Good Times With Some Great Friends

by Evan Ferns
30 March 2009

I met fellow Zink Calls Field Staffers Kent Contreras, and Mike Reed this past August at the Oregon Waterfowl Festival. I mentioned to them that Oregon had a late season Speck hunt that ran late February through early March. I also mentioned Zink Calls Prostaff member Paul Beyer was thinking about making the trip back up for the second season in a row for the hunt, and that they were more than welcome to join us. Unfortunately Paul had prior commitments to another hunt in California, and Mike was unable to attend due to a heavy work schedule. I stayed in contact with Kent, and soon the date was set.

Kent had a work related trip already planned, so he decided to come down the weekend before with hopes of shooting his fist Speck. This year the birds were about a week or so behind from arriving into the Klamath Basin, but I had a few hot spots hidden away for a "rainy day" so to speak.  The past to late seasons the daily bag limit was two Specks, but this year ODFW decided to lower the limit to one Speck and add 3 Snows.  On the way down from Washington, Kent stopped to pick up his long time hunting partner John Wells.

I met up with Kent and John the night they rolled into town, and set up to meet at 4 am the next morning then drive to a field about 45 minutes out of town. When we arrived at the location, the weather was almost a waterfowler's dream. There was roughly an inch of fresh snow, temps ranging from 18° to 25° with a west wind. The next step was to unload all of our gear, and get the spread set. It wasn't 10 minutes that we were in the field before we could hear hundreds of Specks, and Canadians getting up from a roost located within yelling distance. So we quickly threw out the decoys, and positioned our GHG Ground Force Blinds.

Just after the sun had risen we could see stringers of birds headed in our direction. I swear I could hear Kent shaking in his blind next to me. When the birds got a good look at our spread, I started in on the Zink Power Speck. We pulled several groups from the main flocks, and then I to began to shake with excitement. The first few groups seemed to be coerced into another direction by other larger flocks. It started to aggravate us, but we knew before the day was over we would have plenty of chances to limit out. It wasn't long after that when a group of Specks made their way to us from the east. It was an awesome sight to see them glide into the hole, and flip with each note from the Power Speck.  Finally the time came for the shot to be called out by saying "Get'em!". Just as we exploded from within the blinds, the birds caught air under their winds and quickly gained altitude throwing our shots off a little. fortunately Kent had made contact with one, and as it folded and fell to the ground I was startled as Kent yelled out "Sweet!". I next got out of my blind to retrieve the bird, while on the way back I spotted an Immature Speck making a beeline straight for the spread so I made a mad dash back and dived back into the Ground Force. Just as I got the doors closed, I could see the bird locked up and ascending rapidly. I called the shot, and then BOOM!, John had gotten his first Speck as well! After that I made a call to my friend Justin Davidson and set up an afternoon hunt for Snows. We decided to pick up, so we wouldn't push the birds from this field because I wanted Kent and John to shoot this location the next morning with the landowner's son.

We witnessed thousands of Snows making their way from the Refuge to the Klamath Lake. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful with our attempts during the afternoon hunt. But that was ok with us, we were just happy to be out enjoying the time spent with new friends. While out in this field, we did get to experience an amazing show. We were nestled into our blinds when a giant Golden Eagle circled above us. What happened next, was an event that I'll remember for a long time. The Eagle next dive bombed one of our decoys four times. Finally he realized the spread of GHG FFD Specks, and GHG FFD Lessers were not real and soared off into the distance in search of some thing a little more editable. Shortly after the incredible show had came so a close, we decided to call it a day. So we packed up all our gear, and made our way back to Klamath Falls to get cleaned up and go out for a bite to eat.

With the weekend coming to a close, I had the opportunity to spend time hunting with a great group of guys that share the same passion as I. I truly look forward to the next season to hunt with all of them again.