Hunt on the Big Mississippi by Mike Lauenstein

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Hunt on the Big Mississippi

~ Mike Lauenstein (11/7/2005 @ 10:13 AM)

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Here's a blue-wing that came out of a flock of about 12

Saturday morning overlooking the marsh

Cinnamon Green Wing... easily one of the coolest ducks I have ever seen! Nice shot Wood!

If you know anything about duck hunting, you know that the Mississippi River has one of the most abundant migratory bird populations in the entire country. Every story I hear about the 'Sip includes a lot shooting and a lot of mallards and well... this story is going to be no different. Dittbrenner and I arrived, a little later than initially hoped, at Wood's cabin around 9:30 on Friday night with anticipation of what could be a great late season duck hunt. We have talked about going to Wood's cabin for about five years now and the day had finally come when we got off our asses and put something together. Upon arriving, Wood, Braun and Spaeth were already unpacked on their claimed beds and ready for the Friday night cocktail hour. After a game cards that lasted far longer than it should have (Nice work Braun, can't wait to do it again!) we hit the sheets around 12:30-1am. Notice how I did not say we went to sleep at this time... I'll just leave this go.

We awoke at first sound of the alarm at 4:40am and about an hour and half later we were finally in our spots. Braun and Spaeth can give their version of their morning hunt, but as for Nic, Wood and I, we got some shooting. I was amazed at the amount of high flying ducks that we saw, which easily pushed over 1000 ducks. These high fliers kept us occupied during any of the slow times. We had a couple opportunities, including a pair of shovelers and a couple mergansers, on which Wood capitalized :-) Sorry, I lost the picture. We had enough activity around us to keep us alert for a good 2-3 hours in the morning. But the real action was yet to come in the midday hunt.

I won't bore you with details of miscommunication, tours of Lansing (even though the trailer park looked exceptionally nice this time of year) and malnutrition, but I will say that I saw some smoke pour out of Nic's ears when we ran back into Spaeth and Braun, about to go jump a pond without us... needless to say we all ended up jumping the pond (with no game plan in mind) and it worked out fairly well. Spaeth and Braun pushed though the north side of the swamp and Wood, Nic and I pushed up from the south, moving in double helix cobra formation. We downed two teal and had opportunities at multiple other flocks of teal and mallards. The frenzy lasted about an hour then settled down and so did we for the evening hunt (even though it was 1pm). This is where I could talk about Spaeth and I pushing a boat across a 400 yd. swamp... but I'm not going to.

In the evening we had three or four good opportunities that passed us by (literally). The evening was perfect with a slight mist and an SE wind at about 5-10 with some nice gusts, but the flocks weren't happy with what we were offering... We walked out of the marsh with two nice teal, burning leg muscles (Spaeth, I wish we had a picture of that decoy bag) and a thirst only the Road House could quench (unless you're driving and allergic to hard alcohol, then water would've been just fine). After some drinks, dinner and some kids kicking and screaming for more booze in the back, we headed back to the cabin for some much needed sleep.

The only troopers that could make the Sunday hunt were Braun and Dittbrenner. Even though I wanted to go out, and got called out on Sunday morning, I was too busy being curled up in a ball all morning, thanks to an unneeded and unwanted Capt'n Coke at the Road House, so Braun and Nic will have to write their own story.

All in all, a good hunt with a lot of missed opportunities and hey, it was one hell of learning experience for future hunts on the river.

Thanks again, Wood!

I think these guys should put up some words of wisdom on this adventure...

Cheers!

"Lauey"
Mike Lauenstein
CrazyOutdoorsmen Managing Partner
http://www.crazyoutdoorsmen.com

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I like the looks of this which ended in an epic battle between Braun and myself.

Nic caught with his pants down...

A little blurry but you get the idea... the face paint looks good!

Related Journals

More Hunt on the Big Mississippi by Nic Dittbrenner

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