The Birds Were Flying Over the Grasslands on This Day!
By Rocky Ferraro

I knew I had drawn reservations in the Grasslands weeks ago. I had a time hard getting
excited about this hunt due to all the blue bird weather we had been having. As time drew
near the weather became down right nasty and that is when I knew deep down inside
that this would be a glorious day in the grasslands!

I decided to not sleep in the parking lot since I had a ressie but that still meant that I
needed to be at the check station 2 ½ hours before shoot time, which is 4:15 am. By two
something I was on the road flying towards the grasslands. I got there in record time but
I had one hell of a time waking up. Drinking coffee and driving down I5 all I could think of
was how the ducks would be flying. It was cold and rainy but not too windy. I arrived at the
parking lot just a minute or two before they were calling ressies. My friends didn’t know if
I was going to make it. When I arrived they were elated. We went into the check station
and got our parking area assignment. We jumped into our cars and made out to the
parking lot in the thick pea soup fog. Once we arrived at our designated parking lot we
hopped out, loaded our gear and off we went. Mark and I were together, Mark riding a
bike and me walking, Karl was not too far behind us on a bike having drawn a low
number from the evening drawing. We arrived more or less at the same spot, thank god
foe cell phones! Karl was already tossing decoys in the pre dawn light. Even though this
is a free roam area we got to our spot by the blinds and spread our four dozen decoys,
wind ducks, robo-duck, etc. all around the tullies and pond. We had a good spread. After
placing our decoys we went into the tullies and blended in best we could. It was foggy
and dark so this was not a problem. The ducks were flying from the start. We were able
to get the birds working and coming down to our decoys. This is what duck hunting is all
about. We went through our box of shells quick, knocking down bird after bird. It was not
that windy but what I feel as prime conditions. Just the right ceiling to make a difference.
No skybusters around killing our hard earned birds. Just plain good duck hunting fun.
The Birds Were Flying Over the Grasslands on This Day!
Foster City Rod and Gun Club