By Rick Spoerl

The brisk October wind was biting at my cheek’s and was anxious to roll some butterball’s. That is, down some plump lesser and greater scaup, along with perhaps a golden eye or two, and maybe if were lucky a pretty bufflehead drake to hang on the wall. It was the beginning of my first "diver hunt". I have shot diver ducks before, but not specifically hunting for the pochards, I usually shot them over my spread of puddle duck blocks. But not this time. Now we were targeting just divers. Specifically, bluebills. Their low speed assaults on diver spreads tests even the best sporting clays shooters. And you better hit em hard, because if you don’t, their sure to dive and not be seen again.

This wasn’t my first time on the acclaimed Lake of the Woods in Ontario Canada. I had visited the northern part of the Lake twice before, both times Bear hunting. Along with superb hunting this lake provides incredible fishing. It’s famous for its huge Muskies and plentiful Walleye and Smallmouth. I can attest to it as both Bear hunting trips we caught our fair share of big Walleye and Smallies. We even boated a couple fifteen pound Northern pike. But now I was in the much bigger south end of the lake not as protected. This is big water. Perfect for the Bluebills we are after.

My Father, Uncle Al, friend Larry and I had loaded up a large cruiser on the banks of Canada’s Lake of the Woods in Ontario. We launched near the small town of Morson and were headed out to an Island called "Pine Island". That was to be our base camp for the next four days. As we pounded across the big bay towards the Island I scanned the skies for flocks of Scaup. Only seeing some Pelicans and a hated Cormorant, George, the owner of Pine Island resort mentioned "Boy, you should have been here last week during the snow storm, the guy’s slayed the ducks".

After unpacking and settling into our comfortable cabin we admired the surrounding area and were pleased to have booked our hunt with such a classy place. It was a small Island but the cabins on it weren’t cramped at all. We had plenty of space as well as unbelievable solitude and scenery. They had several cabins on the island including a spacious lodge, dining hall, well equipped boat house and workers quarters. The food they served us was magnificent, way more then we should have eaten and meals were always served on time. The little snacks we brought along in coolers were never touched. We couldn’t say enough about the service. With that said, we were there for divers.

We met our neighbors in the cabin next door from Illinois. As they had been there a couple of days they told us stories of Eagles picking up the crippled ducks that got away and how they had videoed shooting at the ducks and missing. These ducks were straight from the north and as tough as nails.

When they watched the video at the end of each day they noticed there shot hitting the water a good four feet behind the last bird in the flock. These fast little scaup were getting the best of the Illinois puddle duck hunters. After they adjusted their lead they started killing the birds. I wondered how many birds they would have brought home had it not been for that video camera. A crossing shot on a bluebill definitely deserves a lead.

After an hour or so George asked us what we wanted to do. We all kind of looked at each other and about the same time all replied "shoot ducks". George laughed and said "ok, let’s go shoot ducks".

The four of us split up into two boats, My Uncle and I in one and my Father and Larry in the other. Our guides for the hunt were two young local’s who were in as much of a competition with themselves over which group would shoot more ducks as they were about their beloved sport of hockey. Little bruisers full of piss and vinegar would work their butts off to get you ducks. Our guide left for the main land one night after the hunt to attend a hockey game. I heard his boat pull back onto the Island about two in the morning and I thought "oh great, he’ll be just raring to go at four o’clock". Well four thirty am and there he was, on the pier, the boat running and putting our gear in. I noticed he had a fresh shiner on his eye. I complimented him on his one eyed makeup job. He just replied "yah, I had a disagreement with a fellow hockey fan, eh". Still he was eager to find us some ducks; he worked hard that day and was still raring to go into the next night. Oh to be young again.

The first afternoon we sped off the Island and found a sheltered bay partially weeded not but a ten minute boat ride. I watched as the guide put out a dozen bluebill decoys on a mother line straight into the wind off the point we were to hunt on. He took one lone decoy with a long anchor on it and placed it parallel to the line, kind of breaking up the straightness of the set-up slightly. The guide parked the boat on the other side of the Island. When he returned I asked him about the small spread. He said that most of these birds are born on the Hudson Bay and aren’t used to seeing big spreads yet. Being the beginning of October they are getting there first look at Lake of the Woods.

I asked him about a blind and he walked behind me, grabbed two six foot sticks and laid them in front of me. I looked at him and said "that’s it". He replied "that’s it". "Just don’t move around to much, and they shouldn’t flare". "These birds haven’t seen to many humans and think their safe as long as they stay over water". "Wow", I thought. "I wish it were like that back home in Wisconsin. By the time they get that far south they flare on a blink of an eye".

The reason for the mother line was simple. You could put out several decoys in deep water without having thirty feet of anchor line on each decoy. The decoys are anchored near the shore by one five pound weight and spaced on clips every four feet out, then a final length of chord tied to a twenty foot piece of rope and anchored by another five pound weight. This makes a straight line of ducks and when two mother lines are used together to form a V, you can create a great landing zone for the birds. Since that trip we successfully used the V format on our mother lines many times on pool 9 of the Mississippi river for divers and it worked great.

We did modify the mother lines we used in Canada slightly after nearly losing a great hunting dog. One of the trips outings brought all four of us to a small rock Island, a flock of bluebills came in and the four of us dropped three ducks. Dusty my Dads ten year old yellow lab was coming back from retrieving the last bird when he got hung up on the mother line. After it was apparent he wasn’t getting loose the guide started running for the boat, which was on the other side of the Island. I started stripping down getting prepared to swim when the guide came buzzing around the corner for the rescue. The dog was definitely running out of gas when he was finally freed. It seemed like an hour but probably closer to ten minutes that the dog was hung up.

Now we have installed split shot fishing weights in the middle of each decoy to weight the line under water so the dog can get over the line. We also use much lighter weights on both ends of the mother line. They are heavy enough to keep a dozen decoys from floating away, but light enough that a strong dog could move them in an emergency.

We also teach our dogs to handle (take direction with hand signals) with the bird in their mouth. We have always taught our dogs handling to retrieve birds they haven’t seen fall, but we never taught them to handle after they have the bird. Now we do. If they’re headed for the mother line we can simply stop them with a blast of the whistle and send them back, right, or left of the line.

The first flocks of bluebills were lesser scaup. Speed and maneuverability was surely their strong suit. After we emptied our guns we did manage to drop one. I new that after I had taken my safety off, pointed the gun out in front of the duck, stuck my finger in the trigger guard and because of big warm gloves I had on, the gun fired. I was surprised to say the least. But I was even more surprised to see a duck fall when my aiming point was a good four feet ahead of that bird. My Uncle yelled "nice shot".

After shooting a limit of divers (with a box of shells), we headed in for dinner. On the way in we saw hundreds of eagles up and down the tree line. Even the locals all came running with cameras to catch a glimpse of this most unusual migration. While living and playing in Wisconsin, seeing eagles was cool, but seeing hundreds of them in the trees was totally awesome. A sight I doubt I’ll see again.

After figuring out my lead on the ducks, I did manage to start killing them on a more regular basis. Believe me I got plenty of practice. The flocks of bluebills came and came. They must have arrived the week before during the snow storm and were still staging in the area. I even shot my first triple on this trip. And with an old 870 pump 12 gauge that’s not the easiest thing to do. I also shot several doubles along with a double, killed with one shot. After my three and a half day hunt I managed twenty ducks on one hundred shells.

The last day we decided to go trophy hunting. That’s right, trophy hunting for the beautiful buffleheads. All four of us headed out to a large bay some ten miles away. A long boat ride in the dark, but if the birds were there, it would be well worth it.

We waited; we were now down to our last hour of the hunt. We had seen birds but nothing was really flying. We had decoyed several flocks of bluebills but stuck to our trophy plan of just shooting four drake buffleheads. As we were thinking about picking up and heading in, we noticed a line of birds approaching. Actually it was two lines of ducks flying the edge of the bank. They were buffleheads. The hens were flying one behind the other paralleling the Island but the drakes were just outside the Hens. I’ve seen drake bufflehead do this before. If the drakes aren’t too comfortable with the situation they will stay outside the hens. It’s almost like a buck following a doe or Tom turkey following a hen.

When they pass us, the hens will be about twenty to thirty yards out, but the drakes will be thirty to forty. As they neared no one even had to say "take em", we stood up in unison and unloaded. When the smoke cleared there laid four of the most gorgeous white headed bufflehead drakes you would ever see. After a couple water swats to finish off the stubborn ones, the dogs picked up our ducks and we headed in.

During this trip we also tried the fishing. One afternoon after limiting out in the morning on ducks we went fishing. Lake of the Woods is known largely for its walleye and big musky but we found a little bay where we caught several keeper crappies as well as a few nice sauger. Our guide showed us a nifty little jig setup that fooled them relentlessly. It was simply a river rig type setup with two tube jigs each 12 inches apart on the line. It worked like a champ.

Another day we shot a couple grouse to pass the time. The Grouse look at you like they have never seen a human. The Islands on Lake of the Woods harbor many a grouse.

If you haven’t been on a diver hunt, you’re missing a great experience. In four days on the big lake the four of us took 75 ducks. All but 8 bufflehead, 2 golden eye, 1 redhead, 1 hooded merganser and 1 lone hen mallard were bluebill. Because of the incredible shooting, we were able to strongly evaluate our lead on fast flying ducks at several angles. This alone has helped me for years deciding the proper lead.

Accommodations were great, scenery spectacular, the host’s were experts and the guides were knowledgeable and safety conscious. Pure professionalism in the North Country. Although George has sold Pine Island resort, the new owners still provide spectacular diver gunning. Give bluebills a try and humble yourself. P.S. bring lots of shells.