Opening day duck hunt

Saturday was opening day of waterfowl hunting in this region of the state, so I loaded Doc into the Toyota and headed out dark and early.

sunrise, opening day of waterfowl season

We arrived just as shooting hours began and the ducks were flying. Other hunters had already claimed spots around the ponds so I decided to hunt the drain ditches.

We hadn’t gone far when some hunters dropped a couple of greenheads and wounded another.

The wounded duck did a long glide and landed not far from us. I could tell it was hit too hard to take off again, so I sent Doc on a duck search while I waited and recorded. It took about five minutes of searching before he found and retrieved the duck.

Doc’s head held high scenting the wind

We continued on, and I dropped a duck in a small drain ditch. I saw it splash down between two small clumps of cattails and sent Doc to retrieve. He was too excited to take my cast and it took several minutes to get him over to where the duck landed.

Doc searches cattails for the lost duck

No duck. We searched quite awhile without any luck then followed the ditch as far as we could, and still no sign of a duck. Doc caught a scent, but nothing came of it.

Doc retrieves his second duck through a forest of reeds