steelheadslayer
11-19-2008, 10:18 PM
Hit a super secret spot with Cameron this morning at o'dark thirty. Set the dekes and built a blind with about half an hour until shooting time. Managed to spill some pretty hot coffee on my hand trying to pour in the dark, mental note: don't put your headlamp away until you can see.
Anyway, Cameron starts us off with a nice mallard drake that Lily retrieved. He could have got started earlier but even with shoot time we couldn't ID a pair of mallards that landed outside the dekes, could have had 10 yard shots if we could've seen em. Then it got slow for awhile. We saw a flock of honkers flying downriver and I got on the call to bring em in. They wanted nothing to do with it, I NEED to learn to call better.
What I didn't see was a flock heading straight towards us about 25 yards up. Cameron can't see em until they are right over top of us. He asks, "Are they good?" I reply, "yeah", I fired 3 shots and dropped the lead honker, Cameron shot and didn't think he got one.
A little time goes by and an immature drake wigeon swings through the dekes out my side and I crumple him with a load of Wingmaster HD 6's that Cameron loaned me, impressive shells. About an hour later we manage to pick off a pair of mallards just before they sat in the dekes. Nice northern mallards.
I went over to move the boat with the outgoing tide, hate getting stranded. I was about 25 yards away from our blind and find another nice honker laying in the grass just onshore. It had to be the one Cameron shot at earlier. I thought I saw another bird crumple but I was trying to get another bird down and wasn't sure. It turned out to be fairly productive but not high numbers day. Lily had her first experience with a goose, she doesn't quite know what to think of em.
Lily with my ducks and goose:
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/8146/lilyduckgooseht9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Here is a better shot of my goose. The checker said it had the longest culmen she's ever seen, over 60mm. It's about 2/3 the size of Lily, she was very uncomfortable sitting next to it for the pic.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7199/lilygoosekf1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Thanks for going Cameron, you're more than welcome in my blind anyday.
__________________
Anyway, Cameron starts us off with a nice mallard drake that Lily retrieved. He could have got started earlier but even with shoot time we couldn't ID a pair of mallards that landed outside the dekes, could have had 10 yard shots if we could've seen em. Then it got slow for awhile. We saw a flock of honkers flying downriver and I got on the call to bring em in. They wanted nothing to do with it, I NEED to learn to call better.
What I didn't see was a flock heading straight towards us about 25 yards up. Cameron can't see em until they are right over top of us. He asks, "Are they good?" I reply, "yeah", I fired 3 shots and dropped the lead honker, Cameron shot and didn't think he got one.
A little time goes by and an immature drake wigeon swings through the dekes out my side and I crumple him with a load of Wingmaster HD 6's that Cameron loaned me, impressive shells. About an hour later we manage to pick off a pair of mallards just before they sat in the dekes. Nice northern mallards.
I went over to move the boat with the outgoing tide, hate getting stranded. I was about 25 yards away from our blind and find another nice honker laying in the grass just onshore. It had to be the one Cameron shot at earlier. I thought I saw another bird crumple but I was trying to get another bird down and wasn't sure. It turned out to be fairly productive but not high numbers day. Lily had her first experience with a goose, she doesn't quite know what to think of em.
Lily with my ducks and goose:
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/8146/lilyduckgooseht9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Here is a better shot of my goose. The checker said it had the longest culmen she's ever seen, over 60mm. It's about 2/3 the size of Lily, she was very uncomfortable sitting next to it for the pic.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7199/lilygoosekf1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Thanks for going Cameron, you're more than welcome in my blind anyday.
__________________