Thanksgiving Bling

Made the drive down to SoFla for the Thanksgiving weekend and hoped to get out and set up on some Fl Mallards since they aren't all that common in North Fla. As usual my time home is busy between seeing friends, family and coaches.. with my first chance to get in a hunt on Thanksgiving morning. My buddy just got a new airboat so we decided to make the best of it and be back in time for some turkey and family time. I awoke before my alarm that morning eager to meet up, head to the ramp and have our spread out in plenty of time in order to be ready as the first flights started to move. To add some flair to our spread we put out 2 mojo rigs and watched as the spinning wings flashed in the growing light, and with no surprise they pulled ducks in like magnets! Well worth the money and extra prep involved, we also brought extra PVC poles so they were high enough to be seen over the cattails and sawgrass. My bud scored on the first bird of legal light and I followed suit a couple minutes after him. We each breathed a sigh of relief as we were done in plenty of time to be home before the turkey fryer was even heating up. I picked up dekes as I made my way to retrieve my bird with the only thing sticking out of the water was its bright orange foot.. along with a shiny piece of jewelry! My 1st band.. wouldn't have scored it with anyone else other than my buddy that was with me, one of my best friends since high school who coincidentally got his first band with me a couple hunts earlier on a nice Blue Wing Teal. Reported my band # to find that it was banded last season out of STA 4.

I know lots of guys stack bands on their lanyards but I put this one on my keys.. more than the luck or motivation it gives me to get ready for a hunt it is a daily reminder of a special hunt with my buddy. We were just as pumped up for the others band as we were for our own, made me realize that spending quality time in the blind or stand with a friend is just as special to me as chasing bands or having a successful hunt, it just so happens I'm lucky enough to do both at the same time on most hunts!

Ducks & Bucks

A deer scouting tip I've picked up from my dad is keeping an eye out for scrapes while in the woods doing other hunts, and I thought I was pretty conscious of keeping an eye out for them even when in duck swamps.. that is until Macy started finding scrapes I walked by dozens of times on the way to a cypress pond.. she'd be working in front of me on the walk in then lock up smelling a spot, I'd go check it out thinking she had something- and clear as day there'd be a scrape.. She'd found a few the same way then I figured out the scrapeline was along the edge of the swamp and found a couple others..  this was during the Fl rut so I imagine the rubs were pretty smelly from being frequented often, probably a young buck since it's using small trees and scraping close to the ground.

With the high water last season I had to take the boat to hunt this same spot and found this little buck while poling the boat in about 20 yards from the shoreline.. only a couple inches deep so couldn't have drowned.. had plenty of healthy body mass, no visible wounds.. only thing I can think of is maybe hunters were running dogs and it ran itself to exhaustion..

Merganser Heaven (Cattle Pond)

Checked out a few water holes during our Thanksgiving week deer hunt to see if any ducks were moving.. Sat at this cattle pond a few mornings and it was buzzing nonstop with groups of Mergansers flying in, feeding for a bit then flying out. The hole has such a quick dropoff and is so deep that there's little vegetation and has clear water so I assume they were diving for crayfish at the bottom. I held off on downing any Mergs as I shot a pair last season only to discover that they weren't the best eating bird (understatement). So until I check some ducks off my mount list and want to mount one the Mergansers are safe from me.

 A unique spot that is a stones throw from a huge wetland- has potential to be a good location to encourage some plants along the edges and see if any other ducks can be pulled in..

After sitting at this pond a few mornings and not seeing any sign of gators it seemed to be the perfect spot to do some retriever training and even hop into during the first weeks of deer season when it is unbearably hot, being so deep it surely holds water during the driest seasons. That is until I walked in for a look in the afternoon and this nice sized lizard was sunning on one of the few open spots.. wasn't so much surprised of the gator as I was that he'd been there previously unknown to me with zero vegetation to hide in.. glad my dad talked me out of letting Macy hop in when I was sure it was gator-free!

The steady groups of mergansers pouring in/ out was a good refresher for Macy on keeping still even when birds land in the water.. wish I had a camera setup to take some pics of such pretty birds..

While sitting in the deer stand I googled away on my phone for some info about Mergansers and what they are doing while in Fla.. They are one of the farthest traveling waterfowl, are notorious for laying eggs in active woodduck nests unbeknown to the hen woodduck, and a number of recent wildlife photography contests were won by pictures of Mergansers.. 

The following Monday I was back to the normal routine. After my first morning class I have a break that I use to catch up on any emails/ projects, if the weathers nice I'll sit by a little pond right outside my class building.. after sitting at this spot for a few minutes I hear some splashing, and see about a dozen Mergansers on this pond, with the hooded drakes chasing eachother and courting the hens. I fully thought I was hallucinating, seeing these rare waterfowl by the dozens even when I'm in a large city..

Macys 1st woodduck!

Went into my local woodduck spot this morning to try and get in a hunt before class. It's a quick hunt because I can drive out, walk in the swamp, toss out a few decoys, wait for the woodies to fly out from their roost, and if successful I'm home in time to grab my books and be at 8:30 class. It's a bit weird watching some of my teammates headed to morning practice on their scooters as I drive through campus on the way to hunt... Leaning against a cypress in the woods listening for ducks to announce their approach is a piece of cake compared to a 2 hour workout! I brought Macy since it was a bit cold and I had a tiny leak in my waders- if things came together and I could shoot straight she could retrieve my birds without me having to get wet/ cold.. luckily things panned out and Macy got to retrieve her 1st wood duck- a beautiful drake that flew by in small group. I couldn't have had a bigger smile on my face as she swam back in to me with her drake! Gave me a feeling I imagine my father had when taking me on some of my first hunts...  I'm sure I missed a few birds flying out while I took her picture with the drake and sent to my dad but oh well... there's always tomorrow...

Snapped this pic as soon as she came in..

Solid ice on the water!

Hunted a public spot this weekend with a buddy, the coldest Fl morning I've ever seen with the truck reading 13 degrees as the temp on the drive to the ramp. Backing the boat down into the water we actually had to break through ice on the water- in hindsight we were glad that we were the first ones at the ramp or we would have been met with a ramp of ice from the other trailers pulling out. Only shot 1 Blue Winged Teal that landed in the spread but was one of my memorable hunts to think of due to the cold weather and toughing it out with one of my best buds! We hunkered down hoping more birds would move as the sun got higher to no avail and ended up the day with a stalk on a group of ringers that earned us 4 drakes.

Here's my bud and his teal on a 1/4 inch piece of ice! Never thought I'd have the boat running through ice like that!

On another duck hunt during this cold front I found this gator while walking out... I suppose it was just in a deep coma mode trying to tough it through the cold night and warm up once the sun rose. I am under the impression the big gators hole up during these cold fronts so they aren't as vulnerable.

On a sidenote.. similar to this gator I was handicapped a great deal by this freeze, not so much in my body but more in my equipment. As I was driving to the lake in the morning I noticed a small amount of ice on my windshield and without thinking I used my spray and wipers to clear it off. The combination of liquid, temperature and highway speed turned my whole windshield to SOLID ice. Luckily the highway is empty at 5:30 a.m. and no traffic had to slow down as I drove the last couple miles with my head peeking out the window to see. I still had ice on the windshield hours later on the drive home and had to scrape out a spot to see, lesson learned the hard way I suppose..

Afternoon Woodduck

Here's some pictures from our last hunt of the season..went to a local hole for the afternoon hunt and was able to pull a drake woodduck from a group I jumped while walking in.. missed the other drake in the group, can use it for motivation to practice shooting this offseason.. A memorable hunt since I rigged up some decoys I was handed down by a old friend and added them to my simple spread I bring to this walk in spot..