Sultry weather greets duck hunters.
GRANTSBURG - As we slid our paddleboats into the marsh at 5:15 a.m. last Saturday, Orion shined so intensely it seemed we could reach out and touch its bow.
The constellation’s seven stars, and the countless others in the clear, predawn sky, served as our headlamps as we navigated a slough in the Wood River system.
Neither I nor my hunting partners — Dave Kell and Matt Pasche, both of Hudson - had ever seen such a bright, moonless night sky.
“Did you pack the Coppertone?” asked Pasche.
His words were only partly in jest.
Even before sunrise, the temperature was 73 degrees Fahrenheit with 84% relative humidity. The forecast called for highs in the mid-80s.
A south wind at 5 mph promised little relief from bugs and muggy conditions.
No two opening days are alike. But the first day of the 2017 Wisconsin north zone duck hunting season looked like it was going to take uniqueness to a sultry extreme.
Kell, Pasche and I were part of a duck camp that meets annually in northwestern Wisconsin.
Formed 43 years ago by Jim Bennett of New Richmond, the group typically sleeps in tents, hunts without the aid of motor-powered boats and eats and tells stories around a fire ring.
In a first, Bennett did not attend the 2017 edition due to some questionable family planning by his son, Josh.
Josh’s wife, Megan, gave birth to a healthy baby named Mari on the Friday before the opener, causing the dad and granddad to miss one of their most highly anticipated hunting outings of the year.
“I don’t know what Josh was thinking,” Kell said. “Maybe math isn’t his strong suit.”
This much we knew for certain — the members of our duck camp will never forget Mari’s birthday.
Although the Bennetts did not make it, this year’s camp did also include Chris LeMay of New Richmond, Jon McCorkle of North Branch, Minn., Ryan Saverine of New Richmond and Chris Wiberg of North Branch, Minn.
As pink light began to creep over the eastern horizon, Kell, Pasche and I paddled our kayaks to the tip of an oak-capped island and dropped a couple dozen decoys in the water.
Then we dragged our boats under shrubby cover and waited to see what the day would hold.
The forecast for the 2017 duck season was rosy. High duck populations in Wisconsin and North America allowed a 60-day season with a sixduck daily bag limit.
In Wisconsin, the breeding duck numbers this spring were estimated at 479,099 birds, 23% higher than 2016 and 9% above the 44-year mean. The continental estimate this spring was 47.3 million ducks, the fifth-highest total on record and 34% above the long-term average.
Wildlife population estimates become little more than pixels on a flat screen once you don your hunting britches, however.
We were hopeful mallards and wood ducks and teal would work our decoys. You can’t, as you know, grill the breast of a report, no matter how optimistic.
Kell, Pasche and I fanned out around the point and settled into cover. Finn, Kell’s yellow Lab, ran between us and exchanged morning greetings.
Legal shooting time was accompanied by several distant volleys from our south and west.
About 6:40 a single drake wood duck dropped over the trees and toward our decoys, but then lifted higher and out of range. It was followed in the next 20 minutes by lone mallards and blue-winged teal.
As the sun rose, the conditions grew oppressive.
We wondered aloud if any of the camouflage face paint manufacturers offered products with SPF 50 and 30% DEET.
We also discussed the merits of clothing over body paint. And questioned whether conservation wardens could issue a ticket for too much skin exposed on a waterfowl hunter.
The morning offered little shooting for us and no ducks in the bag.
We returned to camp to learn that McCorkle was the most successful in our group. He walked to a lake near camp and hunted from shore, where he, with the help of his Labradinger named Nala, took two wood ducks.
As we ate lunch, he also served up a tale.
“These mosquitoes are so big I mistook one for a duck and shot it,” McCorkle said. “The dog retrieved it and that mosquito had four wood ticks on it.”
We took naps after lunch and then made a brief foray to hunt for ruffed grouse. The temperature was 85 degrees at 3 p.m.
The hot weather provoked debates about the timing of the 60-day season. No doubt the conditions provided new fuel for advocates of a later opening day.
Such discussions are as timeless as the smiling eyes of a retriever with fresh marsh mud on her feet.
The 2017 north zone opening weekend provided numerous firsts.
Roughly 300 miles to the southeast, the Green Bay Packers on Sunday played in the hottest conditions for a regular-season game in franchise history.
“Call me nostalgic, but I remember breaking ice on a duck opener when I was kid,” said Pasche, 44.
We wondered if we should brush up on our identifications of tropical species like black-bellied tree ducks and fulvous whistling ducks.
Two veteran Wisconsin hunters, Al Shook of Oconomowoc and Dave Zeug of Shell Lake, said it was the hottest day they’d ever chased ducks.
Shook hunted the opener in Marinette County, Zeug in Washburn County.
“It was just brutal,” said Zeug, who did shoot three woodies and one Canada goose.
For the second duck hunt of opening day, Kell, Pasche and I headed east to different slough with LeMay, Saverine and Wilberg.
We split up into groups and hunted on a marsh peppered with wild rice plants and beaver lodges.
The final hour of hunting provided good flights of ducks, especially mallards. Cooper, LeMay’s Labradinger, got so much work he started giving retrieving instructions to his human companions.
For opening day, our six-member camp took 14 ducks, including seven woodies, five mallards, one blue-winged teal and one hooded merganser.
All of this on public land and water within 20 minutes of Grantsburg. And we saw only one other group of hunters on the water all day.