iawaterfowler88
09-25-2006, 04:57 PM
Well guys I headed back home this past weekend to hunt with my dad, and his hunting buddy and his son on our old stomping grounds in Central Iowa. We hunted a controlled marsh. You draw numbers in the morning (1-12) and with those numbers are the order you get to pick your blind in. Well I drew and got #2 pick so we knew that we were definitely going to be in one of the good blinds. We started out and were set up by 6:15 am, shooting time was at 6:32.
When shooting time came, there was still overcast skys so it was hard to see birds but the marsh had opened up and sounded like a popcorn machine at this time. Woodies and teal EVERYWHERE. We fired our first shots at 6:45 I'd say and by 7:15 we had 7 birds already in the bag. It was continuous birds all morning long, we didn't get shots at them all obviously but it kept your interest and eyes open for those little fast flying rockets. By 9 am we had our 4 man limit of 8 drake woodies, a drake mallard and 7 blue wings. That was the most birds we had killed out in this area since we deal with a huge number of skybusters and people that wont let birds work. Well by now 1/2 the marsh had left so birds were working better. We ended up killing our 4 man limit of 24 birds at 11am with a flock of mallards that were right in our face and I came up, found a drake and crunched him. We ended up with 13 blue wings, 8 drake woodies, 2 drake mallards, and a drake pintail.
We hunted over 1 doz G&H teal decoys, 5 GHG L/S Mallards (4 hens/1 drake), 1 GHG pintail drake, and 1/2 doz GHG Gadwalls. With birds not having much color this time of year we took out pretty much all our drake decoys and kind of threw together a different spread that was easy to haul the 1 1/2 mile walk.
Here are a few pictures from the day:
One side of our spread:
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/8833/picture002dh9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Our landing hole:
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6647/picture003ii6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The other side of our spread (look behind the grass in the bottom corner):
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9565/picture004ef7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Lizzy (our buddies dog) bringing back the pintail my dad and I doubled up on:
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7170/picture014db9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The kill for the day: (L to R Jake, my Dad, and I and Jakes dad is taking the picture)
http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/8816/picture010er0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
And last would be a close up of my dad and I's birds (those 2 woodies are VERY colorful for this time of year! one would have been a mounter had I not shot him at 7 yards)
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7300/picture013cv0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
When shooting time came, there was still overcast skys so it was hard to see birds but the marsh had opened up and sounded like a popcorn machine at this time. Woodies and teal EVERYWHERE. We fired our first shots at 6:45 I'd say and by 7:15 we had 7 birds already in the bag. It was continuous birds all morning long, we didn't get shots at them all obviously but it kept your interest and eyes open for those little fast flying rockets. By 9 am we had our 4 man limit of 8 drake woodies, a drake mallard and 7 blue wings. That was the most birds we had killed out in this area since we deal with a huge number of skybusters and people that wont let birds work. Well by now 1/2 the marsh had left so birds were working better. We ended up killing our 4 man limit of 24 birds at 11am with a flock of mallards that were right in our face and I came up, found a drake and crunched him. We ended up with 13 blue wings, 8 drake woodies, 2 drake mallards, and a drake pintail.
We hunted over 1 doz G&H teal decoys, 5 GHG L/S Mallards (4 hens/1 drake), 1 GHG pintail drake, and 1/2 doz GHG Gadwalls. With birds not having much color this time of year we took out pretty much all our drake decoys and kind of threw together a different spread that was easy to haul the 1 1/2 mile walk.
Here are a few pictures from the day:
One side of our spread:
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/8833/picture002dh9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Our landing hole:
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6647/picture003ii6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The other side of our spread (look behind the grass in the bottom corner):
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9565/picture004ef7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Lizzy (our buddies dog) bringing back the pintail my dad and I doubled up on:
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7170/picture014db9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The kill for the day: (L to R Jake, my Dad, and I and Jakes dad is taking the picture)
http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/8816/picture010er0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
And last would be a close up of my dad and I's birds (those 2 woodies are VERY colorful for this time of year! one would have been a mounter had I not shot him at 7 yards)
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7300/picture013cv0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)