Memories.
It’s as simple as that. Some of my most fond memories involve waterfowl hunting.
In my adolescence, I can remember my dad taking me hunting. We had days we came home with a fist full of birds apiece. We also had days where we had better luck staying in bed sleeping than we did waking up early and heading to the water.
On one occasion I specifically remember watching as hundreds of ducks poured onto the large pond we were hunting.
We were on the wrong side of the pond.
I don’t remember shooting a single bird that day but I do remember gazing, mouth wide open, and drooling as flock after flock cupped and committed to landing on the pond we were hunting just a hundred yards away.
I don’t remember the conversations I had with my dad that day, but I do remember admiring the rainbow colored sky as the sun began to rise and reflect off of the cloud and the rest of creation. I stared in pure awe of the beauty of the morning.
A majority of my memories are not made on the days when everything went perfect and I walked away with a limit.
However, I do have those memories such as the foggy morning just a few years back. I was invited to a buddy’s large pond with the promise of lots of ducks on the pond the day prior.
The day started off grim. Fog rolled in, making our decoys pointless. It baffled our calling, but it did give us the edge of concealment.
Thirty minutes passed by with not a single bird attempting to land in the spread.
Then, the floodgate opened. We couldn’t reload fast enough. Ducks were materializing out of the fog 50 yards away, by the time we raised our guns they were in perfect range.
To be blunt, it was a slaughter fest. We had our limits in 45 minutes after the appearance of the first ducks.
Reliving that hunt never fails to bring a smile to my face.
I could write a book on all the amazing times I have had with friends and family while waterfowl hunting.
That is why I hunt waterfowl, to make memories worth remembering with my closest friends and family.
What’s your favorite hunting memory? Share it with me in the comments or on Instagram @WesleyKlittlefield by commenting on my last post!