Northwest Sportsman – August 2019

150 Northwest Sportsman AUGUST 2019 | nwsportsmanmag.com

HUNTING

hunters and not prone to things

with feathers, that experience was

limited. Two things immediately

pleased me about the young man.

One, he had been taught firearm

safety early and well, and, while

I did keep a close eye on him, he

demonstrated these lessons and this

knowledge continually. And second,

he wasn’t afraid to ask questions. Lots

of questions. And they were good

questions; inquiries that made me

think, Why am I doing this this way?

Could this fill-in-the-blank be done

more efficiently and effectively?

Throughout the latter part of the

season, Ashden did well, killing some

geese, missing others, and, perhaps

most of all, learning. One morning as

we readied the blind, I told him that

today, his role would be that of pit

boss. He would, I explained, adjust

the blind and touch it up, if necessary.

He would be responsible for the

decoys, e.g. what subspecies went

where, and how that spread would

be set given the wind, the roost, and

any other factors to be considered. He

would be expected to tell me why he

was setting the spread in the manner

in which he decided, and he would

move the spread; again, if necessary.

Other responsibilities for the

morning would be determining

and relaying legal shooting time,

a reminder involving bag limits,

ammunition choices, flag/no flag,

and, finally, calling the shot. I made

but one concession for the boy at his

request. I would do the calling, as – he

told me – I’d proved myself more than

capable of frightening geese away via

an aural barrage of unnatural squeaks

and squeals. After reminding him that

I was in charge of distributing Julie’s

homemade pumpkin bread and how

thin the ice was upon which he trod,

he edited his comments.

Long story short, Ashden did a

tremendous job on this, his “’fowl

final,” even including a sidenote

regarding the fact that while shooting

hours for ducks began 30 minutes

prior to sunrise, geese in Southwest

Washington only became legal

fodder at straight-up sunrise. I was

impressed, though not surprised.

The boy was a sponge, as passionate

a student as I’ve ever had. He took

our hunts seriously, and soaked up

what I had to tell him and show him.

The half dozen birds we killed that

morning he identified prior to calling

the shot, and then, per my request,

explained some of the structural

differences between the cacklers,

lessers, and Westerns we bagged.

Most notably, he exhibited a deep-

seated genuine respect for the wild

lives he had taken, laying each bird

There will be highs and there will be lows, but when it all comes together, Johnson says you’ll

feel a special pride in having helped a newbie on the path to success. (JULIA JOHNSON)

“Waterfowl ID isn’t an overnight thing. Getting good at it

takes time, and you have to make the time to get good at

it,” notes the author, who says that it should include being

able to identify nontarget species too. (CHAD ZOLLER)