An Outdoorsman’s Journal: First teal

Hello friends, After this past weekend and many decades of doing it, I have figured out that my favorite way to spend time is helping to introduce kids to new outdoor activities. I helped start KAMO (Kids and Mentors Outdoors) in 2007 and NOAC (Necedah Outdoor Adventure Club) in 2023, and though both overload my schedule, I do not seem to be backing off. Carsyn Thiede, who is 14 and, as of today, a freshman at Mayville High School; and Conner Thiede, who is 12 and a seventh grader at Mayville, are the children of Tyler and Patsy and are my KAMO kids these days. In other words, for about three years, I have been helping to introduce them to turkey, deer and now duck and goose hunting. Sunday, Sept. 1 – High 74, low 50 Here is the scoop: it is opening day of Wisconsin’s early goose and teal season. I along with Tyler Thiede, his 21-year-old son Tanner, Carsyn and Conner are hunting on the Jeff and Melissa Pausma farm near Fox Lake/Burnett in Dodge County. It is Carsyn and Conner’s first waterfowl hunt, and yesterday we when we were scouting the farm and 40-acre marsh that is part of this beautiful property, we had a pretty good-sized setback. What was at least 15 acres of water last spring when I mentored Conner during the youth turkey hunt and he harvested a sumo tom, which is now getting mounted, is down to about a quarter-acre pond, surrounded by marsh. We had no other options and so here we are. To be honest, our mood is excellent as we are staying at Fowlmouth Hunt Club, we are active and laugh a lot, and this year’s game is Jarts. First things first and it was good news, you cannot shoot until sunrise and there are some teal, mallards and woodies in the area but at least there are ducks. Legal shooting starts, a flock of teal buzzes us, Tanner connects and my golden retriever Ruby who did not even see where the teal fell makes an excellent blind retrieve. We are all hidden in cattails within 15 yards of each other, so there is a lot of joking and laughter but not many ducks and zero geese. Late in the morning we decide it’s time to head in for the midday; the kids want to pick up decoys with Tanner as they have brand new chest waders. Every gun but one is unloaded, a flock of teal appears out of nowhere and Tyler whacks two as no one else has a gun. For our evening hunt, it was all of us but Tanner as he put on a couple of hundred miles looking for geese. Tanner had the same amount of luck as we did, and did not fire a gun. What is so important here is that we laugh, play with the dogs (Red was also along) and plan our youth deer hunt, as this year it seems like we have an excellent plan. Monday, Sept. 2 – High 71, low 47 Yesterday, I walked to our pond in the dark wearing shorts and knee boots; today I wore knee boots, long johns and pants. The weather is changing. This morning we had plenty of mallards, woodies and some teal to watch. Both days we watched deer in the nearby alfalfa fields and this is the same farm where I will be purchasing calves in mid-September. As always, we laughed and watched the sky and just like that, a flock of teal came in fast and both Carsyn and Conner harvested their first ducks and all was perfect in our world.

There were two other experiences where the young hunters were not fast enough to connect but no one cared; both the kids had the monkey off their backs.

The skills that Carsyn and Conner learned with duck identification and calling were impressive and all they could talk about is their next hunt.

My friends, introduce a kid to hunting and the world will be a better place!

Sunset

Mark Walters