Marty,

I finally got out in the kayak and did some duckhunting and had a really cool trip. I did some research on some places close to my house in Chesapeake, VA and found that not more than 3 miles there was a really ducky looking salt creek that, judging from the aerial photos, was only accessible from the shallow draft of a kayak. I decided to give it a try. Being in a kayak you have to be very specific with what gear is absolutely necessary especially when it comes to cold weather exploring. Duck hunting, in itself, is a gear intensive sport and making room for all of my gear like an extra paddle, throw-able seat cushion, two dozen decoys, gear bag, water proof emergency kit, extra ghillie blanket and a readily accessible gun makes a science of packing and balancing a boat. Well, after checking the tide I already knew that it would be dead low tide at 7:30 when I would be hunting this new place. Add that together with very soft mud and you have to watch where you start hunting as you may be there for a while if you go too far up a creek. As luck would have it the creek I intended to hunt was only accessible the first 50 yards as the rest of it was void of water and the remaining 150 yards was soft mud, so I made the best of it and set my decoys out in the shallow channel about 30 yards from my kayak. You might have been wondering what the throw-able seat cushion was for. I use it as a seat extension so that I can recline my seat and lay entirely inside my boat completely out of site and . Add some more of the die-cut material that I had left over from the kayak blind visible in the pictures, I pretty much look like one of the many deadfall logs lining this areas water ways. At 6:40, 10 minutes before legal hunting time, I had 6 mallards almost land on me while I was relaxing and drinking some coffee. Ten minutes later I would have had two green heads but the law is the law and I passed on them. Feeling a little excited as this new spot was showing potential I tucked myself into the boat again and waited but not for long. Three hooded mergansers soon rushed in from around the corner about five feet off of the water and pitched right into the decoys. I could see their feet deployed and ready to splash down so I decided to help them with that part of their flight and handily dispatched two of the three with my Stoeger Condor over-under shotgun. I did not see many more ducks on this trip but did some more scouting and found some more potentially good spots to try during the remainder of this duck season. I can't wait to get back out. Oh yeah, the cat in the picture is my duck hunting cat. I have been training her to retrieve in the garage and she has a taste for duck but water breaking her is going to be another story entirely. Enjoy the pictures.

Cheers,

Russell