One Of Those Days

We have all heard the phrase in day to day conversation ,more often than not you may hear it, or say it yourself daily. “ Man,It’s been one of those days.”

We attribute those words to something bad, a day that you wish you could start again and change it. It could be a busy day, a stressful one, or just a day that you would have rather stayed in bed .A day where nothing goes right ,or the way you had planned.

We have all been there at one time or another.  We as hunters have those days in the field nearly as often as we have them at work. Especially us duck hunters. We are rough on equipment but then gripe and complain when something breaks. We operate on very little to no sleep for days on end,eat Little Debbie cakes for breakfast lunch and dinner,consume gallons of bad gas station coffee all to fuel our addiction. After we torture ourselves and the day don't quite turn out as planned we chalk it up to “One of those days”

The phrase can also have a very different meaning that is the polar opposite of  the one we are accustomed to hearing. We duck hunters give 110% everyday we are in the field for that one in a million chance that we might encounter “one of those days” where nothing goes wrong ! Where the stars and planets line up perfectly,and the Lord answers our prayers for a good day. These days only happen to the fortunate maybe once a year,for some guys its even longer in between those days. I’m talking about the days we tell out hunting buddies about for years,even ribbing them a little if they were not there.

Here are a few accounts of when I have been fortunate enough to have One of THOSE days.

It was mid December the weatherman was calling for low skies and a south wind. I had been hunting hard for the last few weeks and was in need of some rest. My plan was to sleep in a little(get up at 4 am instead of 2) and go bow hunting. At the last minute I changed my mind and threw my duck hunting stuff in the truck and hurried off to a place in the timber that I could not stop thinking about.

I stopped at my spot and was surprised that no one was there at this time of day. That could only mean one thing,there were no ducks using the area and I should be sitting in a tree this morning,but I pressed on. Once at the spot I wanted to be at a quick check of the wind,I tossed the decoys where I wanted them ,poured a cup of coffee and sat waiting for legal shooting time.

I glanced at my watch and it said 10 more minutes . I could hear the whistling sound that gets every duck hunters heart beating a little faster .The sky appeared to be full of ducks and they were landing in the woods all around me,but then I heard another sound. It sounded like decoys rattling in a bag. I turned to see another hunter making his way to the hole I was in. I hollered at him to let him know where I was. I offered for him to hunt with me because I was alone but he said he was gonna go on down to the next hole.He was   kind enough to let me know that the dome light in my truck was on ! Here we go.

As if on a timer when legal shooting time arrives so do the ducks. Three mallards two hens and a drake bomb into my decoys. 2 shots later a big green head is floating feet up in my decoys,but before I could even load my gun here came a cloud of ducks heading right for me. I pick out one with a green head , pull the trigger and it folds. I quickly shove 2 more rounds in my 870 and shoot 2 more times,and 2 more ducks fall and they are still coming in !

I wasn't long and they realized something was not right and left but 4 of their buddies were left behind. I gathered them up and glanced at my watch. In less than 5 minutes I had a limit of mallards. I made a quick dash to the truck to turn off the light and was back in the hole in no time. A pair of wood ducks raced thru the timber and one of them stayed with me. Not long after that several teal hit the water and one of them went onto my strap. All in all I had a full limit of ducks in 30 minutes and that included a trip back to the truck.

Another day I won't soon forget happened 2 or 3 years ago with my son Jamison. It was the third day of duck season and the conditions were perfect for a good day. I had forgot my phone at home so on the way in we met some guys that I knew and I told them I was not gonna shoot till after they did. There was a nice 10 mph west wind low skies and it was spitting snow. We headed off in the dark to a place where I knew no one would be because of the wind. When we go to the hole cut in the flooded corn the wind was almost in our face. Jamison looked at me funny and ask if the wind was wrong to hunt here. I explained to him that yes the wind was “wrong” but not for this spot. The ducks can cut way out around the field and plop right down in your face with wind like it was today. Here is where it helps to remember that sometimes there is not an “always” or “never” you have to know your surroundings, know how ducks react and set up accordingly .

We waited in the growing light wishing I had a watch. My buddies that were back from us a good way shot several times and yelled “ITS TIME” ! We had some ducks swimming around in our decoys and Jamison shot and killed 2 of them. The ducks just seemed to want to be right where we were and we had several flocks that we shot into and dropped ducks. I had been keeping count but wanted to go out and get an accurate body count.

I came back with 9  ducks ! I told Jamison that I thought he was down 2 and I had one to go. One flock latter and we were picking up.

The guys I knew that hunted farther back came around the corner and I motioned for them to come over to us for a time check. We had killed 2 limits in 15 minutes,not to shabby for the wind being “wrong”. it turns out that they got 3 limits in a little less time,but I was not complaining at all.

The last hunt I want to tell you about happend last year. As most know we had the coldest winter that I can remember in a long time and all of the water was frozen solid. A week before we had an 18 inch snow fall that blanketed the area. On the morning it snowed I went to a local WMA and killed a quick limit. We were hoping that we could draw a blind close to a pump and have some soft water.

We drew and once we got to our pit we did have some water on top of the ice so we prettied it up some,set decoys and waited. We were seeing a few high flying ducks and specks but none wanted to be where we were at. Somewhere around 10 o’clock we decided to call it a day. We were all picked up and heading out when one of the guys that ran the site pulled up. He told us that there was a blind that had killed out twice already and we were next in line for it if we wanted. We assured him that we wanted to give it a try.

He dropped us off and we saw nothing but open water in a standing corn field ! there was a pump right by the blind and it was keeping the water open. There were several ducks that jumped off the water when we walked up. A quick survey of where to place the decoys and we were hunting.

The ducks were coming to this spot as if they were on a string. The would lock up 20 feet over the trees and would sail right in to where we wanted them for easy shots. My brother Josh had 4 mallards and a pintail,I had 4 mallards and a spoonie hen in a matter of 10 minutes. We were looking for full limits but all that was coming in were mallards. I know a terrible problem to have right ? I was thinking that we were gonna go home 2 short of fill limits when out of nowhere a wad of gadwalls came in and saved the day. 2 shots latter we were picking up and heading to the house.

As duck season approaches we all have high hopes of what the north wind will bring us. No doubt there will be days with empty skies,there will be mishaps and broken boat motors,there will be cold mornings with leaky waders,but I hope and pray that thru all the misery we will have One of those days. http://bigmuddybottomsbucksnducks.blogspot.com/