This Sunday, Wister have #7

[benCa]

Hi! I've had a few people kinda kick the can a bit, but no takers for this Sunday at Wister. Myself and an old friend are going.

But I'm recruiting because, drum roll please, I'm an idiot. I've been duck hunting once, my buddy has a few times, but he's never been to wister.

Looking for someone, doesnt even have to be nice, (but bonus points if you're a beautiful woman), who can bring some decoys, guide us through the ins and outs of Wister and help identify murderable ducks. My buddy and I have a dozen decoys each, but no where near the SCH recommended "100 dozen"

 

[ilovesprig]

Hi! I've had a few people kinda kick the can a bit, but no takers for this Sunday at Wister. Myself and an old friend are going.

But I'm recruiting because, drum roll please, I'm an idiot. I've been duck hunting once, my buddy has a few times, but he's never been to wister.

Looking for someone, doesnt even have to be nice, (but bonus points if you're a beautiful woman), who can bring some decoys, guide us through the ins and outs of Wister and help identify murderable ducks. My buddy and I have a dozen decoys each, but no where near the SCH recommended "100 dozen"

The reason you're probably not getting much of a response is, we're in the November doldrum, the ressie is on a Sunday, and this is the last week-end of the "16".

Good luck....PM me if you want more info about Wister....I've been there a couple of times....

 

[benCa]

Ah yes, I've heard you've been there at least a "couple of times" Thanks for the offer of any info.

The Sunday thing is a funny one, I would much rather relax after a long week and take my time getting ready for a Sunday hunt, versus go from the work week, to packing, driving, setting up camp and then hunting, only to go right back to work the moment I feel normal.

I'm hoping the above sentence changes some minds..

 

[duck-boy]

The Sunday thing is a funny one, I would much rather relax after a long week and take my time getting ready for a Sunday hunt, versus go from the work week, to packing, driving, setting up camp and then hunting, only to go right back to work the moment I feel normal.

I'm hoping the above sentence changes some minds..

You would be in the minority here unless Sunday hunts were as good as Saturday hunts Sundays are slowww and if you decide to hunt all day to scrap a few ducks out, you then get to drive 3 hours homes to unpack and get ready to work the next day. That's rough!

But for geese it may be a different story. Many goose hunters do ok on Sunday, just gotta have the Intel and the spread.
Either way, good luck and have fun.

 

[ilovesprig]

You would be in the minority here unless Sunday hunts were as good as Saturday hunts Sundays are slowww and if you decide to hunt all day to scrap a few ducks out, you then get to drive 3 hours homes to unpack and get ready to work the next day. That's rough!

But for geese it may be a different story. Many goose hunters do ok on Sunday, just gotta have the Intel and the spread.
Either way, good luck and have fun.

Right on the money, Ron................

 

[TrapLine]

You and your buddy will have a good time, first time at Wister always fun. With a number7 you should be like 2nd pick or so.

There is going to be a line forming about 10 yards behind the you, those guys don’t have a reservation but are there to hunt. Ask them if they have 100 decoys, you have a #7 and they can choose the blind if they want to hunt with you. They most certainly will not be nice or a woman but I bet someone will take you up on the offer. I think Wister is 4 hunters, or 2 shooters 2 non shooters and a youth, I don’t remember, have not received a letter yet. My season does not start until after Xmas.

Take a look at your reservation it will tell you how many can shoot. If more than two allowed ^^^^^^^^^^

 

[ilovesprig]

You and your buddy will have a good time, first time at Wister always fun. With a number7 you should be like 2nd pick or so.

There is going to be a line forming about 10 yards behind the you, those guys don’t have a reservation but are there to hunt. Ask them if they have 100 decoys, you have a #7 and they can choose the blind if they want to hunt with you. They most certainly will not be nice or a woman but I bet someone will take you up on the offer. I think Wister is 4 hunters, or 2 shooters 2 non shooters and a youth, I don’t remember, have not received a letter yet. My season does not start until after Xmas.

Take a look at your reservation it will tell you how many can shoot. If more than two allowed ^^^^^^^^^^

4 adults and 2 juniors at Wister....Hazard and Union Trac, it's 4 people total

 

[benCa]

Thanks Trapline! Man, I'm thrilled I found this forum!

 

[benCa]

Just need to work some overtime and grab that MCC membership next..

 

[TrapLine]

How did it go?

 

[benCa]

How did it go?

Well... how do you say "I have hundreds of mosquito bites and zero duck meat" but make it sound like a win?

Of course, I don't know what a successful duck hunt looks like, my buddy, who has done it only a few times and never at Wister wasn't much better than I was.

At 5:50 AM we had 3 ducks fly to the decoys, it had to be a hair over 40 yards, I was shooting modified and he was full choke, and neither of us hit 'em.

So that was lesson #1: consider full chokes.

Nothing else happened. A group of pintails flew over us twice, like to taunt us, we shot anyway.

Lesson's abound here. One of them is that I suspect that using a mallard call when all of the decoys are only pintail and wigeon might not be ideal. My buddy was calling ducks, but I can't say if he knew what he was doing (I don't think so). I tried calling, got my confidence up when it caused two separate groups of ducks to turn around. But try as we might, no one would land in our pond.

Not sure if I sound hard on myself or not, because the ultimate issue is.. there weren't many ducks. we saw, maybe, 20 ducks total? A few formations way out there, could have been geese for all we know. it was 85 degrees or so, and we were sweating like mad.

Back at our campsite, across the way, there were farm fields with, seriously, a thousand or so geese? I love pate, and I sure would have relished bringing home a goose.

But, as expected, when I go out myself, it is a series of humbling lessons that I hope, make me better. When I have a guide, outside of dove hunting, I am 100% successful. Really want to be a solo hunter who is successful every season, as I know better to think I can be successful every outing.

 

[benCa]

 

[benCa]

Look at them all.. just eating and crapping everywhere. I wanted to shoot so bad I could feel beads of sweat going down my back.

It was all downhill from here.

 

[benCa]

This is our decoy setup, not sure if there is strategy here, but we basically whipped 'em out there and tried to make a nice spread. Does this look ok, or does this spread of decoys scream "I'm an idiot"?

No mallard decoys, but no pintail or wigeon calls either.

 

[parkermann]

I’d say your spread looks fine. Sundays can be tough. Saturday was pretty slow and sundays are usually way slower than Saturdays. Give it a few weeks and the hunting should pick up. Also that field the geese were in is off limits to hunting. That’s why the geese end up there on every shoot day

 

[Aeon]

keep your mod choke in.. you are shooting steel and it holds pattern much tighter then lead. Your mod choke is like shooting full with lead. Your spread looks ok, in general make a hole where you want them to land. some to the left and some to the right. Don't over think it they are just ducks. hard to tell distance but if you have decoys 40yards from you thats a bit to far. Ducks like to short stop the decoys from the direction they are coming from. so you can see if they sat down out front before your first decoy then its kinda far.

stop calling, ducks do not make that much racket and once they are shot at and running from the hoard they mostly wont change directly because you made a good call. Try just being quite and perfectly still. They see movement very very well. Your blind looks good from the back but i cant see the front. Keep your faces covered !!!!!!!! the more in the shade you are the better

keep pushing and learning it takes time!

 

[NBK]

If at all possible, you want your backs to the sun. Having birds coming into the sun is a disadvantage for them as it makes it harder for the birds to see you. Bluebird days can be spectacular if you are set up correctly.

 

[ilovesprig]

I think your spread looks good...With that little ripple, some kind of movement may not be needed.

Mallard calls in SoCal (for the most part) are not necessary...Get yourself a Buck Gardner pintail whistle...Way less threating to ducks and in the right hands, widgeon will react favorably...Once you get one...Go to your local city part and mimic widgeon...

 

[benCa]

Guys, seriously, can’t tell you how grateful I am to have found this site and be able to bounce lessons off of men with more experience. Really, really appreciate it.

if any of you find yourself desperate for beer, bourbon or scotch - I owe you one. Hope to pay it back sometime!

Oh, BTW, the highlight was finding an old friend, from 8th grade no less, to go with me, and BS’ing over beer and a ribeye the night before.

 

[ilovesprig]

Guys, seriously, can’t tell you how grateful I am to have found this site and be able to bounce lessons off of men with more experience. Really, really appreciate it.

if any of you find yourself desperate for beer, bourbon or scotch - I owe you one. Hope to pay it back sometime!

Oh, BTW, the highlight was finding an old friend, from 8th grade no less, to go with me, and BS’ing over beer and a ribeye the night before.

There's many ways to judge a trip...This is oustanding!...................