Duplicated thread, disregard (sorry)

[duckboy]

Bring an oregon License, a good sense of humor, and split the gas.

We leave early from Vancouver.


Anyone want to go?

Oh yeah,

I lost all my calls, so bring a Mallard,

you can be on chuckle duty.

You can bring a dog too, I will bring Old A-rod and we can split the retreives.

PS, Should be shorthaul easy retreives, no bad tides or currents.

[waterfowlin101]

you lost your calls....tell us the story :whazzup:.

Jon

[duckboy]

Ahh man,


It is a really long story, and you guys dont want to hear it.

Although it does have elements of adventure, Hunting, and life vs death.


I can tell you all about it in the blind tomorrow.

[waterfowlin101]

I can tell you all about it in the blind tomorrow.

I wish...good luck

Jon

[halfrack]

man if a story has all that in it it has to be told!

[duckboy]

ok ok, Jeesh:

We set out early that morning with the promise of a storm,

The storm that would bring the birds in& The relentless wind that would make them seek out the "hard to get to"
spaces.



It was all about drinking black coffee and watching the smokestacks at longview.

Those big blankets of steam and smoke, running out flat like rope pulled out tight

.

We could feel the rig sway in the wind as we drove along, but we just listened on to the radio.

We all knew it would be a big day on the water.


Launched on time at a spot used by the locals for probably 60 years.

Saw a few anonymous faces in the dark. Dogs excitedly wagging and pacing, Trees swaying, and guys driving boats with furrowed foreheads, thinking, "God, keep us safe".


Little islands a memory, and somewhere between here and there we got lost.


And my pride took a major hit.


All these years out on the river,

All these islands and sloughs, forever and ad infinitum, in my heart and on my mind,

I was bass ackwards turned around on the Washington Shore when I should have been on the oregon shore.

I was crow eating senseless and babbling,
I ws lost.



With a hit from stratospheric reference, we resumed our quest. as the mtns started to show, and i could finally fell at ease.


We managed to limp it in and the wind perked. we carried our gear on shore.


I was trying to carry in the spinning wing deke, but it was blowing so hard that it kept falling off the post.


Finally we humped out 5 dozdekes in, and realized that the tide was overtaking us and we probably only had an hour of shore left

[duckboy]

So we only pitched a bout 16 dekes, and just held on.


Duckbrother John hunkered, low and still,

As Zachariah (the duck messiah chuckled)


The wind blew hard, and the nit blew even harder.... My eyes teared as Zach and John gunnned the birds down.


There were set after set of birds,


10- Maybe a dozen,

They wanted to be where were were, and it felt like it.
They'd be 400 yards out, and we'd chuckle..

2'S and 3's would split off from the bunch.


We had a good morning despite all of the tom foolery, but the storm started to get nuts,

so we split.


Decided to go upriver and hunt a local spot that is "****" at flood tide,

This is where things start to get sideways.

[duckboy]

On the way we laughed and wrung ourselves out. Felt good to be back ashore after all of the guys on shore came up and said " god damn, you guys stayed out ther a long time n that bad chop".

And we were just glad to be back.,


So off we drove upriver to seek a more sheltered spot and round out our limits.


Fueled up the Steathbomber annd went to drop it in the water, when duckbrother Zachariah exclaimed "oh #@it! we're missing a bag of 5 dozen dekes!"


So we packed up and went back to the first launch, because we had to backtrack and find those dekes. (ok brett, this is where i took off my calls and set them on the gunnells of my boat, cause i kept getting hung up when i was at the launch as the "necklace tangled around the gear".


So off we set to the launch and got there with plenty of daylight,

An outging tide like gangbusters and a badass west wind that left our spot ( the spot where the 5 doz dekes were )totally hammered.

[duckboy]

I ve been in in bad water,

I am a cautious man, especially with my friends on board.

The river got ugly, REALLY ugly in a hurry, and i was 700 yards from shore quartering into waves that had swells of 4-5 feet in wind chop of probably 2 feet. (Keep in mind that this is 3 guys, 2 duckhounds and gear in a 16 ft flatbottomed sled)
i could not slow down, I could not turn around in that water, as it would have filled the back end and we'd have been sunk,.

So i leaned into it.


John was enjoying the ride, And the dogs were on the floor.

Crazy sonabitch that John.... must be the PNW surfer in him...

I managed to hang on and we ditched it on shore in the lee of the big storm.



We couldn't anchor, because the wind and tide kept blowing us out, so we took turns holding the boat at angle against the waves until things slowed down enough to get out.

Probably 3 hrs went by,


Black sheets of rain, sideways wind and chop.

It was a big day,

And Lots of lessons were learned,


Ultimately we got the dekes back,

We got ourselves back.

But i lost my calls.

[duckboy]

so if anyone is still up for shooting ducks tomorrow.

Call me at 3 am 360 713 3132.

We'll get some

[Swamp Puppy]

hope ya slayed them today. i was out wed. and thurs. and had back-to-back good shoots. the wind on the river was kicking up a lot higher than ecpected which helped out the hunting quite a bit.

[duckboy]

I didn't go.

No body wanted to take me up on the offer, I guess the story scared everyone off.