Logan and I arrived at our cabin in Barry, MN the evening of 10/11/08. There had been showers and thunderstorms in the area all day on Saturday. Around 3 AM I woke up to a large thunderstorm that was pounding the cabin. When the alarm went off at 6 AM the storm had passed but the sky was still spitting rain and the wind had switch to an increasingly strong 10-15 mph southeast wind. Bill and Ryan Burns would be joining Logan and I for morning hunt on our Mecca Pond.
When we arrived at the slough we where greeted by about 200 hundred ducks and 100 geese busting off the pound. It looked like we where in for another good shoot. Again, I only placed about 18 ducks and a couple goose decoy out on the slough. We also added Mojo to the spread for the morning shoot, but I actually think he flared a LOT more birds then he decoyed. We set up in the exact same spot as last weekend (Southeast corner). Shooting time was roughly 7:10 and we where waiting with loaded guns when it was time. We had a strong 20-30 MPH wind and rain was falling when shooting time arrived. The rain never stopped the rest of the morning and neither did the wind.
The morning quickly started with Logan and I piling up a handful of ducks in the first couple of minutes of shooting time. After birds continued to drop into my side of the spread I switched spots with Ryan and let him chew up his dad's supply of heavy shot. Mojo's day ended around 9 AM with another flock of Mallards flaring right before committing to the spread. Goose movement was also zero for the day.
Around 9:30 AM Logan and I took a walk over to the Donut slough after watching several flocks of good birds work the Northwest corner of slough. After a short walk Logan and I set up in the northwest corner along some trees with a 30 MPH wind pounding us in the face. Just what you are looking for when picking a spot to set up for ducks! After a short sit in our new location a mallard came over the field and presented me a 20 yard shot directly overhead into the 30 MPH wind. Easy money! The highlight of the shot was Logan bailing out of the way as the duck nearly took his head off and I actually got to bat it out of the air with the barrel of my gun. I can now cross another item off my bucket list. Shortly after that I added a big, fat gray duck to the stack and got to watch Logan wrestle it down in the cut bean field. The gray duck didn't stand a chance in that fight. Just before returning to the Mecca Slough I pulled a big fat Spoonbill out of the air on a nice 45 yard shoot, that will be some good eating! Below is a photo of my retriever with our Donut Slough ducks.
After a windy, cool and wet morning we called it quits shortly before 11 AM. Over all it was a great morning of duck hunting. We ended up killing 15 of our 18 birds (1 Wood Duck, 2 Spoonbill, 4 Mallards, 4 Gadwall, 2 Widgeon, 1 Bluewing and 1 ganser). There is a chance Logan and I will make it out for one more duck shoot the weekend of Oct 25-26, but or 2008 waterfowl season most likely ended on Sunday morning. If my season did end it ended in style with my final bird of 2008 being a Spoonbill. We've had a great 2008 waterfowl season and Logan is now hooked on duck hunting.
