Plan B Isn't Just for Sluts

I headed out under the guise of getting a Christmas tree with Monica yesterday and did a little scouting.  

There's a lot of ice out there right now and the water is really low.  There seemed to be a complete lack of birds until we reached Anderson, there were a couple in front of the point but they were way out of range of either blind.  The slough across from the Thompson Lake preserve however was packed with birds on the ice near one of the boat blinds I've always wanted to hunt.  We even got to see a guy standing on the road using a tree as a blind, on the road.

Plan A was looking great, I'd take one slightly heavy load of floaters and my slotted bag and do the thing in one trip, after all it's a pretty short walk.  I showed up an hour early, put on my ice traction thingys and headed out in the dark.  The mud was a lot softer than anticipated and the ice had moved out a ways from the overnight rain.  The first ice cleat was gone in the mid shin deep mud immediately, the second one was lost in the breakable ice over knee deep mud.

After venturing uncomfortably far onto the ice, I noticed two things.

        #1 The ice was not getting any thicker,

        B   The ice was continuing to settle and crack as I walked

        And finally, the ice was melting very quickly.

I decided to turn around and head for Plan B.  I want to take a moment to mention that walking through really gooey boot sucking mud carrying a fully loaded pack, full slotted bag and gun in your heavy winter waders in the pouring rain is really fun and I would recommend it to anyone.  After a a brief moment of debating the merits of calling it a day and going home, I headed to the Tip.

I left the slotted bag and grabbed my layout blind and hustled to get set up.  10 big blocks out and the layout next to a log, with some camo netting over Peat and we were ready for business.  The first ones in were little divers, but after about 20 minutes a lone greenie came within 12-15 yards and committed.  I had a bit of time to prepare and got a clean cil dropping him right in the blocks.  About 30 minutes later another lone greenie came in from my left, again within 20 yards.  He came down, and I followed up with a shot just to make sure.  Peat reluctantly made the retrieve in the muddy conditions.

We were really in the open so any little movement was a dead giveaway, it seemed like every time I moved I spooked some birds off.  I spent $.37 and added a few sticks to our mud beach, I also noticed that someone had left a hundred plus empty shells at the Tip and cut down most of the grass.  Thanks guys!

We settled in for a bit and soon enough a pair came in, I didn't see them until they were above the spread.  I pulled up and missed the first shot, got feathers with the second, gun jammed with a muddy shell, hit the butt on the ground, and connected with the third shot.  It set it's wings and sailed about two thirds of the way to the shore to the right of the blind.

I started walking on the ice and it was holding my weight but not very well.  I could see that the bird was dead but it was at least 100 yards out, it was time for Peat to earn his "good boys".  I was a little worried after the first retrieve, but he doesn't mind ice.  He headed out on roughly the line I gave him, and with just two looks back for hand signals he found the last greenie for the day and brought him back.  Peat just made a retrieve that was easily 3 times further than any before.

After that we cleaned up the mess at the tip, went for a walk.  Shotten at some geese on that walk, discovered that my gun was so muddy that the ejector would tear the lip off the brass of the shells and leave them stuck in the chamber.  I was done shooting by 8:30 but stayed out until 1:00, after that it was a very heavy walk back with everything completely loaded with mud.  Those 3 greenies sort of helped balance the pack though, it's heavy work being an expert.