Winter Arrives . . .

Well, friends, this is gonna be a rough one. We ended the first split on a whimper and patiently waited for the second season to make its way around the corner hoping all the while that the birds would reset and give us a shot at redemption. And it shook down exactly like we'd hoped it would . . . With one blindingly painful exception: we didn't see the weather coming. For purposes of recording the matter for future reference, I shall quote from the weather channel's forecast:

Friday: ICE STORM WARNING. high of 29 @ 7:00 a.m. With temps falling. N winds @ 15-25 mph.
Saturday: low: 18. High: 21
Sunday: low: 23. High: 30 with snow
Monday: low: 9. High: 30. Partly sunny
Tuesday: low: 10. High: 28
Wednesday: low: 12. High: 34

 Do you see the problem here? Unfortunately, waterfowl habitually inhabit areas with water in its liquid form. We're fresh outta that stuff for the next week or so. We knew we had problems when temps hit 20 degrees on the second day of season.

The pattern has played out exactly as expected. With that in mind, we looked to wreck em while we could. And we did. Thursday, as a last ditch to get what we could while we could, we started in on em on the home field in the morning with a seven man crew, including Grey, the Bakers, John, Brant Tosh, Brian Elders, and myself. We stepped out of the blind early with 36 ducks and a speck. Thereafter, we took a few mystery guests out to break the seal on Chuck's and smoked another 27 birds.

Total for the day 64 birds.

 Memphis Blind:
8 mallards
10 gadwalls
12 GWT
6 spooners
1 speck.



 Chuck's:
15 gadwall
6 mallards
4 GWT
2 shovelers



Sunday: Johnny & the Gipper in Memphis . . . 1 hoody

Saturday:  Reece, Blake, John, Garrett, Gibby. 10 birds in Memphis.

4 GWT
4 Shovelers
1 Mallard
1 speck



Friday a.m.:  8 birds. Reece, Blake, Johnny & the Gipper; Memphis

4 redheads
2 GWT
1 gadwall
1 Mallard

Friday p.m.:  Blake, Reece, Johnny. Chuck's on the east side. 2 Gadwalls.