AN OUTDOORSMAN’S

BY MARK WALTERS

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY STANLEY TIRE

The Mississippi 2021

Hello friends, Fifty duck seasons ago I camped on an island on the Missis- sippi river near Ferryville for the first time and hunted ducks with my brothers Mike and Tom Walters and my dad the late Robert Walters.

I am 100-percent addicted to this gear oriented, scenic challenge that is a pure blast.

Friday, October 1st High 81, low 57 Before daylight on Saturday morning there would be seventeen of us calling our island paradise home and that is how I am going to kind of angle this week’s column. Yesterday, Jeff Moll, myself and my stepson Travis Dushek made it to camp, and we had a blast. Basically, all we did was sit by a campfire and laugh a lot.

Jeff would be hunting with Ruby’s daughter Luna who he actually borrows for this hunt, she is not trained for hunting, but Jeff would be amazed as she retrieved all nine of his ducks and not a one would be lost.

Travis would be hunting with Ruby’s sister Ash, and both are addicted to hunting like very few people can understand. I helped raise Travis and he grew up on this trip.

Early Friday morning my brother Mike Walters and brotherin- law Dick Schuster showed up to camp. Neither duck hunt but are here for the fishing and most importantly the campfire time, this year the fish bite was slow, or should I say, the perch were small.

About midafternoon the young troops started making it to camp. The Wandler boys are about 19 to 29, with Grant being the oldest, Conrad who came from Kansas City in the middle and Vlad the youngest. These kids grew up with my stepson Joey Dushek and came along in high school and have not missed a year since. They also brought a kid named Michael David along who grew up in Necedah, had one hell of a nice boat and fit right in.

About 5:00 p.m. I headed to the boat landing with my War Eagle, naturally I hit a rock, which much of the gang witnessed from camp. My goal was to pick up my 20-year-old daughter Selina who is a junior at UWSP and her “friend” Isaac Labuuda who is a senior at UW Eau Claire. Isaac loves to duck hunt and is a good kid.

When I picked up Selina and Isaac, Matt Keisling, a fellow teammate of Travis on the Necedah Cardinals football team, was at the landing with his yellow lab "Trigger" for his first hunt with this gang.

I just got back to camp, and Joey Dushek shows up with Joey Snodie “Snoots!” I gave Snoots his nickname when he was 16 and hanging out in our world. Naturally Joey Dushek had “Pike” along who is probably the largest golden doodle on the planet.