Idaho: Day two.

After a day of scouting other spots it was back to Anderson Lake. Dallas and I were supposed to go hunt this new spot he was talking about but it seems he forgot to go get his Duck Stamp from the post office. Instead we did some scouting in the Killarney Lake area and realized more than ever that we need a boat to access all the goods that the area has to offer. The Coeur de' Alene river splits many of the lakes and marshlands off from the roads. The river is only 20 yards across but there is no way to cross without a boat and bridges are nonexistant. Bummer. We did find a hikeable spot on Killarney but it didn't look too promising. We'll see.

Armed with that knnowledge I woke at 4:00 and made the trek back to Anderson Lake. Setting up in the same spot as last week I was once again careful to be on the alert for Cougar, lest one eat me before sunrise and my chance to see it first. Sounds stupid right? Well, I also think it's stupid but at 5:30am in complete silence and darkness in the tall grass by yourself the mind is a terrible thing. So I waited for shooting hours and the breeze picked up a little. Ducks were talking amongst themselves off in the distance and others flew over my head in the pre-dawn dark. A couple good opportunities came up and I missed a fat Greenie that buzzed my spread. Two shots and still he refused to fall to earth. Once again there were black divers everywhere and they made for nice live decoys just in front of me. As I waited some mallards landed just to my left and started having a little party just out of gunning range.

The light morning fog lifted and a duce flew into the spread. Bang! Folded the hen "like a cheap lawn chair" (thanks for that one Jiggitty). Then all the ducks in the general vicinity got up and bolted like a Kenny Chesney concert just started. They were flying everywhere and none of them wanted anything to do with 3" Black Cloud pellets coming from my hyper-accurate Benelli. Now that the sun was breaking through the fog and everyone had left I put out the spinning wing motor decoy, banned in OR & WA, but not here in the great state of ID. Then the fun started.

My decoys were shining and the motor deke was flashing bright and those mallards just wanted to come right on in. I was being careful now to try to pick out the drakes for three reasons. A. leave the hens alive to make more ducks. 2. There is a bag limit of two hens, and D. The big money on the line for 'first Greenie of the year'. The first group came in, 5 or 6 ducks, one flashing his big white belly at me. Folded. A few minutes later another group. Missed. Then another. Folded my second Greenie. After a while the action dried up as the sun warmed everything up and the ducks settled down to eat and lounge. My left wader boot was full at that point too and I pulled up and headed home. All in all a good trip. Stay tuned....
GBCH