Idaho Mega Post

I have been a big ol slacker, again. So here is the season so far,

Day's 1- 5 or so

Bob loaned me his .410 and I went along on some beautiful bird watching trips, I even shotten from time to time.  I missed 100% of the time but I had fun getting out and about.  I learned that looking through the wrong eyeball is hard to resist.






The Sunday before the Tour of Champions,

 Otis and I went out with his friend Chris, who had never duck hunted before.   It was my first time back out with the 12ga, which I was still nervous about.  We set up at the blind and had decent action all morning, almost every time I stood up ducks came in.  While I was leaving the blind, while I was coming back in, while I was peeing.  Chris wore earplugs all day so he could never hear us telling him to hold still, Chris scared a lot of birds but he had a lot of fun too.

After a while a canvasback hen came through feet down and crossing left to right.  My first shot out of the 870 for 2015 and first canvasback in the bag ever.  We had more shooting before we called it and walked out with a pack that was way too heavy again.  I learned that earplugs are stupid and that my backpack is always overloaded.










The Tour of Champions can only be summed up in pictures. 

Jake & Teal

On the way back from the Tour of Champions I spotted a lot of birds hanging out on Medicine Lake, on Thanksgiving they were still there.  So the next morning I arrived at the pullout only to find someone in my carefully scouted spot.  It was a big jacked up truck, sky blaster for sure.  He was unloading the last of his gear as I pulled up.

I pulled up and asked if he was set up where I thought he was, he was.  Before I pulled out to find another spot, he asked if I'd like to join him.  I saw how loaded that spot was the day before, I really wanted to hunt it, so I said yes.  I grabbed some goose shells and a camo net and followed him out.  We set his brand new amazing full body geese and mallards up around his layout blind and dog blind in the mucky field.  I laid in the mud with the camo net over me and explained that I would just wait for him to shoot since I had the whole left handed thing going and I'd never hunted a field before.

We started talking and he soon explained that he doesn't hunt with people around here due to all the poaching and general rule breaking.  We hit it off after this, which was good because everything that was coming in was landing in the now thawed lake and wanted nothing to do with us.

When we finally had some ducks come in they were mallards, fifteen or twenty of them.  We both came up, he fired one shot and then his autoloader jammed.  I took two shots and dropped two nice fat greenies.  Teal, his well trained dog was even nice enough to retrieve them while Peat loafed around not wanting to go out in the knee deep mud.  At 9:30 Jake had to go, so I helped him pack up and we both hit the road.  I have never shot a double on greenies before, today I learned that sometimes it's good to be late.

Solo on Cave

I was very excited, I scouted the day before and this place was loaded with birds, I got there way early so that I got there before anyone else.  Which was a good thing because it was frozen over completely and I had to spend an hour busting it open enough to have a landing area.  There had been no Ice the day before and no I had to go out and break it up every twenty minutes.  After two hours I got no action except for a picture of a greenie that Bob had claimed at the point.

I packed up and headed back toward town, only to find a bunch of mallards in the next bay.  I pulled over and hiked out with just a dozen blocks and a pocket full of shells.  The birds took off and I laid back against a muskrat hut and waited. The water in front of me was open and I knew they'd be back.

An hour later they started returning and they brought their friends. hundreds of their friends.  Flock after flock settled in just out of range, Hundreds and hundreds and they were all mallards.  At this point I noticed that my blocks had iced up and the whole area in front of me was now frozen.  They kept coming and landing a hundred yards out. I finally took a pass shot at one that came close enough, I missed.  Bob showed up and dropped off a much needed sammy on his way home to clean a nice greenie.

Today I learned that Ice is best served in drinks.



Bob

Today I woke up at 7:00 instead of 4:30, there was even a message on my phone from Bob. My alarm was set for the wrong day, which was a bummer especially since I spent the day before driving all over scouting.  Today I learned that Monday comes immediately after Sunday,

Tomorrow I head to the theater with Nick.