Opening Day in Southern Michigan

[Jeff S]

It was a beautiful morning, but very slow. I'm going to head back out this afternoon with a different gun and decoys to see if I can improve my mojo.

[vaturkey]

That guy on the far right probably knows more about ducks then most of us know about our own bathroom habits.

[Jim Cloninger]

Jeff, tell us all who are the people in the picture. Jim

[Phillip Woody]

Very nice Jeff. Thanks for posting. Keep after them.

[Jeff S]

Vaturkey, you really cracked me up with that one. I'm on the left with my A grade, next is my brother-in-law Jim. My sister, Mary is holding the goose. The girl with the pink, Shelby, is Rocket's girlfriend, and she's holding her first duck (wood duck). Next is Mary's son, Rocket holding the duck and a goose. My brother John with a duck and a goose, and finally, my Dad, (Jack) who so far this year, is duckless. I'm hoping that he gets one soon because there aren't many 90 years that still duck hunt. Maybe one will land in front of him tomorrow. About 30 years ago he made 6 land purchases that ultimately surrounded the entire lake, and our family has a lot of fun doing relatively low impact hunting. Usually at noon on opening day we all meet for sandwiches and story telling. Thanks for asking.

[Jeff S]

When I started this string I said that things were a little slow and that I need to make some changes to improve my "mojo". So, I went home and grabbed two 70 year old wooden decoys, a 60 year old brown canvas duck hunting coat, and a 116 year old Remington model K. It worked, I picked two more woodies. Sounds like to beginning of an article for our next Newsletter. Jeff

[Jim Cloninger]

Jeff, your dad looks terrific! It is great that you have a duck spot that all of your family members can enjoy. By the way, how did the retriver in the foreground do on those honkers? Jim

[Jeff S]

I shot one more wood duck this morning, but hunting on my pond was really slow. I saw quite a few ducks, but 90% of them were woodies, and they just didn't want to come in. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get wood ducks to "decoy"? I wonder if wood ducks aren't attracted to a the "Roboduck". On the other hand, last night I watched a marsh hawk dive at the roboduck 5 times.

[vaturkey]

I shot one more wood duck this morning, but hunting on my pond was really slow. I saw quite a few ducks, but 90% of them were woodies, and they just didn't want to come in. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get wood ducks to "decoy"? I wonder if wood ducks aren't attracted to a the "Roboduck". On the other hand, last night I watched a marsh hawk dive at the roboduck 5 times.

We used to use a spread of Wood ducks consisting of two or three hens and about half a dozen drakes. Seemed to work pretty well. That was on the Shenandoah river in Va many years ago.

[Jeff S]

Thanks, to be honest, I just had mallard decoys on the pond. All of my wood duck decoys are in the shed. I might need to make a change.

[vaturkey]

Thanks, to be honest, I just had mallard decoys on the pond. All of my wood duck decoys are in the shed. I might need to make a change.

In the early season where both Woodies and Mallards were present we would have a small spread of Woodies just outside of the spread of mallard dekes.

[Fin2Feather]

Family times are the best. Thanks for sharing...

[67galaxie]

Woohoo I can't wait! Good job guys!