Fred Slyfield and I headed off on a road trip this week to float some new water and test drive a few decoys. We discovered that:
1) a 19 foot Bankes isn't large enough for 2 guys 1 dog and 39 bazillion (or is that a crap-load of?) decoys;
2) 135,000 ruddy ducks, 33,500 (a gross underestimate) hen buffleheads, 70,100 (a really crappy underestimate) shovelers, and 50,500 scaup doesn't mean good gunning if the weather is beautiful;
3) Upper Klamath Lake is a neat place even if it is 20 miles long and 8 miles wide and on average 5 feet deep;
4) Matt Cottingham and his folks are really great people;
5) even if you float a common eider decoy in Upper Klamath Lake or the Lower Columbia River, you aren't guaranteed that you'll decoy any eiders;
6) quail cooked in secret sauce in the duck boat at 10 am is truly a great breakfast;
7) sleep is over-rated.
I am sure that Fred will add more pictures and embellish the story tomorrow when he gets home and I will let him identify all of the carvers represented in the spread.
We joined the sunrise club.
About half the spread, but water skiing would be more appropriate.
The Bankes looked great up against the willow and rock.
The numbers of birds was unbelievable.
Eiders can swim in Upper Klamath.
Yukon Mike's canvasback liked swimming in the Columbia.
We found that Bill's eider didn't attract any eider friends on the Columbia, but he did attract a hen surf scoter 25 miles from the salt.
That if some want to talk about crap, I want to talk about boobies, banded boobies at that.
1) a 19 foot Bankes isn't large enough for 2 guys 1 dog and 39 bazillion (or is that a crap-load of?) decoys;
2) 135,000 ruddy ducks, 33,500 (a gross underestimate) hen buffleheads, 70,100 (a really crappy underestimate) shovelers, and 50,500 scaup doesn't mean good gunning if the weather is beautiful;
3) Upper Klamath Lake is a neat place even if it is 20 miles long and 8 miles wide and on average 5 feet deep;
4) Matt Cottingham and his folks are really great people;
5) even if you float a common eider decoy in Upper Klamath Lake or the Lower Columbia River, you aren't guaranteed that you'll decoy any eiders;
6) quail cooked in secret sauce in the duck boat at 10 am is truly a great breakfast;
7) sleep is over-rated.
I am sure that Fred will add more pictures and embellish the story tomorrow when he gets home and I will let him identify all of the carvers represented in the spread.
We joined the sunrise club.
About half the spread, but water skiing would be more appropriate.
The Bankes looked great up against the willow and rock.
The numbers of birds was unbelievable.
Eiders can swim in Upper Klamath.
Yukon Mike's canvasback liked swimming in the Columbia.
We found that Bill's eider didn't attract any eider friends on the Columbia, but he did attract a hen surf scoter 25 miles from the salt.
That if some want to talk about crap, I want to talk about boobies, banded boobies at that.
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