I went duck hunting with a buddy of mine in Chincoteague, VA yesterday. We met up with guide
Andy Linton. He took us and two other parties to blinds across from the Assateague Island wildlife refuge. Our blind was in the marsh on the edge of a small cove. As soon as we got into the blind, three
black ducks flew overhead. I was standing up on a bench and I just knew that they had seen me. I hopped down disappointed that I had blown that opportunity when I saw them swing wide and land right in our decoys. We were stunned that they hadn't flared we just stared at them for a second. We returned to our senses and scrambled for our guns. They must have heard us because they were well up by the time we shouldered the guns and fired three futile shots. We would replay that over and over in our minds all day.
After about 2 hours, the other parties in their blinds had gotten off some shots but nothing was coming to our blind. Andy radioed us and asked if we wanted to move. We told hime yes and he came and took us out to a open water blind. It was a 4X8 blind with safe shooting all around. We weren't going to get any puddle ducks in this spot but the
buffleheads were out in force. They would buzz by in ones and twos. After about 90 minutes, we ended up with 7 between the two of us. The daily limit is 5 per man so we asked Andy to move us back to the other blind so we could try to limit out on puddle ducks.
It was only 2:00 and sunset was around 5:00, so we not in a rush. We just decided to sit low in the blind and wait for Andy to radio us if he saw ducks in our area. The temperature had gotten up to 40 and there was a slight breeze and no clouds in the sky. Not the best conditions for duck hunting but just fine for catching up with a friend. We didn't get any more ducks that day but we're already planning on doing it again next year.
