One of my hunting mentors told me
one time, “You can make a mistake with your calling and get away with it,
you can make a mistake with your decoy spread and you can get away with it, but
if you aren’t hidden the best calling in the world won’t help
you.” When I first started
guiding back in the mid 90’s we would be at our hunting location at least
an hour earlier than we thought we would need, usually just to make sure that
we were completely hidden.
Being hidden can also can also
cover up a lot of other possible mistakes.
Typically what happens is people start out the beginning of the
waterfowl season when there are a lot of young and inexperienced birds. Hunters have a lot success right off the
get go and then get lazy. We have
some great properties to hunt and I’ve had one of the best duck callers
in the world in the duck blind with me and believe me, by the second half of
the season if we are not concealed like our life depends on it, we simply will
not be consistently successful.
|
|
|
|
|
PIT BLINDS
|
|
I
first started hunting out of pit blinds in the mid-90’s
while hunting Canadian Geese. In
my opinion it is the best way to be completely hidden. The challenge is creating a pit-blind
experience where all the hunters have the ability to see the birds
working.
I had
never hunted ducks our of a pit blind until the past couple years. We have built several aluminum pit
blinds that are right along the edge of ponds. They are fantastic to hunt out
of! Our pits have drop lids,
comfortably hold up to six hunters… they even have a battery operated
sump pump.
|
|
|
|
|
|
ABOVE GROUND BLINDS
|
|
Paul
Sullivan and the team at Aero Outdoors have created a great above ground
blind... I have personally hunted
out of these for the past handful of seasons. ….
|
|
|
|
|
|
LAYOUT BLINDS
|
|
There
are situations where you simply have to be mobile. There are also times when the birds
raft up or are using an area where you must use layout blinds. A couple things that I have found is
that it takes practice to learn how to shoot out of a layout blind. The biggest issue however is to take
the time to put natural cover on the blinds. They must blend in, especially if you
are hunting in a group.
|
