Opening Day 2013

Only Tommy and I made it out for opening
day.   I'd scouted the previous two Saturdays
while out doing some snipe hunting.  The
river has been dropping fast and there are
few ponds that have feed - alot are choked
off with water lettuce and fewer that have
water at all. 

We ended up barely making it to Snipe
City and the pond inside the circle before
shooting time.   I'd seen ducks there in
past years, but never hunted it.  There
were tons of boats at the refurbished
ramp.  How is it an improvement when
there are fewer parking spaces?  Folks
had to put their cars and trailers up
on the highway - not safe at 0400.

When we first pulled into Snipe City,
I counted 8 sets of red, alligator eyes
looking at me.  We only saw one 7
footer and a couple of 2 footers when
the sun came up.

We were well covered up, sun at
our backs, nestled in the fireflag,
and shielded by palmetto fans.
The ducks didn't see us, but they
sure didn't like our spread.  I
adjusted decoys several times
but couldn't find a layout that
that would work.  Of course,
there weren't a whole lot of
ducks to shoot at anyway.  The
only thing that kept the day from
being a complete skunk was one
little gwt that landed 30 feet away
from the decoys and still managed
to catch a pellet.  It took me 8 total
shots to stop that bird as I sloshed
across the pond trying to hold up the
hip waders and shoot at the same time.

There were tons of other birds around and
it was a beautiful, warm ('80s) day.  My
feet are hurting to much to do any more
snipe hunting, so we limped home.

Still, we're on the board.

ofs