Idaho: Day 6

What a start and what a finish on day 6. And in between there was a little slaying going on too. Here's how it all went down.
I didn't really look at the forecast the night before I just was going to go hunting anyway. The rain has brought with it warmer temperatures and less ducks but I woke at 4:00am and loaded up the truck. I was just ready to jump in and pull out of the driveway when I remembered my waders were still hanging in the garage. Smart. When I pulled into Anderson lake I stopped the truck, threw the key on the dash, locked my door, jumped out and went to the passenger side to get my gear and looked at a locked door. Smart. Fortunately I had my headlamp on at the time and was able to find some metal pieces on the ground nearby. Who says littering is bad for the earth? Without that litter I would have had to break my window, buy a new one and throw the old glass in a landfill. See, littering is good.

10 minutes of B&E later I was off to my spot. It was cold and windy at the blind. I threw out my usual set and waited for the opening bell. Of course ducks were flying about before shooting hours and I could barely make out some Greenies in the fray. Light broke the horizon and ducks flew around. Nothing worth shooting came near and shortly after the sun came up the wind died and temps rose by 10-15 degrees. All the ducks settled down and went into feeding mode. An hour in and I was thinking that the day would be a waste when some mallards landed about 100 yards off to my left. They slowly made their way into the bay and settled into a routine of eating and staying away from me. Feeding chatter and light calling made no difference to them, they were perfectly content to hang out in the bay (see picture). I figured that they would at least be good decoys for any other ducks flying by but there were none to be seen so finally I had to make my own luck. I got low and crept around as close to the bay as the thick brush would allow and when the time was right I jumped them. All 12 or 15 of them burst into flight and I put the bead on a nice fat Greenie, pulled the trigger and BAM.

Now as we all know from last week that my gun is bent from the gravitational pull of the metal while laying on my lap. Or maybe from that time I layed it down on the ground without a cushion underneath it. Anyway I was aiming for the Drake but I shot the Hen. A nice fat Hen. Well, the action was nill after that and I packed up and headed for home. On the way back I was accosted by a gang of hooligan farm animals that stood in the road and refused to move. The sheep were content to get to the side of the road after I nudged the truck forward but the goats required persuasion that only a good ole' American truck horn can provide. Punks. The duck was tasty with a nice marinade and fresh off the grill. I took some fresh picked Golden Delicious apples from Lori's garden and using some of the techniques learned from Fred G's 'peaches and scallops' video made a nice warm apple side, an all natural and local dinner for Bob D, Co-Expert.

GBCH