Working Off the Turkey and Stuffing

Sometimes the outing is more about the dog than the shooting. On the day after Thanksgiving I took my pal Carl over to southern Salem County, NJ for a duck hunt. Carl moved to Ohio several years ago but grew up here in the Delaware Valley. He comes east each year to see his clan for Thanksgiving and the visit gives us an excuse to load the guns and take to the Blinds. In recent years, the day after Thanksgiving has been warm and sunny and thus not great waterfowl conditions.

On these "bluebird" days...it is  less hunting and more taking the decoys for a boat ride down at the delaware Club. So this year some guys had arranged a duck release shoot at M&M Preserve. I secured a spot for Carl and I so I could garuntee him some shooting and garuntee some work for my new dog Genna. I alternated shooting and working the dog so Carl could get some trigger time. The birds were plentiful and quite "wild" and there was  challeneging shots and fast passes at each blind. Genna did a splendid job marking the downed birds and was in the water more than she was out. She even caught scent of a bird deep in the marsh that was wounded and missed. We were walking back to the truck along a marsh path when Gennna became birdy and excited along a mud flat. I let here roam and she slopped over the mud and into the tall Fragmitis and came out with a Mallard hen...a great job and she impressed the crew.

The shoot was over at about 4:00 and by 6:30 we were at Germantown Cricket Club clad  in  whites and on the squash court after a gym warm up. Carl is an experienced raquet baller and bested me in squash to my surprise...though I took it easy on him a bit; we were in it for the work-out and not the score. After a sauna and shave we hit the tap room to meet up with my wife and some of our high school friends that were in town for the Holiday. It was a great Sportsman's day and I was proud of my  Genna. She is showing great promise as a quality watefowler and lovely blind companion.