# Favorite Waterfowling Memories???



## lawrence1

I'll start,

One of my favorite memories was several years ago on the first day of duck season. We were set up on a small river near two lakes. We knocked a few down early and the action slowed. About 8 o'clock, the biggest flock of mallards I have ever seen came over the horizon from the direction of the lakes, probably spooked from all the hunters into one big flock. I swear it was like a cloud that blocked out the sun. As the older birds circled up high the juveniles were dropping into the dekes like rain. We held our fire to see if we could get the whole flock to land. Another group of hunters setup 200yds down river in a lesser spot pulled up and shot a single and the big flock flew off. I'll never forget that sight as long as I live.

Another was when I was by myself wading a creek looking to bust some woodies. I flushed two from behind a logjam and missed. Just as I was about to hang my head in shame one of them came flying back towards me being chased by a red tailed hawk. The hawks talons drew tailfeathers and the woody flew into the treeline where the hawk would not follow. I pulled up and dropped the woody as it flew twisted through the limbs and it fell on the bank. The hawk landed on a limb and seemed to be looking for a way to get at what he thought was his kill. It wasn't until I started moving towards the duck that he flew off. Strange how the shot did not seem to bother him. 

The best for me though has to be the look on my middle sons 11 year old face when he dropped his first duck. A single hen woody flew by and at my take'em the oldest boy pulled up and missed. My middle son fired and the bird dropped at the shot. When I said you got it, the look on his face was one of utter disbelief and pure elation all rolled into one. I've never seen that facial expression on any other human being before or since.


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## 2120Tom

My most memorable.....two seasons ago, Dec. 19 last day of duck in LE zone, weather was cold and snowy the previous few days and we had a good push of migration to a local roost that was unfrozen. 
Four of us set up for an early afternoon field hunt on a cloudy day with a few snow flurries. 
The swarms of mallards were something I had never seen before, since this was just my second season after returning to waterfowling from many years absence, and they cooperated perfectly to our spread, as did the geese.
We took a four-person limit of mallards/blacks and canadas,, awesome hunt.


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## firstflight111

Any day i got to hunt with my dad or my boys ...even if we did stack them up ..

























or one of the many days we shot bands the best we did was 8 in one day.. 










or the day we shot 7 banded birds ..









or the day i shot 2 banded geese with one shot ..









or the day i took a kid out for the first time ever duck hunting and his first 4 ducks were banned and i shot the 5th one ...


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## freyedknot

been so many after chasing em for 40 yrs. pulling up on 1000 mallards at o dark 30 on the scioto in january was one. never seen so many duck in 1 day as we did in january on the scioto river, except when we hunted arkansas and had our pick on pintails all day and mallards of course.


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## big_fish

I am pretty new and have only been hunting waterfowl for 3 yrs.My fav was last year when my 7 mon old lab"Tank" retrieved his first mallard it was just me and my dog and it seems that I prefer to hunt just me and him but never mind if someone wants to tag along. Another was last week when I dropped 2 mallards in a small pot hole 1 landed in the water and was an easy retrieve but the other was in the cattails and I got to cast him in with hand signals and it worked I am as proud of my dog as Iam my children.Now I hope for many more memories.


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## Goosehtr

This one was many years ago. I had a chance to take a father and his 2 sons out to a flooded timber spot just west of Columbus.
We were tucked back in these flooded oaks next to a RR tracks and every time a train went by the mallards would flush up and pour into our little hole. 
The boys were 13 and 15yrs old. On one of the many times the ducks poured in the 13yr old looked at me with a giant grin and said."This is just like on ESPN!". I just laughed and said," No this is way better. We are actually doing it!"

I have had the pleasure of introducing many to the sport of waterfowling and I really enjoy reliving my first hunts through them!

Good Luck
Andy


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## firstflight111

big_fish said:


> I am pretty new and have only been hunting waterfowl for 3 yrs.My fav was last year when my 7 mon old lab"Tank" retrieved his first mallard it was just me and my dog and it seems that I prefer to hunt just me and him but never mind if someone wants to tag along. Another was last week when I dropped 2 mallards in a small pot hole 1 landed in the water and was an easy retrieve but the other was in the cattails and I got to cast him in with hand signals and it worked I am as proud of my dog as Iam my children.Now I hope for many more memories.


I love to see a good dog work ....


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## Love2kayak

Hopefully I'll have some great stories like you guys have one day, but this being my first time every doing the waterfowl thing I'll settle for my first two mallards on opening day in south zone for now. 


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## ducksdemise

FreyedKnot I hunted together for over 20yrs. One memorable hunt we had was on the Cuyahoga River by Ladue. It was the 1st day of the second split. We shot Mallards and Blacks and geese. We limited on Mallards in about 5 minutes. After that we just sat in awe watching flock after flock just drop into the Decoys. But wouldn't you know we went back the very next day and didn't fire a shot.
We also hunted the OHIO river late season one time with some nice success also had the best breakfast that morning eggs and deer tenderloin.
Miss the good old days of duck hunting. Freyed we need to take that trip we were talking about.
Jim


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## firstflight111

Love2kayak said:


> Hopefully I'll have some great stories like you guys have one day, but this being my first time every doing the waterfowl thing I'll settle for my first two mallards on opening day in south zone for now.
> 
> 
> Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


hey you got to start somewere ..my first year was bad ..but i have been doing this for 30 plus years .....after you get a dog a boat it makes life better ...


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## PARK92

late season goose hunt over a corn field. had a coyote ambush our decoys. there were 5 guys hunting andfive guys shooting at that damn dog. it didnt make it out of the spread. 
opening weekend in ESGA inMI three years ago. hunting the lily pads had birds dropping in our deeks all day and we didnt get there until 10am


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## Love2kayak

I'm hooked. I'm happy with our fest split. We have no dog or decoys, just a yak, a Jon boat, a 20 ga and lots of miles scouting in my truck. Every trip so far has been more successful than the last. Decoys are on way and I'm trying to decide on a new gun. Anyone like semi stoegers? Or mossberg, Remington pump? Or super nova for little less than 600$? I'm buying Monday cant wait any longer any advice would be great


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## BuckeyeZac

Also a newbie duck hunter and this early in the game my favorite memory was the first ducks to land in our spread- drake and hen woody- I took the drake, my hunting buddy who also started from scratch like me dropped the hen. We put lots of time/money into learning the sport and were finally rewarded with what we had spend a year preparing for. Couple high fives and a couple jokes to my buddy about shooting the hen and we are hooked worse than before.


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## firstflight111

Love2kayak said:


> I'm hooked. I'm happy with our fest split. We have no dog or decoys, just a yak, a Jon boat, a 20 ga and lots of miles scouting in my truck. Every trip so far has been more successful than the last. Decoys are on way and I'm trying to decide on a new gun. Anyone like semi stoegers? Or mossberg, Remington pump? Or super nova for little less than 600$? I'm buying Monday cant wait any longer any advice would be great
> 
> 
> Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


I can only tell what i like for a gun and why ..i love the remington 887 pump...been a great gun before that I had HAVE the remington 870 and after 9 years it still knocking down birds...

i have nothing for a semi any brand ..and heres why this is just my out look on them with a semi auto you loose you down range power with you'r shot.. too many gasses to load the next round .i would rather have the gasses pushing my shot down range to help kill the birds ..i can pump the next round ..
2 the semi auto sometimes freezes up in cold weather...cost more to fix them 

3 non ported chokes also go with pushing the shot down range more knock down power....


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## JimmyZ

firstflight111 said:


> I can only tell what i like for a gun and why ..i love the remington 887 pump...been a great gun before that I had HAVE the remington 870 and after 9 years it still knocking down birds...
> 
> i have nothing for a semi any brand ..and heres why this is just my out look on them with a semi auto you loose you down range power with you'r shot.. too many gasses to load the next round .i would rather have the gasses pushing my shot down range to help kill the birds ..i can pump the next round ..
> 2 the semi auto sometimes freezes up in cold weather...cost more to fix them
> 
> 3 non ported chokes also go with pushing the shot down range more knock down power....


Never thought about it like that. Now I'm gonna have to break out the 870 and see if it crunches birds better. I like my 1187, it does a good job. 

I have a lot of memories. One was with my old lab, I dropped 2 mallards right at quit time, she went out swam right by the first grabbed the one farther out, came back to the other grabbed it , swam back in with 2 big fat mallards in her mouth. I chanted her name for 10 minutes while I picked up decoys. She might not have been by the book, but that sure was fun to see. She ll be 14 this month.


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## firstflight111

JimmyZ said:


> Never thought about it like that. Now I'm gonna have to break out the 870 and see if it crunches birds better. I like my 1187, it does a good job.
> 
> I have a lot of memories. One was with my old lab, I dropped 2 mallards right at quit time, she went out swam right by the first grabbed the one farther out, came back to the other grabbed it , swam back in with 2 big fat mallards in her mouth. I chanted her name for 10 minutes while I picked up decoys. She might not have been by the book, but that sure was fun to see. She ll be 14 this month.


man it sucks when they get old i hate it ..i have my old man who's almost 11 now he das done something you would have to see to believe it ....i still take him when it's just me he's only good for 3 maybe 4 birds then he's done ..but i have a 1 year old chessie she just love's it and goes and goes ..this is her first year hunting ...


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## NorthSouthOhioFisherman

Love2kayak said:


> I'm hooked.Anyone like semi stoegers? Or mossberg, Remington pump? Or super nova for little less than 600$? I'm buying Monday cant wait any longer any advice would be great
> 
> 
> Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


I have always been a remington guy. Although I did take a good look at stoeger this year before I bought my mossberg. I got the mossberg 925 with a patternmaster choke tube and it is the best gun for duck hunting I have used yet. It ejects shells great, doesn't kick much, and cleans up good. A remington 870 IMO is the best gun anyone can buy for the price and is a good starter gun. I have many friends that shoot them now. Semis can be a pain but I like them. I would shoot a couple of friends before I decide to buy one unless you already have... Good luck! BTW I have had my gun fail me twice this season out of about 100 shots. Going to look it up now but I have pulled the trigger it hits the shell (can see on cap) but doesn't fire the shell. Don't know if it was a gun problem or shell?


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