Happy Thanksgiving

Monday I started out by myself in the field my buddy Ron oversees. He had texted me last Thursday asking if I was going to be down during the weekend because he has had people asking to hunt. I let him know I had to work but would be down on Monday to shoot it. Long story short Ron held the field for me, thanks again these hunts probably wouldn't have happened without Ron looking out for me, I really appreciate it.
Back to the facts of the hunt: wake up at 4am on the road by 5:15am hit the field by 6:15 have my first flock of geese do a flyby while still setting up at 7:10 (shooting time) get done setting up by 7:15 shoot my limit by 8:05, pack up and go home. You'll see in the video that once I shot, the pond at the end of the field just emptied out. I hung out to try and get a couple ducks.

Did you see the spinner in the lower left-hand corner kick on? It's started and stopped with a remote, this info is important for the events that unfold on Tues.
 So as you saw none of the ducks wanted to have anything to do with me. I had a flock of geese land between me and the end of the field that I waited for them to feed and leave of their own volition. I waited because after I saw what was in the area I knew I was coming back either Tues or Wed weather permitting. So once the geese left the field I gathered my gear and headed for the house.

I got home and called Jake and my buddy Cliff from work.... you remember him I took him to Erie this summer.

Anyway, he had mentioned that he would like to try hunting so I figured this would be an easy/warmish hunt for his first. With all the birds in the area, he should have a pretty good time. With Cliff being the newby I know they want to help, and other than hauling stuff I'm kinda very particular on how the setup and takedown go. So with that being said, I dole out very easy tasks for new people and as they hunt more the responsibilities and understanding of how and why I do things grow. That being said first hunts usually start out the same: help pack as much gear as possible, then get stubble to stubble the blinds with- just keep getting stubble until we tell you to stop. Now take that stubble and stubble the blinds. That is usually the extent of their help, I usually have everything else handled. However, this year as you saw in the video I have employed a spinner into my spread. I gave Cliff the responsibility of turning the spinner on and off with the remote. When we had geese working the spinner needs to be off. Ducks eat the spinner up, while geese don't really like them and they will skirt your spread and land wide because of them, in most cases.
With Jake having to leave earlier than we did I put him on the left as it would be easier to re-stubble the ground where he was, with the birds coming in from right to left. I also had Jake call the shot on this hunt, usually, if it's your field it's your show. With Jake on the left, he would have a better idea when to call the shot.
Ok, let's get started.... We were set up and ready just waiting for the fog to lift a little for the first flocks of the day started.

Usually, with fog on the ground they wait to fly until it burns off, today however we had some anxious geese that decided to fly early. Now, keep in mind the spinner was going because usually the ducks fly off and feed before the geese do. So with the honk, we heard from behind, the: turn off the spinner chant started and do you remember who's responsible for that????
Yep, that was Cliff. The geese came in for the first pass looking to land.... the spinner was still going, turn off the spinner. They came around on the second and the flock was trying to break up and have 5 land off to my right, I was on the right side, but we picked up the calling and they stayed in the air.... turn off the spinner. By this time it looked like Cliff was trying to dig a tunnel in his layout blind, the doors were bumping up and down and he's goin' crazy trying to do the 1 important thing that he was responsible for. By the time the geese were on the third pass, we were still working the geese and they would've done it....TURN THE DAMN SPINNER OFF 😡, they finally slid off and I told Cliff to open the doors and find the remote, and finally, the spinner was off as we watched the flock fly out of range and away from our set. Lesson learned, if at any point during the rest of the hunt you asked were the remote was, Cliff had it in hand.
Jake relayed a story about James (hunted my first early season hunt with him) where if the spinner wasn't shut off he would take care of it,😱 (shoot it) and buy you a new one. No joke, and trust you me he would do it without hesitation.
Well, with the first flock well on it's way to a less frantic field we were left to wait for the fog to burn off and discuss what had just happened. I got up to shut off the video and this is what I saw....

facemask on upside down

facemask wore the correct way

It didn't take too long and the ducks were in the air. With ducks on the way I turned on the video only to think, Jake will probably call the shot before the video starts anyway. Well, if you saw the video above that's how the ducks came in, all at the same time. They just kept circling and landing in the decoys still no call to shoot. Even as this lone goose landed to my right at only 5 yards still no call. As the horde circled and landed in the dekes I saw one black duck and one spoonie in the mix of mallards. So I kept my eyes on the black whenever it came around. After we hit the 5-minute mark, (I'm guessing), I asked Jake if he was waiting for the ducks to land in the blinds before calling the shot. Just then the black landed in front of the spread about 15 yards, that got my attention. It was only a little bit after that, that Jake called the shot. The first and only duck to fall from my gun was the black, of course I squeezed the trigger 2 more times out of sheer joy I think. I never got on another duck that I can recall but I did unload on them. Jake was happy he said he got 2 and Cliff was ecstatic because he dropped his first and only duck. With the guns empty and smoking we laughed and joked about the scene that just unfolded as I got up to turn off the video.... the video was not on. I MISSED THE WHOLE THING 😰. I felt sick.... even as I write this I'm still kickin' myself for not getting the duck display on video, it was truly awesome. So even though we didn't put a bunch of feathers on the ground, everyone had a super fun shoot.
I hope.
Well, it was time for Jake to leave so I got the hero pic, he packed up and took off. No geese, just ducks.

little rigo set in.... the drake on the right is a beast

After another hour and a half passed Cliff and I picked up and headed home.

P.S.-I had to pry the remote out of his hand.

My black duck, I hemmed and hawed about whether or not to get him mounted.... in the end he ended up as supper. When I got home I checked out what the $ would be to mount him... 3 bills was about the norm. I'm going to start a "mount it" fund. Of the ducks and geese I have shot there are 3 I should've had mounted. The black above...

in 08 I shot this mallard-pintail cross

and of course my spec from last year.

I'll be ready for the next one.