Giant Burgers on French Bread 3

"You couldn't get Tobeck to come?", asked Mike Meseberg of Mar Don Resort as we shivered out of our skin in our layout blinds/coffins in the midst of four dozen full-body Canada goose decoys on Wednesday.

My reply, "Nope, he's a lot smarter than we are." 

I was trying to convince myself that I'd much rather be in a warm office, which is exactly where Tobeck was, but I knew my skewed-priorities-bad-self better than that. I'd take a box of shells, half a can of mixed nuts, a 3/4 pound bag of beef jerky, some rot-gut coffee, and a frozen-stiff layout blind any day of the week. 

Day one of our recent adventure to Mar Don Resort on Washington's Pothole's Reservoir had Outdoor Line partner Tom Nelson and I doing just that, laying on the frozen ground in layout blinds scanning the sky for geese.

One our last hunt with Mar Don we absolutely obliterated the geese and this day appeared to be starting out in the same fashion. Just as legal shooting light came and went a flock of fourty to fifty honkers came cruising in from the North. Our guides for the day, Nick Anderson and Mike Meseberg, decided to let the first six geese land in the dekes (and nearly on top of us) as the rest of the flock circled, trying to make up their pea-brain minds if they wanted to sit down in our spread or not. One of the geese tried to land on my blind…insane! 

The flock circled three times within range and with live geese in the dekes we all figured the rest would throw down the landing gear and commit. Huh? They flew off and left their buddies hangin'. Nick gave us the go-ahead to "Take'em guys!" and two of the geese that jumped out of the dekes hit the snow quickly, while the other four flew off unscathed. I got one shot out of my borrowed Charles Daly 12 guage autoloader before it jammed up and for one reason or another the rest of the guys punched a bunch of holes in the sky. Shooting from layout blinds definitely takes some getting used to.

When Nelson and I drove in on Tuesday this particular field was full of geese. Today, however, they were on a different schedule entirely and they simply weren't moving at all, or at least not yet. We had a few more flocks buzz around us all morning and by 1:00 p.m. we decided to call it a day and head back to Mar Don to warm up our frozen club feet. 

At exactly 2:00 p.m. the geese, well, they started flying and as luck would have it our field was loaded with honkers by 2:30 p.m.. Levi Meseberg was on his way home from his guided duck hunt near Othello and called his dad to freshen his day up with the "good news". Goose hunting…gotta love it! 

Eastern Washington just went through a deep, deep freeze after Thanksgiving that pushed many of the ducks and geese south to Tri-Cities where it's warmer and there's more eats. We were over there for the end of the frosty conditions and encountered some tough hunting, but on our second day the air temperature hit 40 degrees and rain started to fall. Great hunting is close, very close.

As the Potholes area thaws out you can bet all those birds are going to move back north again and this weekend and next week could be, in the words of Mike Meseberg, "Some of the best waterfowl hunting folks around here have seen for a long, long time."  

The waiting game! Nick Kester stretches his legs as the rest of us hunker down in our blinds.     

Tom Nelson…now you see him… 

…Now you don't! But you can still hear him, as Tom fell into a deep slumber and began sawing logs in his blind. A large snoring mound of snow…sweet!

Nick Kester from All Star Charters busted this big honker first thing in the morning.

Check out how lifelike these decoys are. Fully-flocked full body honker dekes are impossible to beat. Nothing like the old rags we used two decades ago.

Day two found us on the other side of Potholes Reservoir in the Duck Taxi with Levi Meseberg and Mar Don guide Nick Anderson. These guys are a pleasure to spend a day with and I'd hunt with either one of them anywhere. It was also a treat to watch Levi's dog Calvin work after we downed birds. We had plenty of shooting and downed just about every species of quacker in the Pacific flyway except a pintail…and hunting was slow. By next week I'd expect full-tilt-boogy hunting again in the Potholes region.

Nelson eyeballing the Zip Loc bag full of marinated venison back strap. Like any good guide Levi was quick to improvise a thawing mechanism for the partially frozen precious meat. Lunch couldn't come soon enough!

Doug Spady from Doug's Boats and Outdoor in Woodinville, Washington enjoying a duck and venison back strap kabob lunch in the Duck Taxi. These things are to die for!

One things for sure, Nelly and I will never go hungry. Oh, yeah baby…GIANT BURGERS ON FRENCH BREAD! Nelson says, "That might be the best burger I've ever eaten." We spotted this jewel in Cle Elum on the drive home and hit the place like a pack of hungry mutts. The only thing we didn't try were the deep fried mushrooms. Next time, and there will be a next time soon. Hunt at Potholes this weekend just so you can hit this joint on the way home. Get the double deluxe on french bread and add bacon. Your heart may resent you, but you'll be a happy hunter for at least one more afternoon.  

I'm always shuffling activities around to make room for hunting and fishing jaunts and you can bet I'm looking at next week thinking, "Man, if I could just haul ass back over to Potholes for a couple more days." It's really never enough.

If you're heading over there be sure to look up Mar Don Resort on the shores of Potholes Reservoir. Do-it-yourselfers can stay in one of their nice cottages or park the camper or RV on the resort grounds and launch in their marina. Mar Don is one-stop-shopping for fisherman and hunters on Potholes Reservoir.    

Check out a minute long video of some of our duck hunting on Thursday and most importantly…the duck kabobs:

Duck Taxi Video

Rob Endsley
The Outdoor Line
710 ESPN Seattle
www.theoutdoorline.com