Maine Sea Ducks

Posted on December 5, 2003 by J. Tackett 

Lee Kjos; most outdoor enthusiasts, especially duck hunters know the name well. As a photographer Lee captures gun dogs in a way that few-----very few have seen.

After spending some time with Lee over the last 4, or 5 years he has become one of my favorite people in the world.

The word best used to describe Lee is zealous. This guy loves his job, loves dogs, loves ducks, and loves hunting. He has senses that are so finely tuned he is able to look between the lines. He finds amazing, and interesting photographs where most would never think to look.

If you look through one of Lee Kjos' books you'll see inside a gun dog. You can see her thinking; you can see her personality, and her heart. You see the love she has for what she is doing. You can see she is in her element, and doing exactly what god intended for her. It's stunning. Life gives you very few shots to meet people that are so much better than everybody else at their profession that you find yourself just watching.

This was a trip I had looked forward to my whole life. As an outfitter and guide, hunting is your job. The chances to travel in the middle of your season are very few. I had read books, and articles about Eiders, Old Squaw, and Scoters and the men that chased them since I can remember. This kind of water-fowler was a real man tough like Jeremiah Johnson. You know kind of a mountain man of the east. A true water-fowler that did not concern himself with bitter cold or 15 ft. seas, tougher than most by far.

As I got ready for the trip I had some northern duck hunters; serious hunters tell me I was crazy. They too had to see what it was all about, and some of them--most of them left in shame, saying it was fun, but just to damned tough. I tried to not look worried.

I thought to myself I have guided elk hunters 25 miles from the nearest dirt road, shared salmon holes with 10 ft. brown bears, and chased sea run brown trout south of Patagonia, even taken out-of-shape hunters into the roughest mountains of the northwest territories in search of Stone Sheep, without so much as a scratch. Surely this can't be worse, than the weather on many of those trips. Well...It is.

The "Ducks of The Deadly Ledges" by Jerome B. Robinson written in the late seventies is a perfect description of what is for the most part craziness in its purest form.

I experienced craziness with Capt. Steve Brettell, and Lee Kjos, and it was more, and better, than I ever imagined.

The Eider is incredible; they are the "bull elk of waterfowl". Tough beyond description: they make a Giant Canada Goose look like a sissy.

Duck hunting in Maine is for men. You have to be hungry, and your dog must have heart, and desire. Force fetching won't get it done here, they have to love it. To hit the icy waters, and drive hundreds of yards fighting incredible current, and below zero temps; -----it's not for the meek.

You have to have a dog that would rather pick em up than eat. Lee's dog epitomizes that description. Sackett is an old warrior. He is the star of many a magazine cover, but don't let his fluffy good looks fool you, he can go, and go well. Sackett is a duck dog, and has seen his better years physically, but you can still see it in his eyes. He's hungry!

This was Sackett's last trip in "The Big Salt", and it was a privilege for Yella, and I to be apart of it.