Fish Point

I had a nice morning of duck hunting on Saginaw Bay a week ago Sunday. I went with Frank and his son Matt to Fish Point where we rented a duck blind and decoy spread through Fish Point Lodge. It was actually the first time I've ever been duck hunting.

We went out to Fish Point, which is along the southeast shore of Saginaw Bay. To take care of some of the logistics, we arranged the trip through Fish Point Lodge. They have various waterfowl hunting packages from basic to elaborate, with options including lodging, dinners, and guide service. We took the least elaborate and least expensive option. It simply involved arriving at around 5:30 a.m. to get shuttled in a flat-bottomed aluminum boat to a blind in Saginaw Bay. We loaded our gear into the boat and our guide -- our ferry driver, really -- took us maybe a 1/2 mile to a floating blind that was anchored about 30 yards from shore. Well, not really a shore so much as a finger of marsh vegetation running out into the bay. Fish Point Bay is very shallow, so the blind was only sitting in 2-3 feet of water. It was easy to get out -- in waders -- and retrieve birds. Although Frank has a big retriever, for some reason he didn't get to come along.

The blind was a 2x4 and plywood sort of structure built on a a pontoon boat platform, probably about 16' by 8'. It was covered pieces of vegetation -- arbor vitae branches and phragmites stalks, mostly -- so it mostly looked like a clump of misshapen marsh grass sticking up near the shore. It was sort of like a giant rectangular Kleenex box with a slot in the top so you could easily stand up to shoot. Unlike a Kleenex box, however, the top on the back side was taller so there was just enough room to sit under it. The front side was lower so we could see over it while seated. It was very nice, really, although at the same time sort of old and patched, with new boards screwed over old. Inside it had a slightly squishy plywood floor with four old chairs and a trash can. When we arrived at the blind, the lodge folks had already set out a spread of about 30 mallard decoys and a goose decoy between the blind and the shore. Seemed like lazy hunting, I thought. But very convenient and good for me since I'm lacking in this sort of equipment.

We saw lots and lots of ducks, egrets, herons, cranes, swans, and lots of fast little shore birds I couldn't quite identify. It was really incredible. When the sun was coming up over the water the birds were everywhere and making quite a racket. It was great just to be sitting there watching and listening to it all. Once the sun got a bit of clearance over the horizon, the day turned sunny and the avian activity slowed down. Frank and I each got a mallard in those early hours. Our blind rental was for the whole day, and the birds probably would have started moving around again in the late afternoon or early evening, but Matt had to back in Kalamazoo so we left not too much after noon. We had arranged to have the guide come back and pick us up around 12:30. I would loved to have stayed longer, but I was running low on food and my feet were a little cold.

I wish I'd put a little more effort in to taking pictures. If I get out there again, I'll try to do a better job with camera.