[fabsroman]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that had a terrible opening day. I went out there with 2 swollen ankles (which is a story for another day), sat in the field for about 4 hours, saw all of 2 doves, and never once pulled the trigger. Along with my dad and I, there were 2 other guys hunting. They killed all of one dove between the two of them, which was the only dove they shot at the entire time I was there. This was pretty much the worst opening day on doves that I have ever had. To come home without a single bird was incredible. To come home without even pulling the trigger was unbelievable.

My dog was doing a great job of healing, but even he started to feel it. Towards the end of the day he started looking at every sparrow, crow, and buzzard that flew by and he started whining when I didn't get up to shoot. Then, with less than 30 minutes in the day, he started following the planes on the flight path into BWI airport and he started whining at them. That made me feel even worse. Almost shot 3 pigeons that came by just so he could have something to retrieve.

The last time I went hunting on opening day and didn't get a dove was when I was in my early single digits, which was about 30 years ago. I must have been 7 or 8 years old at the time.

The only thing I can think of is that we had a little cold spell here the two days before opening day and it might have driven the birds south, but I'm not completely sure about that either because when I got back to my place I saw doves galore coming into the pines to roost. Just pour salt into the wounds, why don't they.

Let's hope the rest of the season gets better.