Duck TO DOs for 2010

My Pheasants Forever colleague, Jared Wiklund, just wrote about prepping for the 2010 pheasant hunting season here at www.PheasantsForever.org. Since he’s got the roosters covered, I’m going to focus on prep for the 2010 waterfowl season.

I’ll use this blog space to create my TO DO list of spring/summer projects, which will accomplish two things. One, I’m on record, therefore making me accountable for actually getting them done; and two, I’ll venture to guess many of you have the same projects in limbo, so my list is as good as yours. Here we go:

Duck Boat/Blind. A boat has never been part of my waterfowling arsenal, but it seems like it’s high time. While me and Pheasants Forever colleague Andrew Vavra plugged a few of the vessel’s holes, we need to finish sanding and painting, and then add accessories (decoys, motor, seat cushions, etc.). I’m also conjuring up the idea of adding a blind to it…

Jerk Cord. I’ve sat through enough blue bird duck hunting days to last a lifetime, but they happen. Ask enough waterfowl experts, and they’ll tell you that movement is more important than calling any day, particularly when you’re set up on the Dead Sea. Rigging up a few diver and puddler dekes, respectively, on a jerk string, seems like a fairly easy summer evening project.

Deke Maintenance. All my decoys need to be washed up, and I’ve got at least a dozen ringneck decoys quacking for a paint job. A few mallard decoys are going to get sanded down and completely repainted. And have you had it with untangling decoy lines? I have, so I’ll be Texas Rigging all my decoys.

Like harvesting a rooster over your dog, veteran waterfowlers will tell you there's nothing like taking a big drake over a personally hand crafted decoy.

Carved Gunning Decoys. Andrew and I attended the Roseville Minnesota Ducks Unlimited 25th Anniversary banquet in Vadnais Heights last month and sat next to a fellow named John Perron. His stories of carving his own decoys and hunting over them whet our appetites to do the same (pictured is “Big Red,” his Redhead hand carved floater used on the Texas flats in January that aided in the harvest of a few nice “Red Bulls”). At the Northwest Sports Show, we visited the DU room and picked the brain of Saint Paul duck carver Dennis Finden. Both John and Denny said there’s nothing like dropping ducks over your own handmade blocks. With advice from both of these two lifelong waterfowlers, Andrew and I feel we have what it takes to get going on our own ‘working’ decoys. To avoid unreasonable expectations, I’ve set out for us to finish 2 bluebills each before autumn. We’ll keep you updated on our progress.

New Gun. I recently wrote a lovey dovey piece about the Remington 870, which you can find here at the PF Website this week, because I’ve been in a decade-long relationship with my Wingmaster edition. That said, I like new guns, and have longed to add a synthetic camouflage piece to my collection. Because of the reliability I’ve experienced so far with Remington, I’m leaning toward the classic repeating Remington 1187 or the new pump action model 887. But I’m open to suggestions, so if any readers have any thoughts, put ‘em in the comments below.

Seems like a long enough list for starters. What am I missing?

Tags: duck hunting, pheasants forever, Remington 870, Wingmaster

This entry was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 and is filed under Hunting. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.