This whole trip actually fell together at the last minute. I had been considering ways to get back to WY for a goldeneye trip, before my 08 license expired. Out of the blue, my wife says " it would probably be cheaper for you to drive the christmas presents over there rather than ship them". The thing is that gas went down but the shipping companies did not adjust there prices back to previous rates(their bad!)
So, off to Wyoming I went. As it would just so happen, right ahead of a snow storm. The last 2.5 hours of the drive(usually just an hour) was on a road not maintained by road crews at night. It was flat out dumping snow. We got to my son's place at 4:30am and had to crash for awhile.
Spent that first part of a day scouting out likely goldeneye spots for the days to follow. We even tried out one short layout hunt on the river. I think we scratched out three birds in the process. It also gave us a taste of the sub zero temperatures we would be dealing with.
Our first full day to hunt, we woke up to -18 degrees(yep, farenheit) on the mercury. We opted to wait for the sun to be out for awhile before we started hunting. I have to admit, had a little concern at those temperatures how the dog would do in and out of the water.
Our first set up didn't happen until about 1:00PM that day but, I managed to scratch out a limit of ducks(4 goldeneye,3 mallards) in the time we hunted. I even shot a honker with no goose deeks this day. It was so cold the camera wasn't working too well. Had a real hard time just getting this tailgate picture after warming the camera up at the house.
The next day, I spent the whole day hunting with my son. It felt right, like when he was living here and we hunted all the time. It was just the boy, the dog and me. I think he got 4 birds. I couldn't find the rhythm and I got skunked that day but, the time we spent together made it a great day for me, likely the best of the trip.
On the next day, I came the closest to an all goldeneye limit as would happen this trip with 5 goldeneye and a greenhead. It was also a very cold day with high winds. The birds were working pretty good first thing in the morning while we were setting up the spread. We even had birds land in our spread while we were throwing the blocks. It always amazes me how divers can come in at 50+mph and just hit the water with out bouncing or making a huge splash. I guess that's part of the draw of the diver hunt, the speed.
Here's a pic of my results of this day, at the spot we hunted.
Our last day was a short day. It started off with a greenhead droppin' in from way out and just suckin' in to the wing spinner like he was on a string. It was a good finale bird. The birds weren't really moving around and the snow was pouring down.
After a few hours, I decided to take a walk on the river to see if I could find where the birds were holding. On the way back, I could hear my kid calling, so I sat and watched from a distance. All of a sudden, two mallards come bombing in to them. As I was watching, a bird buckled in mid air and then I heard the report from the shotgun. Then the other bird buckled and the sound of another shot followed. 2 birds in and 2 birds down. I sat there and thought to myself "that's my boy".
Here's a pic of our terminal tackle for the day and the birds we had at that point of the day.
Overall, it was a great trip. Not just because we got birds but, more because there was another experience to add to the list of different hunts and styles we've tried or taken part in. I'm already thinking about next season and how I'm gonna get over there for a goldeneye shoot.
Then there was the 22 hour drive home(usually 12-13) while I-84 was closed but, that's another story all in itself.
4th and final Wyoming trip for "08
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Re: 4th and final Wyoming trip for "08
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