HUNTING WITHGRAVEYARD GUIDE SERVICE

ByBryan Fitzgerald

My friend, Larry Rider called and asked if I remembered the duck hunt he bought at the March 10, 2012 Arkansas SCI Fundraiser. I confessed that I had forgotten about that hunt. He said he was setting a date in December this year and asked if I would join him. I try to never turn down an invitation to hunt. He asked if December 16 & 17 would work for me. I said “sure’.

Justin Wampler

Justin Wampler, co-owner of Graveyard Guide Service donated a two day duck hunt for one hunter with one paying hunter. All the guided hunts are on the family farm that has been there for three generations.

I called two hunting buddies and invited them to join us. Gary Acord signed on immediately. Robert Williams had a conflict Monday morning but said he would join us Monday afternoon.

Larry and I rode together and Gary followed us as we drove to McCrory on Sunday

afternoon. Their office/lodge is on US 64 in McCrory next to the Sonic. In a previous life the building had been a restaurant. It came with a kitchen, dining room, two bathrooms and lots of space for a pool table, lounge and more.

Lounge

Bunk Room

We arrived with all the normal introductions and instructions. Our second guide would be Micah Harbison from the backwoods and swamps about an hour north of Birmingham, AL. They asked if it would be ok to have chili for dinner. We all agreed that we liked chili. We talked about their type of hunting. They said that hunting from a pit blind would be a lot different than the green timber hunting that I had been doing. We could watch Sunday night

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football if we wanted. However, the wake call would be at 4:00am.

Micah Harbison

I slept well and did not hear the wake up? I became aware that Larry and Gary were getting dressed, and I should do the same. Our guides were up and coffee was made. Larry and I loaded with Gary, and we followed our guides to the farm which was located about three miles west of Fair Oaks.

While the guides were loading the dog and decoys, we were getting into our waders. Larry and I rode with Micah in the Polaris Ranger, and Gary rode with Justin in the Yamaha Rhino for about a one mile ride to the pit blind. We drove through water up to the floor boards, but they delivered us right to levy where the blind was buried. This had been their hot blind.

They take up their decoys each day and reset each morning. They said this keeps their spread fresh, and keeps the ducks in the fields in the afternoons. There were several dozen duck decoys and another three dozen full bodied geese decoys. As we waited for shooting time nothing happened, not even at daylight. In green timber it’s normal for ducks to light before and shortly after shooting time. It was full day light before the ducks were flying in our area.

When they did come, they were very cautious. I had to adjust to shooting ducks flyingfaster and further away than I had been used to.Not all of the shots were difficult. We would have flights of 8 to 10 ducks that would break right over the blind. I made one particularly good shot on a high duck on the other side of the decoys. It collapsed and fell dead. Justin shouted “graveyard dead”.

Mid-morning, Micah fired up the propane cook stove and cooked breakfast in the blind. The scrambled eggs and sausage were just what we needed.

We were completely embarrassed by a snow goose. This goose came on a long low glide like a WWII torpedo bomber. Both guides and the retriever were out of the blind picking up ducks. Justin yelled at Micah to get down – way down! Everyone was surprised. I look to Micah and saw this goose going behind him on the east side of the blind and then behind the dog. I lost sight of the goose as it glided behind Larry and the Gary. There was some shooting before and after it went behind Justin. As it flew off, I knocked feathers out of the back side. NO GOOSE!

Justin Wampler – “Prada” - Micah HarbisonBryan Fitzgerald - Larry Rider - Gary Acord

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We killed a total of 25 ducks that day and our guides and retriever collected every single duck we knocked down. I have never hunted with such a hard working crew. I guess they saw how poorly I was shooting and knew the only way tosave the day was to revive every single duck. There were so many ducks that I eventually shot my limit before I ran out of shells.

Back at the lodge we took turns taking a shower and getting cleaned up. Robert Williams arrived from Little Rock and two new hunters joined us. We had requested duck for supper. They had a special recipe called “duck ball”. They took a shallow bowl and placed bacon strips across the bottom. Then they put one half of a duck breast on top of the bacon. Cream cheese and jalapeno peppers went next followed by the other half of the duck breast. Now it was very easy to wrap the bacon around the breast and pin with tooth picks. It was delicious.

After dinner, some watched Monday night football. Robert and I walked next door to the Sonic for desert. Robert treated by buying four “Blast”, which we carried back to the lodge.

Tuesday morning Micah took the four of us to the same pit to hunt. Justin took the two new hunters to a different area. Micah put out more full bodied geese decoys and less duck decoys than we did the first day.

We had the same amount of duck activity as the day before. My shooting did not improve, but Gary was shooting well. He shot a black duck which he gave to Micah to mount. Our decoy spread attracted more geese. We had flock of ten speckle belly geese come over high, but within range. We knocked down five. We were slowly building on the duck count as well as taking a couple of geese. Larry shot a snow goose which he wanted to mount along with a beautiful great

northern spoon bill. I could not see Robert but birds were falling from his end of the blind.

Like the day before, Micah fired up the propane cook stove at mid-morning. Eggs over easy, sausage, and pancakes were on the menu. We were all inside the blind enjoying our breakfast when Colby shouted GEESE, KILL THESE GEESE. There was a mad scramble to find our shotguns, stand up, find the geese and shoot. They were right over the pit and low. I think everyone emptied their guns. Five more speckle belly geese fell; putting us just 2 shy of our daily limit.

Like the day before, our guides never stopped working. Micah, his retriever, Gus, and Colby Criswell collected every duck and goose that we knocked down. We had a wonderful hunt.

We left before noon with fifteen ducks and twelve geese. Micah said that we had set a new one day record for geese. Maybe that made up for the one we missed the previous day.

Bryan Fitzgerald–Larry Rider–Robert Williams–Gary Acord

GRAVEYARD GUIDE SERVICEwww.graveyardguideservice.com

731 571 7960

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