Thursday, January 7, 2010

First Double




All season Doc has been putting on quite a show and we’ve had a lot of good flights with a few great one’s mixed in. Today was one of the GREAT ones.

It was 29 degrees according to the truck thermometer when I pulled into the field. The sky was blue and there was very little wind. Doc was quick to leave the fist and quick to get up to 500’ and then on up to 1,000’.

We were hunting a depression in the field where there is a “u” shaped pond that’s only about 30’ across at its widest and it's about 50 yards long. The inside of the “u” is muddy and holds snipe. The first snipe flushed across the water and Doc put it into cover and headed in after it. He missed it on the ground and I ran around to try to reflush it. The snipe put in to a thick briar patch that I kicked around the edge but didn’t find the snipe.

I ran, with the dog, back to the muddy area as Doc went back up to 1,000’. We soon flushed another snipe that took out across the field and Doc was folded up. The snipe was over 100 yards out when he was about to crush it, and the snipe bailed into cover. By the time we got there Doc was ringing back up. I wasn’t quite sure where the snipe was, I wasn’t able to mark the spot he put it in. We kicked around a few minutes and then headed back to look for more.

When I got back to the snipe spot I looked around for Doc and couldn’t find him in the sky. I pulled my sunglasses up to see if that helped and I finally saw a small flickering of wings straight up, right over head, I don’t know how high he was but he was WAY up there.

The next snipe flushed across the muddy area and across the water and turned left along the bank. Doc came sizzling down and chased the snipe into a tall patch of grass. The snipe jumped up and Doc was right on his tail. They both flew toward us along the bank of the pond. Doc grabbed it right as it was landing in the water and they both settled down in the pond. Doc let go of the snipe and flew a few feet over to a patch of lilly pads, leaving the snipe floating in the pond. As I waded in to the snipe Doc took to the air again, pretty wet. I picked up the snipe and put it in my bag. I was waist deep and it was 29 outside.

I was very cold and could barely feel my legs but when I looked up Doc was 500’ and still climbing. So, like a good flushing monkey I started to run to the other side of the pond, back to the muddy area. On the way we flushed another snipe and Doc pounded it to the ground 100 yards out. The then fluttered down and claimed his well deserved meal. Snipe #14 and #15 for the season.

1 comment:

Doug said...

Eric,
That's so cool. Keep posting!