Although this season was slow I had a couple memorable hunts.
This was a solo hunt on a medium sized private pond. It's big enough you need them to decoy but small enough that if they are coming in they seem to be committed off the bat. I shot a limit of gaddies and as usual Kimber handled the rest.
Some of my favorite times duck hunting are when it's just me and Kimber. .
This next hunt pictured below was probably one of my favorite all time hunts. A friend of mine owns some ranch land in an area known for good waterfowl hunting. The last few years I've been asking him periodically if he had any crane or geese in any of his fields but it's mostly pasture surrounded by wheat so they typically don't hit his property. Then one morning he called me up and said "hey the pasture behind my house flooded and the ducks are making all kinds of racket back there. Do you want to shoot them" I said "does a one legged duck swim in a circle?" Lol. Well it took me a few days to go scout it out. I had never been there before. I went up the day before I planned to hunt to check it out. Well it was thick pasture and I couldn't see crap without going in and busting it up. I could see one hole of water through the cover and saw some mallards through the binoculars. I decided to give it a shot. Next morning me and a buddy got there early not really sure where we were going to set up. I found what I thought was the open water I could see. It was basically a big swampy mess with small pockets of open water. We got settled in and made ourselves some little brush blinds to hide in, covered up Kimber's blind as well. Threw out a few dekes. Then we waited. It was about 20-30 minutes after shooting time and I started to get a bit discouraged. We hadn't heard or seen anything. Then two Mallards dropped right in and we smoked them, then 2 more, then three, then 4. Every duck we saw decoyed perfectly. Every duck we saw was a mallard. Then to top it off we had a very lively cripple that could do everything but fly. The chase was on. It was like watching those grey hounds trying to catch a rabbit but in a 50 ft circle.
I find that when you don't know what to expect it makes hunts like this even more special.