Fred G. here
Bubba has no comment on hunt day 11, which is okay, so I'll fill in the details.
The HOY7HT rose at an early 4am in anticipation of another great hunt day. With Bubba picking me up promptly at 430 we were on our way, me with a belly full of bran, 100% of course, and gullet full of 3 day old coffee, and Shmubba with a classic coke. The long drive to Sauvies Island always evokes fond memories of hunts past and wishful memories of the future such as "when we win powerball were gonna..." or "were going to bag the limit today for sure". We arrive at the non-reservation check in station and got in line, we had a decent spot in the line but Bubba commented on how long the reservation line was, and yes I'll have to admit it was rather large, just like my python legs if you remember the mud story. There we sat for the next hour reading up on our identification of ducks so as to not shoot the wrong bird or shoot something out of season, because we all know we wouldn't shoot anything out of season. All though the common thread while sitting in the blind is "if a goose flys over my head I'm gonna shoot it". We all know that geese are out of season. Speaking of season as in seasoning, heres a little helpful hint: salt makes a sandwich taste better. Well the gates open and we finally get to the station to pick our blind, we arrive at the window and there was only 2 blind left, mind you there was 8 trucks behind us, they must have been PISSED. Our choicess being mudhen 16 or hunt 13. We choose hunt 13 not ever being there and looking for something new to try, plus mudhen 16 is about a mile walk in the mud, while walking in is fine walking out when you just put down a bottle of Jameson is brutal. Not to mention caring your limit in ducks. We drove to our new found hunting blind, anticipation a brewing, among other things, remember the 100% bran and three day old coffee. We unload our gear grab our new fine Italian made guns, made for Italians and people who ride Italian motorcycles. It was a small jaunt to blind 13 maybe 100 yards or so, a big lovely oak to our left and wide open waters to our right. We throw our deeks out under the big oak because it looks like a fine feeding spot for the ducks and put our HOY7HT made roto duck out to the right with a couple of feeders around it. As we are throwing the deeks out literaly hundreds of ducks are flying over our heads, but of course it was not fly time yet, but what a wonderful sight it was though. I then commented to Bob, Bubba , Shmubba or Bill what ever you call him "Gosh I wish Steve were here this week to see this, he would shit his pants for sure". If you all remember week 10 when we took SteveO to Sauvies, it was a disaster. We settle into our blind it's about 6 now crack our bottles of whikey open take a slug christen the blind have a smoke and were on our way. We wait till it's CIL (kill) time. It's now 12 o'clock we have drank half of our bottles and were out of smokes. Sure we have gotten off a few shots here and there but not much GOOD action. The birds are sketchy this time of year, it sounds like Iraq out there for gods sake. So were out of smokes like I said, bubba being the coolest guy ever said "I'll get some more smokes" I think he really needed a smoke. As he is walking back to the truck which is only 100 yards away remember, a duck flys into the blind and Fred G. folds it like Superman on laundry day. I could almost hear shmubbas discontent as he is walking back to the truck. It was a canvasback by the way, and if you were to read this years game book you would know that they are out of season. Shame, I care the mo. Bubba returns minutes later, because the store was about 200 yards away and I'm still out in the marsh looking for blasted duck I folded. Nowhere to be seen all I find is a skanky old dead duck that has been out there for god knows how long. 416 pm in the truck now riding home feeling pretty down, maybe the worst hunting day ever. Usually we see something cool, a great sunrise, some bald eagles, snow capped mountains, or we learn something new, you need a new license after January first, there is no water in the north unit, don't shoot a duck in its ass with a 3 1/2 inch shell 10 yards away and expect that you will be able to eat it, and salt makes a turkey sandwich taste that much better. Today nothing. Except now as I sit here and try to do my best to fill in for my BFF, cause he's feeling down about our hunt day, I think I did learn something...RESERVATIONS. Gold Bless America and happy holidays to you and your family's from the HOY7HT
Word.
Fred G from the West side.
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