Better Morning Than Expected

We hunted this morning at White Lake GPA in White Lake, SD. It is a ~500 acre lake. We set up in some grass just out into the lake, off the bank. We shot 3 ducks this am (2 gadwall & 1 GW teal) and Dan missed an easy shot on another gadwall. We also had a duck in our decoys during legal shooting time, but it was before we were ready to shoot... Additionally, we were prevented from taking a couple very reasonable shots because we were situated with the sun in our eyes and didn't see the birds until it was too late...
After only seeing a few ducks yesterday, we were very pleasantly surprised to have as many birds nearby as we did. Jackson had the retrieving duties and recovered 2 of the 3 ducks we shot. The first 2 were a pair, with each of us dropping 1 duck. However, neither were dead and both were quickly too far away for effective follow-up shots on the water (though we did try before sending him). He was perfectly steady, but after the shots to drop the birds, then a total of 5-6 shots to try to anchor them on the water, he was just about going nuts (but he stayed steady on the retriever stand!). When I finally sent him, he went to the closest bird, which dove and then swam away without him seeing where it went. He was intent on finding that diving bird, to the point that he was repeatedly sticking his whole head underwater and pulling up vitiation from the bottom as he resurfaced. That's the first time I've ever seen 1 of my dogs go underwater after a bird. I walked out (the whole lake seemed to be 1' deep), and directed him to the bird, which by this time was 100 yards away from him. He took a good line to it after some fighting with me because he wasn't focusing (on me) to receive my commands. It dove again and he got it this time. After all this, we had no idea where bird #2 went. We tried to look for it at the end of the hunt, but did not find it. I think it swam out into the middle of the lake and was long gone...
Bird #3 was a single teal that was to be Dan's bird while I made sure Jax was good. After 3 misses, I had to step in and kill it with a single, well-placed shot at about 40 yards. Jax was steady and perfect and picked it up without fanfare.
I took some video, but the internet service here appears to be not robust enough to upload video or pics, so I may have to go back and add video when we get home, or another time when I have longer to fight with the internet...


We hunted from 7:50 (legal shooting time was 7:40) until 9:30, then picked-up to give ourselves as much time as we can to go scout NE of here for better duck hunting. We'll either hunt pheasants in that NE area this afternoon (if we see anything good), or head back to the spot from last night.


Overall, I knocked-down 2 ducks on 2 shots and Dan knocked down 1 on 7 shots. He says he needs to remember the instruction we got last month and keep his head down!