Enjoying the treasures of November

And here we are, the treasures of November. I said it would go fast and well - here we are. Less than three weeks until gun deer season. It’s been an odd fall to say the least.

The last six or seven days of October around here, the rut almost always lifts off and starts to fly. This year we ended up with a week-long weather system hardy enough to slow things down and keep most hunters out of the woods.

Towards the end of last week, I ran into a group of die hard bow hunters that spent the last week like I did- cooling their jets on a week of vacation with conditions poor enough to bring hunting to a stop. We reminisced about the bad luck. One guy only had last week to hunt before he left for another state last Saturday.

They, like I, were eyeing what looked like a break in the weather and a major change in the temperatures on a northerly wind.

“I guarantee that the big boys will be on their feet moving around looking for does as soon and the rain quits and the wind dries the trees a bit,” one of them said. “Maybe even before.”

“There’ll be a couple tags filled this weekend, I’m guessing,” another told me. “I bet there were a couple nice bucks killed this week somewhere in this weather, but the rutting activity definitely shut down here.”

The discussion then turned to big green headed mallards with the triple curls and iridescent heads. Would they come down this year just before Halloween? All that I can say is that it was looking good from everything I have looked at, for many decades now. I’m not giving away any secrets, it can all be found just like I did. Anyone can find their own sources of information. But if the scenario setting up held, there would be fricassee of duck on the table soon. Even if the ducks didn’t come down, there was going to be a major push of woodcock. Would they set down in the coverts I intended to hunt, would they fly east or west, or just fly south of northern Wisconsin? A lot was boiling down to the last few days of the splendors of October and maybe, just maybe the treasures of November would come early. When that first big front of the fall brings down cold air and north winds, its always kind of bittersweet. Bitter in that you know how uncomfortable the sudden change will be. Sweet - because even being uncomfortable you know just how good the hunting can be. The answer would be provided within about 16 hours.

A few hours after the rain quit I needed to make a late afternoon run and spied a scrubby two and half year old buck on the way to town up and walking. On the way home a large bodied year and half old caused me to grab the binders pretty hard to keep from hitting him. The bucks were moving again.

We sat in our blind set up and ready a little over a half hour before shooting light on Saturday morning. A stiff northwest wind made the decoys setting a little hectic. But I heard no ducks. Ten minutes before shooting light, several large rafts of coot started scuttling out of the reeds onto the water. Our decoys were completely filled with coot. One or two shots could fill a 15 bird coot limit. They were that thick and they make good pate.

Two minutes before shooting light, I heard a loud rush of wings overhead but couldn’t see the ducks. It didn’t matter, only one duck makes that much noise as it passes overheard; they were canvas backs.

Just after shooting light the first duck fell to our guns, a young drake mallard. Suddenly the skies were full of ducks. Bluebills, buffleheads, mallards, gadwalls, and one flock of widgeon. Oops, I forgot about the canvas backs.

The last duck I bagged was a canvas back out about 30 yards and high. It broke solid and fell from the sky with a large sploosh. I pushed the Queen Lori out from the reeds for one last retrieve. It would have been a cake walk for Sienna. It’s more than time to start looking for a retriever.

The treasures of November have come early but please remember, Safe Hunting is NoAccident!

Through a

Decoy’s

E

ye