Well, after waiting for 10 months for today to arrive, my opening day was a disaster. It basically started going down hill when my GPS broke last night and I asked my buddy to take his since we went scouting together and he had the same spots marked. Apparently, he misread his GPS and we ended up passing our spot by like 3 miles, so no biggie, I turn around and gun it to the spot hoping no ones there. Then on the way back, some guy in front of my was doing like 10mph with a 3ft wake behind him and when I went to overtake him, so much water came over my bow that I swear it looked like a scene from Deadliest Catch. Now I know why Gator Trax decided to put a v bow on the newer boats because what happened to me today was ridiculous. My bow acted like a ramp for all that water to come in my boat and this caused us to get soaked big time.

When I finally get to the spot, I don't know what happened but the water level in Lake Okeechobee must have dropped a foot within the last week because the open water I had marked was gone and completely overgrown with grass. We check two more spots and the same thing, completely overgrown. So now we're getting worried since the sun is about to come up and when we finally find a clear area, we start dropping decoys and the current is taking them away since that spot was about 6ft deep! I never hunt that deep so I only have about 4ft of string on my decoys making the majority of them unusable. To make things even better, half way through the hunt, my buddies $120 mojo decided to do a back flip into the water so we spent like an hour trying to get it out after the hunt. Oh, and what do I have to show for all of this??? One freaking coot that I shot by mistake!

So tomorrow, I decided to take my kids camping as far away from the water as I can get! I'm off to a great start.

wow

dont hate on the lonley coot, them eat good too. haha

Every opening day will go wrong, count on it.

Three hunters and only two life jackets meant I was the sacrificial lamb this morning. I got up at 2 am to get ready only for my son to realize the buddy he'd invited at the last moment to hunt would mean we needed 3 vests, a contingency for which I had not planned when I left home yesterday.

Imagine a day before GPS.......( only us old guys will get it) Sorry man, you will make up for it. Duckdon

How did you pass up your spot by 3 miles and not realize?

not bad! mine first week huntting i almost swampped my boat due to water in the gas , destroyed 2 35in mud tires had to buy a new pair @$560, strained a muscle in the left knee when it pop as i slipped on my buddies porch on lake Michigan in Michigans upper. Off the next week cause i could barely walk for work let alone kneel(commerical HVAC). Still have not been able to get out duck huntting since!

At least you got to go. Hell I ain't touched my shotgun all year and it ain't looking much better for this week. Hot and rainy fuk my life

and i thought the electrical fire at my house, dog's seizures, and work schedule which kept me from hunting was bad. No worries, I MIGHT get a chance to hunt this sunday.

I feel your pain! I spent last weekend scouting. I found three spots that seemed like they were hard to get to, out of the way, and very duck freindly......so did everyone else apprently. Opening day I worked my way into this backwater hole that I thought no one else would be able to get to......and found 7 other boats in there nut to butt trying to kill a duck.....same thing for the next two spots.