A Fat Boy Drags a Canoe Blog Post...

I guess it was a test to see if I have Covid. Driving as close as I could to the water across the dry lake bed, unloading canoe, dragging to the water, occasionally sinking to boot tops in soft mud and then push poling out to where the water was deep enough to paddle. If I was sick I don't think I would have accomplished this physical feat and I don't think I mentioned in the blog post title that fat boy was also old. 

I carried fishing poles and other that one half hearted swipe at a frog lure by a bass I caught nothing. I think this breaks up a string of successful canoe fishing trips so I might just have to spin this as a scouting trip for a good duck hunting area. Up ahead of the canoe there are several hundred North American Coots otherwise known as mud hens. Reportedly the gizzards of mud hens are a Cajun delicacy and in Texas the bag limit for these birds is 15.    

There were a few ducks mixed in and every now and then a pair would circle by looking to land but an old fat boy in a canoe looked a little suspicious. After all duck season is open even if I was not in the duck hunting business today. Note the canvasbacks ducks in the upper right corner of the next photo.   

A friend mentioned that canvasbacks might not be a tasty duck because they eat animal matter, snails, insects and in the Chesapeake Bay area Baltic clams as well as vegetables but according to Wiki migrating birds eat rhizomes and tubers. One of these would be tasty on the Thanksgiving Table next week. In the mid 19th century the canvasback was often a special dish, featured at banquets alongside the Maryland Terrapin. 

Numbers of canvasbacks have declined and in Texas you are permitted to take two of these birds on a hunting trip. I have never taken this species but hunting is not considered a factor in the wide variance of population numbers seen by these ducks but rather drought, wetland drainage and habitation loss the main problems these birds face. Protection of breeding grounds is considered the most effective tactic and numbers are on the rise since the 1990s.    

  

Speaking of drought this is as close as I dared drive my truck out on the dry lake bed without fear of getting stuck. While winter catfishing on a lake that's down can be spectacular it made for a long drag to the water and with the ground rooted up by hogs in places I doubt my canoe cart would have been helpful. I briefly considered a stroll around the waters edge to see if there was a good hiding place to ambush a duck dinner but with the muddy walking conditions I was just not that mad at them.

All in all a nice day on the water, lots of bird watching and planning for future duck dinners.