Spider, I was thinking about posting something as early goose opens tomorrow. I really need to eat the rest of my geese from the late season. It’s going to be a lot harder to get this season with my son’s soccer schedule and the travel we have. I’m not k with it as I had the best season I’ve ever had last season. I’m going to make a point to really try and only shoot drakes this year. We will see how long that lasts.

 

You beat me to the punch. I was considering a post on this very subject soon. The recent weather has certainly been a welcome change to the 90 plus crap we were having so often. The resident geese in my area have been moving around quite a bit. Nice to hear their call going over the house. The usual summer woodies are present as well. The deer have been frequent visitors to my mock scrape. Everything is coming to it, from doe’s to 10 pointers. Getting a pretty good inventory on them. Today I jotted down my list of vacation days to put in for. It’s almost here people. Good luck and enjoy!

 

Iron Ass got a hot tip about a field that was holding birds. Landowner said go nuts, just overseeded the field and wants em dead. First flock of 9 clears the tree tops and we went 7 for 9 for 3 of us. Next flocks did a beeline for a disked sweetcorn field on the road edge. Great start to the season

 

Surveys got released today

 

Cleaned out the garage today and got all my gear organized. It feels real now! Looking forward to the opener!

 

The decoys are in order. The shotgun is patterned. The calls are tuned. The waders are ready.

 

Only important task now is to brush up the blind and hope for some major rains. I have enough water for ducks to come in but set up is gonna be a challenge if things don’t change. I do have my old haunt to hunt with no water worries so that’s a bonus. The velvet came off the bucks a few weeks ago and I’m all ready for archery season, aside from washing the clothes. And 43 degrees feels wonderful this morning.

 

Well people, one more week and hopefully we’re all watching the day break from a duck blind. I got her all brushed up this morning and the comfy chairs are in place. Tomorrow is figuring out the set with the limited water I have. It’s plenty for puddle ducks. I fact I put up 10 woodies right at the blind as I approached. Hope you’re all ready to go.

 

Good luck to everyone getting out this morning! Got to my spot at 3:45 just in case seeing it is a Saturday and the opener. Sitting on the tailgate of my truck sipping coffee and just enjoying the anticipation of what the morning will bring!

 

The older I get it seems the less I get fussed about bird numbers. It’s probably a shared trait among older hunters that have been doing this a long time. I’ve been at this for 47 years. The excitement and anticipation never goes away but the need and expectations of a full strap really don’t matter in the end. I love every minute of the experience. This opener was most enjoyable. I hope everyone else had a good one.

 

Beautiful Fall day with a nice case colored SxS is hard to beat.

 

Had a great opener this morning. Wood ducks galore the first 30 minutes with some big ducks mixed in. Had a pretty quick 2 man woodie limit and stuck it out until 10:30 but couldn’t get any mallards to commit. We did have a serious lack of water so that could have something to do with it. Great to get out and looking forward to the rest of the season!

 

Baymen, spot on with that statement. Hit a spot I've hunted for the past 25+ yrs, maybe a guy or 2. Pulled around the corner at 415, looked like a fishing deby, *** !!! Just kept on driving, hit a little pothole about a mile away, very little water. Ended with 5 Woodies, used it as a training session for the 6 month old puppy. Drove back by and there's 2 bright beige panel blinds facing each other 150 yds apart, probably heard 100+ shots. To say it was a slap in the face is an understatement. Oh well, some days you read the menu, some days your on it. Hunt hard, hunt safe everyone, plenty of season to go !

 

Beautiful dog!

 

Made my way to the Parker river refuge this morning not expecting much and only saw one group of 3 ducks fly at 6:30. Winds were high but rain was not bad.

 

Haven't hunted the TDB since 2022, just haven't. Iron Ass asked to do it this year, so why not. Found a spot perfect for the big North East wind. Woke up to a hard rain, crap, oh well. Literally 30 minutes later, rain stopped and off we go. Nobody at the launch, perfect, ease our way out and setup. No doubt birds have come down in the past couple weeks. Birds that could break the wind bombed in. Ended with our 3 man Mallard limit, 2 Teal and 2 Canadas. Definitely one for the books and memories to enjoy !

 

First morning hunt of season. Set up on a small pool that mostly woodies were using. Late morning flight with weather and woodies wanted into pocket down from me. Pushed 40 yards down and was able to pass shoot them going into another pool and took my wood duck limit. Sat back on the decoys until 10 and only wood ducks and a few teal. Didn’t see a big duck.