Hunting with Ben - 2015

This past weekend, I took my 13 year old nephew Ben up hunting for Youth Waterfowl Day.  Our goal (beyond a lot of male bonding and debauchery) was to get Ben his first ever harvested duck.  The following are some highlights:

A man weekend needs to start at a man-mall, so we made a trip to Fleet Farm to load up on various supplies and gear

Here's Ben with his man-face

A guy can't be serious all the time.

Ben's first duck, brought to hand by the Yellow Dog

The first of two, both of which would find the grill later that evening.

A nice sunrise for a nicer day

A breakfast of man-meat, with a side order of man-meat

Working hard at trolling.  Or something.

Despite jacking around, the kid was still able to land a really nice northern, which was quite an accomplishment, until...

The young man landed this 30"+ gator.  It was the second largest northern I've ever had in my boat in my life.

Any way you slice it, it was a pretty successful weekend for the young man.  Not sure which of us came out with the better memories.