Had a great weekend near Menahga, MN in search of my first bills. After a Saturday morning of clearing shooting lanes and hanging a few remaining treestands, I finally got out on the water around 2:30 in the afternoon. I hunted a 300 acre lake adjacent to our deer hunting property. I was on the fence as to my decoy selection, but opted for a spread of 3 dozen bluebills and two mojos. Saturday afternoon was a bit slow with only one suzie mallard presenting herself for a shot. As sunset approached, my heart started racing as the ringbills started showing up. It was breathtaking watching the ringbills circle that 300 acre lake like a nascar circling the track at Taladega. With only minutes remaining during shooting hours, one group finally commited hard into the dekes. I shot two drake ringbills out of them. Unfortunately, I lost the second bill to a suicide dive. The water was very clear, but I could not locate the birds anywhere on the bottom. (fyi, Bills will dive and latch onto weeds if they are crippled up. They are tough to finish off on the water.) I was pretty fired up after Moose made a couple quality retrieves, and my first ringbill was in the boat. I then picked up dekes and conveniently stashed them in the trees in anticipation of a Sunday morning madhouse.
It was a calm, cold Saturday night camping in the woods and not to much to my surprise, the lake had iced up over night. There were pockets along the western edge that had open water, but I was determined to get across the lake and hunt the other shore. I got out early to start busting ice, but halfway across the lake I had to turn back as the ice had become around 1/2″ thick and I didn’t feel safe out there banging my oars around. I turned back and opted for the small pocket of open water. I had to make my way back to the truck for some mallard dekes that I decided not to use the previous day. My spread Sunday morning only consisted of 6 super magnum mallards and one mojo due to the small water. I set up shop disappointed, but the morning flurry came anyway. The first group of ringbills came in at full throttle and as they flared the first time, I squeezed off the 3 1/2 and to my surprised, two drake ringbells fell. Moose made the retrieves and we were in business. Minutes later, two more what I thought were bills screamed in and I downed one. It turned out to be a hooded merganser. I had never taken a hooded merganser and was a bit nervous because of the laws. I consulted my waterfowl supplement and found out I could have shot the other hooded merganser that circled back and then was floating among my dekes. Since I was on a bill trip, I held back and waited for my next opportunity. That happed just a few minutes later as a single buzzed the tower, turned and locked onto the mojo. One more crack and I was done. I couldn’t send Moose on the retrieve as the bird landed on the ice and skidded about 150 yards. I had to break ice once again. Sunday was a first for me, three shots fired and four birds in the boat. The downfall was that I had to then circle the edge of the lake to retrieve my bag of bills from the previous evening. Fun weekend to say the least.
cheers 
