Well I'm finally gone some place that has ducks I hope.

[LongHammer]

Well I've been out twice this year duck hunting and I've shot a Mallard hen and a coot. They are also the only two birds I've seen. We are sick and tired of wearing are waders in 80 and 85 degree temperatures so after Thanksgiving me and the young guy I go hunting with are going up into the mountains almost 5 hours away. We called Game and Fish and they have seen ducks and geese up on the Lakes we're going to. I've never shot Ducks above 8000 feet before should be interesting. We are keeping our expectations low. He wants to shoot his first greenhead and I would like to just fire shots at a couple geese. It is going to be so nice not to have to pour sweat out of our waders when we get back to the truck. I even had to buy a parka for Otto. He has never been below freezing before.

[Willie T]

Good luck on the road trip. Knock em dead.
Willie

[mtlhdr]

Best of luck LH.

[Doc E]

8000' and open water ?
Where the heck is this ?
.

[LongHammer]

Arizona it is supposed to be 90 today and tomorrow here in town.

[RowdyGSP]

We look forward to seeing some pictures, whether or dead fowl or otherwise. Good luck.

[AverageGuy]

Hey Longhammer how did your high country waterfowl quest go?

[LongHammer]

I was successful but rough. 3 days 600 miles 70 degrees during the day. Lake covered with ice in the morning. I shot a greenhead and my first bufflehead then we called in and shot our first geese ever. So between 2 guys we shot 5 ducks and 3 geese in 3 days. We hunted all the way up to almost 10000ft. Made a close to 300 Yard belly crawl trying to sneak up on some geese. That is Az waterfowling. But we got geese. Had goose tamales last night they were awesome.

[AverageGuy]

Glad your hard work paid off. Take any photos? I bet those high mountain lakes were beautiful.

[LongHammer]

Alpine Lake our first night scouting.



It was 70 during the day with ice in the morning crazy.
This is crecent Lake up at the top of the world. We made our failed 300 yard belly crawl stalking a small group of Canadian along the shore.


I am pretty sure this is 9000ft. Other than the Canadians just a sea of coots and buffleheads. On the bright side I did catch a 20.inch brookie here a few years ago.

[LongHammer]

Finally here the last night we set up our goose deeks and layout blinds where we saw some geese flying in and out of the lake. They came in and worked the deeks a little but never committed. It was tough not calling the shot but they were roosting at the lake so we had tomorrow. We left our blinds out at the lake so they would be frosty as everything else. Started calling at shooting light pulled them of the roost. It was just like on TV a group of 4 came in we dropped 2. Otto had never seen a goose let alone retrieved one. He went busting through the ice and grabbed the wing only just at. Swimming depth. He got all tangled in the bird trying to swim. Then I laughed my but off when he stuck his head under water and pulled up the goose by the body. The second goose was not so easy. He busted through the ice to open water but had ice between him and the goose going 200 yards in each direction. He swam and swam but couldn't figure it out. Good thing I didn't shoot that one. We had one more group come over dropped one 10 yards from shore easy retrieve.


And the hero shot for Otto. He thinks cameras will steal your soul.

[RowdyGSP]

Now that looks like about the most fun a guy should be allowed to have... those birds taste even better with how hard you worked for them... Winter storm here. 20" of snow in the past 12 hours. A total of 3 feet on the ground. Heading south for chukar in the morning where the storm didn't hit, then back up here for ducks and geese on Monday.

[AverageGuy]

High five to Otto! Beautiful photos. Well done.

[mtlhdr]

Great photos! Looks like you pretty much had the place to yourself.