Only one word can describe my experience this past weekend, “WOW”!! I would have never thought duck hunting could be this much fun. Last Saturday marks the first time in my life that I have ever pulled the trigger on a duck, period. My buddy PJ has been bugging me to come hunt these flying birds for a while now and every time I have found some excuse not to. “Sure PJ, I would love too, but you see, I’ve got this or that going on, maybe next time bud”. Declining these invites rolled off the tongue easily. It’s not that I didn’t what to hang out with PJ and the crew, but I just felt that I should be chasing whitetail rather than flying critters. Overlapping hunting seasons made my decisions easy nonetheless. In my mind the whitetail season was the priority. I would often think to myself who in their right mind would rather duck hunt then deer hunt? Well I must say I am glad PJ kept bugging me. He claims he has “The Sickness”, I laughed at this nonsense at first, but after Saturday I kind of feel like I could be coming down with something too.
Just like the majority of you, I too have seen the Duck Commander videos and the huge masses of birds flying over their blinds tucked deep in the flooded timber. All at once these guys go from chatting about life, to blowing calls, followed by lots of blasting. And just like that a dozen mallards fall from the sky. The Duck men high five and sit back down as the Labradors viciously swim to the down birds. It looks great on TV but for some reason, in my mind, duck hunting in Florida was going to be much different. To say the least I had guessed right.
To start, the Crew and I are hunting what is called a Storm Water Treatment Area (STA) 3/4 located south of Lake Okeechobee. This hunt is a special opportunity hunt that is for the afternoon only. After a long drive from Lakeland, Brock and I finally arrive to this so called STA to find ourselves in a line of trucks and amongst at least 100 men. Everyone awaiting entry to this STA. I knew that we were in the right place. Must be a mess of ducks here I thought. Minutes later we were greeted by PJ and a mutual friend of ours Drew. We all said are hellos and had a few man hugs and headed for the gate.
STA rules prohibit the use of boats with motors, so a canoe and kayak were our vessels of choice. I could already feel the sweat beading on my brow as I put my brand new waders on. I kept thinking that it’s supposed to be winter. Temperatures were warm; the thermometer in the truck was reading 80 degrees right before I locked the doors. We gathered our guns, a bag of decoys and our courage as we pushed off into the alligator infested waters. Did I mention there was at least a dozen gators the size of our canoe literally feet away? They didn’t seem to mind us, although I did mind them. I couldn’t stop thinking about the other hunters at the gate filing through one by one with beautiful retrievers. Why on earth would anyone want to bring an 80 lb spinner bait to this neck of the woods?
After a 15 min paddle through hydrilla and eel grass we came to an open area in the canal that looked promising. It was a perfect stand of bull rush. It had enough room to hide the boats and us. Each hunter would cover a side hoping to increase our chances. In the back of my mind I also thought it looked like a perfect spot for gators to hide and eat people but what the heck we are here to kill some ducks. After unloading the boats we found ourselves wading in waist deep water, wait….did I say, “water”, I meant muck. We waded around trying to put out an organized spread of decoys. I began sweating so much that the face paint designed to hide my face began to run into my eyes and mouth. I knew that the muck and I were going to be at constant battle. It was all I could do to keep my balance; my only goal for a while was not to fill my waders. Each step was calculated. Balancing the gun was important, almost as important as not falling down. All of the muscles in my legs started to burn like I just sprinted a mile. Sounds like a blast doesn’t it? By this time I was itching with anticipation for a duck to fly overhead to get things going, to see if this was worth it. Legal shooting time started at 2:00 PM and at 2:01 PM PJ put the smoke on a Teal that nearly landed in my lap on its decent. Minutes later I found out why its referred to as the “Sickness”!
I’m pretty sure that the sickness is contagious. In fact I can tell you the second I contracted it. It was 2:05 PM. It all happened quickly, a Shoveller came by my side of the blind and almost instinctively I fired one round of steel shot and the duck splashed 20 yards in front of me. Instantly I knew. I knew that I had a problem. I knew that I was going to need to make duck hunting a part of my life. I was going to implement duck hunting into my yearly routine. The evening was great. I shot an entire box of shells plus some. Between the four us we shot 17 total ducks. We talked, we laughed, and we had a great time.
I left the STA tired, hungry and fulfilled. I also left knowing that regardless of where I was or what I was doing throughout the days to come; I would always recognize those birds in the sky. These ducks, this “sickness”, this whole experience was going to be an exciting new frontier.
– Adam, SD Pro Staff
Southern Draw Field Journal 