View Full Version : Opening Day duck with my son.
Opening Day of duck with my son Zach. We got our limit of Mallards and 2 Woodies. My dog got a lot of good work Saturday morning. It was 27 degrees out that morning and just a bit chilly. We had to wear our heavy duty waders and our little hole had a decent amount of ice in it. I had to go out and bust up a large area of lightly frozen over water. During the hunt I looked over at my dog and he had icecicles on his eyebrows.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/h2odog/0b2de79d.jpg
Zach with our birds
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/h2odog/3d4a4f09.jpg
Sweet!! No pics of your dog, he did all the hard work.
Here's my dog Justice coming back with a bird. This was later in the morning and most of the ice had melted by then. There was a bit of it left in the shadows. By 9am it was close to 45 degrees. One of my buddies took this pic. There were four of us in the blind that morning. We shot a total of 21 birds.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/h2odog/photo.jpg
Very Nice! Thanks for the great story and pics of your son and dog with the ducks.
First phase of waterfowl opens here next weekend and then is closed for two weeks and I am repainting the decoys and cleaning out the boat now as we use large decoy spreads for open water divers.
Way to go!
I have a bumper sticker:
"WILL DUCK HUNT FOR FOOD" :D
We hunt open waters for divers also and usually will put out 200-300 dekes. It can be a real pain at times but I like shooting divers. Kind of like trying to shoot F16 fighters buzzing your dekes.
We hunt open waters for divers also and usually will put out 200-300 dekes. It can be a real pain at times but I like shooting divers. Kind of like trying to shoot F16 fighters buzzing your dekes.
Exactly!
awesome... great memories you are building for both of you
Raven Armament
11-14-11, 14:23
Great pics! That dog looks like it's having a blast.
Justice, my dog, had a great time. He is bonkers for birds. He hates to train but when it comes to running Hunt Tests and hunting he goes crazy. He was a bit rusty the first couple of birds. The first 2 were cripples and had swam off into some willow thickets. He went in after them and came out quickly without the birds. I had to give him hand signals and cast him back into the thickets 4-5 times. He finally started working things out and came back with the birds. We had a few more cripples afterwards that he dug out of the thick stuff pretty quickly. All in all he did pretty good work opening day. We didn't lose a single bird.
Nice greenheads! I do alot of waterfowl hunting here in Utah, and your pics made me want to ditch work and head to the marsh :laugh: I'll have to post some pics one of these days. Keep up the good work!
Nice greenheads! I do alot of waterfowl hunting here in Utah, and your pics made me want to ditch work and head to the marsh :laugh: I'll have to post some pics one of these days. Keep up the good work!
I hear there is some pretty good waterfowling around the Salt Lake area?
Raven Armament
11-14-11, 23:46
Justice, my dog, had a great time. He is bonkers for birds. He hates to train but when it comes to running Hunt Tests and hunting he goes crazy. He was a bit rusty the first couple of birds. The first 2 were cripples and had swam off into some willow thickets. He went in after them and came out quickly without the birds. I had to give him hand signals and cast him back into the thickets 4-5 times. He finally started working things out and came back with the birds. We had a few more cripples afterwards that he dug out of the thick stuff pretty quickly. All in all he did pretty good work opening day. We didn't lose a single bird.
That's awesome. I've only hunted over dogs (upland birds) a few times, but half the fun is watching them work.
Working my dog is the best part for me. There are quite a few times when I will tell everyone that I'm going to just work my dog and they can cover the birds. He and I work very well together. There are times when all I have to do is take the birds from him when he comes in. He'll mark 3,4 or 5 birds sometimes and and picks them up one after the other. We will work Pheasant tower shoots during the year and he's non stop. He's made close to 200 retrieves at times and is still ready to go. Once he's done with a big shoot like that he sleeps hard.
Taking the afternoon off Thursday and heading to the marsh again. We'll see what happens.
Great opening day story and pics.
Being from Florida I have been somewhat limited to duck hunting. Wood ducks and Teal mostly.
I used to have a Lab that would give you the dirtiest look if you missed a shot. It really made you a better shot, no one wanted to get that look.
KevinC
Littlelebowski
11-15-11, 08:41
Awesome story and pics. My Belgian Malinois would eat the birds on sight, no questions asked :D
Great opening day story and pics.
Being from Florida I have been somewhat limited to duck hunting. Wood ducks and Teal mostly.
I used to have a Lab that would give you the dirtiest look if you missed a shot. It really made you a better shot, no one wanted to get that look.
KevinC
It is truly a magnificent sight to watch a primo duck dog working the marshes, just simply awesome cross between a long distance runner, a sprinter, an ATV, an airboat, a go-devil with a nose, a heart and a mind to never come back empty handed.
Here in Florida, gators are an ever present danger so have to wait until it gets really cold out....
Enjoyed the story and pics, I had similar results with my 12 year old boy this opening weekend. Had a mallard, gadwall, and 10 teal (blue and greenwing). It's a joy to see the smile on a young childs face who enjoys the outdoors.
Our local Sheriff has a bumper sticker out "Kids who hunt and fish Don't Steal or Deal." Keep up the good work Waterdawg
Bill
Enjoyed the story and pics, I had similar results with my 12 year old boy this opening weekend. Had a mallard, gadwall, and 10 teal (blue and greenwing). It's a joy to see the smile on a young childs face who enjoys the outdoors.
Our local Sheriff has a bumper sticker out "Kids who hunt and fish Don't Steal or Deal." Keep up the good work Waterdawg
Bill
Congrats on your shoot Bill. Teal are great eating birds.
I'm taking my son and his best buddy this coming weekend. His buddy is my God Son. His dad was killed during Operation Anaconda so I've tried to take him with us as much as possible when we hunt. We all get to hunt together 8-10 times a year and have a blast. Those 2 boys are about inseperable. They've even made plans to go to West Point together. They keep going the way they are and it very well could happen.
Congrats on your shoot Bill. Teal are great eating birds.
I'm taking my son and his best buddy this coming weekend. His buddy is my God Son. His dad was killed during Operation Anaconda so I've tried to take him with us as much as possible when we hunt. We all get to hunt together 8-10 times a year and have a blast. Those 2 boys are about inseperable. They've even made plans to go to West Point together. They keep going the way they are and it very well could happen.
my hat is off you sir....
I hear there is some pretty good waterfowling around the Salt Lake area?
Ya there is some great duck and goose hunting here! I've been shooting ducks in Utah since I was 11 and we've had some epic days. We've had a couple amazing labs and it's awesome watching them work!
ArRazorback
02-01-12, 00:48
I managed to get out with "my boy." A year and a half year old boykin spaniel. It turned out to be a really slow day, with little shooting for his first trip. But still, the ducks were brought back to hand. Very proud of him.
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/422061_10100174818564197_20606303_42648079_54723661_n.jpg
Anytime your dog brings in the birds that is a good day in my book!!
I love seeing pictures of folks taking their young sons hunting.
Mine is 3, and I can't wait until he's ready!
ArRazorback
02-01-12, 18:39
I think that my brother and I started joining dad on dove hunts around 4 and 5, and eased into other hunts thereafter. Lots of great memories with friends and family are tied to hunting. I hope he's able to get out and join you soon. Stay safe!
I missed this thread...
I'm a hardcore duck hunter and had a great season:). Awesome pics OP!
Z71Silverado09
03-06-12, 06:51
love the pic of the dog working!
I love seeing pictures of folks taking their young sons hunting.
Mine is 3, and I can't wait until he's ready!
I started mine in the dove fields at 3. Our season opens at noon so every year we would all get together in the field we would be hunting and set up a pop up sun shade and bring out a deep fryer and grill and start grilling food and frying fish. Basically make it a party until shooting time. The kids could run around crazy and have fun. We'd bring BB guns for them to shoot. At noon the shooting would start and usually by 2pm we'd have the wives come by and pick up the kids that were too young to actually hunt. The kids had a blast! We have been doing an opening day Dove hunt like this for 10 years now. We usually had about 10 kids along. Now most of them are hunting with us and shooting thier own guns. Here is a pic of my son his first year actually shooting his own shotgun. He was 9 at the time. He is shooting a Rem 1100 youth 20ga
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/h2odog/IMG_19862.jpg
This is a pick of my daughter and her friend. My daughter is the tall one and her friend is getting ready to shoot my 20ga O/U. They were 7yrs old in this picture
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/h2odog/IMG_19873.jpg
nice looking bunch of birds thumbs up for getting the next generation out there
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