Getting Close
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We sat in our turkey hunting chairs behind a wall of reeds. It was the first morning of our three-day hunt in South Dakota. The closest decoy may have been 10 yards or less, just on the other side of the wall we hid behind. Before it was light enough to see the approaching ducks, we could hear their wings as they flew over our heads. Occasionally, we heard a duck come into the decoy spread and make contact with the water when it landed. There would be a murmured whisper, “We have ducks in the decoys.” After some time, the duck or ducks would either swim off or get nervous and take off.
When shooting hours arrived, we almost immediately got into our first bunch of ducks. As I recall, it sounded something like this: “Ducks out in front, ducks out in front. They are just off the water. They’re coming in hard and fast and very low!” Because it was still fairly dark and the ducks were just a few feet off the water, they were hard to pick up. Then came the order down the line, “Don’t move. Here they are. Take ‘em!” When I finally saw them, they were just over the decoys. They probably would have landed if not for the hail of steel shot sent their way. Two ducks went down, and the rest quickly swung over us on the far right, just over our heads.
It reminded me of a scene from the movie Midway when the torpedo planes skimmed over the deck of the Navy aircraft carriers. Because they had come in from a long way off, just off the surface, I was certain they were diver ducks. When the guys who shot them waded out to pick them up, we learned they were, in fact, redheads. Divers sometimes stay low when coming into your decoys, and they are a very solid duck that can be hard to bring down late in the season when their plumage is heavy. But at the ranges we took this pair, they had fallen dead with no need for a coup de grâce. I smiled after we took the two ducks, as they had come right in and been completely fooled by our setup.
It was a scene that played out many times that morning as we had wigeon, gadwalls, mallards, and teal come into our decoy spread as if they were coming back home and walking in the front door.
I have recovered from the waterfowl hunt in South Dakota recently. My truck is waiting to get into the body shop, but I’m rested up. Once the decoys were hung back up and the shotgun cleaned, it was time to reflect on the hunt and some of the highlights. Certainly, the retrieves made by my springer spaniel were enjoyable, and I was proud of his work, although I had nothing to do with it. He was a started dog when we bought him, and his previous owner in Minnesota had him retrieving and hunting long before I ever knew Winkle existed. He made enough retrieves to earn his Purina Pro Plan dog food. He’s also a very good hunting buddy and has more desire to hunt than anyone in our group!
If Winkle didn’t get as many retrieves as I would have liked, it wasn’t anyone’s fault, certainly not his. It was the fact that we took a great many ducks very close, where a hunter could stand up and wade out to the downed duck and bring it back themselves. Winkle could have gotten them, but it would have been a waste of time as we still had ducks coming in, as well as a waste of his abilities. While he would have been making those short retrieves, we wouldn’t have been able to shoot as we may not have known where he was, or he might have spooked ducks while I was standing up handling him. So, his talent was reserved for long retrieves or deep-water retrieves. While I wished there had been more, I was enjoying hunting decoying ducks more.
Duck hunting is duck hunting, so all that matters to most hunters is that they were successful, and that’s fine. It’s not a criticism of how you hunt, as I have hunted in about any way you could imagine. I’ve jumped ducks out of ditches after sneaking up on them. I’ve also passed shot ducks as they traveled from one water hole to another or just flew by my blind with no intentions of landing. But by far my favorite is seeing a duck or ducks lock their wings and drop into my decoy spread.
When this happens, we like to say that we fooled them. And while it shouldn’t be that hard to imagine a human fooling a duck or goose, it seems most of the time they come out ahead, sensing that something just wasn’t right, either with your calling, the appearance of your spread, or because your blind failed to conceal you when you moved too much. But when it all comes together like we planned, that’s special.
But it’s not just fooling waterfowl. I absolutely love hunting from my pop-up turkey blinds. I can be comfortable and move without worrying about being spotted. Because of that, I can sit all morning and hunt longer if I need or want to, and being hidden gives me more time to enjoy the hunt. When I used to sit on my small folding seat just a few inches off the ground with my back against a tree, I’d take the shot as soon as it presented itself. I’m sure some of the birds I took were just curious and passing through when I ambushed them.
But from the comfort of my blind, I can watch the tom for a while and enjoy his display or how he interacts with the decoys. Instead of just taking him, I get to enjoy him and take pleasure in knowing that he, too, had been fooled. I had a good friend who hunted turkeys in an area where he knew the toms liked to strut, and he would hide in a brush pile between where they roosted and where they liked to strut. He never called; he just ambushed them. It worked for him, but I’ll never forget how much he enjoyed taking a tom from my blind with my decoys out in front. He’s been gone for many years now, but I can still see his smile as we watched that tom work his way through my decoys, then attack my jake decoy!
Our duck season will open in a few weeks, and although we’ve had a great fall already, thanks to South Dakota and our early Canada goose season, I am still looking forward to being back in my blind. There will no doubt be some great times with family and friends, as well as Winkle. There will also be frustrating times when the ducks prove that they are indeed wild and we cannot outthink them. But there will be times when wings will be cupped and webbed feet will be stretched out as they near the surface of the water. Those are the moments that keep me getting up in the wee hours of the morning in the cold and damp. It’s what I do. I live to fool them.
