Gotta love teamwork on a good trophy duck.

I hunted with Otis on the Wednesday before Christmas, and we had an incredible hunt. As with the previous hunt, the first 25 or 30 minutes after legal hour, things were pretty slow. Well, they may have been more active that we realized, but the fog was so thick that it was difficult to see some of the decoys.

We were worried about how the entire hunt would be, but we stuck it out with the hopes that the morning would improve. Sure enough, the birds really started working it was all we could do to load our guns fast enough.

Ringneck after ringneck dive bombed and our decoys and we were making some great shots to bring even the fastest passing ducks down.

With the blind facing south & the sun rising to our left, ducks coming in from the east were difficult to see until they were right on top of you. One duck came out of nowhere from the sun and I stood up to shoot, pulling the trigger twice and winging it (barely). Thankfully, Dad stood up at the same time, and his shot was able to bring the bird down. It sailed about 60 yards and hit the water with a big splash, clearly not going anywhere. I kept an eye on it just to make sure it didn’t dive before we could pick it up and, as I watched, I noticed it had some interesting characteristics. I didn’t have time to notice exactly what it was when I pulled up to shoot, reacting instinctively rather than identifying on the wing first. I knew it was a bigger duck but didn’t really think about it when I pulled the trigger, and I don’t think my dad did either. The sun rose a little more over the next few minutes as I stood up for a better look – and then it hit me.

“Dude, I think that’s a canvas back”

I have poor eyesight and, even with contacts, I struggle at far distances. But something about that duck had caught my eye and I knew I had to be right.

Sure enough, I was.

A big old bull canvasback was officially part of our limit. Dad was nice enough to credit the bird to me, since I technically hit it first. He likes to say he’s my “back up” – “just in case.” That’s what we like to call “The Johnston Special!”

I’ll take that any day!

Over the course of the next 10 or 15 minutes we knocked down even more ducks, and it was happening so fast that we decided to put our guns down and double check our headcount before we continued – we knew we were getting close to the limit and wanted to make sure we didn’t have one too many of any bird in particular. The limit on bluebills here in South Carolina is 2 per hunter per day, and we had at least three in the blind with two or three more ducks on the water that we had not picked up yet. It’s super difficult to tell the difference between a ringneck and a bluebill on the wing (at least for me), so better to be safe than sorry!

I remember at one point my dad giggling to himself, man, it’s raining ducks! ” thankfully I had two cameras rolling so I was able to capture that hilarious moment. 

After a quick pick up and headcount, we discovered we were still safely within the limit, each with five ducks and still room to kill that last bluebill.

Right about the time we counted our limit and decided to keep shooting, the ringnecks really started coming in hot. But, after a quick peek cross the pond, we saw a group of red has circling. Since we already had plenty of ringnecks in the blind, we decided to hold off on the decoying birds and try to get the redheads to work. Wouldn’t that be insane? Drake canvasback and drake redheads and one hunt? In one limit? Signed me up!

For the next 30 minutes we watched ringnecks and blue bills decoy perfectly, I ended up sending my GoPro up on the front of the blind just to capture the show. But our attention was elsewhere – not only were redheads in sight, but another group of canvasbacks came in and started working.

I don’t recall ever being on a hunt where we had the opportunity to pass on decoying birds because so much other stuff is still flying. Craziness!

Alas, those big ducks never did give us a chance. After working and working and working, they decided they wanted to go elsewhere and left the pond, never to be seen again. Still, it was so exciting and really got our adrenaline going – we still didn’t even pay attention to the doubles and singles still swirling around us. It’s almost like seeing a big buck when you’re deer hunting – does and smaller bucks become more entertainment than anything else while you wait for Mr. Big.

We decided to call it a morning, officially satisfied with the excellent mixed bag we already had.

Now THAT’S a good duck hunt!

That Saturday, Christmas Eve, I hunted in Georgetown with John, Otis, and Allston. The weather had warmed up some since the Wednesday hunt, so we headed to the pond with a few less layers, and a few more decoys.

It was a slow hunt all around – probably because of the weather – but we managed to knock down a duck or two.

Mostly, though, we just cracked each other up and hung out in the pond!

Naturally, as we were picking up decoys after calling the hunt, we had a group of ducks come right over us checking out the spread (or what was left of it). Of course, our movement flared them, and off the flew.

The camera captured the flyover, followed immediately by my “you’ve got to be kidding me” face. Darn!

So, out of the pond we went, ready to celebrate Christmas with the family.

My last hunt in 2016 was another slow one, but we hunted a new pond so the change of scenery was certainly refreshing. Aside from the new location, it wasn’t a super memorable hunt. A ringneck or two, and lots of lag time in between.

I ordinarily would have hunted that next weekend – remember, it was the end of deer season and I had a big ol’ boy I was after (read more here). With that, 2016 officially came to a close!

Coming soon – the 2017 leg of this year’s duck season, and then… The video!