Sure ënuff as predicted Ole T-Bone showed back up on Jan 20, all cocked and primed for the last week of season. His flight landed around noon and we immediately met Gerald and Ryan for lunch to rough out an agenda. After renewing his license for five days, we headed home to sort decoys and get him settled.

Gerald & Tris

Early next AM we met down to Geraldís for a river duck hunt. By shooting time we were set up on a gravel bar where birds liked to gather, and in the first hour had bagged three mallards that dipped into our spread. After that flurry things came to a screeching halt and we sat around telling tall tales before heading off to breakfast. The afternoon hunt was non productive, but we found lots of sign.

Ducking the next morning, I put Ole Hyde right on the X and glory of glorys, his shooting form was up to 1962 standards. I put him upstream from me a 100 yds or so,and he had mallards pouring in on him at point blank range. The ducks he couldnít get to in the fast water floated down to me where I could retrieve them easily. I pulled a couple of spin offs from the birds that flushed from his hole. We hit this stretch a few more times, and got some scattered shooting, but this morning was the best of the last week ducking.

In Black Canyon

Friday we met Gerald about 5 AM for a hunt down in the Black Canyon. Getting there and then back out in the winter is a test of nerves and fortitude. From the canyon rim the road drops some 900 ë down to the river and its about as wide as a pickup with no place to pull off or turn around. Once you are committed its definitely a go. This AM the road was slick with ice and frozen snow, so we crept slowly down in low 4x4 and ended up actually sliding about half way. We had a beautiful spread on the upper end of a small island we waded out to, but it was the first time I hunted there that no birds flew. Oh well, thatís hunting. With nothing doing hunting we pulled our decoys and headed out, but the road was so slick we had to chain up to gain the rim and escape.

Tris Hit a Home Run

Goosing looked to be a better opportunity for some shooting. Young Ryan had lined up two days for goose hunting in a big cut over oat fleld full of food. The geese had been hitting it regularly, but on the first afternoon we set our spread out in a section of field they just didnít want to land in. That was a bust, but on Sunday afternoon Ryan, Tris, and I set up right in the middle of the X. After grassing up our layout blinds and shifting our spread to fit the 15-20 mph winds at our back, it wasnít long before honkers started for dinner. We pulled three birds out of the first two small flocks that locked up on us. Then, after a lull in action, we soied a flock of about 30 drift up over a hill and lock into a long glide path direct for our spread.They werenít making a sound, so Ryan didnít call either. It seemed like it took a half hour to home in on us, but as they hovered over our decoys at 30 ë from us, we came up shooting. Birds were dropping right and left, and in an instant we had 6 birds down to fill out our limit. Great way to end the season.

Ryan & Tris

In celebration of the end of another season, we suggested Hyde treat us to dinner at a fancy restaurant [only one in Montrose]. He had had a great hunt and was cogitating on the possibilities of a return trip. I donít suppose weíll have any choice on that either.