Should have just stayed in bed...

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T Man

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There are just some days that you look back and realize that had you stayed in bed, things would have been alright...Today was one of those days.

I had been watching a huge group of birds for the last few days...1000-2000 geese and several hundred ducks..and had them patterned. We scouted them yesterday and made a game plan; a dozen full bodies on the ice and a few floaters in the open water for the ducks, then after we burned them up we would move a quarter mile south and hammer on some geese. We loaded up this morning with layout blinds and decoys and headed out. About halfway to our spot we had a semi pass us in the opposite direction which lifted the bag of full bodies up and out of the bed of the truck. We watched horrified as the decoys fell slow motion into oncoming traffic and were promptly center punched by a Dodge Ram (The irony is just beginning). They put the truck in the ditch almost rolling it. A layout blind blew out too, but it blew onto the shoulder. We stopped and the drivers exchanged insurance. I went to pick up the bag of decoys which was a shredded mess. Miraculously 7 of the 13 or 14 decoys in the bag made it through the ordeal either untouched or barely damaged. The rest were confetti. Instead of heading home, we decided to make it a better day and trek on. We got out to our spot and set up and had a terrible morning. The warmth and the rain had opened up a lot of water, so birds weren't interested in our little pocket of water. We shot a single bird out of the few groups that buzzed our spread, but nothing came down close. As we were laying in the blinds, with birds starting to fly after lunch, we saw a warden truck cruise past and stop at the corner of the section. A minute later a second warden truck stopped by our spot and the first came back down the road. We thought it was a simple license check, so we cleared our guns and walked up to them when they called for us. After talking to them for a minute, we were informed that we were hunting in a No Firearms Area. I have fished and hunted the area a bunch, but have never been very interested in this particular section until I had seen all of the birds on it, so I had never paid much attention to the signage beyond knowing it was State ground. The wardens confiscated our gaddy, and fortunately only wrote us tickets for shooting in a no firearms area. We explained that we were watching birds when we drove in and missed the sign, but it didnt do us any good, however they were very professional and courteous about the whole deal. After we went on our way, we started looking and sure enough there was an 8x10 sign posted at the corner and at the half mile mark of the section. It could have stood to be marked a little more often, but we were in the wrong. Just one of those days I should have stayed home and had a whackathon. Would have been much more productive.
 
Yep, that would make for a pretty crappy day. But I gotta ask, what is a gaddy? Gadwall maybe? I've never hunted layout blinds so not sure if it's something to do with that or what.
 
Sorry. Yeah, it is a gadwal. My buddy lost $100 worth of decoys plus whatever the ticket is going to cost.

If you duck hunt often you should consider a layout blind. We have found them so versitile. We will hunt them at waters edge so we can hunt skinny cover and in fields.
 
[RANT] I had to finally give up duck hunting about 15 years ago. It was bad enough that it was getting so expensive just to buy stamps and shells, but then we lost all the blinds that in some cases were built by and have existed since our grandfathers hunted. Game wardens got custodial control of the land and burned down all the blinds that were on it. The Core of Engineer/gov own the land. We can't match what the doctors and lawyers are willing to pay, so all the private land around here is leased out to them, hunted by the owner, or posted and not hunted at all. :? And in case you're wondering, the only time ducks come near that buck-brush covered gov land is when it goes under water. That brings us to the rule change the G&F came up with about not being able to cut down any of the brush for a pond. So we can't even put out a spread of decoys any more. But the G&F says we're allowed to duck hunt there if we want to. #-o [/RANT]

Anyways, since I decided I didn't want to hunt ducks any more, :roll: I doubt that I'll ever know what it's like to hunt from one of those blinds. :oops:
 
It's been many years since I've duck hunted. Anymore, I just buy a duck from the grocery store, and save the ammo for shooting skeet from the boat, and for that, the law doesn't require expensive steel shot.

But I know exactly what you mean about one of those days where you 'should have stayed home and had a whack-a-thon' When you have one of those days, it just seems like everything is working against you. I've had quite a few of those days myself.

As my saying goes...."I was always told there'd be days like this, just not so many of 'em in a row!" :mrgreen:
 
Definitely shoulda stayed in bed. Glad no one was hurt. The signs that fish and game have up should be better placed and neon! I swear around here they hide them and only they know the location.
 

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