Monday, September 20, 2004

Iowa Duck Opener hot and cold Saturday morning, the mallards, teal and wood ducks that live along the Upper Mississippi River must have thought they were caught in a war raging between the east and west banks. Iowa's early duck season opener coincided with Wisconsin's two-day youth duck hunt. All morning, the ducks flew from one side of the river to the other, only to be greeted by a barrage of gunfire. By 10:00 a.m., most of the survivors had figured out that there was something terribly wrong with their paradise. Where they went is anyone's guess, but they cleared out. Sunday morning, gunfire was a lot more sporadic, with half-hour periods between shots at times. Dan Datillo and I didn't kill a duck on Sunday, but had all the shooting we could handle on Saturday. We should easily have shot limits, but we messed up, as only duck hunters can. Most of the goofs happened when we were looking north and a flock of teal strafed us from the south, or vice versa. We also erred by putting Dan's well-camouflaged boat in a little channel that a lot of ducks must have known held only water the day before. A half-dozen or so singles popped over the treetops, ready to land in our spread, when they suddenly banked upward as if on a roller coaster and headed back where they came from or out across the river. When one more wood duck executed that clear manoeuvre, we pushed the boat up under some willows. Dan sat in the boat, while I stood in the willows about 10 yards away. The ducks began flying closer and we started connecting. Dan shot a blue-wing out of a flock that buzzed us at close range, to add to the two woodies he had bagged earlier. I shot a pair of woodies that came in as singles, then a blue-wing, one of three that zipped past at 20 yards. Could have shot two, but I was startled because I had shot at the closest bird, yet dropped the bird ahead of it! As Dan's black Lab Mindy was retrieving my teal, a lone drake mallard dropped into our set and I folded him neatly just as he stalled above the decoys. After missing a bunch, I had now hit four straight! In the flurry of excitement that infuses the first hour of shooting on what may be the best duck water in the state, I fell into old bad habits of shooting somewhere near the duck. I finally settled down when the birds began flying closer. I can thank Dan's home-made 5-stand clays set-up for improving my shooting Saturday. We spent an hour Friday evening shooting a variety of stations that simulated the ducks we would see Saturday. Saturday night, Dan and I breaded the breasts and legs from our ducks and cooked them in a little olive oil. Oh, yeah, they were good! Dan's girlfriend Kathy made a nice salad and some rice. We didn't leave much! I needed a half-hour catnap on the drive home Sunday. Two days of 3:00 a.m. wake-ups, followed by several hours of slogging through the Mississippi mud wore me out. Today I'm still feeling it in my legs, but it was worth it! later... 10:03:21 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 Dan Small. Last update: 10/3/04; 10:09:51 PM.