Wonderful Weekend

This weekend took me to the north woods of Wisconsin near the town of Spirit, WI. Spirit is just a blip on the map and the road sign that lets you know you're driving through doesn't even have a population listed.

The weekend was originally conceived as a weekend to hunt with PSK and PGA, but it turned out that PGA couldn't make it. Instead, PSK and I were up at 6 am and on the water by 7:30 to find a spot in the west bay of Hultman lake to hunt. He offered his suggestion and we checked it out but decided on setting up on the north end instead.

An hour and a half went by and while we saw many ducks, none decided to give up and sit in the boat with us. The sound of the water or the motion of the ocean must have gotten to PSK and he decided to put the best duck call ever to work, his water whistle. Soon after pulling up his waders, to woodies started their approach. I asked twice if he could get to his gun but heard nothing so I shot one of the birds. No more than a second later, PSK shot as well. Nice shooting too! PSK had landed his first duck ever, a hen woodie.

Another hour and a half later, I decided to go for a walk on the bog and after falling through several times, I decided to give up just in time to see another woodie land in front of me. I decided to put her in the boat with us to make my tromp through the bog worthwhile. After PSK rescued me with the boat, we picked up and set up in the spot he originally suggested.

Though I flooded my waders a little putting out decoys, this spot was much nicer. I should have listened to him in the first place I guess! PSK shot 2 more ducks in the afternoon and we ended up with a total of 5 for the day. 2 woodies for me and 2 woodies and a hen mallard for PSK.

Sunday morning greeted us at 5 am and we quickly headed out to lay in a field to see if we couldn't score any geese that we had seen and heard the day before. We laid there for over an hour waiting and then they started coming in droves. We probably had over 100 geese in the field with us, but they were about 150 yards away at the other end. Trying to get up and sneak out didn't help any and we only ended up scaring them off. What do they say about the well laid plans of mice and men? And didn't something end up dieing? That wasn't the case for us...

After making the rounds to a couple other spots, PSK and I wound up back at Hultman lake. While he set up where we were located the night before, I took the boat out to see if I couldn't jump a few ducks myself. I didn't have any luck, but PSK ended up downing 2, a drake and a hen mallard. We quickly collected the ducks and went looking for one that he thought he got. I never saw it go down, but after jumping out of the boat and walking through the reeds for about 15 yards, I jumped up a susie and ended up smoking her about about 6 feet.

Our next stop put us at another landing where we had permission to hunt and while getting out of the car, I made sure to tell PSK not to slam the door when he got out so we could sneak down next to the water and see if we couldn't jump something up. He agreed that would be a good plan and while he was getting out, he pressed up against the horn on the truck! HA! I guess we only talked about not slamming doors, nothing about honking the horn. Next time I'll be sure to be more through.

We ended the day after that and went home to a wonderful meal of grilled duck and plenty of food from the family garden. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. The colors were beautiful, the company was great, and the weather even cooperated with us. I can't wait until next weekend now!