Opening Day Duck Hunt at the Big Slough...

It was a good day for a duck hunt. Morgan and I went to the Big Slough Wilderness Area. It's a place where I hunted ducks with my dad going back to the late 70s. We split up for the first part of the hunt and I had this limpkin out in from of me feeding on the creek clams for a confidence decoy. If the ducks see he's ok they will say it's ok for us too! 

I have never bought a gun in my life. My old Winchester Model 1200 12 gauge was a Christmas gift when I was about 16. That makes it 50 years old. That's a lot of duck hunts. Actually I have a single shot Winchester 20 gauge model 370 That I think about carrying sometimes for it's lighter weight as I get older. It was my first hunting gun before the old man trusted me with something that had more than one shot and my kids used it also. I remember that shotgun costing $30. Used in good condition they fetch around $200 these days.     

I have thought about a new shotgun occasionally but this one does the job.  

This was Morgan's first duck of the day. My dad told me the wood duck was sacred to the Indians. He was in all three planes of existence, flying in the air, nesting on the ground and swimming in the water. The old man might have made that up but he felt hunting them was special.  

Morgan is on the stalk to jump up a big bunch from the creek. He spooked them but they circled and he took two with one shot. I first saw him do that at about age 10. 

You can keep 6 ducks but they have to be a mixed bag. Only three woodies allowed. Morgan bags a limit. 

For the weird things in the woods file. Two pairs of waders. These were in an area where I have found a small kayak stashed for use I would imagine of crossing the slough as it's too deep to wade here. Not real good waders, not really stashed or stowed and with about three days of good rain the bottom would flood and claim them for it's own. We left them as you never can tell of a game camera might be present to keep honest men honest.    

The roads are not bad to get there. Muddy but a hard bottom. It's the dirtiest I have gotten a truck in a while. I washed pounds of dirt from underneath. 

 Hopefully we do not get too much rain for the next couple of months and the creek stays just like it is now, flowing and wadable in some spots.