Last Saturday, Patrick Berg and Brian had limited out at the Honey Hole, a good norther was coming, it was very windy and cloudy, so this past Monday, Mickey Donahoo, Patrick and I went there for a go at the ducks.  We walked into a new spot sheltered from the wind, put out our decoys that included a flying Mojo duck and a feeding one, built us some ground blinds and waited for the ducks.

Twenty minutes before shooting time there was no mad rush of ducks like on our past trips so we began wondering what was going on?  Shooting time, still no ducks and 10 minutes later a flight o 5 big ducks circled our decoys and set their wings, big ducks, probably mallards, but we couldn’t identify them in the gloom.  Seeing them more clearly, their orange feet standing out, I picked out two flying almost together, one a greenhead, the other a hen, I shot them, they plopped into the water and I swung on one making tracks for safer climes!  This was an easy shot, the greenhead was climbing and gaining altitude and all I had to do was set the front sight on him and bam, he tumbled into the water.

We had fair shooting for the next 20 minutes, fair shooting, but excellent dog work, we bagged 4 more, then it stopped, nothing was flying, so we packed everything up and walked out.

Not a bad mornings hunt, our bag was 3 mallards, 2 gadwall, a teal and a ring neck, pictured above. We then made tentative plans to make another trip on Thursday.

Before sunup on Thursday, we were creeping into a strange area on the other side of the Honey Hole, creeping because we were following the map on Patrick’s hand held.  Finally arriving at the spot, we got out and began unloading, loaded up the cart and headed for a spot blocked from the wind.

We picked out a nice spot (to us), a secluded little opening in the weeds where we placed the decoys, positioned our ground blinds and waited for shooting time.  Shooting time came and went, a lot of ducks were flying, but our decoys attracted no attention.  The ducks were landing about a hundred yards out from our decoys, so we decided to move closer to the action.  Going into high gear, we moved the ground blinds and decoys, but all of this took up 15 more minutes.  Thirty minutes into our hunt, we hadn’t popped a cap!

Finally a ring neck buzzed past the decoys, looked them over, set wings and bam, Patrick dropped him.  This started a trickle of ducks, all of us scoring, but we only knocked down 3 more ring necks, a single teal and a gadwall drake, 6 ducks after missing the best part.  Patrick had a lunch appointment so at 9:00 AM we cut it off, packed up and headed back to Goldthwaite.

Here’s Mickey and our morning haul.