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Horicon Marsh
~ Michael Spaeth (10/30/2006 @ 4:49 PM)

 
Our View of the pot hole






1 gaddy



Summary:

Date - 10/28
Location - Horicon Marsh
- Big Bay area
Weather - Mostly Sunny 20-30 mph winds
Bag - 1 Gadwall
- 1 Drake Mallard


Well Braun and I finally made it out to Horicon this past weekend and for our first trip out this year we did ok and learned alot. I woke up at 3:15am and stumbled out of bed only to find my dog laying on top of all my hunting stuff. I'm pretty sure he does this on purpose so I can't sneak out without him. Little does he know, I hunt as often as I do because I enjoy watching him as much as I enjoy shooting birds. Anyway I packed the rest of my stuff and headed towards Brauns house. Of course I got there and had to wait 15 minutes for him to get ready (usually that's me) but we hooked up the boat and headed NW. We arrived at the launch at about 4:45 and there were 3 people ahead of us. The launch we use is south of the marsh and off the beaten path (less boat traffic) The more popular launch is about 1/4 mile closer to the marsh and when we went past it at 5:15 there was a line of trucks and at least 20 rigs that were already in the water. I haven't been to Horicon in in 2 years and navigating it can be dangerous, especially when it's dark. We made our way up the rock river and then headed west down the main ditch. Our destination was Cotton Island a well known duck zone in Horicon that usually produces alot of birds. Fortunately or unfortunately I couldn't find the channel and we were running out of time so I decided to head north east up big bay. When we came around the last bend of the bay there was approx. 20-30 mallards sitting there. I followed the philosophy I've been touting all year which is "find birds and setup there" I haven't gotten a bag limit yet but I haven't gotten skunked yet either. We battled the wind and setup our decoy spread trying to mimic the birds that just departed from the area. We setup the boat with the windto our back but the sun would soon be in our face. By the time everything was said and done we had about 10 minutes till shooting time. I had just uncased my gun and 2 gadwalls flew right into our spread and landed. Braun got all excited and so did Mac which scared them off 2 minutes prior to shooting. The ducks flew within 10 yards of us from left to right and it was really hard to pass them up. 15 minutes later another gadwall came screaming in over the cattails Ryan knocked it down with one shot, I was impressed but in typical Braun fashion he didn't bother to mention the duck was coming in. I got my chance a couple of hours later when we were working a flock of mallards and all of sudden there was a splash 10 yards out in front of us. I thought for sure it was a muskrat but to my amazement a nice 2 curl drake greenhead landed in our spread. I stood up as did Ryan but I got the first shot off and the rest is history. It was a nice bird but again I probably should have let it get out a little further. 2 shot at 15 yards is comparable to a slug. We had a few more decent oppertunities through out the day, but didn't capitalize. Horicon is a lot like the Mississippi in that there is always birds flying which keeps it very interesting, everytime I go there I get excited and have high expectations. It is a beatiful place and a duck hunters paradise, next time more birds will be had.


"Duck hunting without a dog is like duck hunting without a gun. 4 geese 10 ducks this year and only 1 has gone unfound."

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2 curls

Count em' 2 more for our team
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