Nov 27 Blast and cast

[onefishtwofish]

Did some casting, not much blasting and no catching. It was pretty windy for my little jon boat, so we kept it close to the hill. Only tried a few drifts.

Two funny occurrences that happen a lot to us when salty hunting. Had been sitting a while and knocked down a buffy. Went out and got it (we were just popped up in our blind, away from any land). Had 8 bufflehead dekes around us and a long line of 8 bills. About an hour (or more) later we killed another. While we were out retrieving it (blind still up, but us standing) in comes a flock of bills. We crouched down, but they had seen us. They got just close enough for us to try the inside bird, but had we been sitting down and in position, they would have swung right in (they almost did with us standing and out of position). So we go get our bird. Sit for a while longer and it was time to leave. As we go out and are grabbing the first couple of dekes, my brother said "check it out" There sat a greater in the far end of our spread! He had flown in while we were picking up. We were not loaded as we had a 5 year old with us and did not want unattended guns laying around. We just pointed our fingers at him and said BOOM. The boy with us had a blast, drank hot cocoa and ate pimento cheese sandwiches. A good day. They fried the ducks that night and ate them.

[silverking]

Sounds like fun, regardless. I've been seeing more ducks the last couple of trips. Mostly singles and pairs, no big rafts yet.

[bbb]

Saw some big rafts last weekend inside the refuge boundary. Could hear them get up from a mile away.

We use to blind up away from land with 5-6 dozen decoys. Never failed that when we're away chasing a cripple and come back to the decoys, a group of bills would be in the decoys.