Why me Lord!

Why me Lord!

By Bob Zettler

January 22, 2011

For the last month of the Illinois waterfowl season I had been ate up wanting to kill ducks. In the past I had spread my search for them from day one all the way to the very end of the season. In fact, I use to hoard my three personal days from work over the past 20 years just so I could go for a morning hunt here and there whenever the ducks were flying but that had changed as I have gotten older (and wider) and the environment wasn’t as conducive for me to do so. And for late November through just last weekend I went after the deer pretty hard as I tried to repay friends with venison for their kindnesses extended my way.

So as the Christmas break and January loomed where I planned to go as many times as I could – and where I anticipated limits on every outing as had been the case a number of times in recent years with good friends – I was quickly and without mercy brought back to reality for the duck hunting in my usual haunts were all but over. Throughout the state, waterfowlers experienced the same reality check and tears were shed from Hennepin to Herrin and all places in between, but I was still ate up wanting to kill ducks! What made this so surreal was for the first time since I started waterfowling back in 1978-80, I was killing more geese than ducks…que sera, sera.

And as the last weekend loomed large and I had yet to schedule a marathon duck hunting killing spree somewhere in southern Illinois, I was ecstatic when a friend called me Wednesday night and said come on down. Good thing he was 230 miles away as I am sure he would have decked me after I kissed him (on the cheek) from this joyous news. So, I got my gear together, cooked a gallon of wild-game meat Italian Beef and decided to head out early Saturday morning after some unexpected personal business almost derailed my trip. I took a different route which brought me close to Pyramid and a place we hunt on before calling my benefactor to see if I needed to bring any more groceries when I took a shot to my gut. It seems he had iced over and informed me it wasn’t worth my gas to come on down. I guess he didn’t understand I had already driven 160 miles and was but another 70 away but what else can I say except why me Lord!

At this point I had limited options. Driving home for the chance at some local birds really wasn’t an option, and most other places were now too far to drive for the chance to kill a Canada goose, so I decided to check out our lease. It hadn’t been too good since the opener and it looked D-E-A-D now. That is when Lady Luck stepped in and Gary, the landowner’s son, offered me one of his favorite spots where I should get a chance at a goose or so. Horrors! You see since my invite was to a place where I didn’t need anything except a gun and shells. I had no decoys or layout blind and my calls were buried somewhere under the crap in my Jeep. But my benefactor said he had a few decoys and would show me what he does to hunt his spot and the local birds.

A short while later he pulls up on his Kubota and with four full-bodies and six goose shells, he drives me out to a brush-pile in a field where the geese had been the night before. Now, I don’t even have a goose call or flag and did not see any tracks in the snow near where he took me but I believed in him and the area. So I set out the 10 decoys and sat my big butt down on a milk crate in the brush. Now years ago I use to hunt Canada geese in the snow by where I lived with just four 747 goose shells and did quite well so I knew it was possible but back then I was slimmer, I could call using my Gary McCree goose flute and I was the only game around even near where I hunted them. Yet, I had been rewarded a number of times following the advice and counsel of Gary this past year, and since I had nothing more to lose, I began my wait.

Oh, I saw geese and even a lot of geese but today they weren’t coming into or over the field but just west of me and across the road about a quarter-mile away. Still, this area was a flyway so maybe with a little (good) luck I could get a chance at a bird or two…

Around 3 PM I started seeing small groups of Mallards, BIG Mallards flying over the field and that was when I recalled my Mojo decoy in the Jeep that had been there for the past four weeks and decided to go get it and was surprised it was still charged and working. And as an added bonus I found a duck call! So I trek back to my hide and set out the Mojo only to look up and have a Drake glide over my head and land 120 yards straight across from me as if I didn’t exist. Trotted back to the hide, got my gun up and took a shot just to flush him and was shocked, and I mean REALLY shocked, that he came right at me! Two shots later….and he is flying out of there unharmed. I guess it’s going to be one of those days.

And as I sit there on my milk-crate seat which is about a foot too low for my buttocks I am put to shame when I keep looking up and seeing the rear end of Mallards flying away after coming right over me. I love my DROID X cell but I have to learn to put it away when I am hunting! Then, I had some Mallards working and actually responding (they must have been deaf) to my calling. However, a flock of Canada’s also come into the field at the same time and I am trying to decide if I should take the shot at 35 yard geese in front of me or continue to work the ducks closer. Within a minute I realize I made the wrong choice as ALL the birds leave and I hadn’t fired a shot.

Now I know that most geese do not like Mojo’s so I had placed it in front of me at about 25 yards so I could run out and turn it off if the geese came but I was taken by surprise when a flock of Canada’s were almost on top of me and beginning to break up. I had to decide right then to either take the shot(s) or hope they would just drop in and me without a goose call and the Mojo running. I decided to take the shot and folded the one with my first shot and nicked one on my second but a clean miss with my third. And as I had ducks in the field again, I decided to let him lay where he fell.

No luck so I walked out to get him and saw something that stopped me in my tracks. It was a band! As I took a picture through my tear-filled eyes, I just had to reflect on how I turned lemons into lemonade and scored a bonus to boot. And while I didn’t take another shot at a goose or duck, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I am the first to admit that I am not a good caller or in the best of shape (physically) any more, and really have come to depend on friends more and more as I get older for that opportunity to feed my 32 year addiction. Yet, when faced with adversity as I had been for this closing day to our duck season, I rose to the occasion and with a little assistance from another friend was able to capitalize. No, I didn’t kill my Mallards or any ducks for that matter (sniff, sniff), but I had the opportunities and did get a nice, mature Canada goose with some jewelry that was placed on its leg in 2006 and that is hard to beat. You ask, “What about the last day?” Well, stay tuned and as Humphrey Bogart said, “here’s looking at you…”