Idaho, the last month or so...

Cold in the Idaho

It has been cold and nothing is flying, but the h7ht season goes to the bitter end.  Fred may have been right when he declared the Idaho season over.  I'm just going to sum up the last few weeks here, I know I've been out at least once a week, sometimes twice but it all kind of blends together now.

Otis and I arrived one morning in a spot that was holding ducks and gooses the day before, as we put out blocks another group of hunters setup across from us maybe 300 yards away.  Some divers came in but we didn't shoot because we were holding out for our limit of greenies.  After twenty minutes about thirty mallards came in and started landing in the spread, we both shot and both scored green headed bastards, Otis's was especially fat and mean looking.  After this we had some geese set up a couple of times and our neighbors would wait until the birds were committed and then shoot into the water to scare off our birds, real nice guys.

Otis and Peat getting away from our crappy neighbors

Another day we set up over the pass on Coeur d'Alene lake, tons of birds came in and sat about a 100 yards from our blind, refusing to come closer.  After a long wait we packed up and moved back over to Medimont, three more hours of nothing flying.  On the way back we stopped by Killarney to find over a hundred birds sitting on the edge of the channel.  We care fully snuck in and Peat scared them off.  We knew it was a waste of time but we sat down anyway, nothing had been flying all day.

About twenty minutes late the cloud of birds started working it's way towards us, we weren't hidden very well but we just sat there.  Another flock came into view, both were close fifty mallards each.  They circled and flared, over and over again.  It was loud, really loud.  They were right over our heads, forty or fifty birds had already landed 40 feet in front of us.  It was so overwhelming that it took a second for my brain to register that it was time to shoot.  The first two shots went through a dime sized hole between ducks, it seemed physically impossible to miss but I managed to do it.  The last shot was careful and slow, a nice big greenie.  Otis pulled down a hen.

We sat back down still shaking with excitement when they came back.  We had some great pass shot opportunities but we knew they wanted to land so we waited.  They landed out of range and we sent Peat out to scare them off again.  They came back a third time and all but one settled in out of range.  The first shot missed the second shot missed and the third shot, the third shot connected but by this time it was behind me and dropped into 12ft tall grass.  By a stroke of luck it happened to be lying next to the trail we came in on.  Birds want to be where they want to be, it took a lot of work to get them to leave.

I have gone alone quite a bit lately, I set out a spread but there is nobody to see it.  After and hour and a half or so I pack up and start hiking, along the river, along the sloughs and basically anywhere I know of that holds ducks.  Mallards, buffleheads, geese and a few goldeneyes are all that is left, so if I stumble across something it's usually a greenie as the hens seem to have pretty much vacated too.  Most of the time there is nothing but sometimes if I spend enough time walking the freezer will start to load up.  Peat gets restless if we don't get enough activity during the week, so jump shooting has become the name of the game lately.

Hiking with Peat yesterday

Yesterday the river reached a new low and I was unable to put the boat in anywhere.  Peat and I setup near the ramp at Mud Hole and waited, packed up at 8:30 and then hiked from 8:30-3:00. We got two gooses on the river, a greenie in the channel at the point, a goldeneye on the river near medimont and two bufflehead on killarney.  I snuck up on a goose at the end of the day on the river near killarney.  After stalking him down river for a ways I was finally close enough to jump him, but before I could move he died like the one Peat pulled out of the river last year.  He just laid his head down and gave up.  I stepped out from behind cover and sent Peat to bring him in.  The goose immediately came back to life and flew away, stuff like this happens a lot.  But I have figured out how to creep up on ducks pretty well, geese are nearly impossible, I think I just got lucky yesterday.

I am already excited for flocks of decoying birds next fall, I am putting meat in the freezer and it's more a lot more fun than grouse hunting but I really miss decoying birds.  There have been some misadventures in the boat,some falling on ice, frozen guns and Peat isn't super excited about submerging his naked butthole in freezing cold water, but I feel like I am starting to think like a duck.  I have had a great season  and am still hoping for some sort of ciling for the king trip.  Either way I am super pumped about next season and the boat blind, I have a list of places that I have explored this year and the blind is going to be the ticket.  Fred and Cliffy need to come up early enough to get out while everything is still holding water, together we will slay.  We may need to make a couple trips to get everything and everyone in but I think it's going to be awesome.

The bufflehead decoyed, the rest were hiking birds.