For most of us, our waterfowl season is coming to a close. A dark, dismal thought. But nonetheless, a reality we have to face every year. A season we think about day in and day out. We spend hours preparing for it, we anticipate it like kids anticipate Christmas morning, and it all ends at sunset. Then comes the work of packing up decoys, blinds, and boats away into storage. And just like that, it’s all over- until the coming fall, of course.
Next comes the bragging about how amazing the hunts were, and how fun the season was. We get to show off pictures of absolute banger shoots that we went on and we get to reminisce on the days of duck hunts past. Chatting with friends and family about trophy birds, funny moments, and piles of ducks and geese at the end of the hunt. But what happens if that’s not the case? What happens if there were no piles to take pictures of? Or no trophy birds to take to the taxidermist? How do you handle a season that just plain-out sucked ass? For some, this can be easier than others, but if you do things right, and don’t go piss in the wind, a bad season can be just as valuable as a good one.
First things first, if you haven’t learned this lesson already, no one on social media has ever had a bad hunt in their lives, because they don’t tell you otherwise. So don’t compare your hunting season to what you see on the internet. What’s that old saying that goes “comparison is the thief of joy”? Yeah, avoid comparing your season to the pile pics and glory stories you see on Facebook and Instagram. And for that matter, avoid comparing your season to anyone else’s season at all. Just because you see someone else having a good season on Instagram doesn’t mean you need to feel inferior about the efforts you put into hunting this year.
What those posts don’t show are the hunts that were just as bad as the next guy’s or the other blunders that come with every hunter in the game. If your hunting wasn’t as good as the guys you follow on social media, that’s ok, their hunting wasn’t as good as they made it seem either. Remember, the true value of a hunt comes from the memories and experiences you gain from it. Another thing to avoid the “bad season blues” is to focus on are the lessons you learned. Another saying I’ve heard has been “You only fail if you don’t learn from your mistakes”. When I first started waterfowl hunting, I started with my dad. We were both first-generation waterfowlers. We went through year after year of trial and error, but we had to learn from those errors if we ever wanted to be successful. Don’t get me wrong, we still make plenty of mistakes, but those first few years taught us what to avoid and what to do differently to be successful.
If your season was less than ideal, take into account some of the reasons why that might have been the case, and then learn from them. See which things you might want to try next season, or which things you’ll want to do the same. And if you were trying something new, remember, fortune favors the bold. Don’t be afraid to take the things you did well and use them to grow on, and the mistakes you made and learn even more. It will help your next duck season be even better.
Something else that can be helpful in getting rid of the bad taste in your mouth after a poor waterfowl season is looking forward to a fun off-season. Turkey hunting is just around the corner, along with countless outdoor shows to go and enjoy the company of other outdoor enthusiasts. It gives you the chance to make plans and get excited about the next duck season and put the bad hunts behind you. You can book your next hunt with some of our premier outfitters to have something to look forward to for the next season, or you can buy new hunting gear to use for the next season, just don’t tell your wife. There are countless ways to use the off-season to move past a rough year and look forward to the potential best season of your life that’s coming in the fall.
Another important thing to remember is that some seasons are just one great big kick to the sack. I know people who have hunted really hard, tried everything they can, and come away without anything to show for it. At the end of the day, as much as we hate to admit it, we work on the bird’s schedule. Our success is largely dictated by their migration patterns and habits. We can’t control that. We can’t control the weather, or water levels, or anything that can change a duck or goose’s behavior. So one thing to always remember is that just because this season was rough, doesn’t mean that’s a permanent thing. Especially for the hunters that are just starting out. If you had a rough year, that’s ok! And even to be expected to some degree. Just don’t get discouraged! There will be plenty of great years ahead and plenty more bad ones. That’s just part of the game. Stay at it, and enjoy the hunt.
One of the greatest things you can do to keep away from falling into a negative mindset after a bad year is to remember one key thing: YOU GET TO GO HUNTING. You get to go out with friends and family and enjoy the things you love. To put this into perspective, I know a young man from my home state of Utah who was in a terrible accident earlier this hunting season. After healing from a collapsed lung, a severely broken shoulder, and multiple different surgeries, all he wanted to do was go out in the blind and watch the hunt unfold. Not shoot, because the doctors wouldn’t let him. So have a positive outlook on the fact that even if the harvested bird count wasn’t great for you, at least you got to go out and enjoy this great sport we call waterfowl hunting.
So as things wind to an end if your season has been full of big piles of honkers or straps full of ducks, awesome! If it hasn’t been as fruitful, remember, stay don’t compare your season to what you see on social media. Learn from your mistakes of the year. Understand that ‘bad years’ will be a recurring thing, so ride them out, and embrace the good years. And above all else, appreciate the fact that you have the chance to get out and hunt.
