"On December 1st through 3rd Bill and I went on a guided hunt to Cheyenne Bottoms in Kansas. The hunt was provided by K&K Outfitters in Newton Kansas. We arrived late on Friday afternoon and went out to the Bottoms. The first two things I discovered was one I did not dress near warm enough for the winter winds of the Kansas Plains and two the only thing that resembled a bathroom was the many muskrat hills ascending from the swamp. Sadie our yellow lab, Bill, and I loaded into the boat and headed for the cattails. Let me remind you Sadie had never seen a cattail, muskrat, or subzero water before. The geese and ducks were flying everywhere. I must have been in heaven. Keaton and Kendall our guides called the birds in so close you could see their toenails. We would have definitely killed our limit in the two hours of our hunt if we could of hit anything. That didn't really matter because for a good fifteen minutes Sadie was lost in the cattails trying to make her way back to the boat. It kind of all looks the same in Kansas. Sadie and her owners did much better on the next two days.

Day two we began our hunt after a good night rest at the local motel. I think they rented by the week, hour, or month if you catch my drift. It was priced right though. We hit the water at 6 am or so not knowing that the waterfowl were out in the fields feeding not flying over the Bottoms. OOPS lesson #1; sleep in until 8 am then hunt the ducks. We killed our limit the day on ducks along with some Canadians and Specs. The Canadians up their make two of our birds around here. Bill killed one that weighed about 15 pounds. My shooting improved a lot this day. We had biscuits and gravy and chili prepared for us right in the boat. Did I mention the guys quickly fixed me up with my own propane heater after seeing me shiver on day one?

Day three at the Bottoms was the coldest I have ever experienced. The temperature was about 15 degrees with a 20-mile an hour wind. The swamp was decorated with icebergs. The decoys all 20 dozen were dancing on the water like they were alive. Keaton and Kendall had been out since dawn breaking the ice and setting up. This day despite the weather was the greatest of all, 3 flights of 40+ geese flew right in on us, stopped, let us aim and shoot. One mallard got so close I think I could have touched him. Bill killed a double sprig pintail this day. Sadie nailed a 200-yard retrieve and we couldn't reload fast enough. It sounded like Top Gun, bogie on your left, right, maverick he's coming right at us, reload, reload!!!. We couldn't even take time out to eat our pancakes.

7 boxes of shells later and our limit we packed up our ducks (cleaned and packed in ice) and headed for Arkansas. It took me 3 hours once we were home to package up all that meat, but Christmas dinner is going to be good.

I highly recommend this hunt to everyone. Bill and I label it as one of our best vacations ever."

-Sincerely, Kelly Oliver