There aren’t many reasons to get up before the light of day, especially when it involves driving/riding a side-by-side.
Riding dirt powersports vehicles is usually more fun and definitely more scenic when it’s light. One exception to our no-go before the light of day pseudo policy is to get to a favorite hunting (or fishing) spot.
When we rolled out of bed at O Dark Thirty last fall to go duck hunting at Honey Brake Lodge (www.honeybrake.com), a premiere duck hunting property on the shores of Larto Lake near Jonesville, LA, we found our way to the main lodge where we were outfitted for our duck hunt.
After procuring our duck calls, gun and ammo we loaded up into a Polaris Ranger XP 1000 waiting for us outside the lodge and from there it was a short drive out to one of Honey Brake’s 65 duck blinds that are scattered around parts of the 20,000-acre Old Louisiana Delta Plantation. After the drive, we took a short boat ride out to our blind, which was already prepped and ready for a hunt.
Others in our group were on land-locked duck blinds so getting the chance to be out on the water added a little adventure to our ride.
Sit And Wait
Our guide Drew Keeth is an expert at calling ducks in and did excellent on the morning of our hunt. His bird dog did all the hard work in retrieving the ducks. We just had to sit and wait. We spent the morning hunting, scanning the sky for Teal, watching the pond/lake surrounding our blind, snacking and just enjoying the sun rise and chase away the low-lying fog.
Keeth explained that this part of Louisiana was experiencing a mild drought and so the ducks weren’t as plentiful as they might normally be. Our goal for the day was to hunt—and hopefully shoot—Teal ducks, as the others were off-limits this time of year. Keeth would occasionally remind us to NOT shoot those ducks that were flying in but wait for his word on which ones to shoot.
As our duck hunting has been limited in past years, it was nice to have a “ready-made” hunt. Oh, we had to do the shooting but other than that, most of the details were taken care of. We were supplied the guns and ammo, we demoed some new waders, had a guide and hunting dog and were in an ideal place to hunt ducks. Honey Brake’s guests harvest about 10,000 ducks per year so our chances of seeing, let alone hunting and shooting ducks were pretty good.
While waiting for the ducks to come in, it really was interesting to listen to Keeth, who knows the land, the waterfowl and the ins and outs of hunting—all combined to make our hunting excursion that much more enjoyable. It was a great experience and one we will not soon forget.
