Gary Greene’s Memories from an Old Hunter………#18
Sunday, September 25th, 2016 was our first goose hunt of the season and thanks to Jesse Jablonski’s scouting, the Horicon geese loved our location. In 90 minutes, our traditional father/son hunting party of six shot our 12 bird limit of Canada Geese. After the hunt at Susie’s restaurant in Lomira, we were laughing as Jesse, and his dad Brian and I were discussing our previous Massachusetts’ sea duck hunt.
My memory of our coastal Massachusetts sea duck hunt.
The three of us have been hunting together for nearly twenty years. We enjoy each other’s company and all of us are serious hunters. Unless it’s for a hunt, I’m not real enthusiastic about driving great distances or even the three miles down to the local East Troy Piggly Wiggly, but I do bring some humor to our trips and probably more importantly some money. Our trip’s objective was to hunt waterfowl that we don’t have an opportunity to pursue in Wisconsin and the Mississippi flyway.
We found that Massachusetts does not allow waterfowl hunting on Sundays. The ban on Sunday hunting goes back over 100 years and is one of the “Blue” laws. Another blue law example is no kissing in public. Since less than 1% of Massachusetts’ population hunts birds, the state hasn’t been pushed to change the Sunday law and in jest, I did not find any statistics regarding hunters kissing in public. We were ready to hunt on Sunday, so for one day, we had to purchase a Rhode Island license. We met our guide that morning at our motel and were anxious to get on the water. The wind didn’t cooperate, so we couldn’t travel far out on the Atlantic Ocean. The guide had an area that he kept referring to as “Heaven,” but it was ten miles off shore. We never saw Heaven as the weather all three hunting days never allowed us to make that voyage.
Off the coast of Rhode Island, for about six hours, our boat was anchored in several coves. It was unseasonably warm and we didn’t see a duck. I was getting fatigued, and we were unable to savor a moment of silence as the boat became our guide’s own USS Speaking Engagement. He kept name dropping people that he had guided. The one name that I heard repeatedly was Curt Gowdy Jr.
I recalled that Curt Gowdy Senior was the host of the 1960’s and 1970’s outdoors show called The American Sportsman. That show brought hunting and fishing into our living rooms with Gowdy and numerous celebrities. I had no interest in Curt Gowdy Jr.
He also mentioned that he wrote hunting articles for numerous magazines. I interjected that I had a couple of articles published as well. His immediate response was: “Yeah, that’s what’s wrong with today’s magazines, they include too many amateur writers.” Basically, he said people like me are bringing down the literacy level of the United States, anyway, that’s the way I took it.
Since I currently have a short attention span, I stopped responding to the guide’s monolog as I lost interest hours earlier. In return, he started becoming real short with me, but not with my partners. I have been on numerous unsuccessful waterfowl hunts and that didn’t bother me, but it was the constant talking that just wore me down. I am a pheasant hunting guide, and I have learned when to talk and when to just enjoy the silence of the hunt. Generally, hunters don’t pay for or expect constant verbal entertainment.
September 25th, 2016 Horicon Goose hunt with Brian Jablonski, Paul Wick, Jim Wick, Greene, Jesse Jablonski and photographer Nate Greene with our dogs and our limit of Canada Geese. A nice 30th birthday present for my son Nate.
As we made plans for the following day, we drew straws to determine the order of hunters for the layout boat. I won and was to go first, but the guide interrupted and suggested I go last because Jesse is a better shot. Now, he doesn’t really know us, we haven’t seen a bird and we haven’t fired a shot, but he has declared Jesse a better shot and that I should go last.
That night, at the restaurant, I made many jokes and comments regarding my bonding with the guide and me going last in the layout boat, and the fact that evidently my writings were ruining the reading skills of our nation’s youth.
The following day, we were in a bay off the coast of Cape Cod. Off the bow of the layout boat, the guide had just two lines of ten Common Eider decoys. The order of hunters didn’t really matter since the Common Eiders, which are quite large ducks, decoyed as well as any bird I have ever witnessed. That morning, within minutes, during our rotation in the layout boat, each of us shot our four Common Eider limit.
At the launch, we posed for a great picture with the three hunters and our 12 Common Eiders. Then we discussed our plan of attack for the next day’s hunt. Our guide mentioned we would hunt a peninsula off the port of Plymouth (Yes, near the rock!). He suggested that Jesse and Brian, in their waders, would stand in the water off this point and shoot the ducks as they came around the bend. He told me that I would be in the boat with him several hundred yards from that point. He went on to add that I might even get some shots.
“You might even get some shots.” That night at the restaurant, those were the words that I repeated. Was I just an afterthought on this hunt? I’m in the boat with the guide, and I might even get some shots. That evening, I got a lot of mileage and laughs out of that quote.
A coastal Massachusetts, sea duck hunt with Jesse Jablonski, Greene, and Brian Jablonski and their three man limit of common Eiders.
The next morning, from the boat, I dropped the first Scoter. Jesse and Brian shot several from their wet positions off the point. I then dropped a hat trick, three ducks in three consecutive shots. I shot two Scoters and a trailing Long Tail. After those shots, the guide suddenly warmed up to me. We finished with several Surf and White-winged Scoters, some Long Tails, and a Bufflehead. At the boat launch, we had numerous people asking how we did, and the guide was constantly sighting my triple to the spectators.
In that parking lot, as the guide was wrapping up his boat, we packed up our truck and changed our clothes for the long trip home. As we were saying our thank-yous and good-byes, Jesse and Brian shook hands with our guide. Suddenly, the guide boldly came over to me and gave me a big, good-bye, bear hug. I guess I’m just a likeable guy after all!