|
Friday A.M.  redheads on the wing This morning I left early and arrived at my spot with plenty of time to put out decoys and get set before legal shooting light. When I got to the island I had a good feeling about the morning. The island was very small, but had plenty of thick brush for me to burrow up in so I wouldn't have to worry about being spotted. After I got my gear out of the boat and situated, I just took the boat to another island about 150 yards away and hid it in the brush there to get it out of the way. Then, I settled in and waited.  pintails making a pass Shortly after legal shooting light, 3 pintail drakes came in and hovered right over the decoys. Even though the light was still pretty dim, I was able to pick out the drake with the longest pin and that's the one I took, dropping him cleanly. Soon after that, flights of redheads started coming into the area. I was determined not to take passing shots, only to shoot decoying birds, so I passed up some groups that just skirted the edge of the decoys and never really committed. I didn't have long to wait, however, as a group of 3 redheads decoyed perfectly, and I took the lone drake in the group right as they were about to splash down.  a group of redheads  a large flock of redheads heading straight for my spread Over the next hour, several small groups (2 and 3 mostly) of wigeon came into the area, and 2 drakes and a hen stayed with me. I didn't mean to shoot the hen, she got hit by some stray pellets when I shot one of the drakes, and they both dropped. The drake dropped stone cold dead, but the hen was only winged. I finished her off and added them both to the bag. Then a single drake came in alone and I got him too as he was hovering over the decoys. 5 birds down, 1 to go! An airboat roared to life in an adjacent bay, and pretty soon, there were waves of redheads and pintails leaving that bay and coming to the one I was hunting. It was only a few minutes before I had groups of redheads decoying right in, and I dropped my 2nd redhead drake to finish off my 6-bird limit. It was a really great morning, especially after yesterday morning's unproductive hunt. There were still lots of birds flying around, so I stayed there a bit and took some pictures.  MORE redheads  the morning's bag - 2 redheads, 3 wigeon, 1 pintail  another view  my pintail was a real beauty, with a great sprig The action here was so good that I just left my decoys out and will hunt here again tomorrow morning. Other than the hunters with guide services that are hunting out of permanent blinds, I've only seen one other hunter and he was hunting all the way across the bay, so I feel safe leaving my decoys out. Check back for tomorrow's update!
Joshua Flournoy owns and manages the Livehunts.com web site. He also arranges exciting hunts through his business Longleaf Hunting Adventures. Joshua resides in east Texas with his wife and four children. |
Copyright © 1997 Hunting Information Systems, All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this information is provided to you.