Teal season marks the beginning of waterfowl hunting in Kansas. The bird counts on the Kansas Dept Wildlife Parks and Tourism website show lower numbers than last year at Cheyenne Bottoms, but the promise of being out in the marsh is a very strong draw. My friend Bob is the defacto head of a group of friends that get together for what he calls "teal camp", where we pitch a tent, endure the noisy neighbors snoring and rise insanely early to go stake out our preferred spot in the marsh.
This year we were going to be joined by Bob' youngest daughter Emily and her college friend Kelli, and I was bringing Philip ( one L only please!) for his first experience with duck hunting. Philip had found some garage sale vulcanized rubber waders which would be just fine for early teal weather, and I told Bob that I would bring extra waders for the sorority girls. I brought a 20 gauge pump for Kelli to use, Emily and Philip had their own shotguns.
Kelli had taken hunters safety class and passed, but left her card at home. She was thinking without her card she wouldn't be able to get to hunt. Fortunately for her, I knew about the apprentice hunting program that Kansas has which would allow her to buy a license and stamps and go hunting. (The requirement then is, an apprentice hunter must be hunting under the direct supervision of a licensed hunter.) We convinced Kelli that after our evening hunt, she could go into Great Bend and purchase the stamps and license and join us hunting ducks on Sunday.
After getting the waders fitted, the ladies faces painted and camo donned, we headed out to the marsh. We have come to know one particular corner of Cheyenne Bottoms very well, and sadly for us, the KDWP plans were to keep this section dry, to allow for cattail reduction plowing and burning later this fall and winter. Bob and crew had filled their limits by 30 minutes after sunrise that morning and I was itching to get out for my first birds of the season.
We met the little johnboat affectionately called the duck barge, and put out the spinning wings and regular decoys and waited for the birds to begin moving. The bird counts cautioned all hunters that while there were an estimated 10-20,000 teal on the marsh, there was a significant number of wood ducks, shovelers and other DON'T SHOOT birds. Five adults with three shotguns tried to hide in a small island of cattails and while waiting Bob and I tried to make sure that the two newb waterfowl hunters would have success with safety. This evening lacked a classic teal flock buzzing the decoys, but instead we had a sprinkling of singles/doubles and small groups looking for a place to find an evening snack, and a place to snooze for the evening. Philip and Emily were both successfull in getting their first ducks that night to big smiles.
One lesson learned the hard way is to make certain that a downed duck is a dead duck, and not capable of swimming, diving or otherwise escaping. Any duck having its head up, that bird needs to be swatted again immediately.
Sunday morning the alarm didn't get a chance to ring out at 3:30 am as I was already awake and chomping at the bit to get going. Philip and I bushwhacked through the dense cattails to our desired spot, just a few hundred yards away from the previous successful hunt.
After picking up the gear and heading back to camp, Kelli did a fine job cleaning her very first duck. It seems to this kansasdad that we may have successfully initiated three new hunters into the fold.
This year we were going to be joined by Bob' youngest daughter Emily and her college friend Kelli, and I was bringing Philip ( one L only please!) for his first experience with duck hunting. Philip had found some garage sale vulcanized rubber waders which would be just fine for early teal weather, and I told Bob that I would bring extra waders for the sorority girls. I brought a 20 gauge pump for Kelli to use, Emily and Philip had their own shotguns.
Kelli had taken hunters safety class and passed, but left her card at home. She was thinking without her card she wouldn't be able to get to hunt. Fortunately for her, I knew about the apprentice hunting program that Kansas has which would allow her to buy a license and stamps and go hunting. (The requirement then is, an apprentice hunter must be hunting under the direct supervision of a licensed hunter.) We convinced Kelli that after our evening hunt, she could go into Great Bend and purchase the stamps and license and join us hunting ducks on Sunday.
After getting the waders fitted, the ladies faces painted and camo donned, we headed out to the marsh. We have come to know one particular corner of Cheyenne Bottoms very well, and sadly for us, the KDWP plans were to keep this section dry, to allow for cattail reduction plowing and burning later this fall and winter. Bob and crew had filled their limits by 30 minutes after sunrise that morning and I was itching to get out for my first birds of the season.
We met the little johnboat affectionately called the duck barge, and put out the spinning wings and regular decoys and waited for the birds to begin moving. The bird counts cautioned all hunters that while there were an estimated 10-20,000 teal on the marsh, there was a significant number of wood ducks, shovelers and other DON'T SHOOT birds. Five adults with three shotguns tried to hide in a small island of cattails and while waiting Bob and I tried to make sure that the two newb waterfowl hunters would have success with safety. This evening lacked a classic teal flock buzzing the decoys, but instead we had a sprinkling of singles/doubles and small groups looking for a place to find an evening snack, and a place to snooze for the evening. Philip and Emily were both successfull in getting their first ducks that night to big smiles.
One lesson learned the hard way is to make certain that a downed duck is a dead duck, and not capable of swimming, diving or otherwise escaping. Any duck having its head up, that bird needs to be swatted again immediately.
Sunday morning the alarm didn't get a chance to ring out at 3:30 am as I was already awake and chomping at the bit to get going. Philip and I bushwhacked through the dense cattails to our desired spot, just a few hundred yards away from the previous successful hunt.
After picking up the gear and heading back to camp, Kelli did a fine job cleaning her very first duck. It seems to this kansasdad that we may have successfully initiated three new hunters into the fold.
