Follow me to the last "C.F.T.K"

http://h7ht.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2011-01-25T21:00:00-08:00&max-results=50&start=219&by-date=false

The Money Shot.

Clider receives thousands of member dollars for being 'The Expert'. Dec 11th 2013.

Biathalon, Bob DaFolder style.

A Holiday Tradition.

Benellis ring

Are ducks listening?

On the lake

Ice is glistening

We’re ready to slay

Ducks die today

Hunting in H7HT land

The long walk out

Cold and delightful

Decoys set

And insightful

Today they bring in

Ducks and their kin

Hunting in H7HT land

In the blind we can toast Lord Heston

He will bring us many ducks to slay

When we clink bottles and say bless them

We hope that they’ll come right in today

Later on

By our own hands

We will call

And they will come land

The feet will come down

We’ll chamber a round

Hunting in H7HT land

When they hit the water we won’t shiver

A dog will have to go in and retrieve

If he knocks your gun into the river

Then Cliffy will tell us just believe

Many ducks are our big dream

As you know we’re the best team

We continue to slay

Almost every day

Hunting in H7HT land

Idaho 12-23-18

Sometimes you have to give the gift of solitude, that's just what I did today.  I took the day for myself and headed to 'The Point' alone and with the intention of having some time to contemplate life and my position in it.  With the holidays coming up there will be lots of work and precious little time with the things that matter.  First and foremost is quality time with my Sweetie closely followed with time not spent with the masses of people that want me to perform in a occupational way.  Eat it customers!  I also did not tell Clider I was going, sorry friend but sometimes you just can't enjoy yourself when The Expert hand catches banded ducks while you wait patiently in the blind for something to fly in. Plus, the man just had a full week of vacation spent hunting.  (of course you wouldn't know, there have been no posts, right?)  So when I woke this morning and the rain was pouring down on my roof, I knew that I must go.

The f250 and I powered through the downpour and when we arrived at Anderson the rain let up enough to set a fine minimalist spread of decoys in the open water of the channel.  I had time to sip a little wikki and listen to a lone duck pass over me in the dark, it's wings whistling in the predawn darkness. Lately the ducks have been few and far between owing to the massive Canadian cold front that moved through during the Founders Tour.  I am becoming certain that it took every duck within the Pacific Northwest with it to points south.  Remember, if you lived in the water with temps in the single digits it would make you head to Cabo too.

Thought?

This being the case, I saw nothing.  Literally nothing.  No ducks flying, no ducks sitting on the water, no ducks anywhere.  I took a walk to the other side of the channel and looked for them in the puddle where The Expert has slayed before, and nothing.  Even when I pulled up just a couple hours later no ducks buzzed my spread or taunted me with their presence, an occurrence that seems to always happen.  Form this I can only believe that it may be over, just like when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

Now, before you think that I didn't have a good time today, just remember why I went out today.  I had a good 4 hours of time sitting in nature listening to the creatures of the lake wake up on one of the shortest days of the year.  I saw a white tailed hawk hunting for things for a solid 15 min before I moved and scared him off and a hen pheasant took off and landed twice during my walk.  The weather changed from rain to calm to rain again and the light of the day switched at least 3 times from start to finish.  The semi warm temps and rain made me think of my days in Oregon hunting the Mighty Columbia and made me excited for the possibility of Clider and I heading West for the ever popular 'Killing for the King' weekend.  All in all a great day.
Then I came home and took a nap.
GBCH

Idaho 12-18-13

Otherwise known as 'The day I realized I was never going to be the "Expert" ever again.'

Holy Heston.  Today Clider and I went out to Anderson Lake to get the boat ready for winterization.  He had planned to take us out to Anderson from the parking lot boat ramp, and maybe later, down to lake CdA for some shooting of the elusive bastard, Greenie.  It's been a while since we have seen that fat punk in our spread of ducks and geese and we thought that today would be a good time to trick him into the spit of water that has formed over the point of Anderson.  The river was iced over from the ramp and we realized that the boat would have to wait for another day.  We had to make the short walk out and decided on 'The Tip' rather than 'The Point' because of the water level and the chances of good shooting lanes.  When we got there the water was open and Clider went about setting the blocks while I made up a couple small blinds on the grassy bank along the river.  Of course while we were working, the only flying ducks of the morning spun overhead.

We settled in and after what seemed like a non duck forever Clider decided to take a walk to keep Peat from shivering into a seizure.  (Remember that whenever Clider takes a walk on Anderson he seems to shoot ducks.)  I stayed tucked away in the blind to take advantage of the dozens of mallards he would surely scare up in the process of walking the channel. I had mentioned that should he see some ducks to blow his call to let me know that there were ducks in the air and then I could shoot them.  He did not have his calls.  Soon after I heard a very human "quack quack" and looked up to see a lone henny rocketing down the channel.  I didn't shoot and she spun off towards the big waters of lake CdA.  Not long after I saw a lone henny, perhaps the same one, coming back from the direction of the big lake.  Not wanting another repeat of minutes before I took my fist shot with a solid lead that was too far.  The next shot was errant as well and the third and final shot was over my shoulder and too far away to make a difference.  She was gone. 

At that point I drank for missing and figured that my best chance for a duck was gone.  I was correct.

Minutes later I see Clider walking along the near-side river bank back to the blind.  As he gets closer I first see the smile on his face and then realize he's got something in his hands.  Turns out that he's got a pair, greenie AND henny, of mallards in his clutch.  Both alive and both HAND CAUGHT by Clider.  They were hiding in a hole in the river bank that he had been walking. He reached into the hole and pulled out the henny and then saw the drake behind her, pulling him out as well. (this picture is them feeling secure and happy)  I marveled at his ability as he released them into the air after wishing them well. He figured that they deserved to live and set them free.  The greenie went first and flew only feet before landing in the channel and swimming away towards the river.  The henny flew even less and made a ruckus as she, and he, obviously wounded, swam away.  We conferred and Peat was dispatched to retrieve.

Again.

Peat was away and into the icy water swimming after her and after a stellar retrieve, including being beat in the face and head by henny wings, brought her in. (Here's where the shit goes down by the way.)  When Clider gets the henny in hand he realizes that it's a banded bird!  Yup, another banded bird!  Hand caught!  He goes after the drake and Peat brings him in too.  So now Clider has just added to his totals another greenie and a banded henny.......all without firing a single shot.

How do you compete with that?

Ladies and Gentleman I give you "The Expert"
Damn straight!

Idaho Founders Tour Day 1 & 2

It has been a long week since the days of the Idaho Founders Tour and the time is right to reflect on what happened to the two founding members of the H7HT.  I, Bob DaFolder,  picked up the legendary Fred G. at the airport in Spocompton for what could only be considered the next great week of hunting in my home state.  He had traveled later in the year than usual to take advantage of the colder temps and better hunting that comes with them.  A massive front of arctic air had been pushing down from Canada for the last two days and it always brings with it mucho patos and the chance for perfect slaying conditions.  We left the airport and headed to, where else, Anderson for some late day action.

When we arrived there was a light sheen of ice to the left of 'The Point' and open water as far as the eye could see in front.  We set a fairly minimal spread of decoys and waited for the fat banded mallards to drop in, it was in the 20's.  No ducks came close but we did have a chance to witness a light storm of grapple pass over our heads and in the course of minutes, change the landscape of clear ice to the left into a white blanket of purity.  We pulled up soon after and headed back to the cabin with good thoughts about the coming days hunt.  That night we ate and drank and talked of the stellar slaying that was to come in the following days.

Day 2:  we woke to fresh snow on the ground and temps in the high teens, in a word, perfect.  The Swedish truck took us unflinchingly to 'The Blind' at Anderson.  After a short walk out we realized that the sub-zero temperatures the past few days had created an icy layer on the lake this far down but that didn't worry us a bit.  We broke up a nice couple holes in the water and set out the spinner and a couple geese in addition to the mallard blocks we had in tow.  Almost immediately a fat lone goose, coming straight in and locked up, settled in a scant 10 yards away.  I questioned Fred G's logic in not shooting him but he explained that he would have many more chances to shoot a fat goose and did not want to spend his first day cleaning the chunky bastard.  I agreed to not ever talking about the missed chance to shoot a goose that perfectly set up and coming in.  Apparently it's not binding.

At some point, and this is where it gets hazy, we both shot a greenie.  I do remember that I shot one first, thereby winning a bet, and we headed home to clean our first of what would be many greenies of the trip.  We were a little concerned about the weather that seemed to be getting colder as the day wore on but figured that the 'Arctic Blast' would be nothing but a good thing.  The following day we were to hunt with current "Expert" and boat owner Clider, and no doubt he would be putting us on some ducks.
More to come.  Stay tuned......

Le Chucker

Le Chucker filmed this on Halloween while
dressed as Michael from the movie Halloween.
The man refers to him as "you should  hate this man."
 Enjoy!

Dear Idaho Chapter......

With you now is Co-Founder, former Expert, the One and Only......Fred G.  With the unfortunate circumstances, I could not join you this week as my honey and I are closing on our first home.  Though this home has come between us all, I hope its roof will someday cover us for hunting adventures and drying our waders in Oregon in the future.  I hope this move will be swift as I could also be using my time off to try and put a dent in Cliders lead and bring hope to Oregons validity as a duck slaying destination.

Idaho Chapter- Please take care of Fred and don't shoot over his head (he hates that).  If he doesn't shoot a duck, please shoot a duck so he can remember what it's like to see one drop.  Please take video of Peat retrieving a duck so Waylon knows that this is what he's meant to do instead of getting into it with other dogs and knocking my gun in a muddy river.  And most importantly, don't forget to tilt the whikey to the dead homeys.  Heston be with you.

Thanksgiving in Idaho

I have many things to be thankful for, being Expert chief among them.

My lady friend is out of town and everyone is doing family stuff, it seems like a good time to go slaying.  I’m going for an afternoon hunt, the walk in area at Killarney has been loading up in the afternoon lately. 

I headed out with Peat and a small bag of blocks around 1:00, upon getting to the dike all seemed quiet.  Once I got about halfway out I dropped my pack and went to stealth mode.  I crept up to the same spot Otis had shotten his mallard last weekend.  They were back, I took my time and when they jumped I was ready, greenie in the bag.  This was already better than my Thanksgiving hunt last year when the only bird that I saw became an NR. 

I set out my spread and found some cover with Peat.  We were only about 15 feet from the blocks and in some pretty tall reeds.  The only water was about a foot wide and 3 inches deep, but it ran for a quarter mile or so.  Mallards kept decoying in but either Peat flared them by adjusting himself when they got close or they landed with some obstacle between them and me.  I’d move and they would land right where I had been.  I moved a dozen or more times, I sure could use some help here, if I had someone else we could have split up this spot into two zones of death.

I was able to talk one more greenie into going home with me just before sunset, Peat has been getting much better with all this practice.  I’ve got a treat ready for him right when he comes back and he’s starting to pick up the big birds by the body now.  I know training is more important than ever, with three members in the same place this week he’ll need all his strength to haul in piles of double banded greenies.

I cleaned my birds and headed over to a Drew and Trisha’s place for the second Beast Feast.  Drew has some experience cooking French dishes so I dropped off some ducks the night before and he pulled out some elk back straps for the feast.  It is beyond my feeble words to describe exactly what we ate but everything was fantastic.

Idaho 11-24-13

Soon I will be hunting with teammates again! 

I finally had a whole day off to hunt without having to go to work afterwards, and I had been paying attention while we were out on Friday.  I wanted to hunt that channel, it had been a nice open spot with good cover and no ice, the guys there had had great shooting all day.  The weather hadn’t changed, still cold, clear and calm. 

Otis and I showed up earlier than normal so we could be the first to the channel at Killarney, 3 airboats were already unloaded.  We made our way out with almost no ice in the shallows.  No ice until we hit the channel, which was frozen solid close to an inch thick.  We continued on and started passing greenies running on the ice next to us, a good omen if I’ve ever seen one.  We busted some holes and put out our floaters and a couple full bodies.

We settled in and heard the airboats banging away a good ten minutes before legal shooting time, we waited.  The first mallard came in and I shotten and missed.  He was headed right for our small hole in the ice, which was only about fifty feet away.  Otis shotten and missed a few minutes later, we settled in with some wild turkey and decided to shoot better for the rest of the day. 

The next bird in was a solo greenie about 5 feet off the deck and ready to land, Otis took him with a single shot.  A few minutes later he missed a hen pintail which decided to fly a little too close to me, my first pintail!  We were booth feeling pretty good when a flock of seven or eight greenies committed to the little hole in the ice.  There was much shooting and they were so close, I managed to drop one with my last shot.  One came so close to the blind in its panic that I could have hit it with a swing from my gun.  While happy, both of us were a little curious how we missed so much so close.

It slowed down for a little while until a single greenie broke off from a flight and swung through the spread.  On his second pass it seemed that he wasn’t going to stay, so I shot.  This might have been luck but he dropped with a thud in the middle of the channel, Peat had to sit this one out with the thin ice.  After another hour and a half of watching birds fly by uninterested we picked up and moved. 

I had seen a lot of birds moving into the north end of the lake, which I had never been into.  A few hundred birds left when we arrived, we tossed out a small spread and hunkered down.  A few minutes later two shovelers landed on the edge of our range and then swam to within ten yards of us.  Otis jump shot one and just knocked some feathers off, I took a shot too and broke his wing.  This was looking too much like an NR scenario.  I shot a few more times but he was a small target and kept diving.  I waded after him and was trying to move quickly while he was under water.  Apparently I am able to swim with a loaded shotgun because that’s what I was doing after tripping over a submerged log and ending up in five feet of water.  Otis waited to see if I came up before laughing at me.  I looked back at the bird and he had stopped moving, Peat went and got him while we loaded up the boat.

On the return trip we spotted an injured merganser which Otis took and Peat did his first deepwater retrieve to and from the boat.   I was actually warming back up even though I was soaked from head to toe.  After pulling the boat and packing up we watched a bunch of mallards land next to the walk in dike spot.  We snuck in and got within fifteen feet of the flock.  I told Otis to take his time, shoulder his gun and pick one bird.  I started moving through the bushes so we weren’t shooting on top of each other.

I was surprised when they jumped, I ended up firing through a small leafless tree without even getting my gun properly shouldered.  When the smoke cleared I had an empty gun and no birds, while Otis on the other hand had a nice fat green headed mallard that he only needed one shot for.  It was a great way to end the day, we had two new spots to add to the list and a stack of birds to clean.

I peeled off the 40lbs of clothing at the car and we went home to clean everything and have some duck bites.

Forecast Calls For PAIN!

Dec 2

38^°

19^°

Snow Shower

CHANCE OF SNOW:

40%

 

WIND:

NW at 10 mph

Details

TueDec 3

22^°

11^°

Partly Cloudy

CHANCE OF SNOW:

20%

 

WIND:

NNE at 11 mph

Details

WedDec 4

18^°

7^°

Partly Cloudy

CHANCE OF SNOW:

10%

 

WIND:

NE at 10 mph

Details

ThuDec 5

21^°

9^°

Partly Cloudy

CHANCE OF SNOW:

20%

 

WIND:

NE at 6 mph

Details

FriDec 6

20^°

8^°

AM Clouds / PM Sun

CHANCE OF SNOW:

20%

 

WIND:

NNE at 5 mph

Details

SatDec 7

20^°

10^°

Mostly Cloudy

CHANCE OF SNOW:

20%

 

WIND:

NNE at 4 mph

Details

SunDec 8

20^°

11^°

Sunny

CHANCE OF SNOW:

0%

 

WIND:

NNE at 5 mph

Details

Open Letter From Cali Boys

Fred G,

I've waited as long as I could to write this, hoping I had some good news for you, but basically we're like the opening scene in the Hangover when Bradley Cooper's character has to call the bride-to-be and admit they lost white Doug.  Right now Kevin is lunging over the internet in slow motion yelling, "nooooooooo" trying to stop me from coming clean with my confession, but this is like therapy so here goes...

The truth of the matter is this hunting season has been down right awful for us so far.  Now, you may not think we're in such a bad spot seeing how you only have 1 duck to your name on your blog kill count (last I checked), but let me tell you, Kevin and I only have 1 duck combined and it came from a hen we swatted.  That's right, a swatted friggin hen...who does that?  Well, your talking to a couple hard up desperate duck junkies... 

Yet, if you think that's hitting rock bottom, you'd be wrong, because it gets worse...we both fired at the hen and are arguing to this day who actually hit it!  

And if you think that's rock bottom, we hunt next to a guy we nicknamed "Sure Shot" because we heard from the farmer that he was a great caller and a great shot.  Anyway, Sure Shot came in with a "limmie-limmie-limit" and asked how we did and we told them we "got a few."  We talked to him for a few minutes before we realized that our one piddly ass hen was sitting out in the open, laughing at us and exposing our fraud.  Sure Shot was not impressed.  

Sound like rock bottom?  Well, the following weekend we were talking to some guys nearby and they asked us how many ducks we shot last year in our blind since they were new to the area.  Kevin lied to their face and told them we shot 50 ducks, same lie he's been telling to the guys at the lumber yard.  The thing is, he probably shot 5 ducks last year total and I shot none...the lowest amount in the entire county, but it's not entirely our fault, it was due to the fact that we hunted out of a skunk blind.  Skunk blind you ask?  Yes, the blind literally had a dead skunk in it when we leased it from the farmer.  Yes, the farmer knew it was there, no, he didn't offer to have the skunk removed before the season started..."boys, the blind rents as is, take it or leave it."  

So we hunted from the Skunk Blind all year and I was skunked every time I stepped foot in that blind in more ways than one.  Needless to say we changed blinds this year, but here we are a month into the season and we got nothing to show for it other than having our DU memberships suspended based on our ethics.  We're at the point where we're borderline desperate.  If I don't bring home a duck soon, my wife is going to start thinking "duck hunting" is code for "stay up late and drink with my college buddy every Friday night."  I told my wife I'd shoot 100 ducks last year and that we needed to invest in a meat grinder for all the duck sausage I was going to be making.  This year I told her conservatively I'd shoot 60.  60 ducks?  How am I going to shoot 60 ducks?  I just missed a duck at 10 yards last weekend that was coming in hot with its landing gear down...if I miss a 10 yard duck, how am I going to ever make me some duck sausage?

Of course it's not like the weather has been cooperating.  It's been clear and sunny since the Opener and when we did get some weather we didn't even hunt those days.  A wise man once told us to "hunt the weather," but we haven't been listening.

So here we are, geared up out of our minds...I got more duck calls than a man should be allowed to legally have, we got  our trailer outfitted with solar power and propane tanks, we got Gibson's lids for our blinds, a jerk string, we got fast grass, probably 300+ decoys of all species, all types of camo jackets and hats, wadders (both hip and full body), goose shells and goose flags and lay out blinds, all types of lanyards and haulers...my closet is like a Macks Prairie Wing outlet...and not a darn thing to show from it.  Kevin wanted to run my hauling strap over with the Ranger just to make sure it looked used in case anyone ever saw it...

Then again, duck season doesn't officially kick off until after Thanksgiving so here's to hoping that our season gets better soon.  If it gets any worse I may need a new hobby.

In search of the X,

Gaucho Wino  

PS. Now if you asked me about deer season I could have told you all about the buck I smoked with my bow out of a tree stand on the last day of the season, but that's a story for another time...

Idaho: 11-22-13

Today was the first time in a while I had been out in  Clider’s new boat.  I did not die.

I met Clider at 4:30am with plenty of time to get to Killarney before sunrise and account for Daylight Savings Time.  Actually it was 4:35 by the time I got there and he had called me to be sure I was coming.  I’m usually more punctual.  We loaded up in the cold morning temperatures and made it to the lake just in front of another group of guys who had only a row boat to get out to the channel, what a bunch of unprepared mollackas right?  I changed into waders and guided Clider back into the ice crusted waters, later we found out that the heavy crunching noise the trailer made backing in was partially his license plate and a small part of his taillight breaking off and disappearing into the water.  Good thing he didn’t find out until later, it made him mad.

We were in the water first but the guys in the rowboat were off before us breaking ice on their way out to the spot Dallas and I had hunted years before.  We were headed to the alley on the far side of the lake where my boat had gone the year before and I had ripped my brand new pair of Gore-Tex waders on some rusty debris.  This time would be different, no waders would be destroyed and greenies would die.  We set out a large armada of geese, mallards and divers in a linear patter Clider has assured me would bring in every duck coming by.  There was only one problem.  No ducks.

In fact the only real ducks we saw were the group of 6 or 8 drake mallards that came by as Clider and Peat were on the shoreline warming up.  They buzzed once and headed down lake towards the guys in the rowboat.  Shots rang out and we saw only a couple ducks leave.  Nice job Mollacas!  Of course there was one other duck.  We had both walked down to the spot of the aforementioned wader ripping incident, upon our return, after I had put down my gun,  after I had taken off my gloves and as I was shifting my chair, the lone Henny that had been sitting no more than 10 feet from me in our blocks casually took off and flew away.  No biggie, I only shoot Widgeon.  The action dried up after that and we decided to head on home but something caught Cliders attention.  Another hunter, some guys in an airboat, had gotten stuck and needed a ride back to shore.  Clider was just the guy to do it.  I felt bad for Peat as he pulled away leaving us behind.  Peat was sure that he had gone forever and no amount of reassurance could convince him his master would be back.  Peat was not at all concerned for me as I pulled and wrapped all the blocks and put them in nice patches of open water surrounded by ice.  This way they would be easy to load when the boat returned.  When it did the wake broke up the ice and the blocks sailed free.  Sweet!

 

Shortly after we had a nice cruise back to the boat ramp in which I marveled at how much more stable and confidence inspiring Clider’s boat is then my old one was.  As we passed the row boat guys we saw they had set up in the waters of the channel and it seemed that of the few birds that came by that day, they all funneled right down that channel.  Could these guys be smarter than us?  Not a chance.

We are the H7HT and we are the Best.

GBCH

Idaho 11-21-13 Or: 'The day I shotten half my limit......

Of Hen Mallards.'

Our fine and wonderful ski area is still lacking in snow and we can't open this weekend, so after some wrangling with Stephanie, I ended up with today off.  We all know full well I was going to The Point.  I checked the sunrise chart provided by the interweb people because the IDFW no longer posts the legal hunting hours in the waterfowl regulations booklet.  Sunrise, 7:47.  Seems odd but I checked twice so I left at about 5am and headed off to Anderson.  By the time I got there the Eastern sky already had a slight glow to it, and if you know my neighborhood, you know it ain't Kellogg lighting the night sky.  Doesn't anyone consider DST?  I didn't.  I rushed to set up while ducks were flying overhead.  We have had our first cold snap and there was a slight ice layer on the lake close to the shore so I set my blocks further out into the channel and got ready for the goods.

Frost on the Pumpkin

Lots of ducks were on the lake today and all of them were making a racquet out there.  It was hard to bring anything good in close.  The few that did circle in always seemed to come from the direction I wasn't looking before peeling off to land in the rafts of geese and ducks further out. After a few passes I started calling with the Highball, something I never do, and it seemed to work.  Ducks were coming to see me and I took a shot or three but missed due to a bent gun.  The sun was up now and I had my sunglasses and face paint on so the duck coming at me from the right never saw my perfect camo.  It made the standard Mallard 'wack wack wack wack' sound that they do while landing so I lined up into the sun and as soon as I saw those big orange feet down I pulled the trigger.  Henny.  Later in the day Clider reminded me that only hennys make that sound coming in.  I thanked him for being 'The Expert' and imparting on me his great wisdom.

More time passed and I did manage to get another shot or two off but nothing folded and I was getting cold.  Remembering that Clider shotten his banded henny AND a drake by taking a walk, I tried it too.  The other area was lightly frozen and as I made it back a big fat Greenie took
off from the middle of the decoys.  Not only that, but after I was packed up and ready to go I was unloading my gun wondering if I should leave a shell in for the walk out, and another Greenie flew by and looked at me the whole time. The whole time!
Tomorrow Clider and I head to Killarney.
GBCH

Waylon Day 1 (aka Andy vs. Sandy)

Hey Cliffy......por que your gun no go bang?  Well inquisitive reader, let me tell you a story:

Fred and I decide to take Waylon out for his first day of hunting.  We  decide an afternoon shoot out at the island off the point that is next to the 'old old spot' would work just fine.  As we are escorted out to the area by multiple dog walkers, Waylon and another dog of his same age take a liking to each other.  They happily bounce around as we make our way out.  The other dog also had an older counterpart, whom didn't like Waylon as it turns out (stupid old dog).  As we make our way down the muddy path to the 'old old spot' and turn right to head out to the point, I noticed the dogs turned left.  I turned around and their shanannigans put them in the river.  They were swimming and staying afloat in the moderate current, but they couldn't get out with the 1 foot drop off the bank.  The other dog owner gets down on his hands and knees in the mud and starts pulling his dogs out.  I lean my gun and pack against a fallin tree about 20 feet away and follow suit.  The minute we get the dogs out, they get into it!  I mean teeth exposed...the whole nine yards (Waylon's cool, thanks for asking).  After finally getting them seperated and Waylon tied up to a tree, I go back to retrieve my pack and gun.  But wait, there's my pack and no gun.  WTF?  I could have sworn I set it right next to the pack.  After a quick search, it doesn't turn up.  Could the dogs have knocked it into the river during the scuffle and I not notice?  I lean over the embankment and trench the bottom with a stick but the current was swift and the water was deep for any accurate assessment.  During this time, I ask myself....where's Fred?  I grab Waylon and we walk out to the point and see that he's already on the island with decoys set up.  After a lot of yelling, he finally gets the point that somethings wrong, so he packs up and heads over to the mainland.  Fred, master of taking over not so calm situations, gets into the river and starts poking his foot around whilst I hold onto him.  He finds it!  It's deep!  It's my gun!  Fred tries to scoot it closer with his foot, but every time the current grabs it taking it into deeper water.  We look at each other knowing there's only one option and Fred solidifies that option by saying 'it's your gun'!  While Fred buries his feet into the boot sucking mud, I start to undress thinking about the great friend I have who jumped into a deep swift river without hesitation to locate it.  In my base layers and socks, holding Fred's hand I jump in.  The 'turtling effect' takes strong hold as I try to keep my breathe in the freezing water.  I locate where the gun is with my foot and plunge.  Got it!

We hike out after a smoke and few quick sips and cruise back to Fred's place where he disassembled my gun and we started the clean.  3 hours later and You Tube videos, the gun is still disassembled as the firing mechanism won't 'pop' back into place.  Where's the gun now you ask?  I took to my local gun shop where some dude in Clackamas will come pick it up and make it right.  I almost said F it and wrote a check for $299 for the used Benelli Nova sitting on the shelf, but this gun and I were Experts one year.  It may have been just one year, but my name is on the blog as an Expert and that gun did it with me.

Andy Vs. The Sandy

I have not much to say about this.  Ask the Man.

Idaho 11-10-13

I have been remiss in my posting duties the last week or so.  It so happens that the last week and a half work has been getting ramped up, and my commitments to things other than the Blog have taken over and not allowed me to be posting as much as necessary to maintain my connection with you and the thousands of daily readers of the Blog.  I am sorry.

So here goes:

Don't mess with me non Greenie ducks

On this day I shotten a Shoveler.  I have pictures to prove it and they are here.  I did not take a shot on the Greenie that came in before.  I felt stupid.  I then shotten at the first thing that came by, mostly to take a shot.  I folded the duck cleanly by leading it nicely and one shot took him out.  I let him sit in the water hoping that another duck would fly in.  One did not.  I thought that Clider and Ken were on the other side of the lake shottening too.  They were not.  It was other hunters.  Skyblasting for sure and missing all the time.  I waited more.  After I got cold and my wikki was getting low I packed up and left.  I went home and breasted out the Shoveler and put his tiny meat harvest in my freezer for a more appropriate time. That is all.

I will be better at posting in the future but right now Monday Night Football is on my TV, I want to watch it.
GBCH.

The Last Three Days

It's a busy time of year, what with all the slaying and getting ready for ski season.  I built a boat blind with a little help from Ken and Otis and it's pretty easy to use too.  I'm trying to keep up on everything so here goes.

11/11

I got a pretty early start and headed to Killarney with the intentions of using the boat blind back on Hidden lake.  I tried out my new boat lights which are temporarily mounted to the grab bar, they work great for blinding Peat.  Unfortunately that's about all they're good for until I remount them somewhere else.  I headed out and promptly stuck a stick in my eye while picking up grass for the blind, I even got a perfectly round cut that took a few days to heal.  Happy to still have two eyeballs I decided to just setup in Killarney.

After an hour and a half nothing was moving so I moved to a little cove that had been loaded with mallards last year.  After setting up, divers started coming in and landing around the blocks but just out of range.  I finally got a committed group and dropped a widgeon at the edge of my spread.  I pulled back the blind and Peat went out, the back of the blind was still up and the birds came back around.  I had another bird come into the spread and connected with this one too.

The first one was stone cold when it hit the water and the second one seemed that way too, until Peat showed up.  It proceeded to beat Peat in the nose for awhile and then dive down to tangle up in the weeds.  Despite quite a bit of looking it wasn't to be found, my first NR for the season.

An hour went by and drake blue wing teal landed with his gang in the middle of my spread.  It was a perfect setup, he was close and moving closer.  I jumped, he jumped, he went down and then he dove, never to come back up.  Two NRs in one day!  I was disappointed in myself and decided that hunting in weedy water is not something I want to do anymore.  I packed up and headed for the house.

On the way back I decided to head out to Hidden and do a little more exploring.  After a mile and a half of shallow water and mud I made it out, so glad I hadn't done that in the dark.  While exploring I found a decoy and got a surprise when I went to grab it. An injured greenie was hanging out right behind the block, unable to fly.  I chased him around and finished him off.  I checked him out at home and the breasts were full of shot and starting to grey.  It made me feel a little better to have at least finished off someone else's NR.  No point in it suffering out there.

The trip back was slow and involved being stuck a lot.

11/15

Ken and I headed to the Other Side.  We set an awesome spread and watched birds for most of the morning.  Some trumpeter swans landed in our blocks, I had never seen them before. They are huge and very endangered.  They were big white decoys, but everything was in a raft about 200 yards out and that is where the rest of the birds went. We pulled out around 10 and were headed home when we noticed that the Harrison slough was loaded.

We headed out a dirt road and saw blinds everywhere.  We headed out to one of the nasty looking blinds and decided we could stay for 10 minutes.  Upon entering the blind I noticed two things, 60+ empty shot hulls littering the mud and water, and a live but winged hen mallard.  We picked up the hulls and I took care of hennie.  We had 4 decoys with us and we put them out as the small storm started getting nasty.

Lots of birds came near but nobody wanted in.  Except for a nice fat drake mallard, I pulled up my gun and had a great shot lined up as he started to land.  No matter how hard I pulled the trigger my empty gun would not fire.  We stayed for an hour and then headed for home, this seems like an amazing weekday spot.  I was feeling a little better about my NRs when I was able to salvage that winged hen.  Since I had lost those two I hadn't shot until I found the winged birds, what are the odds.  Within 20 minutes of finding that hen, birds were coming in, some sort of karma thing?


11/16

It was storming like crazy, my good friend Otis had bought waders and was heading out with me in the nastiest weather I've hunted in yet.  The drive was tense, with lots of trees across I-90 and more completely across the smaller roads.  4-6" of slush in places made me feel silly towing my boat into the storm.

We got to Killarney and headed to an easy to get to spot.  Good cover, no weeds and a good wind with snow falling hard.  After settling in a trio of mallards committed, setting up way out.  This was Otis's first time duck hunting and he wasn't holding his gun when I saw them.  I told him to grab his gun as they landed right in front of me, we could still get the jump shot maybe.  Everyone jumped and we both missed.

We drank some drink and even shot a few times, divers were absolutely nuking in the high winds.  After awhile a lone shoveler came in and Otis took him with a single shot, I followed later with a merganser.  We were getting cold so we packed up and headed back.


1 Stick in the eye
2 NRs
2 Salvaged NRs
1 empty gun
1 not shottening so someone else can shotten too
8


Hopefully I'll get to hunt with another h7ht member one day.

Dang ol'

The boat is awesome, it looks really sweet in my backyard and the bank lets me slowly pay it off over the course of years.  It didn't have a blind on it and I hadn't done a proper walk-in day so Bob and I headed out to The Point.  It's really nice out there and I hadn't been since last season.

I brought the breakfast burritos and Bob brought the sammys (BBQ sauce is awesome).  We packed light and set out a v shaped spread, plenty of time before shooting.  Bob is on an " I won't shoot anything but widgeon" thing right now so he let the big fat mallard henny go.  Nothing else really wanted in and we were left listening to the laughs of some mallards a little ways down the shore from us.

I get cold pretty easy and the light load had never really warmed me up, so I went off to scare up greenie and and brought Peat along for some exercise. After scaring up a good sized flock and sending a few near but not near enough to the blind I headed back.  That's when I noticed a pack of mallards between me and the blind, right along the shore.  I walked and crawled  and got in close enough to shoot, Bob called and gave me the tip in case I was wandering into an ambush.

When I jumped  they jumped, one big fat greenie went down and Peat brought him in. It dawned on me while I was walking back to The Point that I could have taken a second shot at another bird, I've never tried a double and a jump shot is the perfect scenario to try.  We sat for awhile longer and we decided after I got back from my next walk we would pack up, I still had to work and Bob has a couch and TV calling his name.  I asked if he wanted to come and he opted out.

Heading back along the channel and then through a bunch of brush until I came into view of some small diver ducks along the shore.  I debated it for a little while and decided to watch them before I scared them toward the blind.  While they were playing something moved between me and the waterline, there was another greenie sitting in a shoebox sized puddle in the mud.  I watched it for a minute and then jumped.

He popped out of that hole with a surprise, he'd been getting nasty with a hen.  The first shot dropped the drake cold, I had just been thinking about it so I leveled on the hen and fired a single shot.  Peat went after the hen and I grabbed the drake, my first true, intentional double!  I was pumped, both had been clean kills.  This was the highlight of my hunting career, I thought.  Something crazy happened when Peat came back in to exchange his duck for a treat.  I rolled her over and there was something I never expected to see in person, a shiny little bracelet covered in numbers.

I picked up my birds and headed back to the blind, floating along.  Bob couldn't believe I got two birds and when I showed him the band he seemed as excited as I was.  I called in and reported the band, she was a local bird, banded around the Killarney area, about 2 years old.  I know people get these all the time and some never see one ever, but I'd like to think that now that the ice has been broken the h7ht will be flooded with bands in the future.  Perhaps one day Bob will only slay banded widgeon.