I think I was 4 or 5 the first time my dad brought me hunting, its one of my first memories. I was lucky enough to have a rice field in the back yard and a place to hunt in the marsh not far from home. It's exciting, siting in the blind before daylight, waiting for legal shooting hours. The day starts to break and you can make out the horizon. Right before its time to shoot 15 or 20 teal come into view about 20 yards in front of you. You hear the sound of their wings cutting the air long before you can see them and then they pass so close to your head you duck down in the blind. Thats my favorite part, right before the marsh or the country side erupts in gunfire. Used to, you'd only hear 3 or 4 other blinds shooting if that many. Now it sounds like Bagdad 10 minutes after the invasion pretty much anywhere you hunt. I loved it when I was a kid but it doesn't blow my skirt up like it used to. To me duck hunting now is pretty much the same as dove hunting, there are so many guns in close proximity to each other the birds just get pushed from blind to blind. You can't really work birds into your decoys unless its noon and you're the only one still hunting. I still have a blind but its set up for goose hunting. The Specklebelly's still get my blood pumping. Duck hunting is pretty much touch and go. They are either coming into the decoys or they aren't. Every a$$hat from Alberta to Abbeville has blown a duck commander at them, they don't respond to the call. Completely different story with Specklebelly's. If one thing doesn't seem quite right to them, they won't come in range. You have to be on your game to bring them close enough to bring down. But I don't even really hunt them all that much either because the fishing so good during hunting season, especially the first split, there's no way I can pass it up. Add in the fact that there's no one on the water because they all hunting makes it hard for me to even think about sitting in a duck blind. I'll let the birds get good and comfortable in my field while I fish, and slaughter them during the second split.
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