The first question that everyone always ask is, "How was your season". What they really want to know is how many ducks we killed, so I oblige them by telling them that it was the best first half of a season we have possibly ever had in terms of sheer number of ducks killed, and probably the worst second half ever. All in all, I figure it averaged out to a pretty average season in terms of the overall number of ducks killed. In reality though, it was anything but "average".
There's only one way to adequately describe Booger Bear this year: S-T-R-O-N-G. How many days (weeks) in a row did it produce limits? Even when things got bad late in the season, you could still kill enough there to make it a top pick any day.
There isn't but one explanation for why it was so strong this year. Food. That field had more waste grain than any field I have ever seen. The only other field I think has ever compared (or maybe even exceeded) it in terms of grain was "The bean field" last year when all of that rice was left standing and y'all know how strong that field was! As a quick side note to this line of thinking, there is a great article in this month's DU magazine on the value of standing grain. Couple that with the study I referenced some time ago out of Missisippi and I will still argue that leaving standing rice in the field is the best thing we can all do to improve our hunting. Anywho, The Bear is probably going to be in soybeans next year so I will be interested to see how it will compare to the past two years. Given that the field next to it will be in rice, I expect, and flooded, I'm predicting The Bear will step down to the #3 spot behind Evergreen and The Corner/Bean field.Speaking of the Corner, that field was the source of as much head scratching this year as anything. It looked as good as it has ever looked in terms of water and the blind, yet it produced the fewest number of ducks I can ever remember. That is saying a LOT for a field that over the years has been our best and most consistent performer. Why? One word: Dunno. But here is my best theory: Water. To be more specific: The lack of water in the general area. One look at the bean field this year and you can immediately see that we had one of the three driest years I can remember. That meant that the entire area of the Corner/Bean Field did not have the its usual umpteen thousand acres of water that we usually see. Instead of being one big "lake", what we and the ducks saw from the air was two or three much smaller areas of water. 2 or 3 fields here another 2 or 3 there. Ducks like those big areas as a general rule - particularly once you get off of the main river channels. What do I not like about this theory? Look at Snapps field over at the Smith farm? I'll buy lunch if any one of you can tell me a time you saw any ducks on his block of fields after the first weekend of season this year. I have seen that farm bad plenty of times over the years, but I believe this was the worst and that is one big block of water! I guess the bottom line is that the Corner dang near sucked this year and I don't really know why. I will say this one last thing with respect to the corner though. I firmly believe that Arnold's field not being hunted anymore is hurting us more than helping us. The rafting up of ducks over there on what amounts to nothing more than a rest area over the past 3 or so years is a thorn in our side. We used to stomp that fields ass. Now they just sit there and tease us. Damn ducks!
It wasn't a total loss though. We did kill a few at the corner. In fact, one of my favorite hunts of the year was a RARE afternoon hunt with Dennis and Joe and Stu . . . no . . . wait, sorry. . . Stu missed that one. Oh well, he probably wouldn't have enjoyed shooting black ducks and pintails anyway!
A couple of high points in terms of locations this year were Swan Pond and The Creek. Swan Pond held its own for what was an otherwise crappy year. Even though it is best when the water backs out into the fields around it, you won't hear any complaints out of me. If any of you figure out an easy way to kill all of the ducks hiding in that brush though, I hope you tell me.
The Creek provided 4 or 5 days in a row of grade A hunting - particularly if you enjoy shooting teal as much as I do. Two days, in particular, "ranked". I wish everyone would have been there the day Paul and I went on the 'ole "scouting hunt" with Andy and couldn't keep our guns loaded. I can honestly say I have never had a shoot as fast and furious as that one. I would compare to what I have alway understood an Argentinian dove hunt to be.
The next day was no slouch, though, when it took 6 of us about 30 minutes to limit out. 
Evergreen was mildly consistant. Frankly, I was tickled to have the success we did on it given the lack of food on that field. You watch though: It'll be our #1 field next year. Make your reservations early! haha.
Lonnie's never made it into the rotation this year for a couple of reasons. Foremost: The pit never got put in a levee. With the field being in beans this year and them not being cut until well into duck season, the rains shortly after the cutting made it impossible to pull levees for us. Secondly: None of the field surrounding it (Snapp's) were holding any ducks, so a majority of us agreed that it was not worth the resources to pump it to have an island of a pit blind in the middle of a duck oasis. Next year, though, it will be back in rice and back in action.
The Peabody was BACK!
It was far from our best year or two, but it did produce in numbers good enough to make it among the top three choices of places to hunt on any given day. My only real regret with the Peabody is that the water didn't get or stay high enough to enjoy some trips hunting out of the boats back in the woods. Those hunts are my favorites, but we'll get 'em next year. (Won't we?)The biggest disappointment this year, for me anyway, was easily the lack of ducks on our WMA's. We did smack'em HARD at the Brake for a few days,
but if you take that week or so out of the equation, the public lands just sucked this year. I had one good hunt to speak of at Donaldson, and one great hunt at Big Lake
, and a few really good hunts at the Brake. Short of that though, it just sucked. My only real regret for the year was that I missed the best hunt of the year at the Brake. I am happy as can be and proud of those that did make it, but by gawd it is days like that that make me go the other 50 something of the year because invevitably it's the one day you "take off" that is the one you regret. I can guarantee you the next time I consider taking a day off to do some work and recharge, I'll think about that one. A man never gets tired of a few hundred ducks in the decoys, I don't care how many times you've seen it!There was surely a hell of a lot more to this season than killing ducks though.
Not having to work on the lodge all the time was the greatest relief of all. Having it all but done before season started made this the most relaxing season I can remember in a long time.
The best thing about the season though was the group of guys we had in the club. With only a couple of minor exceptions, I can honestly say this was the smoothest, most get-along bunch of guys we've ever had and I really look forward to hunting with those returning next year for many years to come.Every year has a few highlights that we always talk about from one year to the next. A handful of things that come to mind from this year includes the following:
The shindig! This is always talked about from one year to the next. Shucking fresh Oysters, Teal and Rice and Gravy cooked up Cajun-Style by real coon-asses, and Geater's life being spared from the hands of Farlin by one cheap rachet strap that broke while sitting atop the roping dummy that it held to the back of Richie's four-wheeler while Dennis prepared to rope Geater into oblivion off the moving dummy . . . good grief - you just had to be there.
The fact of the matter is that it wasn't just the one big shindig that stuck out this year. It was that we cooked out regularly. Scott's Dad bringing down and cooking up all of that Walleye was a real treat, as was David and Dennis' time in the kitchen. I think I remember Stu and I even putting in a little stove time a couple of nights. Now if we can just get everyone to pull their weight on clean-up afterwards, I think we'd have her licked.
Speaking of licking. I'm not going into the details on this public forum, but there is no doubt that the #1 topic of conversation this year still has
David having those late night talks with his wife!
Saturday night raslin
(that's "Wrestling" for you yankees) left me in stitches over me and Ron and Matt getting our asses whooped by the resident senior heckler; 
and Matt's still waiting for his, "Do you like me, too? Check yes or no" note from the young girl who mistook him for a MUCH younger guy she thought she knew! 
And I have to apoligize to Geater in advance for bringing this up, but the Powerband story may have gained status as the contender for the #2 story of all time, with it and the curly tail feather story still somewhere over the horizon from Ron's, "Mr. Snapp, I'm the guy that called you a f^@&!#& a$$#@%*" story!
Memorable hunts for me include the last day of season with the guys at Big Lake (and David's hunt at The Peabody and Andy's hunt at Swan Pond that day) just because the three of us went out when no one else would because of the poor conditions and we all were rewarded with way better hunts than a man has a right to have. As David would say, "Boys I'm going to tell you one thing: You can't kill'em sitting at home!"
Farlin and Despain hunt at the Corner one afternoon that was topped off with a pair of Black Ducks. The hunt at the Brake with the Black Duck we hammered and Jeremy's first band was good one. The 3 or 4 groups of 50 - 150 birds didn't wasn't too shabby that day either. The first two days of the teal slaughter at the Creek. The second day of season at Swan Pond was especially satisfying, too, as was dang near every day at the Bear - including the last day I hunted it with Ron and his wife. I don't think I can remember ever seeing that many Pintails hit the water at one time.Lowlights of the season? Well, let's see: There was a little matter of "Tawoo-hundrid dollars" and this:
That's about all that comes to mind offhand. I know I'm forgetting way more than I'm remembering. I hope y'all will help me remember if you get the time by writing a few lines yourself that were memorable to you.
