2017 Duck Opening Weekend

March for allot of hunters signifies the start to the duck season, for me that means carrying on our family tradition that i have been apart of for the best part of 20 years which is only just a fraction of the time we as a family have been going to the same spots year on year.
   Friday the eve of duck opening i finish work at lunchtime, ute is already packed and i start making tracks towards our destination.
   Upon arriving to the lake i set up my blind and throw out the decoys, then make my way to camp and greet family and friends, some i only see once a year for this occasion.

   Its my 15 year old cousins first time shooting an opening and he has been so keen for this day for months. He has studied every birds flying patterns annoyed his family and neighbors trying his best to imitate the calls from every bird with his newly bought duck caller. All for this day. Reminding me of exactly how i was when I was a kid asking a million questions about everything hunting, i take him under my wing and organised for him to shoot with me in the morning.
  That night we have a feast and sit around the fire sharing all sorts of stories of what we have been upto and also hunting stories of when my grandfather was alive to hunt with us.
  Sadly i never got a chance to hunt with him as i was far too young, but being here on this day every year makes me feel like i following in his footsteps and i am truly humbled to be able to help carry on this tradition and his memory.
   We are up early the next morning, opening day. We eat our breakfast load our backpacks and all make our way to the waters edge to sit out until the aloud time to start shooting.
    With my cousin Jayden we get to our blind set out everything and now we wait. I see he is nervous so i start small talk whilst counting down the minutes.
  7.20am we start hearing a few shots, we load the guns and wait for our opportunity. We see a few birds in the distance but nothing within shooting distance. 20 mins go past before we see a small mod off woodies coming our way. Jayden gets on his caller and and they seem to respond. Pitching in jayden lifts his gun. They turn and he shoots, missing his first shot and banging his first ever duck with his second shot.

 Fist pumping and cheering with excitement we were both over the moon. I couldn't be happier for my little hunting apprentice.  He ended up with 4 for the morning and 12 between us. With a mixed bag of woodies, teal and a mountain duck.

Getting back to camp and seeing how proud he was to show everyone made me relise how important it is for hunters to keep this tradition going.    We went out another time that afternoon and i got my 10 birds for the day and jayden bagging another couple but just falling short of his 10 bird limit.