Connor M
01-22-2008, 11:02 PM
Most young people fortunate enough to attend a college of their choice usually go by a set of criteria that varies from person to person. For some the big party school is where they fit in best but for others the small, elite Ivy League schools are the ticket. One night a few weeks ago I was sitting in the garage of my friend’s house on the Potomac River, about 70 miles north of my home in Powhatan VA, where we were duck hunting for the weekend during Christmas break when I realized that I was border line crazy for my decision. My buddy Adam goes to Virginia Tech and had about a million stories about the crazy parties he went to and all the girls he “met.” My other pal Sloan has just as many stories about military drills and marches, he attend the Virginia Military Institute where the cadets look down on other military schools as being too soft! We all are going to different schools for different reasons but for Adam, it might be because it’s not that far but far enough his Mom can’t breathe down his neck. Sloan is a legacy with a brother as an upperclassman and a father who is a 67 grad, so it might be just family tradition or his desire for taking the road less traveled. Where do I go to school? I made my decision based on my love of waterfowling. I researched Midwest schools and came upon one that I committed myself too this past summer. I’m currently attending Dakota State University in Madison South Dakota.
We had a good couple days of hunting on the Potomac, the first day killing a few bills’ out on the main river and on day two hoofing it cross country to a little hole where we limited on mallards, wood ducks and black ducks, above average for that area, at least in the past 10 years. My friends love to hunt but to love waterfowling so much that you would pick up and move your life 1500 miles away is a little wild, a little reckless, but necessary. For duck hunting in Virginia is not good, in fact is sucks 90% of the time, being wealthy enough to join a club or knowing a lot of landowners helps but there just aren’t that many birds anymore and for a diehard like myself to stay there would be sort of wrong. So next thing I knew I was having a meeting at the school during an annual pheasant hunting trip with my dad, which is how I knew I wanted to be there in the first place. After convincing my apprehensive mom with the small class size and free tablet pc they offer she was on board. The rest the year flew by and I soon had the Power Stroke packed up and I west bound and down.
I made some great friends and got hooked up with a crew with a trailer, and like I hoped we destroyed the ducks and geese this year. There isn’t much like decoying hundreds of Mallards into a corn field, something that doesn’t happen much in central VA. So I can safely say I changed my life for waterfowl.
Here are a couple pictures of our season.
Early Season
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDakhunting07005.jpg
1st Day of Duck, Ducks came in too early but the geese worked perfectly
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/DSCF0248.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/DSCF0237.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/DSCF0243.jpg
2nd Day of Duck, 30 bird limit by 9:00 in cut corn, I was amazed to see hundreds of Woodies in this field
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/DSCF0254.jpg
Chopped corn mallards, standing corn makes a good hide
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDakhunting07013.jpg
We had a record amount of rain for October for Eastern SD, so there was lots of sheet water over harvested fields which made for a few awesome hunts. 25 bird limit consiting of Mallards, Pintails, Widgeon, Gadwalls, and Teal and 1 Canada.
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDakhunting07024.jpg
Flooded Bean field, 20 Mallards by 8:30.
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDakhunting07028.jpg
My dad and uncle came out for their annual pheasant hunting trip and I was able to spend a few days of hunting with them.
The last day
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/Hunting20Dogs20022.jpg
Full moon, ducks fed all night but we were able to pull a few geese.
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDakhunting07035.jpg
We had a good couple days of hunting on the Potomac, the first day killing a few bills’ out on the main river and on day two hoofing it cross country to a little hole where we limited on mallards, wood ducks and black ducks, above average for that area, at least in the past 10 years. My friends love to hunt but to love waterfowling so much that you would pick up and move your life 1500 miles away is a little wild, a little reckless, but necessary. For duck hunting in Virginia is not good, in fact is sucks 90% of the time, being wealthy enough to join a club or knowing a lot of landowners helps but there just aren’t that many birds anymore and for a diehard like myself to stay there would be sort of wrong. So next thing I knew I was having a meeting at the school during an annual pheasant hunting trip with my dad, which is how I knew I wanted to be there in the first place. After convincing my apprehensive mom with the small class size and free tablet pc they offer she was on board. The rest the year flew by and I soon had the Power Stroke packed up and I west bound and down.
I made some great friends and got hooked up with a crew with a trailer, and like I hoped we destroyed the ducks and geese this year. There isn’t much like decoying hundreds of Mallards into a corn field, something that doesn’t happen much in central VA. So I can safely say I changed my life for waterfowl.
Here are a couple pictures of our season.
Early Season
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDakhunting07005.jpg
1st Day of Duck, Ducks came in too early but the geese worked perfectly
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/DSCF0248.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/DSCF0237.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/DSCF0243.jpg
2nd Day of Duck, 30 bird limit by 9:00 in cut corn, I was amazed to see hundreds of Woodies in this field
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/DSCF0254.jpg
Chopped corn mallards, standing corn makes a good hide
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDakhunting07013.jpg
We had a record amount of rain for October for Eastern SD, so there was lots of sheet water over harvested fields which made for a few awesome hunts. 25 bird limit consiting of Mallards, Pintails, Widgeon, Gadwalls, and Teal and 1 Canada.
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDakhunting07024.jpg
Flooded Bean field, 20 Mallards by 8:30.
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDakhunting07028.jpg
My dad and uncle came out for their annual pheasant hunting trip and I was able to spend a few days of hunting with them.
The last day
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/Hunting20Dogs20022.jpg
Full moon, ducks fed all night but we were able to pull a few geese.
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg246/cpmulherin/SoDakhunting07035.jpg