Zenhunting

Many duck and goose clubs around the North Sacramento Valley are having trouble getting enough water to flood their rice fields. Allocation issues, lack of rain, the usual problems at the start of the season.

Not us. Our club has plenty of water. South pond is at a good level. Decoys are floating just fine on the North pond, too. But Saturday we discovered our spot has a third pond. Our tank.

Our 4-man tank became a swimmin’ hole last week, thanks to a crack in the back wall.

We hunted in the weeds on either side of the tank that morning. Not much was flying, so things wouldn’t have turned out much different — just one spoony — had we been able to get inside. Around 11am, the property manager came out and his crew pumped out the water and patched the hole. It’s dry now, and our fingers are crossed that it stays that way. The natural cover around our tank was trampled under by all those rubber boots and activity, so some brushing up is in order before the next hunt.

It was still a good day. The manager promised he’d drop in a new tank next season, and give us a discount on the lease. Had a kick-ass breakfast at Black Bear Diner with the blind mates. And there’s always a sunrise in every hunt, even if there aren’t any ducks or geese dotting the sky.

Like a Cracker Jack prize, every hunt comes with a sunrise inside.

~ by SpeakingZenaphorically on November 10, 2013.

Posted in Rice pond hunting, Waterfowl
Tags: duck blind, duck hunting, flooded tank, neil beltran, rice pond, Sacramento Valley, Waterfowl, zenhunter, Zenhunting