Let me start by saying that this hunting trip was far more successful than our first of the year! Spoiler alert; we didn’t bring home any ducks, but we brought home some new strategies for our next outing.
Backstory
Before last year, we had a friend that took us duck hunting all the time. He had a blind that he could easily access and was able to get in, get setup, and then leave easily. With him, we had managed to limit out almost every outing on redheads. Admittedly, we were pretty spoiled!
Well, our friend slowly stopped duck hunting, and the water was just shallow enough to keep the blind out of reach of our boat. We were back to square one.
My husband got to work using his knowledge of the Laguna Madre to narrow down some spots for scouting and eventually hunting. Without a permanent blind in all of these locations, he put his engineering skills to work designing and building a temporary portable blind.
Armed with a new strategy, a new blind, several dozen decoys, and a heron confidence booster, we prepared for the new duck hunting season.
Official Duck Hunting Take 2
We set out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon with all of our gear loaded into the boat. The ride down to our first spot was completely uneventful, and the sun shining on the glassy water seemed to be an omen of a great hunt.
The winter tide had dramatically pulled the water away from the shore for the lowest tide I’ve seen in our four years of living here. No problem, though, we were prepared to walk.
We pulled up to the island and got the boat settled before preparing to disembark. Somehow, I had managed to forget socks for my huge wading boots. No problem, I thought, my feet are pretty tough. Thank you, ballet! I grabbed our chairs and our shotguns before starting the trek through the water to the island.
At first, the muddy bottom wasn’t an issue as I carefully carried the gear through thigh-deep water. The closer I got to shore, the more the mud pulled at my boots, as if trying to drag me under.
We hit the shore and glanced back. The boat seemed so far away, and the thought of lugging the gear back made both of us groan. No problem, though; Court went back to move the boat closer and I started making trips across the island with our gear.
It was around this time that I remembered I had forgotten my socks as the giant boots started rubbing my heels raw. I grit my teeth through the pain and kept on dragging the gear to our chosen spot.
Two thousand steps later (not that I was counting), all that remained were the decoys. With a deep breath, I clipped them to my waders and started wading back out into the water. The decoys dug into the muddy water and resisted being moved; I dug my feet into the mud and pressed on with all my might.
At this point, Court had gotten the temporary blind installed and was walking towards me. I was just resuming my haul after a short break when the mud sucked my boots down deep and I toppled over with a splash!
There I was, covered in mud, attached to two dozen muddy plastic redhead decoys, and I just busted out laughing. Court had caught up to me and laughed after removing the decoys from my belt and started dragging them himself. By the time I got up and trudged across the island, carefully avoiding any contact between my boots and blisters, Court was tossing out decoys.
Suddenly, the air grew frenzied with activity as a large group of redheads swirled low over the water. It was at that point that we realized our shotguns were still unloaded in their bags a few yards away from the blind. We quickly finished getting set up and hid.
Boats passed through the water and disturbed large rafts of readheads. Shots rang out all across the pass as they continued their path, but none of them dropped to the water. We peeked over our sagging blind for more ducks while taking notes for our next hunt.
A quiet calm settled over the pass around 5:00pm. The skies and the water were empty. We kept our eyes to the skies when a strange sound rumbled over the pass, similar to the sound of a jet engine roaring overhead. Suddenly, right across from us, a swirling cloud of redheads lifted off the water, the beats of thousands of wings filling the air. We watched in awe as the cloud shifted and circled in the air above the water before groups started dispersing.
Shotguns fired in every direction from every direction as the giant raft slowly fanned out over the Laguna. It was all we could do to pick one or two that might be close enough as they flew towards us.
When the last duck had vanished over the horizon, we turned to each other in wide-eyed amazement. We may not have brought down any birds, but that experience made the rest of the hunt worth it.
The sun hung low in the sky, so we packed things up for the day. Though we returned empty handed, we brought back lessons to help us on the next hunt:
- Some modifications to our blind will make it work much better!
- There’s not much you can do about a low tide, so you’ve got to adapt quickly.
- A little extra time to set up and guns ready near the blind will help us get started hunting faster.
- The boat can definitely get closer to shore than we thought.
- We should’ve brought the Yeti buckets instead of the folding chairs.
- Socks with wading boots are non-negotiable. (Photo evidence of blisters below. Not fun.)
Duck hunting on public land is tough. There are a lot of different factors that can quickly disturb your hunt. At the end of the day, though, it’s all about the experience; the experience of seeing ten thousand ducks take flight at once. Of laughing off a rocky start in the duck blind with a loved one. Of the rainbow sunset reflected on the water as you pack up for the day.
Every hunt, we learn a little bit more, and we are thrilled to go out again, soon.
Jess and the Outdoors 