Dave's response to my stuck-on-the-mud post got me thinking about other times I've been stuck.
Here is one time it was a good thing. This is the last day fo the 1999-2000 season. I remember it was a Monday because the Saturday before was an OK day but Sunday was warm & rainy with a front coming. Hunting Sunday was terrible, the birds rafted up in the middle of the bay and sat.
Monday morning dawned to a whole different ballgame: clear, sunny, a stiff north wind and freezing temps. I figured the birds would move and took my layout so I could walk it into shallow water. I parked the jon boat and waded to where I wanted to hunt. I had to move once before sunup because the wind blew the water even lower than I thought and my decoys were on mud. I got reset right before shooting time. Starting about sunrise, flock after flock of gadwalls lifted off the open bay and headed north to feed on the flats. It was fast & furious shooting with lots of misses and some hits. A box of shells later, at 7:45 I was done with 6 gaddies. I picked up the decoys and started dragging the layout back to the jonboat. This is what I found:
The jon boat was high & dry. The bottom here is really sandy, not slik mud you can slide a boat on. It was a little after Noon before I had enough water to even budge the boat. I sat and watched ducks flying, napped and cleaned out the boat.
Buck heck, with results like this, it was worth it!
Here is one time it was a good thing. This is the last day fo the 1999-2000 season. I remember it was a Monday because the Saturday before was an OK day but Sunday was warm & rainy with a front coming. Hunting Sunday was terrible, the birds rafted up in the middle of the bay and sat.
Monday morning dawned to a whole different ballgame: clear, sunny, a stiff north wind and freezing temps. I figured the birds would move and took my layout so I could walk it into shallow water. I parked the jon boat and waded to where I wanted to hunt. I had to move once before sunup because the wind blew the water even lower than I thought and my decoys were on mud. I got reset right before shooting time. Starting about sunrise, flock after flock of gadwalls lifted off the open bay and headed north to feed on the flats. It was fast & furious shooting with lots of misses and some hits. A box of shells later, at 7:45 I was done with 6 gaddies. I picked up the decoys and started dragging the layout back to the jonboat. This is what I found:
The jon boat was high & dry. The bottom here is really sandy, not slik mud you can slide a boat on. It was a little after Noon before I had enough water to even budge the boat. I sat and watched ducks flying, napped and cleaned out the boat.
Buck heck, with results like this, it was worth it!
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