Last Friday at the ACC Specialty, Hazel won 2nd place in the Hunting bitch class and I was thrilled!! Yesterday was opening day of duck season here and when we got to the pond, Hazel was thrilled!!!
This was truly an adventure for us, as we bought a sportspal (stability) canoe in Sept. and this was our first time out in it! Let me paint the picture for you : 6'5", 250++lb. hubby with an artificial leg (sportspal canoe = stability), decoy bag, gun, ammo., myself and a 70lb, very excited Hazel who has never been in a canoe before (did I mention sportspal canoe = stability? I hope!) Well, we got ourselves loaded up and launched and made it across the open water (Hazel quivering with excitement) to a boggy, reedy spot which looked like a good hiding spot.
Hazel was slightly confused as to why we were now stopped, and just sitting there, surrounded by water, which apparently was affecting her hearing, as she did not seem to hear my numerous commads to "SIT" or "LIE DOWN" or "RELAX"!
After about 45 min. of this "doing nothing nonsense" Hazel decided it was time to abort the vessel, and see how deep the water was! Being the skeptics that we were, we had "parked" in standing depth water! But she did get wet and did create a few minutes of excitement while trying to get back into the sportspal (stability) canoe - so mission accomplished!
Finally after about another 1/2 hour, we had some wood ducks fly in like little bullets.......Dad shot, I hung onto Hazel for dear life, Dad shot again, and away the little bullets flew! Damn! (Get used to it Hazel - that happens a lot!)
Luckily, wood ducks must not be too smart, as within about 10 min. in flies a single drake, Dad shoots, I hang onto Hazel for dear life, and the wood duck lands, and looks at us! Now to try and get him to fly again (maybe they're smarter than I thought).
With Dad aiming at him, Hazel being held back and verbally complaining about it, and the sportspal canoe barely rocking, because as advertised, it does appear stable (thank God), finally he 'd had enough and off he went....Dad, Bang...Bang.... and YEAH, success!! Now Hazel had the excitement she wanted..... out of the canoe, swim, swim, swim, over the logs in the way, swim swim, thru the duckweed, swim, swim and to the reward! Yipee!!!
That was the only action for the evening, apparently there's not a high population of ducks at this pond, but I think that's all the excitement we could have handled for our first "canoe" outing anyway!
Our dinner consisted of pan fried duck breasts and gravy (followed by spaghetti -wood duck breasts are pretty darn small!).
Hazel got to clean the gravy off our plates!
Maybe a mallard will fly in today!!!!

Sounds like my first experience in a conoe. My cousin and I decided last year to take his conoe and the dog on a duck hunt. A bag of decoys , two shotguns and a very inexperienced dog. We successfully conoed down the lake about a mile and got up a flock of ducks so we decided to set up in hopes they might return. We are 4 feet from shore and I tell the cousin to hold onto the dog while I put out a couple of decoys. I throw out the first and out goes the dog swamping the conoe and us into the water along with one very expensive shotgun and all the shells. We make it to shore, I then take all my cloth off to try retrieving the shotgun but it is very cold and that gun is in 12 feet of water. so we give up, dress back up and head home. The next week we talked my other cousin into bringing his boat and scuba gear to retrieve the shotgun and finally found it in 22 feet of water. That bank was almost verticle so it had slide down a long way from where it went in. Be very careful with that canoe and the dog. Things can happen very quickly and I for one will never hunt out of a conoe again. It probably claims more hunters a year than any other vessel. Clay

And a fine time was had by all...except readers anxious for the part about the tipped canoe.

I was waiting for the canoe to tip, too!

We have a Mad River canoe that we took on a fishing trip to Ontario this summer. We practiced with the dogs before the trip. Sherman passed with flying colors. Willow, the pup, was just too mobile for a canoe!

We didn't get many opportunities to canoe in Canada, because all it did was rain. But on one of the nice days, we were canoeing along when a loon was startled and decided to take off, stupidly heading right for the canoe. It was just too tempting for Sherman and he jumped up, rocking the canoe. I grabbed for him to keep him in the canoe, which just made the canoe rock more. However, and thankfully, we DID NOT tip over.

I've decided canoes are more relaxing without a canine passenger!

It sounded like Hazel did well for her first time out!

Valerie

Yeah Michelle and your husband had to do all the paddling while you pretended to be helpless. Poor guy!! Wifes!!!

Awwww, come on Mike, give me a little credit! I tossed him a bon-bon every now and then from my end of the boat!

I'm out on canoe hunting as well..Back when Gauge was a pup, my hunting partner, his dog, Gauge, decoys, two shotguns and gear flipped. Lost my shotgun and eye glasses, Gauge was a pup and thought he was going to save me..about drowned me. Now I have a 1754 Tracker Grizzly Duck blind edition boat with a 50 horse 4 stroke merc.