Pretty...Stinking...AWESOME!!!!

My good buddy Perry bought a new pup for his wife, and the little guy was being flown to the Tulsa airport on Saturday. Since he was planning on coming to town anyways, we decided to take advantage of the situation (of course), and made plans for a little hawkin! Sunrise found him and I on the search for quackers, and old faithful came through for me yet again. I peeked over the dam wall, and was not surprised, when I found a mixed bag of ducks, casually floating around the pond. The usual gadwalls were there of course, but there were ring necks as well, and then a few that I couldn't really tell what they were......I snuck back to the car, and we flipped back up wind, to go park the subi.

Perry is flying a this years model chamber tiercel, and the two of them have been having some good times this season for sure! They scored a drake hoodie a couple weeks ago, but due to the lack of ducks in his area, have not been able to follow it up with number two. Perry was wanting another one pretty badly, and I was psyched to see how Morris was going to fly. Long story short, the little stinker went and stooped on a red tail a couple times, and they ended up getting locked up for a little bit. They were tumbling to the ground when we took off running toward them (not caring about the ducks by that point), and we ended up flushing them all in the process. His bird ended up being alright though luckily, so we loaded him back up in the car, and continued on down the road.

A short time later, Morris was back in the air, and Perry and I were sneaking quietly toward a pond full of divers :-). Morris had his nose pointed into the wind and he was pumping for all he was worth, so Perry and I took off over the dam wall! Ducks scattered in all directions, and Morris just kept on pumping. I'm watching him, just waiting for something to happen, but nothing. About the time that those ducks cleared the pond though.......he saw them :-). The little dude tucked up like a mummy, and came down with the intention of putting the hurts to something! He keyed in on a ring neck that was trying to turn back toward the water, and just smashed it into the ground!!!!! It was just pretty stinking awesome :-)!!!

My buddy Judah met up with us later in the afternoon, and we took the Prairie out to a spot I like to call the double ponds. We got two pretty darn nice remounts out of her, and though we didn't score a duck on that session (I don't even want to talk about it, I'm so stinking mad.......................ok yeah, we didn't walk all the way to the end of the pond, because we thought the duck had blown out......yeah, it was hiding in the reeds, and took off after I had called her down........yes, I was pissed!!!!! I already told you, I don't want to talk about it!), we ended up catching a gadwall later on.


Yesterday though........oh man.....yesterday was GREAT!!!!!! She went up crazy high (which was cool), but then she drifted off down wind a bit. She kept half tucking like she was about to stoop, and then would just stop. I knew she was over there watching black birds, so I pulled the lure out for a second. That brought her back over of course, but she lost a lot of pitch in the process (maybe came back over at 500 or so?), so I waited her out. Once she saw I wasn't moving, she turned on her tail, and started heading back up. I let her make a few circles, and when she hit the magic spot, I ran in for the flush. The ducks took off the length of the pond, and most didn't even clear the water. The lead duck did though (by maybe two yards...), and that's when she hit it! To be honest, I thought she had completely missed it.......but then the duck just started spiraling toward the ground :-). It happened only 20 yards or so in front of me tops, and I got to her before she had had time to pluck a single feather. I was bending down to help her out with it, when I realized it wasn't moving.....and noticed the caved in portion of it's skull :-).......FIRST HEAD SHOT!!!!!!!!! It was pretty sick.......
-D-