# Oconee Dan Denton Waterfowl area quota hunt, 1st wekend (story kinda long)



## The Arrow Guru (Dec 13, 2016)

Hunting partners and true friends are different that other people, at least in my life. I have two that I have known quite a while and I would say we have walked in waders and chased turkeys together about as many miles and any hunting partners out there. Well, as life goes, careers and locations seem to steal that time away and in this case, we had not duck hunted now in 7 or 8 years. We talk, or text, just abut everyday and keep up to date with each others lives. New babies, weddings, new jobs, everyday stresses. However it never replaces those times we spend chasing turkeys or waist deep in icy water. So it wasn't hard to decide who I was going to invite to go with me when I got picked for the Dan Denton waterfowl area for opening weekend of the second season last Saturday. 

I scouted the pond several times leading up to the hunt being the only one with a spare second to do so. One of my buddies is a paramedic and first responder in Worth county (thank you for your service bro, seriously) and one is a hoof trimmer for the dairy farm industry and works all the time. I didn't get too excited because I didn't see a lot of birds in pond 3 but pond 1 was always full of birds. However we met up and headed down.

We set up in a patch of willows that stuck out in the water and set out a few pods of ring necks, a few woodies close to the trees and a few mallards and waited.

We shot 8 woodies, 2 mergansers and a ring neck. I didn't have very high expectations and was very happy with the shoot. We would have had more but for a time mid-morning our shooting went cold and we struck out a couple times before we got back to hitting birds! 

The bottom line is that it was like old times and we had an absolute blast. Constantly giving each other a hard time with no let up and spending a few hours together waist deep in water. I can not tell you how much more that meant than the ducks we were blessed enough to harvest at the same time. 

These guys are part of a very small group I truly call friends. People that would do anything for the other one and would be on the road to help if it were ever needed. It was worth the 7 years of rejection points to make this happen.


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## Michael F Sights (Dec 14, 2016)

Sweet, I have pond 3 for 12/24.


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## emusmacker (Dec 14, 2016)

Awesome hunt. And that's what it's supposed to be like.


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## Core Lokt (Dec 15, 2016)

I agree, there are friends and then there are acquaintances. I'm truly blessed with several that I can call a friend.

Glad y'all had a great time and got to hunt again


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