Thanks Joe. That put a smile on my face.

Black ducks can be just as frustrating until you get a hard freeze up. Then they get rather stupid.Most times they will circle your spread six or seven times before finding some fault so trivial you will never figure it out.

One year our creek, river and the Chesapeake Bay froze solid, but there were still a few pockets of water ducks could get into. Being young, dumb and much lighter than I am now I wanted to hunt ducks on our frozen creek, just off the Bay. I used black Tintex dye to create the illusion of a open water hole. Mixed two packs in a five gallon bucket and spread it to create a "open" area about the size of two pickups. Placed five decoys in and around it and waited. Ducks came from everywhere. Had black ducks dive bombing it the second they saw it. No calling needed at all. They would even try to get into it as the dog was retrieving the dead ducks we shot.

We had a swan try to land in it and he hit it so hard and so fast he slid right into the front of our blind. Knocked himself out. I thought he was dead until he staggered up a few minutes later. Pity he was OK. I wanted to see if he tasted as good as my uncles claimed they did. Several ducks landed on the ice and just about did the same.

When finished hunting I went into the marsh and cut a big pile of reeds and spread them over the "open" hole. The ice lasted three days before the warming weather made it unsafe to use. By then the season was just about over. I made one last trip out to the marsh and put about 250 pounds of corn out on the ice for ducks. It was gone the next morning. I wished them well in their northern migration and hope to see them next season.

If I tried, I could have killed several hundred ducks over that hole over those three days. That is until I got home. The game warden would have been the least of my problems then.