My Morning With Magellan

Got to hunt with Magellan the other morning with an old college friend in Louisiana.  Our primary target was Canvasbacks, and his little diver honey hole came through.  In fact, having never shot a Canvasback up to this point, just seeing the birds was a treat.  Heading out in the boat we must have bumped 50 or 60 feeding contently.  Not long after setting up and getting the rig out, they started coming back.  I shot the first drake that came in, and then just watched the show.

It was a rainy, very cold morning, and after I had shot my bird, we packed it up and came home.  To be hunting as long as I had without shooting a canvasback, seeing close to a hundred of them rafted up (many coming back and sitting in the decoys), and having the hunt end so quickly was rather surreal.

My friend never fired a shot.  I'm not sure he appreciates the divers as much as I do.  Or, maybe it was the 40 degree falling temperatures and the torrentual downpour we were in that made him want to hustle back to the truck.

Here's Gauge with the canvasback, a hand carved rig of canvasbacks, blue bills, mallards, teal, and a black duck:

Sorry for the awful photo, this was a 5 second break in the weather coming back home.

Hope you enjoy, and please check back often, Justin