Idaho: Days 2 and 3

The last few days were such a blast I will have to lump them together for this post.  Thanks for your understanding.
As we all know by now, Willy is 'The Expert'.  He shot the first bird of the season, a nice ring-neck, something I've never seen before and then successfully retrieved it while Peat looked on in amazement.  For Heston's sake it was only 5 minutes after the opening bell of the first day.  So now a new 'Expert' takes the reins of the Idaho chapter.  When Willy told me we were hunting Monday and Tuesday I said "yes sir" just like the non-expert I am.

Monday was pouring rain on the drive out and had cleared some by the time we arrived at Anderson.  We set out a large spread with some geese and the teal pack for good measure.  The 'Expert' has been doing some research and tells me more is better.  We settled in and the rain came on and off showing us not much in the way of ducks but not long in a startling thing happened.  Greenie showed up.  Not just a greenie, but Greenie himself.  Without landing he swam up on us from the left side from out of nowhere.  He took a good long cursory look at our decoys and then showed us his starboard side as he swam past the blind.  At this point I did not know it was him, just thought he was a typical mallard wanting to die.  Willy and I got ready to jump shoot him.  We jumped..... he stayed.

day 2 overcast and rain

It was about that time when I realized that the thing I thought was a mallard was in fact, Greenie!  Who else would sit tight knowing full well we would never shoot a duck on the water.  I even gave him the ole' boogilie boogilie boo and nothing.  As a matter of fact he sat there the whole time until a hen mallard came in low from the right, banked in front of us and somehow missed getting hit by some nice 2 shot.  Then, like a French Canadian ghost, Greenie was gone.  Bastard!

For Tuesday Willy suggested we take the boat and go find some nice reeds closer to the flyover spot between Anderson and Thompson lakes.  I said "yes sir" just like the non expert I am.  If the rain yesterday was pouring then today it was dumping.  Heston had unleashed some biblical style wind and rain for the ride out.  By the time we got to the put-in the rain had stopped but the wind was still crazy.  We launched the boat and fought our way across the river, through the channel and stopped at.... the point on Anderson. The wind was far to unpredictable to try to navigate with 500+lbs of gear and living beings for the first time ever in the dark of night.

boat pinned to shore by Heston

We set up with the wind thankfully at our backs and waited for the greenies to fly in.  The wind gusts were so hard that, even though we had the most protected spot around, ducks were just cruising by.  The only mallard that tried to land somehow evaded three shots from my gun.  I think the wind was so fierce it must have bent my Benelli. Before we pulled up we donned life jackets and tried to motor down the lake a ways and see what there was in the way of cover further on.  Turning around was sketchy but even more so was the fist two or three waves we hit going back into the wind.  They threw spray and bunches of water over the bow and knocked Peat from his perch.  When we got back Willy and I both agreed that that had been a bad idea.  By the way, I hate the open water.  We packed up and made it back to the truck in time to award Willy the first of his $10 prizes and get home in time for a nice nap.
There you have it, days 2 and 3.


GBCH