To me, there is no such thing as the duck hunting off-season. As such, I have a few things I want to do before the first weekend of May 2019.
Ace
My number one is to keep working on Ace and improving and making sure he is ready. This is to enforce what he already knows and a few areas that I found he needs improving. One of these was jumping into the water around fallen logs and bringing the birds across the water. Another area is to focus on one bird that is down than others that another party were shooting at.
Private pond
I really want to find a private pond to make my own. Being able to manage the feeding, where to place the hides and during the season when it gets shot. It would be great to take a few mates that want to get into duck hunting to a private pond. The stress of trying to get them a shot at a duck would be a lot less than on public land. If I was able to find a pond where a couple of ducks is almost guaranteed. I would love to take a couple of young people out. Especially if they would normally not be able to.
The Boat
Get the sneak boat built that I talked about before and get out on the water to see how it handles. This leads to another task of scouting more public land areas and finding different hides. Mainly around Boggy Pond and Matthews Lagoon in the Wairarapa.
Decoys
Lastly for the duck hunting “off-season” I want to update my decoys. This will probably be downsizing to get more quality decoys over quantity. These might include some Avery Pro Grade Hybrid Mallards, I already have a Mojo Rippler on order to help get some motion. I might also look into building one of these to add even more motion.
What are your “off-season” plans? Please comment below and let me know.
Parriehunter