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But it was worth it.. Got into the spot I wanted at about 2200 hrs. Got my decoys out and put my boat into a blocking position to stop anyone else form gettin in. I used my mud motor to carve a slight trail thru the flooded reeds about 1/3 of a mile in from the canal to a small 75 yd round hole in the swamp. Got the old army sleeping system out,,crawled in and watch the falling stars untill I was awaken by the sounds of boats comming in. Stayed up from about 3 am untill daylight. Noone even attempted to get back in here. so life was good. Crawled out of the bag put the chest waders back on and slid into the water. a cool 29 degs. Took out my burlap and camoflaged up the boat good then I worked my way back 200 yds into my decoys and waited..
I was after a Mottled Duck, I had been watching several drop into a few small pockets of water in the past weeks. very elusive little critters. hunting these is more like deer hunting a big buck..ya cant hunt where all the other ducks are..just a small pocket..they either come in..and ya get a shot..or the morning is wasted.. about 08:00 hrs it finally happened had a pair circled high.. hit the call with a single quack..they turned and started dropping...circled again...another quack...turned and they cupped and committed droping from skyhigh..amazing site to see.. flipped off the safety as I tried to be real small standing in the head high reeds in the waist deep water...as they started to put the brakes on at about 30 feet off the water I popped up and threw the mossey up to my shoulder, I picked up on the trail bird, and squeezed off BOOM...shit..miss...pumped the 12 guage as they started to climb staying on the same bird BOOM and he folded at the shot and came crashing down about 30 yds away from me into the thick reeds.
I went over and searched for about 1.5 hours and finally found him burried up in the grass matt floating on the water. He will be going to the taxidermist here very shortly.. I was pretty stoked to say the least. Drake Mottled Duck..
I was after a Mottled Duck, I had been watching several drop into a few small pockets of water in the past weeks. very elusive little critters. hunting these is more like deer hunting a big buck..ya cant hunt where all the other ducks are..just a small pocket..they either come in..and ya get a shot..or the morning is wasted.. about 08:00 hrs it finally happened had a pair circled high.. hit the call with a single quack..they turned and started dropping...circled again...another quack...turned and they cupped and committed droping from skyhigh..amazing site to see.. flipped off the safety as I tried to be real small standing in the head high reeds in the waist deep water...as they started to put the brakes on at about 30 feet off the water I popped up and threw the mossey up to my shoulder, I picked up on the trail bird, and squeezed off BOOM...shit..miss...pumped the 12 guage as they started to climb staying on the same bird BOOM and he folded at the shot and came crashing down about 30 yds away from me into the thick reeds.
I went over and searched for about 1.5 hours and finally found him burried up in the grass matt floating on the water. He will be going to the taxidermist here very shortly.. I was pretty stoked to say the least. Drake Mottled Duck..
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