Joe Giurfa
Member
Decided to hit my favorite refuge this morning, after a somewhat late start I was motoring across the impoundment only to find my previously choosen spot was taken by another hunter. Crap, with no wind forecasted I really wanted that spot as it looked north and would keep the sun out of my face. Plan B would have to do, so I motored past the hunter and set up on a bullrush point facing west. Temps were predicted to be in the low 60's with nice blue skies and sunshine. While not ideal gunning conditions, the good thing was the refuge was literally holding tens of thousands of birds so I knew with that many around some had to fly. Birds started moving around 8:30 and while it was slow, it was also somewhat consistent with one here and two there throughout the course of the day. I passed on a ton of hen pintails and spoonies, I was after widgeon but the mallards wanted to play too. While I tried to keep the bag to all drakes, the hen mallard was collateral damage when she flew in between my bead and a drake. I was at six birds and ten minutes left of legal shooting time when a flock of redheads put the landing gear down, one shot later and I had my limit. Even though it was slow it was a great day to be out in the marsh, I even took a nice snooze in the boat in the afternoon.
