Sat. 1/27/2024
Bunkie farm
Phil, Johnny, Chris R. and I with Harry, + 4 of our combined kids all under age 8 not shooting
Winds WNW 10-15, mostly cloudy with peaks of sun, upper 50's and not warming up, heavy storms yesterday and overnight
Body of snows and specks plus quite a few ducks covered the cuts around the pit on arrival yesterday afternoon, heck of a site to see and listen to. Eventually a close by lightning strike seemed to finally run them off in the evening storms. Ice had moved our decoys way out so they had to be rounded up.
Good flights off the bat, totally different that last few hunts in this blind. LOT more water all around us and presumably that had the birds actually (finally) using this end of the farm. Teal mostly worked pretty, though didn't kill them in the numbers we should have, and the spoons were back to diving in on us as well. Managed the kids and the snacks and scraped together a solid hunt, can only blame ourselves (and not the kiddos!) for not filling out. Lost one long off crip spoon that dove on Harry and never came up, also let a sprig over the (fairly distant) decoys get out unscathed. Tons of snow and speck traffic but we weren't nearly covered (or still) enough to be in the game with the specks. Strong goose hunters set up for doing just that would have sunk a truck to the axles in geese.
(18) 4 spoons, 2 grays, 12 GW teal
Diving crips in the now almost knee deep water made for a lot of work on my ol fella and he was noticeably struggling at times to keep up with some lively paddlers
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Spent a long few minutes in thought here with him post-hunt before we headed back to the trucks. His struggles today reminded me that he can't go forever and indeed his days are numbered. Having a hard time with that thought already.
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Tons of birds, camp memories with the kids and buddies, can't beat it for a sweet close to the season.
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