We arrived at the parking lot while it was still dark in the early morning of the Wisconsin duck opener. The early teal, youth and goose seasons had already taken place earlier in the month. My two friends Hal and Jim plus my oldest son and his friend loaded up our decoys and gear onto the two wheeled carts and headed out to the blind I had built a few weeks ago. The morning was cool but not cold and very little wind with a little fog surrounding the marsh. With us were two black labs, my dog Sadie and Hals Jeager. Sadie is three on her third duck hunt and Jeager is one on his first. Hals older black lab missed his first hunt as he is too arthritic to move much anymore. Loading our gear into the blind supplied with comfortable chairs I starting preparing the traditional breakfast of eggs. sausage, potatoes and assorted vegetables on the small propane burner. We still had an hour before we could put out decoys. On the opener I like using two robo mallards and a dunking mallard plus shakers that give the decoy spread motion. We put out about a dozen duck decoys ( mallards, woodies and teal) plus four Canada goose floaters. After the first four hours of shooting I like turning off the robo’s because I believe it spooks the ducks. The shakers provide the ripples in the water to give the spread realism. Minutes after shooting light a lone Canada goose flew right over our decoys but was a little high. Soon some Teal came into our spread and we took two of them. To the north of us the shooting was non stop and intense but in our area things were somewhat slow. We managed to draw in a small flock of Wood Ducks and took two drakes and a hen. The rest of the morning shut down and we didn’t hear a shot for two hours straight. We managed one more Green Winged teal before we called it a day. Arriving back at the parking lot a group of four showed off a couple of mallards, woodies, teal and one pintail . Although this opener was somewhat slow we all left the marsh tired and glad for the experience, good friends and the outdoors.
