rush was amazing. I saw them and was so excited to shoot one, but just couldn't get it. We hiked over this ridge 2 or 3 times chasing after these ducks. It was a lot of fun seeing Doug in his true element. He was born to hunt and is really good at it. We hiked a lot more than I thought we would. I thought we would just shoot from the boat, but the water was so choppy that the ducks were being finicky. We stalked a few flocks of ducks, but just couldn't get the shot. We finally found a big flock of coot ducks and it took a few shots, but I eventually got one. Although, Doug and I were both shooting, so he may have actually shot it, but he said I got it so I believe him. It was the most exhilarating feeling. I have day dreamed of killing my own animal and I finally did it. It was seriously one of the best times of my life. I am so happy that my brother gave me the chance and took me out. It means a whole lot to me. Coots aren't very good eating, so we just chopped it up for catfish bait and hope to go back to the lake soon and pull out a monster from the deep! (Can you tell I've been watching "River Monsters"?)

1 comment:

Sierrascreations said...

You are so cool! I think I'd cry if I shot something....but am emotional like that. :) I'm super proud of you, and in that cold! I'd be so numb I'd probably shoot Doug on accident! Love ya Erin....miss you