It wasn't that way in the early going.
On the N. zone opener, the arrival of shooting time found Foots and myself sitting on the edge of a borrow pit lake near Sumner. 11 gadwalls and one mallard drake later, the sun had yet to rise above the treeline.
The next day, we were joined by C & C. As legal shooting time approached, the ducks started fogging into the lake in front of us. When the clock struck the fatal minute, we had at least 300 ducks on the water. C & C's dog, Sable, was shaking so violently that I was sure she'd dislocate something.
Safeties went off, and we kept her ass busy for some time.
She made some fine retrieves. One week to the day later, C & C and I spent a morning at Otter Slough. I had never hunted this particular unit, so we waited for daylight before hauling all of our gear out into the pool.
We eyeballed a spot that looked right and headed for it. But, before we got there, I noticed something out of place in the flooded weeds.
I said to C & C, " Look at that buck standing there " Sure enough, there was a 140 class buck standing in 2' of water, amid 4' tall smartweed. All you could see was his head and antlers. He let the two of us pulling a layout boat, and a dog splashing through the water pass within 45 yds. of him. Hell, he stood 80 yds away and watched us kill ducks for a while.
Anyway, we set up facing north, putting the southeast breeze coming over our right sholders. Since the sun also rose to the southeast , we had the incoming ducks sun-forked. Any duck that commited to the spread made their final approach straight into the sun, and effectively blinded.
We mostly took turns shooting the gadwall, wigeon, pintails and mallards that liked our set-up. They were all lit up like photos from magazines. It was absolutley beautiful. I've never seen ( or heard ) so many wigeons in one day.
Here's to next year
