Where's Daffy?
A recent article in a local paper caused a little stir in me. The article stated that the duck population looked a bit better than earlier forecasts. That was good news because the earlier forecast was pretty bleak.
The duck hunting opener was this past Saturday. Duck hunting has been an annual event for my son and me going back about a dozen years or so now. The opener is an event that we look forward too every fall.
This past Saturday morning we head out to a local pond that we never hunted before. Both of us were excited about the possibilities that this pothole could have. As we paddled to a spot that we felt would work a few ducks passed us by. A ray of hope you could say.
It took us a little time to get things set up and we were ready to shoot ducks. Here in MN you can’t begin to shoot until 9:00 on opening day. So 9:00 comes and goes with no ducks in sight. After a bit a small flock of geese can be seen off in the distance. They stay off in the distance. At about noon we decide to call it a day. No ducks to shoot today. Possibly tomorrow will be better and we just might get to shoot.
The next day did bring us some shooting. Andy shot 3 times, I shot 4 shots. On the lake we were on I fired the first shot of the day at 6:50 and Andy shot the last shot of the day at 7:20. We each bagged one duck. On the bright side we did get to shoot and that was 2 more ducks than we shot last year on opening weekend. We went away the second day with smiles.
Regarding the article in the paper, I should have known better. An article giving hope to hunters 2 weeks prior to the season starting should have been given more thought. Was it being truthful or more a ruse to get us ever so eager hunting people to buy licenses? I think the latter might be more likely.
On the bright side, spending that much quality time with my son is much more satisfying than shooting a duck. Duck hunting sucks but life is great.