Duck opener tomorrow!


Shaun_300

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Tomorrow is the duck opener in this region of Ontario. Can't wait! Canoe is loaded up and ready to leave at 5:00 tomorrow morning. Gonna go to our spot we put the decoys and blind out last weekend. My buddy and I just got back from the outdoors store in Ottawa. I loaded up with 5 boxes of 3" 1 3/8oz #3 Remington Nitro-Steel Magnums. Hopefully we'll be bustin' some ducks in the morning. There were lots of woodies flying last weekend along with some blue bills. Hopefully the mallards will be around too. I'll report back tomorrow afternoon hopefully with some pics!

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Well we're back, what a crappy morning! Was nice when we first got up there at 6:15, (sun rises at 7:00). No wind, no rain, walked in there, just as we plunked our rear ends down behind the blind the wind started. It just kept getting worse and worse. I'd say it was pushing 20mph at points and still is. Straight out of the north too so it was rather chilly even though it was around 55 degrees out. Seen some bluebills fly out of the other end of the pond when we first got there about 125 yards away. After we sat for a while my buddy walked up one side of the pond and I crossed the beaver dam and headed up a long narrow part of the pond. As I was in "mid-leak" around 8 ducks flew right over my head. It was a mad scramble to get the gun up but was unsuccessful. Only thing I hit was the side of my leg and boot with recycled Tim Horton's coffee. :o:D A few more landed down near the blind, if I had of been sitting there I definitely would have got at least 2. My buddy fired at them from around 60 yards with no luck. At around 10:30 we both had enough of the winds blasting in our faces so we started walking out hoping to shoot some partridge on the way out, scared two up, but the bush is still so think with all the leaves it's hard to get a bead on them unless they're sitting up on a log or in a clearing. Oh well! Can't win them all I guess, eh? I think dad and I are heading up to our hunt camp this afternoon, so we may end up getting to a small lake to see if we can get into a few ducks.

I took a few pics of our setup, I'll post them up later.

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Better luck next time. I still hate you for being able to go out though!

Did you scout this pond? Are they roosting there at night and flying out before shooting time? Maybe it would be worth hunting in the evenings. But be aware that this will kill the hole after the first couple of evening hunts. But it would be worth it to kill some birds if they are not coming in in the morning.

I still am looking forward to the pics!

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We've been in there the past few weekends since goose season opened 2 weeks earlier, we were scouting around to see what the ducks were doing too. We seen lots of ducks both times we were in there. I think it might have just been because of the high winds and crappy day. Haven't tried an evening hunt there yet, it's at least a mile, mile and a half walk off the road, we usually walk in in the morning, wouldn't want to walk that far out after dark. We talked about taking the 4 wheeler back for an evening hunt, which we'll probably end up doing before too long.

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Here's the pics of our setup

Sept261.jpg

Sept262.jpg

To the bottom right is the outlet of the pond, there's a huge beaver dam there. Up around the corner to the right is a long narrow channel. That's where I was where the flock flew over me when I was relieving myself yesterday morning. Seen lots of ducks the past few weekends coming from there and down towards our dekes. Up to the left it narrows and then there's a really big marsh in behind. We've seen ducks coming from that direction towards the decoys as well. Have also seen them come from that area and fly up the channel to the right.

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That's a bummer, Shaun. :( Our opener sucked; there's so much water and public land that the ducks are spread out and there are plenty of hunters. We shot a few on Saturday; I shot a drake gadwall but he swam away and we couldn't get to him out in deep water.

My buddy and I did shoot eight blue wing teal hens yesterday on private land. :cool: Better luck next time! ;) Send some of them big northern mallards down too, eh? :D

Dakota :)

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Wish I could get out this weekend! Got a wedding to go to Saturday up at my grandma's and will be staying there til sometime Sunday. Still may end up hunting up there a little bit though. There are quite a few pretty high flocks of geese over here lately. All you hear in the mornings when I get up to go to work is non stop honking. Lots of high flocks, and some low ones too pitching into the farmers field that's around 100 yards behind the house. There's huge cornfields going for a few miles down either side of the Trans-Canada highway on the way to Ottawa, there's thousands of them in those fields everyday. It's like a big goose magnet.

If we get home Sunday early enough my buddy and I are going to do an evening hunt at our spot. The low for Sunday is 29 so that should get them moving. :D

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