Solo Day at The Point.

Or: "Should Have Brought the Kayak"

Regular readers will know that I am, in addition to being a once and future 'Expert', a ski guy.  Well, this year I signed up to learn the fine art of driving a snowcat and grooming ski runs for a living.  The schedule is somewhat unpredictable at this time of the year and it so-happened that I had today off.  So I took the duck by the horns and went hunting.  I asked Clider if he could go so that I could have known for a fact that I would be exactly where the greenies wanted to be but he was busy with his job as just another ski guy.  I made the call to go to The Point not only because I had not done any scouting, but also because that's where I go just about all the time.  The only question I had last night was weather to bring the kayak or not.  After a day of replacing growser bars (snowcat treads) in the cold of the cat shop and then spending hours on end taking pictures in the snow so Clider could take credit for my mad photo skills, I was chilled to the bone when I got home.  The last thing I wanted to do was load up the kayak on top of the Jeep in the dark while it was a balmy 65 degrees in my house. A steamy shower was waiting so I just went with my carry bag.

Fast forward to this morning.  Walk out to warm up. Dakotas looking great in the channel. Time to properly settle. Morning fly working perfect. Everything going great. 
No ducks.
Flying.
Landing.
Working my decoys.
Nothing.

My new ride

This is where I should have brought the kayak.  In the spot Clider always wants to hunt to my left there were 50+ mallards quacking away.  In the bay to my right another 100+ mallards are quacking away.  All the ducks flying are landing in one of those two spots completely ignoring my spread. If I had a kayak I could at least go scare them up or even move my rig to go where they are. But I'm stuck on the sidelines watching.  Many geese flew right over me but I'm not looking to shoot them, I want Greenie.  So finally I took a walk out to my left and ended up in boot sucking mud up to my knees.  I did manage to put up the 50+ on the left, then taking a walk back on the path, scare up the 100+ on the right, who went and landed in Uncle Delbert's cove far away.  I figured I would just wait them out and they would come back and see me but anything that did come back went right back to where they started.  I called it a day and came home to dust off the kayak and wait for next time.  Next time is going to be great!
GBCH