Hunted Old Monroe Sunday afternoon on the north side. When I got into blind 1, I was by myself and had a pair of mallards work in. They kept circling and acting like they wanted into the pool, but they also made a couple passes over the top of me out of range. I tried to stay still and hunker down, but I had a bad feeling they were going to bug out. Finally on the third pass over the top of me, I couldn’t wait anymore. Jumped up to shoot a greenhead as he was coming over the top of me at 40-45 yards. BAM! BAM! BAM! Missed all 3 shots as he flared up high and was gone with the wind.

Who-Bear and Jeff then showed up. We had a nice group of 5 birds work us and do the same thing as the previous pair before they bugged out. Then a big group of 10-15 mallards showed up 45 minutes before closing time and did the exact same thing. They would circle the pool, but just didn’t want to commit. Something must not have been right with our set up.  We probably could’ve taken some long shots at a few passes, but we were hoping for birds in the blocks. Finally on one of the passes, we both jumped up to shoot, but then I called it off because they seemed a little long. In hindsight, we should’ve been hammering them anyway. They were shootable, and there was no way that they were going to come back and give us that chance again.

So moral of the story … be ready to reach out and touch them birds at Old Monroe. Just lead them by a bus length and a prayer.

As we were walking out that night, we saw big flocks of birds showing up. They must have been coming in with the NW wind, but unfortunately for us, they showed up a little too late. Now I’m itching to get back out — they’re finally here!

Opening day was uneventful. We were able to hunt, even though the area had received major flooding. Shooting time was 6:07, and we walked in about 30 minutes before it.

We were hunting the north side, so Jeff and George took blind 1, and Dan and I decided to hunt blind 3 because it had a dog stand that wasn’t underwater as much as blind 2, and blind 2 still had 6″ of water in it. But, when we got to blind 3, Dan looked inside and saw two big river rats staring at us. Needless to say, we changed our minds and went to hunt blind 2.

By the time we threw out decoys around blind 2, we had already heard some shooting, and saw lots of birds flying. Opening day was officially underway. unfortunately, we only got shots at one group of teal, but they passed us at light speed. By the time I was pulling the trigger, they were already buzzing by us. Had a few other groups come close to us, and had one big duck come by, but by the time we saw anything that was in range, it was too late.

We finished up the morning at around 9 a.m. Each of us had taken 1 shot, and it was already close to 70 degrees out side. Way too warm for this sport. I bailed the rest of the water from blind 2, and I bailed out a dead carcass during the process — probably another nasty old river rat. Lucky me. On the way out, George and Jeff took care of the river rats in blind 3. Lucky them.

Both pools were really high, but I actually think the amount of water will be good for hunting. The corn is finally starting to turn brown, and there are lots of ducks in the area. They just didn’t want to come near us.

The forecast for Sunday was about the same. Sunny and warm. I decided to stay home and sleep in. We’re heading to Shanks on Veteran’s Day Wednesday for the poor line, so hopefully we draw well. We need some colder weather!