Variety - The Spice of Life

It was warm today, but the action we got
into made the day positively hot.

Dave and Jim took the van down to TMG
and camped overnight in the walk in line.
By the time the gates were opened, they
were #3 in line.  When Craig and I met
them at 4AM, we were looking at the
7th pick after the permit holders.  To
my surprise the same spot Jim and I
hunted a couple weeks back was
still open.  We jumped on it.

Our buddy Duckmanjr let us know that
the 4.5 inches of rain the previous week
had made the impoundment a skosh
deeper.  Where we had once had
a couple of inches to spare crossing
the lateral ditches, the water now
topped our waders.  Dave had chosen
to free wheel it and go without waders.
He made the wise move.  The rest of
us were just as soaked by the end of
the day, but we had the added burden
of trying to wade with half the marsh
in our waders.

Dave and I hunted together while Jim
and Craig moved further down.  By
8:30, Dave had 4 birds and I had 5.
Things had slowed down and we had
an awesome view of the impoundment.
Much further back, where the water
was shallower, we saw wad after wad
of ducks piling in.  We moved out there
and were covered up.  I rounded out my
limit and decided to go get Jim and Craig.

They started wading out and told me they
only had 4 birds.  I said that I would head
in and pick up gear and decoys while they
went out to join Dave.  In the next half hour,
Craig went from 1 bird to a limit using only
his O/U.  Jim's gun had picked up some
goo and was back to single shot status.

Somewhere in there, Dave finished his
limit and Jim chipped away at his until
he too had six birds.  I had finally slogged
my way back to the pickup and was dozing
in the bed when they finally stopped shooting.

This was our first four man limit as a Clan
and had - we think - the most species variety
of any single hunt:
2 scaup (really unusual bird in the marsh)
2 ringers
2 green wing teal (we got none last year)
2 spoonies
16 blue wing teal.

ofs