Wasted Opener

Came home a little early yesterday from the duck opener. The original plan was to get home about 7Pm, but we rolled into the driveway about 12:15. I wish I could say that the early arrival was due to fact that we had reached our limits in ducks, but unfortuantely I think the limit was higher than 2. I suppose it would be okay if I was able to say that we only had 2 ducks because we were such bad shots that we missed everything else we shot. This would be true, to a point. We did miss the only other duck we saw. Actually, my Dad missed it. I only fired twice all weekend - 2 for 2. This was one of the wettest years we have seen, but for some reason the ducks were not there. I thought maybe it was just the we had picked a bad location or something. That was until we talked with other hunters on Sat night and then on the way home Sunday. Everyone was saying the same thing - "No ducks around." I think it may have something to do with them adding 2 weeks to the beginning of the season rather than putting them at the end. The weather has been pretty nice around here for the last couple of months, so the northern birds have had no reason to start migrating. We will make some calls over the next couple of weeks to see if the population begins to pick-up. There may have to be another trip if that becomes the case.



We did have a little scare while out there in the blind. My Dad and I had left our blind to go in and take off some layers of clothes and grab some lunch. We finished up and headed back out to our spot. We got all comfortable and were standing up checking the skies, when my Dad strted to lose his balance. Within seconds he was out of the boat and on his back in the water. I reached down and grabbed his gun in one hand and his arm in the other. I pulled him up high enough to get his head out of the water and get him up to his feet. The water wasn't too deep, maybe up to his waist. But the bottom was all mucky so there isn't anything to push off of when you are trying to get up. I got his gun secured and then helped him to get himself back into the boat. We spent the next hour or so getting him out of the wet clothes and bailing water out of the boat. My Dad is 55 and not in the greatest of shape so this incident was a little frightening for me. It may not have been such a issue at the time, if not for the fact that his older brother died of a heart attack about a year and a half ago when he fell out of their fishing boat. As I was reaching down, pulling my Dad out of the water, that was the image that was going through my head. I spent quite a bit of time the rest of Sat and Sun thanking God that everything was okay.

The good news was, that after we got home, he said that even with the lack of ducks and the unplanned swimming, he had a great time and wanted me to make sure I let him know if I was going back out again this season so that he could go with. He may not realize it, but this was one of the best times I have ever had hunting, only because I was able to really spend some time with him doing something he realy loves. Although I did make sure to remind him that I was the only one of us that actually hit anything. ;)