Lodge Dispatch
Green timber mornings
A pre-dawn account from Stuttgart in late November.
Ben Ardrey · May 2026
The walk in is in the dark. Headlamps off, the guide sets the pace by sound. The water is cold through the waders. We get to the spread by 5:50; legal shooting time is 6:23.
The first group comes in at 6:31. The call cadence is the older man's — short, broken, more breath than note. They circle once. They commit.