Haven’t had a chance to get to the IV yet, but soon !
But I will continue with the “Doh !!”
stories. Lol !!
For years I hunted Mendota on the opener for ducks. Back then the Balance of the State opened the week prior to So Cal; always made a great 2 weekends ! Pound 7 Greenheads one weekend and 7 Sprig the next weekend. Great way to start the season !
Well, one year my Uncle and I decided to take my parents trailer, rather than cold camp in the truck. We left late Thursday night from Downey where my Uncle lived. By the time we got to Mendota we just crashed in the front seat; thinking we would set up camp in the morning.
Morning came and our initial thought was “ Man there’s nobody here yet !” Should’ve known then something was wrong; but went ahead and unhooked the trailer and started setting up camp. Around 7:30 am a DFG guy pulled up and said “Hi, man you guys are hardcore ! Do you have a reservation? If not your definitely
#1 in first come first serve !”
We asked what’s up ? We figured there be some people here
already ?”
He laughed and said “ Uh, you guys know they changed the opener date to next Saturday to coincide with the So Cal opener?”
He must have got a good laugh out of that !
So we packed up and headed back to home. We got to Downey that afternoon and had lunch with my Aunt feeling like the idiots we were for not checking opener dates !
After lunch my Uncle said
“ Well you want to go to Wister ?”
We have everything we need so why not ! But no Ressie wasn’t the best, but WTH ! Back then you could still shoot some great spots on the Sea if we didn’t get a good draw in the Sweatline.
Put a card in that night, and went to bed. Little tired from all that driving and setting up and tearing down of camp.
Woke up the next morning to find we were drawn # 1 in the Sweat !
We couldn’t believe it ! Obviously the Man up Stairs was watching over two dunderheads !!
We ended up with limits of Sprig Saturday and 1 limit between the two of us on Sunday.
Lesson taken from that; I read the regulations every year for the most minute changes !!!