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.