re: One of my top 5 worst duck hunts

quote:

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It didn't involve one or more of the following

1. Coast guard rescue

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Those are the fun ones. Airlifted out of the Mississippi River @ SE pass, one boat less, always makes for a good story.

A bad duck hunt is usually better than a good day at the office...




...I would have traded you in a heartbeat.

I thought I read it all but I must have missed the part about it being 21 degrees and the hole in your waders.

At least you're only out a bird and not a dog.

What choupique said – let me sumamrize your poor day

You got out in the great outdoors on an invited hunt
A little boat trouble – note none sunk and engine didn’t blow up = no boat trouble IMO
Hyacinths – welcome to LA
Wind shift – welcome to the outdoors, gotta adapt
Hyacinths – see above and wind shift and you lost a few dekes
No birds – that’s why they call it hunting not shooting
Alligator ate only bird you shot – dog didn’t get eaten sounds like your padnah made the right call

You got a little wet didn’t shoot much spent time outdoors w a padnah – overall not a great hunt but not a damn thing to whine about

widow maker hit him?

"Five minutes later a 4' alligator comes up and eats my bird."
Sorry, I almost spit my coffee out!

Try hunting in the marsh off Lake Borgne, using a pirogue, a dozen decoys, a shell bucket and a wrap around portable blind in a pothole about 200 yards off deep water WHEN THE TIDE GOES OUT about 1/2 hour after daylight. I noticed my decoys were leaning over kinda funny. Had to lay down over the pirogue and push with my feet. The mud was too deep to stand up and pull. Wouldn't have been too bad had the weather been cold, but, naturally it got into the 70s about the time I was done.
After reaching deep water, I paddled over to my buddies spot on deeper water, and we managed a decent hunt. That was my worst hunt. I been lucky, I guess!

I had to jump in. Last week of season,around 2001, me and two brothers, our impoundment was frozen, boat was breaking ice on the way in, white capping on the way out. Once we realized there were no ducks, we fired up the coleman cooker. Somehow during the bacon frying, the blind caught on fire. We all three jumped from the blind to the boat, took a mojo pole, grabbed the cooker and threw it in the water. We got back in the blind, still no ducks. Around 11:00 we had enough, we loaded up boat and was headed to the camp, about half way there my Labrador jumped on the bow, where my brother was, at the same time a wave white capped over the bow. It took less than 10 seconds and the boat, motor, guns, shells, everything was on the bottom of the lake. We all had chest waders on and were 150 yards from the levee, swimming in water barely above freezing.
While trying to make it to the levee, my lab kept trying to swim up on my brothers back, he nearly drowned (we all did). We went back the next day with a magnet, got all of our guns, and the motor. We drained the carb. etc. still runs good.

If the normal duck hunt ain't about leaky waders, overturned pirogues, boat troubles, breaking ice and long treks through mud and weeds I'm doing it wrong.