First time for everything, lonesome. It was my first over-limit. I grew up with market hunters and poachers in my subsistence fishing village but never participated in their illegal activities. So, risking a fine, I took the mallard home and ate it. That or leave it to constant-patrolling bald eagles.

It would have been a privilege to be fined as a win for common sense.

I don't want to make a row as I did when I said years ago here that the poachers and market hunters I went to school with---they sold for $2 a pair and landed 100-130 sea ducks while tub-shooting for Christmas---seemed more sporting in retrieving every bird even if they had to strip off and swim for it.

Shooting legally in harbours and lakes, I saw them spend the best part of the morning rowing their skiffs and shooting, scaring everything for everyone, to retrieve a cripple. I don't see making every shot count to bring it home today. Skybusting and no dog or skiff is common to the point of sickening.