Dudleys Diary

on Saturday. He and his buddy Hunter who lives in Dallas went out to Hunter's families ranch Thursday evening. They stopped in Weatherford and ate dinner and watched the BCS National Championship Football Game and then went out to the ranch located in Palo Pinto county north of Possum Kingdom Reservoir and the Brazos River. They spent the night in the camp house and got up early the next morning and went duck hunting on one of the many tanks on the ranch. The temperature was only about 12 degrees above zero. Frank said they froze their butts off but there were a few ducks flying in the bitter cold. They put a few decoys out the night before and by daybreak the were frozen in place with a layer of ice over most of the lake. Frank said the first duck he bagged was a Mallard Drake. Later in the morning he bagged a Mallard Hen. Both ducks fell out in the middle of the lake in the icy water. They decided to wait until the afternoon for it to warm up into the twenties before Hunter would brave trying to chop through the ice and wade out in his chest waders to retrieve Frank's ducks. They went back to the camp house after hunting for a couple of hours to try and thaw out. When they went back out Hunter used a log to chop through the ice and waded out to the ducks. He retrieved the Mallard Hen first and when he got to the Drake, he discovered a hawk or other predator had beat him to the duck. There were only feathers left. That night they went out driving around the ranch with a spotlight hoping to get a shot at a coyote or pasture poodle or a fox or bobcat. They did not see any varmints but did see a bunch of deer that were all bedded down in the brush. They went hunting Saturday morning but the lake was frozen over completely and Frank said they saw a lot of ducks but none of them got in range for a shot as they could tell the lake was frozen over and their were no good place for them to land. That afternoon they went out to the rifle range and shot Hunter's new Bushmaster AR-15. Frank had a great time duck hunting and riding around on the 2000 acre ranch. Hopefully Frank will get invited to go back and go duck hunting again or perhaps go deer hunting. When Frank got back home, he grilled his duck and some whitetail and fallow back strap wrapped in bacon out on the grill and we watched the Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles. Man it does not get much better than that!