First, Happy New Year to everyone!
A little late on this, but here's my report. Went hunting out on the WMA last Saturday (30th). What an experience.
I went with my good friend and his wife. She was a walker and was going to be running the camera for us.
We decided we were going to need boats which always means a little more work. Well, a lot more work.
We slipped into a small lake in the fog. It was iced over pretty well and now I can say with some authority that a canoe does not turn well in ice. A few strokes into it, we quickly lost sight of the bank we left, and were a long way from seeing the bank we were headed to, breaking ice the whole way. It was pretty surreal.
But, find our spot we did, and out went the decoys.
The sun came up, or so we assumed since we never actually saw it. The shooting started with 4 effortless greenheads in the first hour. We could hear plenty of birds moving around, and plenty of mallards (or so it seemed). We'd hear the distinctive grinding call of the mallard drake somewhere off through the fog. Give a couple quacks, it would get closer, and then... be gone. Other times, we'd hear nothing and suddenly a bird would be over the decoys. Such is the way when hunting in the fog. But, we were happily on the way to greenhead limits.
Until, that is, I had a moment of weakness. Four Wigeon came over us, and this time we could actually see them through the fog. A quick call and a pair of them put the air brakes on. Feet down, wings tucked, the dropped vertically for about 30 yards. I mean straight down too. They were done with the flying around in the fog stuff. They wanted none of that business. Down they came, headed for the decoys. I shouldered the gun right as they were landing. All my partner could do was watch. I briefly imagined him in slow motion reaching out to me saying, "noooo....". I dumped them both. As I told him afterwards, "The temptation was more than I could bare" in my best southern drawl.
Birds decoying that hard and that well are a waterfolwers dream (at least mine). If I only ever took that type of shot, I would be in hunting bliss, regardless of what species lay floating on the water afterward. It was all so perfect, including a my shooting (a rarity).
So now that my game strap was polluted with other species, we set out to preserve my friends. End limit he did with 7 green heads. The first time ever for him, and the really great thing about it was his wife was there to share it with him. My friend is doing pretty darn well this year. Two trips, and two limits. An average of 7.0 birds per outing... pretty tough to beat that success rate
Towards the end of the day when we really needed to get going, a pair of teal lit right into the decoys. I raised, aimed, shot, and said, "that's all, I'm done. Let's get going". It was my last bird for a limit. I was a little ashamed to have taken that poor unsuspecting teal, but I had to go, and there was one spot left on the strap and I just hate to have open spots.
So back we went, full of birds and still in the fog. It never really lifted.
We heard plenty of birds, that's for sure. There seems to be a new "crop" down, perhaps the last one for the season. Get out there and make the best of this last month that we have. It's a long, long off season and long about July you'll wish you had gone that few more times instead of staying home because you were "tired". Sleep is for the off season. Rest in February.
I'm a little unhappy with the way the pics look here on iFish. Even if I bump up the jpeg quality, it still has that halo type of effect. The pics look much better than below, you'll have to trust me. Most were taken by my friends wife. She got some great shots that day!
Geoff
MarshBum
Moment of Weakness - SI on the 30th (Pics)
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