I made the trip home a week ago to hunt the duck opener with my dad and a couple hunting buddies back in Michigan. The weather for opening day was far too nice. So nice in fact that a newly discovered leak in my waders didn't even bother me. With no flight ducks down we only managed a few of this years hatch green heads and missed a few local geese. The dog did a pretty good job though and it was nice to fire the gun for the first time this year.



After calling it a morning and pulling in the decoys, we headed up to the lake place to try for a few fish. Fishing was pretty slow but the new pontoon was pretty comfortable and Sarah enjoyed the room to roam. There is a lot more room for a 2 year old on a 21 foot pontoon than on an 18 foot bass boat. We did manage one decent largemouth before calling it a day. The next day we had winds in the 40+ mph along with a 30 degree drop in temps so we decided against trying to get out to the blind to hunt. Instead we dumped the fishing boat in the afternoon above dam number 3 on the escanaba river and tried for some smallmouths. My dad hadnt been on this piece of water in 25+ years. I had never been on it. It is always fun to hit new water. We took the boat up river till the river got shallow and started fishing back down. The trolling motor blew a fuse so we were at the mercy of the wind and current. We were able to get a few decent drifts over a few holes and caught a couple nice smallies on a small beetle spin. Considering the conditions and time we spent fishing, this water is probably worth another trip to fun fish. 

I made it out one more day to hunt and managed a hen gadwall. We should have had a few more but Gary was so hung over that he was sleeping on the floor of the blind when a small flock landed in the decoys. I of course was out in the decoys tweaking the set a little. As any duck hunter will tell you, they only seem to come in when you are in the decoys, eating, standing up, yelling at the dog or just plain messing it up and not ready. Thats what makes it fun I guess.