ECKSJAY
Water is dirty
- Location
- Covington, WA
Visit(ed/ing?) my buddy Mike (a guide/taxidermist) down in El Paso, TX and hunted the Rio Grande River just over in New Mexico. Long story short, I ended up with a very nice bag. Saturday morning's hunt ended up humbling me due to my lack of shooting practice. I ended up with 3 birds: 1x Drake Mexican duck/Mallard hybrid, 1x Drake Mexican duck, and one HUGE Drake Mallard. Mike took a Teal and a couple of Mexican ducks, along with a hen Mallard. Most of these birds were recovered by 8yo Harley (Lab) and his son, 17mo Rufus (bigger Lab). Rufus had his first blind recovery on that hunt.
Today's hunt was a different story. Before sunrise we crept out to a tumbleweed blind that we built late afternoon Saturday. There were EASILY 300 ducks (teal, pintails, mallards, mexicans, etc...) on the water already just down from our blind. We snuck up to the riverbank and jumped the birds from the Rio. It was a truly amazing sight as ALL of the birds flushed at the same time. I picked out a drake Mallard and dropped him with my first shot, swung and picked a hen Mallard, dropping her with my second shot...both of which were probably 35yds out. I missed a third bird I shot at, but that was OK. We scooted down the bank and reloaded, waiting to see if any more came back. We decided to retrieve those birds and move downriver to our blind. We beat feet the 150yds or so upstream and sat. A half hour went by...
...then it happened.
3 birds from the right come cruising by. Still appearing as silhouettes to the early morning sky, Mike said, 'Let's take 'em!' We both jumped up and shot. We each hit a bird on the second shot. Mike went out to retrieve them and shouted the loudest I'd heard him shout. He announced, LOUDLY, that we had each shot a drake Canvasback duck. In his 21 years of waterfowling, he has a 'Holy Grail' of birds. This was the first time he'd been able to even SHOOT at any. That right there made our day...hell, the entire weekend. I was meant to come down. But that's not all.
He picked another hot-spot of his further down on the Rio. We spotted 3 Mallards on the other bank. We drove around and spotted about 200 more mixed species next to a bridge upriver. We drove around, over the bridge, parked, and got out to flush the sleeping ducks. We got up to the bank and the birds jumped. We both missed those birds, but flushed the others upriver. I'll be damned if they didn't fly right over us. We had reloaded while watching them fly in. I picked another hen Mallard and dropped her with one shot at about 40 yds. I found another drake Mallard and decided, 'WTF? Why not?' He was, I kid you not, 60yds out. I gave him a 4ft lead and squeezed the trigger. He dropped, stone dead, about 100yds downstream onto a sand bar. It was an amazing shot. Rufus the Wonderpup was retrieved from the truck and he pulled an outstanding triple blind retrieve. He smelled all 3 birds and picked them up. The first hen was crippled and tried to crawl from him, but he picked her right up and brought her over to us. We were elated!!!
Overall it was a great trip, with West Texas and New Mexico being in the 60's by 10am and cloud-free skies. I ended up with a tan and the greatest hunt of my life. I can't wait to come down again next season.
Here is a teaser pic, posing with today's bag.
Today's hunt was a different story. Before sunrise we crept out to a tumbleweed blind that we built late afternoon Saturday. There were EASILY 300 ducks (teal, pintails, mallards, mexicans, etc...) on the water already just down from our blind. We snuck up to the riverbank and jumped the birds from the Rio. It was a truly amazing sight as ALL of the birds flushed at the same time. I picked out a drake Mallard and dropped him with my first shot, swung and picked a hen Mallard, dropping her with my second shot...both of which were probably 35yds out. I missed a third bird I shot at, but that was OK. We scooted down the bank and reloaded, waiting to see if any more came back. We decided to retrieve those birds and move downriver to our blind. We beat feet the 150yds or so upstream and sat. A half hour went by...
...then it happened.
3 birds from the right come cruising by. Still appearing as silhouettes to the early morning sky, Mike said, 'Let's take 'em!' We both jumped up and shot. We each hit a bird on the second shot. Mike went out to retrieve them and shouted the loudest I'd heard him shout. He announced, LOUDLY, that we had each shot a drake Canvasback duck. In his 21 years of waterfowling, he has a 'Holy Grail' of birds. This was the first time he'd been able to even SHOOT at any. That right there made our day...hell, the entire weekend. I was meant to come down. But that's not all.
He picked another hot-spot of his further down on the Rio. We spotted 3 Mallards on the other bank. We drove around and spotted about 200 more mixed species next to a bridge upriver. We drove around, over the bridge, parked, and got out to flush the sleeping ducks. We got up to the bank and the birds jumped. We both missed those birds, but flushed the others upriver. I'll be damned if they didn't fly right over us. We had reloaded while watching them fly in. I picked another hen Mallard and dropped her with one shot at about 40 yds. I found another drake Mallard and decided, 'WTF? Why not?' He was, I kid you not, 60yds out. I gave him a 4ft lead and squeezed the trigger. He dropped, stone dead, about 100yds downstream onto a sand bar. It was an amazing shot. Rufus the Wonderpup was retrieved from the truck and he pulled an outstanding triple blind retrieve. He smelled all 3 birds and picked them up. The first hen was crippled and tried to crawl from him, but he picked her right up and brought her over to us. We were elated!!!Overall it was a great trip, with West Texas and New Mexico being in the 60's by 10am and cloud-free skies. I ended up with a tan and the greatest hunt of my life. I can't wait to come down again next season.
Here is a teaser pic, posing with today's bag.
