Youth Hunt

[jrock75]

Date: October 29

Time: Morning

Location: NW Mitigation Blind

Weather: Sunny. 70s. No wind at all.

Special Notes: First time we have done the special youth weekend.

Waterfowl Activity: Very little flying. The farm was loaded with ducks since teal season, but the farmer drained all the fields a week and a half ago to harvest and they all left.

Waterfowl Responsiveness: With no wind, the ducks seemed to work like mid-season birds. Flying by with no interest in our admittedly makeshift spread.

Hunters: 3 kids (9-10 year-olds) plus 3 dads

Malfunctions: I did a pretty terrible job guiding. I thought we had a rice field blind with water remaining and had planned to hunt that one. Got out there in the dark and it was dry. The sheen I had been seeing from the road was an illusion. Went to another blind that was also dry. Ended up in a bailout blind in the saltwater mitigation bank that is rarely a hot hole.

Dog(s): Jake was very well behaved in this new to him blind without a defined space for him to sit

Special Equipment: 1 wonder duck

Kudos: The boys had a good time even with the slow activity

Curses: Hard to get the boys in position quick enough for passing shots. The one group of teal that tried to land twice still only had 2/3 shooting on the second pass. As with everyone along the Gulf Coast, we desperately need some rain. Can't run our pumps because the bayou water is far too salty.

Birds By Species: 0

Lagniappe: None

Photo Ops:

Youth Hunt.jpg

[Rick]

Might have been short on birds, but you got some smiles.

[Darren]

Welp you sure gave it a good go, and they at least got to shoot the guns. Hoping to at least achieve that much myself this Saturday with my two little ones. We won't be in the game with anything flying, but like to believe we have a chance on something that might splash in.

[Deltaman]

Bet there was a record number of snacks involved
Always an adventure with kids, and a memory they won't lose. Good Job Dad

[DComeaux]

Photo made me smile.

[jrock75]

Always an adventure with kids, and a memory they won't lose. Good Job Dad

If the only weekend activity was the hunt, then they may have been disappointed, but we went fishing twice and caught a mix of reds, puppy drum, and sand trout and that had them pretty excited. With the birds not flying we cut the hunt short and shot some clay targets back at the lodge where the boys were able to get much more comfortable handling the guns.

[5 stand]

That does sound like a fun weekend to me, kudos to the dads...

[Darren]

clay targets back at the lodge where the boys were able to get much more comfortable handling the guns.

huge!

They'll be ready for the next trip

[SpinnerMan]

This thread sounds so much like my objective of taking my wife out

Objective 1: Do not have a bad time, no rain, nothing unpleasant - one bad experience wipes out many good experiences
Objective 2: Whatever she enjoys, we do, doesn't matter if it is the best way to kill ducks.
Objective 3: "We won't be in the game with anything flying, but like to believe we have a chance on something that might splash in."

The last one, we do have a chance on geese flying. Ducks, forget about it for now. She's too slow. I got her up and shooting on some passing geese back in September. Not an easy shot (~40 yards crossing and many geese to distract focus from a single target), but plenty of time to get up and shoot which she did to no effect as expected. But the goal was as much learning as it was her getting a goose, which would have been awesome if she did. But she got real practice that wasn't rushed because we saw them coming from a long way.

The one duck I got this year. I immediately wish she had been along. It came from a long ways in plain view straight in and never even flared when I stood up and it hit the water before I could hit it. Perfect duck for a kid or my wife. Somedays what I need too