It was October 22, 2006, when a couple of my buddy's and I hit the water for a little afternoon duck shoot. We got to the cabin on the Quanicasee River at 2:30 p.m. and got the duck boat loaded. The weather in this part of Michigan that day was not the greatest by all means. We had a brutal northwest wind coming in at 20-25 mph, and the waves on the bay were 3-4 foot.
As we came out the outlet of the river we looked at each other and said, "this for only the hardcore right here." As we ventured on out into the rough water, we knew if we could set up we were in for a special treat. We had thousands of divers surrounding us dropping in on the surface of the water, and flock after flock flying by. I was thinking to myself this is what I am talking about.
We got to the last bouy and hooked her hard to left and went down about 400 yards, and called good enough. We got the boat anchored down into place, and it was time to get down to business. We had set up on a sand bar, that way when we downed a bird we could walk and get it. Once the boat was in place and not swinging anymore, we started to unravel the decs.
We were packing about fourteen dozen decs of all types, wood, cork, and plastic. My one buddy stayed back as my other buddy and I set the decs. I turned and told him, "You better get a gun loaded just in case!" We had about two dozen decs and were still standing in them setting more out, when I turned to see two beautiful Canvasback drakes landing in the coys. I turned and yelled "Take Em'!!!" I heard two shots rip and down went the first bird of the afternoon, and I told my buddy not to worry that I would get.
Now when I got to this bird I knew it was special because in Michigan it is rare when you get a chance at a Can in October, but by golly he did it when we were standing throwing decs in the air. So once he downed the bird we hustled to get the other twelve dozen decs in the water so we could get our own chance at some birds. About fifteen minutes later we had them all set and were ready to rock. We jumped in the rocky boat and got our old Brownings loaded. We did not even have time to set down before we were into birds. A split minute had past since we got in the boat and a huge flock of greater scaup were headed straight in a foot off the water. Before we knew it they were in the decs, I yelled take em', and we all jumped up to shoot.
I emptied my gun with no luck as did my one buddy, but my othe buddy had his game on and dumped his second bird. I thought to myself I can aim with these waves, and of course my buddy was letting me have it to. So I knew I had to step it up a notch. Then out of nowhere a flock of Cans circled us and dumped in I yelled Cans, and my buddy and I jumped up dropping one, and I didnt get one.
Now I was really hearing it both my buddy's had their limit of Cans and I was empty handed. Then I was getting upset because I had never shot a Can and I sure wanted one. Then another flock swooped in and I seen they were Cans, so I jumped up seeing the best looking drake and let him have it. Finally, I got my first bird of the afternoon and luck have you it was a Can. I was pumped then, and didn’t even care if I got anything else. But that was the wrong thing to say.
It wasn't thirty seconds and a flock of fifty bluebills came into the decs. We pulled up and dropped five, all drakes. That put us up to a limit of one Can apiece and a limit of two Bluebills a piece. It was about twenty seconds later and another flock was coming in on us and they cupped to the front of the boat and swung wide, and turned to come in the back side. I knew they were bluebills so I said don’t shoot, but I stood up to make sure there wasn't a redhead mixed in. No sooner than I stood up I sat sraight back down because anothe flock was on the water behind us and no one saw them , and all I saw was the feet of the birds coming straight at my face. If I wouldn’t have gotten back down they literally would have hit me. So I turned around to look at the flock and noticed they were redheads, so we let them work the decs and they turned and came straight at us. I yelled take em'!
We pulled up, let six shots rip and all six redheads were down. That put us each at a limit of redheads also. We only had one bird left a peice for a comeplete limit, and we had only been shooting at the birds for fifteen minutes, so we were doing pretty good. It slowed down a little bit and we were discussing whether we should pack up or sit it out for a little longer. I said let’s wait five minutes, and I stood up to stretch and noticed a little diver on the water right behind the motor. I whispered there is a duck straight behind the boat, and we all stood up and got ready for it to surface again, and out of nowhere popped up about ten bufflehead.
I seen a beautiful drake on the far left which was my shooting lane and never hesitated to take the shot. I put the drake down and my buddy got a hen. We were getting close now only one bird left two of us were limited out and unloaded, and I was climbing back into the boat from retreiving the birds when I heard a shot rip. Not knowing what was going on I turned to see a big ol greenhead hit the water and yelled thats a limit boys! So within about a half hour we had shot an eighteen bird limit and headed home in the rough water.