# Teal Fiesta!



## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

Had a great morning today chasing the water doves-I decided to hit up a spot I like to call Whistler Lake due to the prolific amounts of teal, wigeon, and pintails it holds. When the birds are in there you can hear a constant back and forth of whistles from all 3 kinds of ducks, it's pretty cool! The teal were really flying at first light, I could have limited out in a half hour if I was shooting decently-I swear those teal can fly right through your pattern and come out the other side without a scratch! I've never shot so many shells to get a limit of birds.









When I first started carving my own decoys about 5 years ago, I decided to start with a rig of greenwing teal, mainly because I thought that since they were small they would be easy to carve and because the drakes looked like they would be fun to paint. Looking at them now is like looking back at a drawing you made in elementary school-there's so much I would do different now, and they look crude and simple, but they still seem to work! Goes to show that the ducks aren't usually nearly as harsh a critic of decoys as hunters are! Hope everybody has been having a good season!


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Nice! This season is shaping up to be a great one.


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## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

Nice, Cody. You should try a 20 gauge with a Skeet tube shooting WW Xpert 6s.

We used to have excellent hunts for GWT about 20 years ago. We'd go out once a week and shoot 2 limits in 45 minutes. Leave the house at 9:30, paddle a bit less than a mile, done by 12:15:









Not like that anymore. Trying new areas this year with limited success. Killed a couple of stray teal last week, a canvasback on Monday. Seems like there's lots of gaddies and wigeon around.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

I've seen more teal and wigeons this year than in the last 10 years. (at least) 
I shoot a few wigeons every season, but not like this year. I have been putting a beating on them the last week or so. I think my next trip I'm going to put out 4 dozen wigeon decoys and see what happens. There are a ton of pintails this year too. Last year I didn't see a pintail until mid November. Somebody jumped the gun with the 1 pintail regulation.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

On youth day my Grandson got his first double ever and it was on teal. I was in awe. Sometimes I swear those little rockets are wearing kevlar feathers!


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

Paddler-that's a great photo! Are you using trash bags for swan decoys?


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## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

Pumpgunner said:


> Paddler-that's a great photo! Are you using trash bags for swan decoys?


Thanks, Cody. That's from about 1998. Old film camera, Olympus OM-1, good old Kodachrome 64. Yep, those are swan decoys. Pretty funny, but the pelicans liked them.


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## OverTheEdge (Sep 12, 2013)

Wow.....That was a long time ago Paddler. Were you in High School?!


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## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

OverTheEdge said:


> Wow.....That was a long time ago Paddler. Were you in High School?!


It was so long ago I didn't even realize that gadwall are inedible. I had some gaddie decoys at the time, you can see one in the photo. I sold them and shipping really ate into my profit, but it was worth it to get rid of them.


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