Idaho: Day Seven.

Honey Hole defined:
A duck hunting spot that is unuasually productive. Often times it can mean an area that has the only open water around when all other water is frozen over. Ducks will flock to this spot in large numbers when conditions are right.

Today I had the honey hole. My spot on Anderson Lake is a good one when the temperatures drop and water is frozen. The Coeur DeAlene river flows by on the other side and the changing water levels in the river keep this small stretch of the lake ice free. I wanted to scout the spot just to be sure because tomorrow I was supposed to take Bartender Rocky and his Dad out hunting for the first time. I was running a little late this morning (I want to thank the good people of the Coeur DeAlene scenic bikeway trail for having the softest paper products ever seen in a remote outhouse) and by the time I got set up in the blind it was 3 minutes till shooting time. Sets of mallards were buzzing my head, landing and taking off from the honey hole every few seconds.

The alarm sounded and the first greenie I could make out in the early light somehow eluded my 3" Black Cloud shell. Not to worry because seconds later the next greenie was not as lucky. I should not have retrieved him so quickly because ducks still wanted to land as I was out in the water and had I waited more would have fallen. Two more good shots presented themselves and I missed both. That's not to say that only a couple birds flew in but I was trying to take only the greenies, and identification was tough in the low light. I would say 50 to 60 ducks flew within gunning range making it the best day for possible shots this year. If I was the skybusting type I could have shot more ducks but here at the H7HT we fold'em when their feet are down. Just as fast as the morning was, the action dried up and only a couple more ducks flew in the next two hours.

All in all I'm pretty happy with my fat greenie today. Rocky the bartender called and said he would not be hunting tomorrow due to a torso injury sustained while snowboarding. Weak sauce. Perhaps I should head out again myself?
GBCH