So how was everyone's final couple of weeks?
Pretty tough for me. I'll post a report when i have a little more time.

Heck, it never started for me.

I brought the shotgun yesterday, but no suicidal ducks approached. Tally for the year was 17 mergansers. That should have saved about 85,000 or so smolts. Want some sausage? Really, that's where it goes.

Nice work Dogfish! I used to think about packing a shotgun along for those damn things, but figured they'd taste like a turd.....

Couple years back we had a guy downstream of us on the Sol Duc pop a couple of shots off at one, scared the hell outta us, and the farmer ran down to the bank chewin our asses cause the shots stampeded his cows

well it was icy and cold. And very snowwy on sunday.
Saturday was very tough as we were set up near some guys that scraped at everything... mergansers that they let float, GEs, geese, cormorants... you name it, it got shot at. Most of the time at 75-100 yards. YIKES!!!
We ended up with 4 ducks and a goose before we had had enough of that and took off. Spent the rest of the day jump shooting for a couple more birds.
Sunday i went back to the same spot as before as i really didnt have a better place to go and the same clowns were there again. So i stuck around for an hour. saw 2 flights of geese that didnt want to look and had one mallard working in until they opened up on their calls and blew him out of there. These late season ducks were so spooky. And the snow had most of the birds not moving so i went and did a little more jump shooting and ended up with 5 ducks to close out my season, including a banded drake mallard.
Tough last couple weeks but I can't wait for next season to do it again.

Saturday river hunting was great for us.

I shot 7 different drakes before 10:30 without even knowing I had done it.

Goldeneye
Teal
Mallard
Ringneck
Scaup
Widgeon
Shoveler

We had been waiting for the cold-snap all season. I wish I could have got out on Sunday too. Dad said it was almost as good, but they did get more mallards.

My season as a whole was just so - so we never got the weather we needed for the hunting we like to do. Too much water.

Nice slam there RR!

Limit of Greenheads by 9:30 on Sunday, always nice to be on the only piece of water that was not frozen!

Lets see
Set up 5th Wheel over in George for a full on year of duck hunting back in Oct. Stocked it with my favorit booze, freezer full of stake, chille, spagetti sauce and venison peperoni. Worked a deal to have it hooked up to power and parked within a hundred feet of a rest room with two showers that is kept close to 80 degrees for the winter so it would be ready to go at any time. Then next to the trailer is parked a 16' allumaweld with a top and a barrel full of fast grass so we can hunt the Columbia, Snake, Banks or Potholes. Next I go out and splurge. After hunting with 870s for 30 years I go down to OE and buy me a brand spanken new SBE2. Now I and my 1 year old lab are ready for the season that all other seasons will be measured .
Spent two nights in the trailer all season hunted 1 day that started out with 40 mph winds so we couldn't hunt where we wanted and ended up shooting one duck back in the sand dunes. Dog went into heat in Nov and then had a false pregnancy. Work has been a bitch all winter and the X is still a bitch.
My Life SUCKS
anybody want to buy a 5thwheel , benelli, lab, or a bunch of decoys
I am keeping the booze or at least going to use it.
Well maybe next year

I am in the process of making a nice post with some great pics. It will be ready in an hour or two. Maybe.

Don't let it get ya down Achewter:

Got a camper in Royal City with the same amenities you mentioned. 2007 total nights stayed: 0

Royal Youth Booster membership trips this year: 0

Hunting trips after south Dakota in October: 0

If that didn't cheer ya up, talk to Bucket about his dog got a Phd at lab hunter training and ask him how many times he went hunting......bet you can guess the answer

Sounds like Achewter and NOFISH should start a duck camp rental program so they can get some use out of their equipment.

sunday: 2 geese, 7 drake mallards.

i agree... next year lets get out guys.

D3
Remember me next year and we will do it. Half the reason I didn't get over there is my huntin buddies schedules and mine wern't matching up. I like to head over Thursday nights and come back Saturday night or Sunday morn. I can also get away mid week if it's worth the trip. I am trying to get a 17 or 18 foot shallow water rig/boat blind in an enclosed trailer put together for next year so that maybe I can go two or three days. With any luck I will get the price of my duck breast under $2000.00 a lb.
I was thinking about setting up the 5th wheel down on the C for springers and Sturgen before setting it up at Neah for the summer but just found out that I will be loosing a key employee in less than a month so I will probably be screwed out of that too. Unless things realy go down the crapper it will be back at George for the dove opener or later in October. If you would like to use it I would be glad to trade for some SRcut training...Art
(Achewter= A shooter/duck heading into the decoys)

Follow-up:

Last night I did a taste test on barbecued ducks. I tried ringneck, mallard and shoveler. The ringneck has the darkest colored meat, so I thought it would taste the duckiest. I just left all the breast meat in a ziplock overnight in olive oil, then used sea-salt and pepper to taste. Barbecued on high-heat until the internal temp on each breast was over 130 degrees, and pulled them off the grill.

The shoveler tasted the duckiest, the ringneck was awesome. The mallard tasted like all other mallards, good. I liked all three. Tonight I am going to try some of the other birds. I usually like teal the best.

As an aside I got this thing for x-mas: Meat Thermometer and this thing is incredible. It completely takes the guesswork out of all meat. I had a barbecue with my wife's family last weekend, and they are major whiners regards food. I had people wanting everything from Medium Rare to Well Done, with lots in between, and I nailed all of them, including some perfect chicken doneness.