Free: Contests & Raffles.
on the fence as far as holding on to vegitation goes. would an air breathing creature intentionally drown itself? i do know that a crip can swim under water for great distances & with great speed. easily distancing a dog only pop up 50 yds down river with nothing but a head bump above water.when i was dogless i found my self chasing a crip or two with my boat only to have them dive. most times if i just stood in the boat with my binos id see em if the water was calm enough.
i understand them tangleing in the vegitation, seen it my self & i know they will hold onto things underwater & die from wounds, but if not tangled, dead ducks float.just saying its been my experience that they can & will pop up way away from where you think they will with no more showing than that of a turtle head & if you are not watching for it you will miss them.I've had them dive on my dogs, blow right past them(underwater) & come up well behind & out of sight & smell of the dog & if i hadn't been watching for it i would have lost them.geese do the same thing. i call it turtilling. i also take a small pair of bino's with me & watch the perimeter.
Lost my first canvasback when it dove after hitting the water, I'm sure, as a diver, it swam a looong ways away. My lab would not quit looking and I had to actually go after him in the ice lined water to get him to give up.
I shot one pretty far the other day, broke a wing and he went down on the ice. I broke ice all the way to him, he walked over and got in the water around some short cattails. I chased him around in circles for 5 minutes because i didnt want to shoot him being so close. Finally he got tired and dove. I lost him for a minute or two but i saw his green head barely above the water. He dove again but the water wasnt deep and i just reached down and grabbed him by the butt. Never been so happy to ring a ducks neck in my life. I was almost late to work because of him haha.
Quote from: gaddy on December 10, 2012, 01:52:17 PMon the fence as far as holding on to vegitation goes. would an air breathing creature intentionally drown itself? i do know that a crip can swim under water for great distances & with great speed. easily distancing a dog only pop up 50 yds down river with nothing but a head bump above water.when i was dogless i found my self chasing a crip or two with my boat only to have them dive. most times if i just stood in the boat with my binos id see em if the water was calm enough.Yes, they will drown themselves. Basically lock onto vegetation and die more from the shot than drowning I imagine. Either way they are still locked onto the vegetation. Sometimes when I kicked them up they are alive other times dead.