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.
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