From forecast of rain to something worse

Mark W

Mark W

Well-known member
Got out to Browns Valley Mn and drove over to our special spot. On the way another o e in our hunting party sent a text saying their spot was bone dry. Got to ours which is quite a big slough and it too is almost bone dry. Not good. Drove around and only the spots that are typically very deep or have runoff that goes to them have water.

Going to be a zoo tomorrow as many folks are going to be surprised when they get to their place only to learn there is no water.

Going to be an interesting morning. 3.5 hours until it is time to get up and hopefully get a place to hunt.

Wish us luck.

Mark W
 
Wow it is lower than thought. Got out here at 2:30 and good thing. With so many pothole dry people are on the move. When we got here there was a couple of lights off on the distance and we didn't know if we could get to our spot. We took a chance and started the trek. Good thing as the light s were on the other side of the pothole 2-300 yards away. Guys are trying to tell us we are 30 yards away from them which we know is not the case. Buddies went to lay in the weeds so I had "watch". I was enjoying it he Morning eyes sort of shut (good d watch guy huh) when I thought I heard footsteps. All of a sudden three dogs appear and we d Not have any. Got up and turned around n my headlamp and heard a collective "ah shit" and then 6 guys appeared. They weren't too happy to have taken the last my walk and thought they were going g ton hunt right here anyway. I told you he not wasn't going to happen and they are on their way back. About a 3/4 mile walk through thick stuff.

Looks like I will have to stay awake for the next couple of hours now.

Trailered the new poke out to the place we stay at and left it behind as I didn't think I would be able to use it with so little water and so much work. Kind of bummed as I was looking forward to trying it out. Next time I guess.

Wish us luck. Going to be a tough opener.

Mark W
 
I can remember those days in the 50s when we had some horrible droughts. Now if you are looking for a worse condition than where you are now, just come down to where we live.
Al

PS: the Rio Grande is flowing at 3.7cfs at 4:15 this morning.
 
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Crazy! The wife just got home from a business trip in Minneapolis. She told me you 4" while she was there.We're looking at flood stage levels on Wednesday. I figured this water was coming from your area. Good luck.
 
A place near me back home got 10" of rain the other night. Out here very little.

Ended up chasing another group out. Busy place today.

Even with the water low we did ok. Finished the day with 6 green wings and 12 blue wings. Was tough to retrieve as the pothole was pure muck. It only took my retrieving one bird to learn quickly that you shoot them close to shore and no Hail Mary shots as the ducks are leaving and you have one shell in the gun left. One of my hunting buddies didn't figure this out until his last duck. I think he is still sleeping.

Rain has just hit the area and it is a downpour. Don't know about longevity of it but if I wake up tomorrow to this, I'm packing up and heading home. Hope it stops.

Mark W
 
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We had the opposite problem today. We had lots of water and not that many ducks. Heard a lot of shooting but we didn't see nearly the amount of ducks that the guys behind us evidently saw.

We got 9 ducks and a goose between 3 of us here in eastern SD. It was OK and got out of there before the line of storms went through.

Tim
 
Sheet water is teal water! Sorry to hear your water woes, Mark!

The water in the Lake Michigan marsh complex we hunted is 4" higher than last year's level and markedly changed from the mud flat of several years back. The issue in terms of access and entry in the dark four our group are the numerous chunks of dolomite limestone, above and below water. One bolder is two-thirds the size of my boat. We marked it this year via an anchor and jug, since its crown is just under the water's surface now. It is located about 250' north of my track line in the open water leg run...first thing I think about each morning when I start the motor at the ramp.
 
Looks like for other reasons I made the right decision to head north this year. Messed up ribs kept me from hunting too much but Paul did good and Sun. eve we ate a woodie. Looks like my season will be much shorter than ever but maybe the ribs will let me go late and hopefully deer season. I do remember how gooey those sloughs get and how hard it is to get hid when the water is low.
 
Seems to me that when a guy retires messing up ribs should not be on the list. What happened, Tom? Sure hope it won't take too long to recover.
Al
 
I don't really know, got another doc apt today to maybe figure it out. I have some ideas but nothing that is clearly the cause. All I know for sure is that any rib pain takes a very long time to heal. Figures that it would be Oct. As I say often " If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans". I will post when I know anything for sure. Thanks for the good thoughts now get out there and get some ducks.
 
Rib injuries are awful. A lot of times it is the cartilage and not the bones. Either way it takes a while to heal. That pesky breathing does not allow you to fully rest the ribcage.
Hope you get out before the seasons end,
Tom
 
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