Super Dave
12-27-2004, 10:48 PM
My brother and I went as walk-ins on Sunday afternoon at STA1W and were in the water by 2:40. It was extremely windy (25+ mph W-NW) and saw a few birds moving around, but mostly high and very fast. Found my usual spot occupied by a couple of hunters so just decided to hunt in the open on the edge of a hydrilla patch. Got a few good shots, missed a bunch, and downed a total of 10 birds. Unfortunately, as it was getting dark and the wind had blown most of the ducks so far away from us, we could only find five (2 ringers and 3 blue wings). All-in-all it was a fun day but really had to work for them fighting the wind and we really felt bad having to leave so many birds for the gators.
Couple of other notes:
(1) Water levels are about 2 feet higher and the center (N-S) levy was mostly underwater.
(2) Hydrilla patches seemed a bit sparser from the high water and wind.
(3) Lot of birds were concentrated in the SW corner and didn't get much pressure because nobody wanted to row that far south in the wind.
(4) They actually gave Lemke a day off so he could be with his (other) family, (although I received a report from one of his fellow officers that he was found walking aimlessly in circles around STA5 and told to go home). :D
Couple of other notes:
(1) Water levels are about 2 feet higher and the center (N-S) levy was mostly underwater.
(2) Hydrilla patches seemed a bit sparser from the high water and wind.
(3) Lot of birds were concentrated in the SW corner and didn't get much pressure because nobody wanted to row that far south in the wind.
(4) They actually gave Lemke a day off so he could be with his (other) family, (although I received a report from one of his fellow officers that he was found walking aimlessly in circles around STA5 and told to go home). :D