T.O.C. Day one.

The 'Tour of Champions' has begun and the first day was more like the 'Founders Tour' as it was just Fred G and I heading out on to Anderson.  Team member Clider was hunting another area with a bloke named Otis, who has only recently started hunting, and just shot a 7 year old banded greenie from Alberta Canada.  We currently don't like Otis.

The weather here has been nothing short of arctic. Much of the country is also in the grip of a Canadian cold front which we hoped would bring down ducks from the north.  Temperatures in the low teens and mostly frozen water greeted us at The Point.  We set about breaking up ice and had our decoys set as the shooting hour arrived.  The picture above shows the battle we fought with the ice filling in the slough that runs behind The Point.  Only a few ducks were flying in the early morning hours and I had lost the ability to take the first shot of the day in a spirited game of ducey the night before.  Finally we were able to make a couple geese turn and come to see us rather than the big raft of birds sitting on the open water way out in the middle of the lake.  They set up perfectly and flew in low and slow with the sun lighting up their fat bellies.  They looked to me like a couple of big B52's coming in for a landing and I watched as Fred lined up to take the first shot of the day.  He took 3.  No geese fell.

Founder: Fred G.

After that no other perfect opportunities happened our way and we did some more improvement to the waters in front of The Blind.  I took a walk and tried to get some birds to get off the water in the middle of the lake but still nothing wanted in.  Even after the walk out we felt good about the chances to shoot there again next time.  The temperatures are rising and the ice will have a hard time making a return to that spot.  Next time I'm sure many hundreds of fat greenies will make their way to the perfect spot we have created.  Stay tuned.
GBCH