A Lesson in Proper Lead

Watching my children become duck hunters has renewed my enjoyment of waterfowling. Seeing the world through the wondrous eyes of youngsters is like experiencing it all again for the first time. Only better. Wintering songbirds that flit in the adjacent brush, frogs that occasionally share the pit, stray feathers or raccoon prints along the muddy shoreline, Dad slipping in the gumbo mud and especially incoming waterfowl: nothing escapes their keen observations.

Rio Grand Turkey Hunt

What a great weekend hunt. Lots of Rio Grande gobblers.

The first morning was a comedy of errors. Lunchtime was quiet back at the ranch; no one had fired a shot. Which is not to say the morning's hunt was uneventful: Johnny had a longbeard and its entourage of jakes in his lap for a spell but they had somehow gotten the drop on him and he couldn't shoot; O.B. was within about 35 yards of an about-faced strutter, ducked down to slide off his vest to crawl a few more feet and when he peeked over the bushes *poof* the bird and his harem of hens had quietly vanished; Big Joe had seen 6 longbeards at several of the morning's set ups and in each instance, cattle had wandered in and "because cows are bigger than turkeys" pushed the turkeys out.

2007 Louisiana Youth Waterfowl

Marsh hunting in Louisiana is an undertaking involving preparation and excitement. Especially when hunting is followed by fishing. Double that when it includes youth hunters. We left camp at 3:30 a.m. Our host, Jeff Anastasio, had awaken earlier than we'd planned, but whether it was because he was truly excited about the pending youth hunt or because he'd become hoarse shouting at the televised LSU versus Alabama game the preceding night, where LSU eventually pulled it out towards the end, we'll never be fully sure. In the 25-feet flats boat: 2 pirogues, check. Decoys, check. GPS, check. Waders, paddles, floatation devices, snacks, retriever, calls, lights, fishing rods, tackle, check and double checked. A pair of 20 gauge shotguns, check.  Little did we know what awaited us.

From the ramp it was about a 10 mile run down the Mississippi River. With a clear sky full of stars above, there was just enough moonlight to see well; only 2 big ships were passed and the water was otherwise smooth as silk. Which is to say, it was the Mississippi River and will forever command our utmost respect. Once off the channel and into the marsh our surroundings became enchanted. In the two-year absence of hurricane- and storm-related saltwater intrusion, the estuary was as beautiful as I could ever remember.  Lush stands of coontail, water celery, wigeon grass and duck potato were in great abundance.  The moment Jeff killed the outboard, we became immersed in a symphony of waterfowl and bird life sounds; gadwall grunts, teal and mottled duck quacks, pintail and wigeon whistles, the sounds of wings in flight, marsh hen cackles.  A shooting star burned briefly to the west as we climbed down into pirogues. The water beneath the deftly moving pirogues was inches, not feet deep. Fish left quiet wakes ahead of us. In the 10 minutes it took to reach our destination, the eastern sky had bloomed faint color. Our blind was perfectly simple: we pushed the larger pirogue into the tall, dense marsh grass. It was perfectly stable, allowing us to stand and work Lacy, Jeff's dog. The first 15 minutes or so seemed unusually quiet, still; unexpectedly void of flying and decoying waterfowl. But that soon changed. A green-winged teal winged towards the decoys and a load of 2-3/4" steel 7s stopped from Duncan's 20 gauge left it flat on the water. Squadrons of bluewinged teal, small flocks of gadwall, singles and pairs of wigeon followed. Forrest made an outstanding shot on a wigeon that swung over the decoys and fell 50 yards from the spread. Birds were plentiful. Not once was a shot called on birds further than 15 or 20 yards. It wasn't necessary. Big smiles lit our little secluded area in the marsh.  The pile grew. A lone canvasback drake tried the decoys but failed to commit. The only pintail seen, which was a big surprise to us all, was a drake that swung low over the decoys but continued onward to elsewhere in the vast marsh. Within an hour and ten minutes, a combination of gadwall wigeon, blue- and green-winged teal totaled 12. At 7:30 we high-fived and began our way to the boat.  It was time to wet a few lines.

Ramsey Russell GetDucks.com

Welcome to GetDucks.com

GetDucks.com is a full-service booking agency specializing in wingshooting adventures world-wide. A family business established in 2003, we place special emphasis on waterfowl hunting from Alberta to Argentina, and deliver our highly interpersonal services FREE, at no cost to you. Hunter satisfaction is top priority. GetDucks.com eliminates your guess work and delivers a valuable service - the right hunt. GetDucks.com invests time, experience and capital on finding the right hunts and continually keeping our fingers on the pulse of the operators to ensure absolute, consistent quality. We want no less for our clients than for ourselves - quality hunting experiences. We offer the best available outfitter price with the full service of an American-based booking agency. Oftentimes we even deliver the savings that comes with better rates than an outfitter's own!

GetDucks.com never represents a hunt before knowing first-hand that the outfitter can deliver. We personally visit each and every destination first. We assess the total package for everything necessary to a quality experience - convenience, lodging, food, atmosphere, service, pricing, constancy and especially, hunting opportunity.  We continually seek and respond to client feedback. As hunters ourselves, we recognize the difference between cost and value; our outfitters must provide peerless service with exceptional hospitality and professionalism - each and every time. GetDucks.com's knowledge and experience will help you or your group with making that special trip of a lifetime. Whether it's finding that perfect destination, selecting the very best travel dates, buying travel insurance, or finding the appropriate flight schedule and getting you quickly through foreign airports.

GetDucks.com is 100% committed to delivering the best personal service possible to each client. Paperwork for traveling abroad with firearms or getting your prized trophies through customs, detailed lists of what to bring and your itinerary are always part of the GetDucks.com package. South Dakota pheasants, Argentina ducks and geese, Argentina doves, Uruguay ducks, perdiz, New Zealand waterfowl, Alberta ducks and geese, waterfowl and upland throughout the U.S. - and the list keeps growing - GetDucks.com arranges hunts for individual hunters, larger groups or corporate trips. Contact us for details. Thank you for visiting GetDucks.com. We hope you'll enjoy our new and expanding format that will include hunt reports, last-minute travel- and hunt-related resources, photographic and narrative contributions from associates, outfitters and clients.  Please call Ramsey Russell  Toll Free at (866) 438-3897 or (601) 214-9737 to discuss your next trip of a lifetime.

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Venice Yellowfins

Felt great to shift gears after 5 months of steady wingshooting.  Needed some diversity in the freezer, too. Unseasonably perfect February fishing conditions were enjoyed - plenty of sunshine, 2 ft seas.  Typical  for this time of year, there were hundreds of other boats occupying the square-mile area above the "Midnight Lump".  The Lump is the top of a large salt dome located offshore, about 50 miles southwest of Venice, Louisiana.  It is legendary for great bluewater fishing: the combination of shallower waters (depth ranges between 200 and 250 ft.) and large schools of bait fish swept along in current makes for magnificent fishing.  It is a major feeding site for some of the largest yellowfin tuna found in the Gulf of Mexico.

We again fished with Capt. Darryl Couvillon, Reel Peace Charters.  Have heard Capt Couvillon's ancestors were among the first to settle around the Venice area.  They certainly know their fishing.  Live mullets tossed into the chum slick.  The largest fish of the day, a yellow fin tuna, weighed a modest 164 pounds. It had the heart of a true fighter: stripped off line for several minutes, but I quickly earned most of it back.  Right about the time I had regained a little over half of the spool, the fish got its second wind.  It then became an earnest battle. Of inches.  Pound for pound, tuna are among the mightiest fighters in the Gulf, diving deep to gain leverage instead of dancing across the water and quickly giving it up. Gaffed him a little over 2 hours after the hook set. One good yellowfin was all it took.

Ramsey Russell, GetDucks.com

Boys’ Spring Snow

Back in the early to mid-1970's, when I was nearer to the single-digit age my sons are now, snow geese were just those noisy, stratospheric little V-formations we kids watched while waiting for the carpool to come pick us up on cold mornings in Mississippi's delta. Times sure have changed since then.

None of the local men I knew back in those days hunted them.   Everyone hunted ducks and the few migrating honkers that occasionally ventured that far south. A burgeoning, mid-continental snow goose population, ever-fattened by the increased agricultural landscape that has evolved since the 1970s now threatens the existence of their breeding grounds, the fragile Arctic tundra.

Hunters have been called on to reduce this population well into the spring months, long after traditional waterfowl seasons have closed.  It's created a great opportunity to hunt this marvelous creature, to spend more time at hunting camp, to further train retrievers in a live hunting environment.  It's also a great time for Dads to spend more time with their young hunters.

Ramsey Russell's GetDucks.com

Maybe More

Last hunt of the season.  Public land, too.  We need go about 3/4 mile deep into the primevial hardwood forest in the pitch black dark of night, well ahead of other possible hunters.  Across: an undulating, Mississippi delta topography, wading waist deep cypress sloughs-deeper if you find a hole, and much colder if you stumble on the wrong submerged obstacle.

Crossing: oak-studded ridges to yet another brake.  Listening to the winter woods awaken: a beaver slapping his tail on the water just around the bend, raucously vocal barred owls sounding off their mating season, a few ducks flushing blindly out of our way, a buck's antlers clashing brush as he departs the thicket.

Decoys deployed, we wait.  Watching: silouettes of a few ducks trading, the stars fading, a pair of bluebirds feeding on mistletoe, two black labs exhaling frosty plumes of steam as they also search the brightening sky intently.

Then: a whir of wings, a splash of water as a pair of wood ducks land a few feet away, another pair darting through the tall snags.  Finally: shooting time arrives and a single shot fells the lone greenhead that came in hell-bent on landing in the small hole enshrouded with buck brush.

Other ducks trickle in.  The rest is history.  It beat a day at the office, or anywhere else for that matter, by 3/4 mile.  Maybe more.

Ramsey Russell's GetDucks.com