On closing weekend of the '08-'09 duck season, my friends Jared, Abe and I went out for one last hunt on the Rio Grande. We'd been talking for a long time about float hunting the river in a small boat. Jared has a little boat so we decided we should just go for it. Jared and I drove up river and floated down while Abe sat in some brush on an island down river with his dog spike.
We built a blind on the front of the boat to break up our outline. Worked decent, but it needed to be taller. The other problem we ran into was shallow water. His boat didn't draft much water at all but it would still run aground pretty often. It definitely made the trip longer and more labor intensive. We floated several miles. I bet we pushed the boat at least a mile of that. This ruined a few shooting opportunities because we had to get out and push several times when we were almost close enough to shoot. The ducks would spot our movement and flush out of range.
Later in the day, near dark, we went to a spot and stalk method like we normally use. We spotted a couple ducks down river so Jared got out and walked up shore. He took my single shot 10ga. He snuck up on the ducks and they flushed perfectly. He dropped a nice hen mallard. That was the last time that shotgun was fired before I oiled it up and packed in away during our time in Hawaii. Might be a few years before its fired again. I'm glad it retired on a good note. Good shot Jared!
Here's the view from our boat. It was a beautiful day and we had a blast. Any day outdoors is a good day.
That was a fun hunt Mason. I recalled this hunt about a week ago when I was filling out my annual waterfowl survey for the wildlife service. Only one Duck to report on the last day of the hunt (and the only day I went duck hunting :)) but man was it fun, and tiring. You're right, I think we pushed that boat more than it floated us for sure!!
ReplyDeleteTake care, Jared