2022-2023 Waterfowl Pics Thread

And as I feared, I got the old skunk on the final morning of my Southern IL duck tour. Cool public land spot in the southernmost county in IL, hunting blinds over flooded crops, just no birds to speak of. 3 birds in 3 days of hunting IL public land controlled waterfowl hunts. Kind of makes you wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze, but I reckon a band is.
Pretty pitiful when you've got flooded crops and there are no ducks, that scenario you should be using a tennis racket.
 
I managed to scratch out once mallard during the final weekend of season here. I opted to stay away from the public marsh drawing and went to a private lake since I tested positive for COVID 5 days prior even though there were supposedly the most ducks at the marsh since November.
 
Went out on my own yesterday to a public spot that hasn't been shooting well recently. Had some high winds that threw me off target for the first 8 birds I tried to shoot. Eventually figured out I needed about a 4 foot extra lead - I was sheltered under a berm and didn't realize exactly how much the wind was whipping.

Still wound up with a nice pintail, a mallard, and my first OR snow goose. I saw plenty of birds in the air so I'm going to try for another morning hunt this week.

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My first hunt of 2023 was good, although I was hoping for a few more mallards. Went to my "pintail spot" Thursday, and got a nice drake after a few screwups.
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First duck of the day was a nice Mexican duck drake, shot almost directly behind my boat.

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Tried waiting for mallards, got a hen and missed a long shot at a drake, eventually filled out the limit on teal.

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2022 was a very hard year for me and my family as we suffered a terrible tragedy in the Fall. I did not hunt much, ate several big game tags, and got a late start on duck season. Will try to make up for lost time the last 3+ weeks of the season. Hope 2023 is a good year for everyone.
Sorry to read about your adversary and 22 being tough. I hope 23 is a better year for yoi and yours!!
 
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