Hunting the Big Slough...

So it seems like folks have been intolerant of each other lately. I hope no one is intolerant of me because I hunt ducks and I kill them. Specifically I hunt wood ducks, the ducks I grew up hunting with my dad and my favorite way is hunting them on old creeks and sloughs. I always remember what he told me about the Indian and the wood duck. The Indians thought the wood duck was the perfect creature. They flew in the air, swam on the water and nest on the land in hollow trees. The wood duck was a creature in all planes of existence. May be that's what we need to be, creatures in all planes of existence.  

Here are some familiar things. My shotgun and a limit of wood ducks I killed this morning and the Big Slough that I have been hunting on since the early 1980s.  That old shotgun was a Christmas present when I was 18. I actually have a couple of other shotguns, my dad's old almost worn out Model 12 Winchester and a single shot 20 that I hunted with as a kid and is still making hunts as Mary's duck gun. That's on thing that's different these days, so many guns out there we forget how useful a good all purpose shotgun is in the woods.  It's a thing to last your whole life.

I did not take any waders as it's been a dry fall but the big slough runs deep year around. To keep my feet dry and fetch a downed duck I climbed half way across this fallen tree. Later on I crossed completely on a different more solid log and was able to retrieve a duck from the other side. I also hung head down from a steep bank over the water to get the third one. A fun hunt but a rough hunt on an old guy. My knees report this evening that I did crawling and climbing today.  

One thing to note about wood ducks is that in the early 20 century they were almost hunted out. This resulted in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 which saved the population. This act set a precedent for the government to be involved in environmental protection and conservation. They have done a great job as I see it with regulation being a good thing. You can kill 6 ducks, but are only permitted 3 woodies in your bag. That's up from only 2 allowed a couple of years ago.    

Nice photo here of some kind of gravel ore shallow on the slough. You could easily cross here with hip boots. Might hunt from this side sometime. I also found a place where I think I can carry the canoe down without too much trouble as long as I have a young person helping me. 

Someone told me the other day they hunted ducks but quit when the realized they did not like the taste. They need to see Cathy. She cooks the breast chicken fried with rice or potatoes and makes gravy.