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