Sunday, November 7, 2010

First Solo of the Year (10/26/10 Duck Hunt)

Today was a solo outing.  After having worked 81 hours the week before, I took off a Tuesday morning to regain some sanity.  It was a windy day.  Very windy.  30-35 mph gusts with 20-25 mph sustained.  Definitely a rough day on the Columbia.  I arrived at the waters edge at 4:30 AM and began my 1/4 mile walk through rough waters to the spot I had in mind.  After arriving at my spot, I quickly realized that there was no dry land close to where I wanted to set up.  I laid my Benelli high in the cattails to free up both hands for setting decoys.  I also laid my Eqwader sweatshirt high in the cattails.  After setting the decoys out, I returned to put my sweatshirt on.  I found it soaked to the bone.  That left me with only a t-shirt and light long sleeved shirt for protection against the 45 degree, high wind weather.  To say that I was cold would be a gross understatement.  The sun finally came up.  No ducks.  Finally, a half hour after sunrise, a large group of ducks flew over the main channel of the Columbia at what had to be the duck equivalent of mach 1.  I hit the call but they wanted nothing to do with it.  Not one other bird was seen all morning.  So, after becoming cold and losing Jeff's flapper wing, I decided that I had sat in waist deep water long enough.  I picked up and headed out.  Not the greatest day of hunting, but definitely better than being at work.

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