2 days with a Kiwi
Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 9:12 amHad the pleasure of hosting a Kiwi named Kevin on hunts the last two days. He was over here on a hunter exchange program and has been hunting with various people in various places in California. I picked him up on Friday afternoon on my way home from Thanksgiving at my oldest daughter's house and we went and scouted the three lakes I scull in this area. We didn't find a lot of birds, but there were some canvasbacks on Copco Reservoir, and since Kevin had never killed a can, I figured that might be a good place to start. We got to the lake and our first scull was on canvasbacks. However, they didn't want to play at all. Fact is, there were only a few cans on the lake, and none of them were going to let us get anywhere near them. Oh well. At one point during the day we were sculling along heading for some bluebills. Off the the right, on the shore near a house, there was a flock of about 30 honkers. I had written them off because they were too close to the house, and I figured all they would do if I tried to push them away from shore would be to walk up on the bank. However, in the middle of the scull Kevin said, "Hey look at the geese." Lo and behold they had swam away from the shore and were going to cross in front of us. I put a little extra into the oar and closed the gap as much as I could. At about 30 yards they decided they'd had enough and jumped. Kevin sat up and smacked one...nice. The highlight of the day, however, was when we scull up twp gray squirrels. That's right, squirrels. We made a nice scull on them and Kevin knocked both of them out of the tree. It's not everyday you see that! Kev ended day one with 3 bluebills, a wood duck, a teal, a honker and 2 squirrels.
This morning we decided to try out Lake Shastina. We were on the water at 8, and off at 2. It was very tough hunting there today. I was still hoping to get Kevin his canvasback. Our first attempt at birds was on honkers feeding on the shore. We were doing OK, but ran out of water at 60 yards. So much for the honkers. We got out deeper and glassed, and way back in the corner we spotted 4 canvasbacks. I figured we had them in a decent spot as they were in the back of a small depression in the shore. Everything was going good, until three mallards on the shore to our right took off and told the world we were there. When the did our cans decided to also head for higher ground. Rats! But wait...across the lake was another can right next to the shore. We got down and made a long, slow approach. The cans didn't care about us, but the ruddy ducks next to them panicked and flew. Adios canvasbacks. This was starting to suck. On our way to the other end of the lake we picked up a bluebill in the stumps. At the upper end of the narrows we got a single hen wigeon. From there we headed toward a cove around a point that has a ton of wigeon in it. Problem with a ton of wigeon is there's also a ton of eyes. As we crept around the rock point the wiggies left the country...at about 200 yards. Like I said, VERY jumpy. As they flew, I glanced to our right and about 20 yards away was a flock of teal sleeping on the rocks. I alerted Kevin. He sat up, shot once, and three teal hit the water. Nice. We tried the wigeon again, but trying to scull on a zillion jumpy birds was less than successful. We started running short on time, as I had to have Kevin to the next host around 2, so we headed back toward the ramp. Just before the narrows we got down and I blind sculled us around the rocks and paused once in awhile to glass ahead. At the far end of the narrows I saw a single hen canvasback feeding in the middle of some ruddies. We moved ahead slowly. At 50 yards when she would dive, I would scull hard for a bit, then stop when she came up. A few times of doing that and she popped up 20 yards off the bow. Easy shot for Kev. He had not killed a drake bufflehead yet, and we spotted one across the lake in the stumps, so we decided we'd try him, since we only had time for one more scull. As we moved forward I periodically glassed him to check position, and then out popped another hen canvasback! The target had changed. As we got to the edge of the stumps she started swimming out toward open water. I adjusted the angle of the boat and we intercepted her at 25 yards. One last "up" and Kevin has his limit of cans, and his limit of ducks. My arms were tired, but I had a great time, and he sure seemed to as well. Looking forward to next year for another Kiwi guest!
This morning we decided to try out Lake Shastina. We were on the water at 8, and off at 2. It was very tough hunting there today. I was still hoping to get Kevin his canvasback. Our first attempt at birds was on honkers feeding on the shore. We were doing OK, but ran out of water at 60 yards. So much for the honkers. We got out deeper and glassed, and way back in the corner we spotted 4 canvasbacks. I figured we had them in a decent spot as they were in the back of a small depression in the shore. Everything was going good, until three mallards on the shore to our right took off and told the world we were there. When the did our cans decided to also head for higher ground. Rats! But wait...across the lake was another can right next to the shore. We got down and made a long, slow approach. The cans didn't care about us, but the ruddy ducks next to them panicked and flew. Adios canvasbacks. This was starting to suck. On our way to the other end of the lake we picked up a bluebill in the stumps. At the upper end of the narrows we got a single hen wigeon. From there we headed toward a cove around a point that has a ton of wigeon in it. Problem with a ton of wigeon is there's also a ton of eyes. As we crept around the rock point the wiggies left the country...at about 200 yards. Like I said, VERY jumpy. As they flew, I glanced to our right and about 20 yards away was a flock of teal sleeping on the rocks. I alerted Kevin. He sat up, shot once, and three teal hit the water. Nice. We tried the wigeon again, but trying to scull on a zillion jumpy birds was less than successful. We started running short on time, as I had to have Kevin to the next host around 2, so we headed back toward the ramp. Just before the narrows we got down and I blind sculled us around the rocks and paused once in awhile to glass ahead. At the far end of the narrows I saw a single hen canvasback feeding in the middle of some ruddies. We moved ahead slowly. At 50 yards when she would dive, I would scull hard for a bit, then stop when she came up. A few times of doing that and she popped up 20 yards off the bow. Easy shot for Kev. He had not killed a drake bufflehead yet, and we spotted one across the lake in the stumps, so we decided we'd try him, since we only had time for one more scull. As we moved forward I periodically glassed him to check position, and then out popped another hen canvasback! The target had changed. As we got to the edge of the stumps she started swimming out toward open water. I adjusted the angle of the boat and we intercepted her at 25 yards. One last "up" and Kevin has his limit of cans, and his limit of ducks. My arms were tired, but I had a great time, and he sure seemed to as well. Looking forward to next year for another Kiwi guest!
