stories of "I should have thought that one through"

[shnelson]

With the season coming to a close, I always like to think back on what I might have done different if I had taken a little more time in thinking things through - either for more birds in the bag or from a safety standpoint.

As I get older, less ambitious and not so eager, I try to hunt alone as little as possible now after accepting that it can typically turn a not so dangerous situation to critical in a matter of seconds.

One recollection of this lesson was from last year, just after the heavy rainfall at the beginning of the season. I always like to start out in the backwaters on the river not too far from home, it's a guaranteed wood duck or two and there's no pressure from other hunters. I had done my due diligence and scouted a few days prior - everything looked to be as expected & I had a perfect little spring fed hole that was going to work out well.

Got a late start, somewhat on purpose as a little bit of daylight makes navigation a little more comfortable. On my path to get back to this little spring fed hole, I had crossed a series of channels that were just below the top of my waders. Didn't think anything of the depth at the time, I could get through no problem and the antsy black lab I was with was already well ahead of me.

We eventually made it to our spot after walking through a few hundred feet of oak low lands, that to my surprise was actually holding 12-16" of water. Flooded timber in MN, a first for me & kind of neat. Found the wood ducks to be non-existant in the previously scouted spot, but jump shot a couple while traversing around in the woods so we called it good & continued making our way back.

This was when my lack of thought hit me as we approached the channel. It must have been flooded over by at least another foot at this point, and I was screwed as far as I could tell. No cell phone service back here either, strike two.

After finding several spots that had a depth beyond what I could reach in my waders, I finally decided just to throw my gear across and "moon bounce" as best as possible while holding the dog and his vest - hoping he'll provide the needed buoyancy rather than freaking out. I got wet, but we made it. The next channel closed off at the top so it was fine & was happy to find my boat still tied off to get us back across the main river. Luckily strike three never occurred that day.


Fortunately, this story is not that extravagant - just an example of a simple situation turning potentially bad.


I'm sure you guys can do better & would love to hear - at the very least we can learn from each other's mistakes.

[triplecurler]

A few years ago I was out by myself on a windy day, wind gusting to 50 mph or so. Tied up the boat tossed out decoys. After setting up for sometime there were a bunch of dead trees next to me that the bark was being ripped off the trees the wind was blowing so hard.

I asked myself "how stupid are you", but I must not have answered. After an hour or so the dry ground I was sitting on started to flood. The wind was pushing so hard that the water from the upper end of the swamp was flooding the lower end.

Anyway, made it the rest of the day and only shot two geese. Made it to the boat at the end of the day and my life jacket was no where to be found. The wind must have blown it out of the boat. So I called my wife, told her I was leaving and if I wasn't home in an hour call someone to come looking for me.

[maplelakeduckslayer]

I've done plenty of stupid stuff...7 years ago in college, a buddy and I went up North to the cabin hunting, and hunting was good. We found out previous years you can't walk very far out into the national forest lakes to retrieve ducks...and since we hike in to all the lakes needed a low weight solution.

Stopped by a tire shop and got a large tire tube inflated. It actually works really well...but you are still sitting in a tire tube with waders on paddling out into a 20 acre lake to retrieve birds.

Well I went back up by myself, and the two mornings I hunted the lake froze over some. I did great on mallards and ringers...but was by myself paddling 50-100 yards out into this lake busting ice with a tire tube to retrieve birds.

It didn't really scare me...I was careful, but something could have pretty easily happened.

[Nershi]

I hunt a few spots on Lake Superior. This November we were on a decent Golden Eye shoot. We pulled the boat up on the island we were hunting. About 830 I turn around and think to myself where in the hell did that boat come from only to realize a couple seconds later it was our boat floating away! We had pulled the boat up on shore but Lake Superior has a tide (something I was aware of from previous hunts but spaced out that morning) and the rising water caused the boat to float away. Luckily the water was just low enough for me to walk accross a channel to the mainland and luckily the wind was blowing the right way so I was able to walk accross a bay and wait for it to float in. That was the first and hopefully the last time I have to retrieve my boat. Had the wind been blowing the other way it would have been a very long and embarrassing trip home.

[triplecurler]

I did a similar thing hunting the river. Forgot the water raises a bit when a barge goes by. Thanks to my son he informed me the boat was floating away.

[KingCan]

Hunting Mille Lacs a number of years ago. Late November wind was blowing 30 t0 35 sustained gusting over 40. Planned on a massive diver spread consisting of 8 long lines with 2 dozen decoys on each line and 3 dozen individual floaters to make the feeding blob.
Get out to the spot and my buddy and I start getting ready to deploy gear, could not find the cord reels we used to store our long lines. Looked in all the compartments and came up empty.

Ran back to the access to check the truck, none to be found.

Decided to throw a small j hook in the water and hope for the best.

Had divers land just beyond the spread, had divers buzz thr outer edge and give us the finger.

Really did not think about adjusting the spread because of the work involved.

Hunting with long lines made me lazy and I paid for it on that hunt.

Sent from My Samsung Galaxy S4 which makes an iPhone look like an abacus

[Jrp267]

A few years back, can't remember how many, me and a friend went out hunting. It was 8 above and windy. We had a little 12 footer and made our way out to an island with the diver spread. We set up and had a decent hunt. ( by that I mean shot at a lot of birds. It's not their fault I used to suck at shooting. Well still do.) about 8:30 I look off the point of the island and realize the waves are 3 to 3.5 and we are in serious trouble. We put on life jackets got in the boat picked up and headed back. On the way the boat began to pick up ice. About 6 to 8 inches on the outside. It's what kept us from swamping. We had about 6 inches of water in the boat. We made it to the landing and headed for the truck to warm up. When we got back down to the landing the boat had floated away. We borrowed ( read without permission) a paddle boat from the house near the launch which had no one home. We checked. Then peddled across the channel, with much less wind, to get it back. We nearly ended up in the water twice. And was the reason I bought a 14 footer. Another day I will tell you about why I have a 16 foot boat now.

[THe CRiPPLeR]

Marshy creek, 2 dogs in a canoe, one wasn't steady. Nuff said


I did get a airboat ride from the local fire department out of that one though.

[Jrp267]

I remember that one. Good stuff.

[Goldfish]

the night before an early hunt we decided it was a good idea to drink beers and eat white castle and not bring toilet paper on the hunt

Sent from a phancy fone