The Island That Wasn't

[Maggiemollie]

Took Maggie and Mollie out jump shooting some ducks. Found a wetlands/pond with several woodies 30yds off shore. Snuck up, flushed, and shot with my LCS Long Range and 3" Kent Bismouth shells. Dropped one dead about 50yds out on other side of the small island.

Mollie immediately went into water to retrieve and swam to island (about 20'x20' with duck in water on other side) and as she got out of water and I expected her to run across.......I watched her sink. It wasn't what looked like a dry island but a loose mud pile. My heart sank when I saw her sink down. Yet she wanted the duck and tried to keep going as I am yelling at her and I am watching as her back half is sinking and all I can think is I'm going to watch my dog sink and disappear in muck. She finally stopped trying to go forward (I'm thinking how the hell am I going to get her back to shore) and turned and managed to free herself and swim back. She was covered in smelly mud. I didn't care about my truck. She got back.

Lesson learned. An island might not be an island.

[Sporrns]

I encountered a very scary approximation of your situation years ago while hunting an impounded public hunting area where the water level was controlled by two large horizontal flood gates which restricted or admitted the incoming & outgoing tides from the adjacent bay according to the desired water level in the impoundment. Regardless of the tide gate settings (open or closed) the water levels in the hundreds of small tidal pools looked the same, maybe 5-10 inches deep.

One day while setting our decoys, I stepped into a small pool about 4 feet in diameter and immediately began to sink. This was a normal occurence; you would go down about a foot and a half then hit sound bottom and be able to stand and lever yourself out using "body English" and rhythmic twists of the torso. This particular time, I just kept sinking until I was nearly level with the top of my chest waders. I had yelled to my gunning buddy, who came quick and used his unloaded gun as a rescue staff to pull me out.

Puzzled and frightened by the event, we talked to the DNR people responsible for managing the area. One of them happened to have a minor in geology, and gave the following explanation: When the marsh is inundated (flood gates opened to max water levels in the impoundment), the underlying soil and detritus of plant materials on the floor of the marsh are in a near-equilibrium state of particle flow (think quicksand) and essentially offer no bottom resistance to weight. When the flood gates are closed and the marsh assumes average or below average water levels, the accumulated plant materials and detritus etc. assume a more densely packed layer, which offers resistance to weight from above.

I thought a lot about what I would have done if I had been alone or if my gunning buddy had have been out of ear shot that morning; I like to think I could have levered myself out of the hole using my gun, which I still had in my hands, or done a "flounder roll" (shed my chest waders like a soft crab) and flapped onto firm ground. Very messy and brutally cold, but the run along the tide dike back to the truck would have warmed me up. Once we boated back to the parking lot and I changed clothes, we went back out and actually got to shoot some ducks! Kevin

[Maggiemollie]

I had something similar to me when fishing The Letort in Carlisle, PA. Sinkholes. I stepped in one and sank......and when I tried to push up I sank more......and continued to sink. Did the flounder thing like you. Never fished there again.

[Stan Hillis]

Close calls. Glad your dog got out of there.

I've got a weird sense of humor I guess but it reminded me of Charlie Daniels' song The Legend of Wooley Swamp.

"But they hadn't gone nowhere when they realized
They were running in quicksand
And they struggled and screamed but they couldn't get away
Then just before they went under
They could hear that old man laughing
In a voice that was loud as thunder."

https://genius.com/Charlie-daniels-the- ... amp-lyrics

[DarylC]

As they say "all's well that ends well". No body ever said that hunting was easy.

[Silvers]

Mollie and Ron were very fortunate and I can imagine his thoughts when seeing her sinking and struggling to extract.

Once a long time ago I was boating out to a blind in a swamp along with my buddy Ron; we were a bit late. Just about then the season opener ticked in and guys started shooting all around the shoreline. A flight of teal swung by our borrowed V-bottomed boat and when both of us leaned over the side to shoot we dumped into the water that fortunately was only about 4 ft deep. Bottom covered with sticky muck and trying to hold on to my 10-gauge double-gun and with vest full of heavy shells it was very tough to pull one leg up at a time and work my way to shore. Very scary. Icing on the cake was that most of my shells were old stock papers I’d gotten a good deal on, and they swelled up and were almost impossible to chamber. Ruined my day but all told we both were very fortunate the water wasn't deeper. My knees and ankles were in good shape back then and when driving past that swamp I often think about how that would have worked out if trying to extract nowadays. Also on water hazards, just in recent years I and some friends were scheduled for a duck hunt up north and the temps unexpectedly dropped to single digits. When i called the guide to check on the hunt he said we'd be on big water but all his duck boats were reserved for other parties. Would it be OK to use a canoe to ferry to the blind on a small island? Yeah right! That would be in the dark and hypothermia if we flipped. I told him NO on the big water deal and then he said he had another good spot on a river. We ended up in an impromptu blind on the shore of a frozen eddy. Lasted there about 3 hours and cancelled out the rest of the two day hunt. frank

[Jeff S]

Good message Frank. I duck hunt in a very mucky lake, and wear waders. A capsized boat could be a very serious situation. My brother has a flat bottom John boat, but mine is a V. I’m always a little cautious.