I've had better

[hobiecat]

This wasn't the best season on record for me... motor on the boat has a problem, lights on the boat quit working, broke my gun, put a hole in my waders, several decoys were lost in action (way more than a normal year), lost my goose call in the river, hit the mailbox with my truck while backing the boat trailer, and herniated a disc in my back by falling on an icy boat ramp... all for a mediocre, at best, duck season. Oh well, there's always next year!

[Warmouth]

Sounds great Hobs. Keep up the good work!


Good luck with the back injury.

[Rafe Hollister]

You're old, Hobie.

[Triton X2]

at least you were safe in the bathtub?

[Duck Me Runnin]

Maybe I can balance things out a bit, Hobie.

I've also had better seasons, but I've sure as hell had worse.

We usually kill 15 or so woodies from a little slough blind we have. This year, we killed 48 ducks, including mallards and teal. I even killed a banded woodrow.

Had some pretty fair hunts during the middle of the season, and ended with a good mallard shoot in a SEMO rice field.

And, I didn't float my hat, lose, break or tear up anything expensive, and avoided all but some minor injuries. I ain't tryin' to rub it in, I'm just glad to walk away unscathed. ( I probably shouldn't have typed that, I'm gonna go kill some geese on Sun. )

Take care of your back, brutha. I've got two of those forked up disks myself. Even after they feel better, they can come back to haunt you..

[Tigerhaze]

I was thinking for once you all got a warm November and early December that may have kept the ducks around longer- so many other years you would have been frozen out by November.

[Duck Me Runnin]

TH,

Yeah, we had warmer than normal temps in the early going. The problem was that there was enough cold weather up north of us, before our season started. We had a chit load of ducks three weeks before the season started.

Add to that the reidiculous amount of rain that fell in that time frame, and you have a smorgasbord for the ducks, and no legal way to hunt them. I'd be willing to bet that in the high dollar clubs along the big muddy,there was a million bucks worth of planted food eaten by the ducks before the first shot was fired. Two days before the middle season opened, it was 50 / /50 odds as to whether we were even going to access the aforementioned wood duck blind .( The road was under water )

When the season did start, and ducks felt pressure, there was sheet water everywhere. All the birds had to do was figure out the safe palces to feed / loaf.

Open water is an obvious component of most duck hunts, but to much of a good thing can turn around and bite you in the ass. It's always a " play the hand yer dealt " thing.