Teal Season at Last!

Gunner retrieving a blue wing that decoyed to the gadwall mojo.

Teal and early goose season have arrived at last. Gunner and I received "intel" of a lake that teal had been frequenting. The lake is mostly shallow which teal prefer. Our scouting tip proved to be spot on! The teal were in! 

Shooting time is sunrise to sunset during teal season. I am sure that having enough light in order to distinguish teal from young woodies is the motivation for the later start time.  We drove through a storm, and when we arrived there was a cloud burst complete with lightening. I don't do lightning. We sat in the Explorer and waited. We arrived at the location thirty minutes prior to sunrise. The radar app on my iphone showed that the storm was nearly passed us. It was 8 minutes to shooting time when we ventured out in the light drizzle on the short hike to the small reservoir. As we strolled in ducks exploded from the lily pads. One flock after another of woodies, teal, and mallards flew right in front of me to escape. It wasn't shooting time yet. I kept walking to the end of the peninsula and quickly set up my gadwall mojo, with stand, floated by 4 mallard dekes. I tossed out 5 teal decoys and I was ready by shooting time!

Gunner retrieves the last teal of the day.

 Mother nature had other plans. Just at shooting time we were hit with one more brief downpour. As soon as it stopped, I was on high alert. Sure enough, a pair of blue wings came screaming into the spread as if out of thin air. One bark from my SP-10 and both ducks were down! (Talk about saving money on ammunition!) Ten minutes later another pair came in and another drake hit the water. Gunner had a tough time finding him in the thick lilly pads, but we got him! Twenty minutes later Gunner retrieved the last bird of the day. What fun. All the work we did in preparation for duck season is paying off! Now we need to find some geese!

Four blue wings, a limit for the day