Once again I managed to make my wife a weekend widow, as I packed my gear and headed back to Sandusky County on Friday night. We hunted some leased ground on Saturday morning, just southwest of Sandusky Bay. There were 9 or 10 guys hunting, spread out amongst 3 blinds and a borrow pit. My dad, brother, and I headed out to "The Point" for a hunt together. With the heavy cloud cover, legal shooting time was pretty dark and the birds started flying a little bit later than usual... But once they got going, the wood ducks were all over the place. I managed to call in three nice mallards from across river, too. We were only fortunate to take one out of that group, but they decoyed real nice so it was great. In total, we bagged 3 wood ducks and 1 drake mallard that morning. 16 was the total for everyone hunting the lease that morning... Nothing too impressive, but respectable considering the weather conditions.
Me and my pops...
For the evening hunt, some buddies and I headed back to the lease and decided to hunt a borrow pit. We've never really hunted this spot because it's off the main water and it's over 20' deep, so setting dekes is difficult. With the gail-force winds we were having, this was about as calm a spot as we were going to find. We long-lined a string of decoys out across the water, and set up 5 spinners along the bank. At first glance, the setup looked ridiculous... but from downwind it was pretty inviting. There were 7 of us hunting the borrow pit, so we lined up in the brush like a dove hunt, anticipating the birds to fly through a couple particular gaps in the trees. The birds did just as we thought they would, and surprisingly we managed to get a few groups to work the decoys. 2 mallards and 5 more wood ducks left with us that evening.
A damn-near perfect drake woody...
Although I wasn't planning on staying another night, I was invited to go along on another hunt Sunday morning. One of the guys located a honeyhole in Seneca County that was just loaded with greenheads. Given the conditions and the location, this spot was pretty much a "one-and-done" hunt... so there were 10 of us going, including two youth hunters. Since I had already shot some birds, I volunteered to be more of a "guide" and focus on the calling and setup... and of course backing up for misses and cripples. :smiley_bril:
This spot is in ag country... a very secluded slough running up through a cornfield, and holding over a foot of water in some parts. Only about 30 yds wide and just loaded with smartweed and millet, this was a hungry duck's dream come true. We were planning on taking advantage of that lol.
This is what we were looking at just after sunrise...
The main shooting hole was at my 2 o'clock and I was the furthest upwind of the spread. We were tucked into the brush and trees, and the two youths were only 10 yds from the hole. It was an absolutely perfect ambush.
Things weren't as fast paced as we had expected, but we managed to decoy five out of six big groups... the biggest group had at least twenty birds in it. We were fortunate to take 10 greenheads and one hen, and one of the drakes was banded even! Strangely enough, that bird was banded only 45 days ago in Wisconsin. I have no idea why that bird would be in Ohio right now. Once the corn gets taken off next to the slough, this spot is REALLY going to be dynamite!
A nice drake that got mashed...
Hanging on display...
Bling!
Hero shot :smiley_bril:
Me and my pops...
For the evening hunt, some buddies and I headed back to the lease and decided to hunt a borrow pit. We've never really hunted this spot because it's off the main water and it's over 20' deep, so setting dekes is difficult. With the gail-force winds we were having, this was about as calm a spot as we were going to find. We long-lined a string of decoys out across the water, and set up 5 spinners along the bank. At first glance, the setup looked ridiculous... but from downwind it was pretty inviting. There were 7 of us hunting the borrow pit, so we lined up in the brush like a dove hunt, anticipating the birds to fly through a couple particular gaps in the trees. The birds did just as we thought they would, and surprisingly we managed to get a few groups to work the decoys. 2 mallards and 5 more wood ducks left with us that evening.
A damn-near perfect drake woody...
Although I wasn't planning on staying another night, I was invited to go along on another hunt Sunday morning. One of the guys located a honeyhole in Seneca County that was just loaded with greenheads. Given the conditions and the location, this spot was pretty much a "one-and-done" hunt... so there were 10 of us going, including two youth hunters. Since I had already shot some birds, I volunteered to be more of a "guide" and focus on the calling and setup... and of course backing up for misses and cripples. :smiley_bril:
This spot is in ag country... a very secluded slough running up through a cornfield, and holding over a foot of water in some parts. Only about 30 yds wide and just loaded with smartweed and millet, this was a hungry duck's dream come true. We were planning on taking advantage of that lol.
This is what we were looking at just after sunrise...
The main shooting hole was at my 2 o'clock and I was the furthest upwind of the spread. We were tucked into the brush and trees, and the two youths were only 10 yds from the hole. It was an absolutely perfect ambush.
Things weren't as fast paced as we had expected, but we managed to decoy five out of six big groups... the biggest group had at least twenty birds in it. We were fortunate to take 10 greenheads and one hen, and one of the drakes was banded even! Strangely enough, that bird was banded only 45 days ago in Wisconsin. I have no idea why that bird would be in Ohio right now. Once the corn gets taken off next to the slough, this spot is REALLY going to be dynamite!
A nice drake that got mashed...
Hanging on display...
Bling!
Hero shot :smiley_bril:
