Waterfowl Opener Down South

[Foxtrot1]

The State gives us a two day teaser season after the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. We hunted up on the Tennessee River. It was a madhouse, we planned to hunt a flooded millet field, but it was full of hunters by 4:00 am. So we moved over to an adjacent slough. There's not many migratory birds down yet, but we managed to get a couple of limits of wood ducks. Jeff's son Blake went on his first duck hunt, pretty sure he's gonna be hooked for life.

 

[Foxtrot1]

Saturday

Blake couldn't go with us Saturday, but my nephew Chris joined us. The place was crowded again, so we decided to hunt a new slough to get away from the other groups. We only picked up a couple of gadwalls, but we found a new spot to build a blind, so it was still well worth going. This was Goose's first duck hunt. He did well, his first bird was a 150 yd cripple out in open water. Goose did a really good job of busting through the milfoil to catch the bird.

 

[tarheel]

Goose looks like a keeper. That fifth photo is classic.

 

[skimerhorn]

Looks like a good time

 

[jlmatthew]

Excellent photos!

 

[spook12]

Dogs, Ducks and Guns. Like Christmas for big Fellas.

 

[Nemont]

Love those wood ducks.

Nemont

 

[Foxtrot1]

Love those wood ducks.
Nemont

They are one of my favorite ducks, but we often take them for granted. All of my friends out West always foam at the mouth over them. We get that excited about a drake pintail. I guess the grass is always greener!

I hope you guys enjoyed the photos.

 

[Hatchie Dawg]

Nice report.

 

[What Map]

I lost ducks in the high mountain valleys here in Montana during the last week. The lakes are freezing over. Hopefully some of them are heading your way.
Great pics and story. thanks for sharing.

 

[TOM IN TENNESSEE]

GREAT PICS Bro....I quit hunting TN River here on Chickamauga Lake due to crowds and a$$holes setting up 75 yds away when I beat them to a spot at 4am two hours before shooting light....raising shotguns at each other is not fun....I said fugg you, picked up decoys, sold boat and ain't been back on river since! Hunt LA, MO and AR with leases----no stress!

 

[Foxtrot1]

I lost ducks in the high mountain valleys here in Montana during the last week. The lakes are freezing over. Hopefully some of them are heading your way.

Hopefully they won't come too far south yet. We are heading up to Southern ILL to hunt adjacent to the Mississippi River in 10 days. Hopefully we can time it right to meet the birds in ILL, and they can follow us home when we leave!

Tom, I can't say that I blame you. It can get crazy up there at times. I have never understood guys with such poor hunting etiquette as to set up on top of someone else. I have no issue with someone beating me to an area and shining their light at me. I also don't have an issue with a guy coming in on me after we have set up and having to shine a light on them, but there is no excuse for setting up on top of someone you know is there. If someone beats me to an area, I move somewhere out of their way. I should have gotten there earlier. I think I am going to start hunting it only during the week days. Hopefully, there won't be as many people out.

The public land we hunt in ILL has limited entry blinds. I really wish AL would have something like that in its WMAs instead of the free for all approach they have now. There are over 10,000 acres of public land to hunt that is being managed for waterfowl. It seems like the State could take portions of 1 or 2 WMAs and limit the days it can be hunted or possibly conduct daily drawings for blinds/areas. This would definately enhance the overall experiance. If you don't draw one day, you can still hunt the portions of the WMA that are open. I guess it makes too much sense to follow models of other States that work well.