South Carolina Species #23...
Originally Posted by Rubberhead*
I originally qualified the quest with the stipulation that it had to be in South Carolina and I wanted to do it hunting solo. The SC thing is somewhat obvious and the solo qualifier was a way of insisting that I not simply hire a guide to take me out where my role is reduced to simply to pulling the trigger.
As I tried to pare down the list I worried about killing a Goldeneye on one of my NC hunts. Would I have to rename my “Solo SC” list to a “Solo Carolina” list? I really didn’t worry too much about the solo qualifier because I only hunt with someone else a time or two each year. Well, it happened.
Today started with a plan to hunt scoter with another SCDucker using both of our boats. He had already invited a guest and Little Rubberhead (now a self-sustaining adult) was going to go with me. It quickly morphed into a plan have LR hunt in my buddy’s boat with his friend since he boat was much bigger and it would give me the option to chicken out of going outside the breakers in my 1436 without messing up LR’s chances for a scoter hunt.
Fate began shaping the day when the SCDucker’s guest backed out and LR, recovering from a swing shift and an afternoon deer hunt, decided he needed another day to get back on a normal schedule. It turned into a one-boat deal.
It was a slow morning and the nutcracker ballet of yellow-knobbed black scoters that kept me up last night never really materialized. The tides are running slow and the boat never pulled hard on its leash so we vacillated between 10 and 50 yards from the decoys with every slight shift in wind direction.
I took a red-breasted drake hoping to fill an order from a taxidermist friend but the bird had some brown flecks in its head. Frustration built as we drifted from the decoys again so the owner tied the anchor line to a back corner of the boat. A slight wind shift and my back is over the decoys and he’s on the opposite side of the boat. An eider decoyed.
The other guy couldn’t shoot because of the boat position but I managed to get off two errant shots as I tried to twist around and shot behind me. I missed with both shots. Argh…but the fates weren’t going to let me stand in the way. A big loop over a very small section of the western Atlantic and the young hen eider redecoyed. I needed just one more shot to bring my list up to 23 leaving nine more to go before reaching 32. The only cost for this, besides a little gas money, was the “solo” qualifier on my quest.
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