Noodling for Coots
Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:43 pm
I know the title of this thread sounds a bit absurd, however don't knock it til' ya try it! We awoke this morning to quite the foggy conditions, so much so that when checking the weather on the cell phone there was a fog advisory that scrolled across the top of the screen! Being primarily a weekend warrior as of late, I was not to be detered. So, off we head to the TN river with compass and Q-beam in hand! We get there and it is as thick as pea soup, however the water was calm and no barges to found due to the thick fog! We start on our journey across the river and things are going well, we make it out into the channel with no troubles. Once we begin to approach the mud flats, all hell breaks loose. We run up on a bunch of coots, and I don't mean any normal sized bunch. We are talking thousands, I am guessing the fog had them bunched up thinking there was saftey in #'s. Nobody gave them the memo about two rednecks coming through at 4:30 doing mach II in a jon boat!
Everyone knows coots are not the smartest birds in the waterfowl arena. Mix in a little, did I say a little, I meant a lot of fog and they loose their senses even more! We run up on this bunch of coots wide open before they start to fly. I heard at least 30 heads thump the front hull of the boat! I don't mean light taps either, we are talking sounds like some one is taking full swings with a hammer! I'm holding the Q-beam and dodging left, then right then left again to avoid getting my eyes poked out or worse, getting knocked out of the boat. All the while hoping that the boat driver doesn't turn hard right, while I am dodging hard left! As I begin to get used to sights and sounds that are occuring around me, I see one coot jump up and plot a course to fly right over the front of the boat. We'll I take aim and swat the sun of a gun, like a professional volleyball player going for a spike to win a gold medal in the olympics! Bingo! I hit him and to my amazement he is in the bottom of the boat.
I pick him up and apparently those funky legs are some sort of defense weapon as he immediately begins to scratch and claw at my hand like he is weilding some ginsu knives! I quickly decide to throw him in the live well, so that I can show the rest of our hunting party my great prize! NO I HAD NOT BEEN DRINKING, at least not yet, although I did have to pour some whiskey on the wounds inflicted by the creatures funky little legs!
We arrive at the blind and announce that we have a suprise to show our blind mates. Everyone listens to the story, remember I have an eye witness, the boat driver, and they buy it although they are a bit amazed. We did utlimately let the little guy go and he safely swam back to join his mates out on the mud flats. Sure he will have quite the story to tell the grandkids a few years from now.
Let me know if you are going to take up the sport, I might be able to give a few pointers!
Everyone knows coots are not the smartest birds in the waterfowl arena. Mix in a little, did I say a little, I meant a lot of fog and they loose their senses even more! We run up on this bunch of coots wide open before they start to fly. I heard at least 30 heads thump the front hull of the boat! I don't mean light taps either, we are talking sounds like some one is taking full swings with a hammer! I'm holding the Q-beam and dodging left, then right then left again to avoid getting my eyes poked out or worse, getting knocked out of the boat. All the while hoping that the boat driver doesn't turn hard right, while I am dodging hard left! As I begin to get used to sights and sounds that are occuring around me, I see one coot jump up and plot a course to fly right over the front of the boat. We'll I take aim and swat the sun of a gun, like a professional volleyball player going for a spike to win a gold medal in the olympics! Bingo! I hit him and to my amazement he is in the bottom of the boat.
I pick him up and apparently those funky legs are some sort of defense weapon as he immediately begins to scratch and claw at my hand like he is weilding some ginsu knives! I quickly decide to throw him in the live well, so that I can show the rest of our hunting party my great prize! NO I HAD NOT BEEN DRINKING, at least not yet, although I did have to pour some whiskey on the wounds inflicted by the creatures funky little legs!
We arrive at the blind and announce that we have a suprise to show our blind mates. Everyone listens to the story, remember I have an eye witness, the boat driver, and they buy it although they are a bit amazed. We did utlimately let the little guy go and he safely swam back to join his mates out on the mud flats. Sure he will have quite the story to tell the grandkids a few years from now.
Let me know if you are going to take up the sport, I might be able to give a few pointers!
too ~!@#$%^&*()*&^%$#@!~ funny...