My granddaughter, Demaris Darnell, has grown up. Since she was a tiny tot, she has been my fishing and hunting buddy. Through the years we caught sunfish and bass in our kayaks on the San Marcos River. She still holds several junior fish records on the river, Lake Walter E. Long and Bastrop Lake. She especially loved the trips up the Guadalupe above Canyon Lake in the spring in pursuit of white bass and stripers. I have a beautiful picture of her with a 12-pound striper caught about 12 miles above the lake at “the rapids”.
But our duck hunting excursions were some of our favorites. Years ago she told me, “Daddio I need a gun that will shoot harder and more times than this little .410 gauge.” So I bought her a youth model semi-auto .20 gauge. Last year we put an adult stock on the little .20 gauge.
Then in August she moved to Florida to attend college at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. I tried to get her to go to Texas A&M in Corpus Christi. Since I have a fishing and hunting cabin in Aransas Pass, we could work lots of outdoor exclusions around her classes. But no — it was Florida.
But now she’s home for the Christmas holidays. So a Christmas duck hunt was a must.
Demaris, her dad, Tim, brother Timothy and I were scheduled for a hunt in Gonzales County near Pilgrim. We met at the store in Martindale plenty early to make the drive to Gonzales, repair the blind and set the decoys. But Timothy didn’t come. He is engaged to be married this summer and is distracted this hunting season. Our last hunt to Gonzales County had not been good. We usually see big numbers on ducks in the marshy lake that we hunt, but that day they were gone. We only dropped three birds.
Now with the decoys set, we waited eagerly for the first flights of the morning. Would they come today? One spoonbill flew in early and Demaris wacked him. Then three gadwalls decoyed from the front. I dropped the bird on the left, Demaris killed they middle bird and Tim nailed the right-side bird. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Then it happened. Scores of ducks began to pour into the lake over my left shoulder. I’m sure 100 ducks sailed over the decoys in 10 minutes. After that blitz, things slowed down. But half of our 18-bird limit lay on the ground at our feet.
I took my lab, Annie, hustled around the lake, walked up the creek a hundred yards and hid in some big salt grass clumps. Ducks slowly began to filter back into the lake in singles and doubles. Tim and Demaris shot four from the blind and I did just as well on the creek. I did have one glitz. Somehow some 16 gauge shot shells got mixed with my 12 gauge shells in my vest. What a mess. The semi-auto hung up with a 16 gauge shell stuck in the barrel of the 12 gauge. But luckily, a 12 gauge shell will not fit totally into the chamber with a 16 gauge load blocking the barrel. I cut a reed and pushed the alien shell out of the barrel. If a 20 gauge shell falls into a 12 gauge barrel you are in big trouble. The chamber will load another 12 gauge shell, and now with the barrel blocked, the gun will explode when the trigger is pulled. Results? Serious injury or death.
I rejoined Tim and Demaris in the blind. We needed one more duck to have our limit.
“I think I will walk up the creek past where you were and try to jump-shoot our last duck,” said Demaris. Tim and I were so proud of her as we watched her make the long walk. She made all A’s her first semester at West Florida and coached a junior high girls team in a rough neighborhood in Pensacola. She took the team to the playoffs for their first time ever.
Far up the creek she saw three gadwalls on the narrow waters. With stealth, she made her approach. Two of the birds saw her and took off. The other bird was not so lucky. When he burst into the air he was so close that Demaris missed. But she had two more shots and we saw him fold. We also heard her yells!
Tim took his lab, Winter, to help her retrieve her kill but she already had the bird in hand when he arrived.
The hunt was over. Demaris was happy. Tim was happy. I was happy. And the two labs were happy since they got lots of work. Breakfast tacos at Stripes on the way home put the icing on a great holiday morning.
