On Jan 2nd while hunting with a great group of friends near Bayou Meta, AR, a great friend, mentor, boss, and dedicated fledgling duck and turkey hunter collapsed from an apparent massive heart attack and went on to better hunting grounds to once again hunt with his dad. He died just seconds after he and I doubled up on a beautiful pair of greenheads. They are at the taxidermist, one for me and the other for his family. I was with him when he killed his first greenhead, his first longbeard, and an awesome Rio with 1-1/2" hooks this past Spring. He was 61.
On Jan 13th, we made our first hunt without him. We used his floating spinning wing decoy and shot 38 birds in his honor as well as miss about 60 I'm sure to his great pleasure. There were not many mallards, but we wore out the gadwall and green winged teal and a bonus speck. We had a few chances at some beautiful pintails and missed. It wasn't the same without him, but we will always bring him along in some way.
