The Evening Flight

When you are hunting puddleducks, you can find places where a late afternoon hunt can be spectacular. I have hunted many an afternoon on Hermit Island. About an hour before quitting time the Mallards, Wood Ducks and Teal head for Blackbird Basin and you can have some great times.

I can remember back in the 80's when we used to hunt the Goose Creek Impoundment quite a bit. Shooting was always red hot the first hour. Sky-busting was also at it's zenith, unfortunately. Later in the morning things would even out, most of the skunk hunters would head for Sally's and you could enjoy good steady shooting. But in the afternoon, the Pintails would decoy like I've never seen them. Many times you could go out on the open water and shoot divers and seaducks till noon, and then have plenty of time to get a limit of Pintails on the Impoundment. Even when they shortened the shooting hours, 1200-1300 was as good as it gets for the Pintails.

Diver shooting in the afternoon has been fairly weak over the years for me. Until about 10 years ago. When we moved further down the New River we started getting fantastic late afternoon Bluebill shoots. Our blind at Rhodes Point faces East, so in the late afternoon the sun is going down over your right shoulder and the lower it gets on the horizon, the more spectacular the birds look. The patch of white on the hens' faces looks so big. The bright blue of the bills and those bright yellow eyes look big as quarters. That soft, setting sun, the wind laying down as it frequently does towards sundown, and the Bluebills coming in flocks of 10-1000 makes for about the finest duck shooting I've seen in my life. When the wind dies down and the waves quit breaking on the shore, the sound of the wind in 50 Bluebill wings, when they turn on your blocks, is fantastic. The birds are looking for someplace quiet and peaceful to spend the evening and once they start heading into the bay just south of us, there seems to be no stopping them.

Kelly shot a video one evening and in 10 minutes of video we had 10,000 birds on film. We actually watched it in super slow motion and tried our best to count the birds. They were all passing within 25-75 yards or our blind. One of the most amazing things you'll ever see.

When we would finish shooting and get out in the River to start taking in decoys, the birds wouldn't stop. Flock after flock still landing in our ever shrinking spread. They would be between us on the water. Between us and the blind, between us and the dog. Unbelievable.

There were slow days on the River when I sat in the blind from 0600 till 1630 and never fired a shot. Then in the last 30 minutes you would truly have your gun barrel too hot to touch. Knowing that an evening like that was coming our way made the long days in the blind easy to handle. Nap, snack, nap, snack, shoot an occasional stray duck, and bide your time till the Evening Flight.

Game Wardens

I don't expect anybody but myself to be perfect. But, there are certain expectations when it comes to law enforcement personnel. The following stories briefly tell of a few Game Wardens that didn't quite make the grade. But they also relate stories about a few Game Wardens that were nice guys first and law enforcers second.

Game warden ticketed McGee for hunting over corn at Hospital Point. Took his gun away from him, claiming that McGee was threatening. McGee had to deploy so he called the court and mailed in his fine. Warden never returned his gun. I went to the warden's house and took the gun and he threatened to shoot me. Went on to become Game Warden of the Year and got promoted to Sergeant.

A game warden looked over a blind we had on the Pamlico River, adjacent to the State Game Lands and informed us that we were "barely legal". Whit asked him if that was similar to being "sort of pregnant". He hounded us for several years after that.

Game warden in Pamlico County got his head caved in by a poacher. Truly a bad deal. His replacement came up to our blind the following year and told us he was just a couple years away from retirement and that he hoped we could get along. Never checked us in any way. Stopped by to get a cup of coffee each day he saw us hunting, but never bothered us. He is still enjoying his retirement.

Game warden stopped 3 of us coming out of the Goose Creek Impoundment one day and told us not to move or speak. Pretty bold order. The other 2 hunters pretty much did as he said and I ignored him completely. When he came to check me he threatened around a little and I offered him my wrists. He knew the law, just tried to bluff and bully people.

Had a game warden ask to check my Dad's double barrel shotgun, to see if it would hold more than 3 shells.

Had a game warden try to lick my duck stamp, to stick it to my license.

Had a game warden try to wade in 5 feet of water in hip boots. More than once.

Had a game warden run his boat ashore on the New River and had to come and ask for help to get off the rocky beach. Then came to the blind and gave me grief because we were putting all our birds on one duck strap and couldn't prove who had killed each of them.

Had a game warden make large, circling passes in his big Parker boat, out at the mouth of the Pamlico River, to move some birds around for us. He also got a hot cup of coffee whenever he stopped by.

Had a game warden mysteriously find corn near every blind on the New River. Ticketed every hunter on the river all Winter. When I asked him if there was any place left that I could hunt without getting a ticket he told me to try any place I wanted and he'd find corn there. Went on to be Game Warden of the Year, wait I already mentioned that.

Had a huge task force of game wardens come to Pamlico Point the last day of the season for several years. One checked us, that didn't even know what the species of birds were. He said he was from the mountains and just worked on bear poachers for 25 years. He drank some coffee and left.

The Dropped Glove

Years ago, Mike McGee and I were hunting out of one of Whitfield's blinds on the Pamlico River. To prevent storm damage to the blinds he built, he only framed them in, then nailed a heavy fence wire on as the sides and floor. He tied grass to the sides and carried a couple pieces of plywood out hunting with him to throw down on the wire for someplace to stand.

Well, McGee and I didn't take any plywood, because we never knew which blind, or where we would be hunting. We just stood on the floor joists and tried not to fall through the wire floor.

Anyhow, this one particular day was cold and windy and miserable. A great duck day. We started shooting shortly after daylight and were killing Bluebills and Scoter in alarming numbers. I was doing something and took off one of my gloves and it dropped through the wire floor and fell into the water beneath the blind. It was the first Gortex-Thinsulate pair of gloves I was ever able to afford and I didn't want to lose it. I shouted for McGee (who was hunting on the end with the door) to please jump out real quick and retrieve my glove before it sank or floated away.

He hopped out and grabbed my glove. Before he could climb back into the blind, a flock of Bluebills came by and I killed a triple. He cussed me for half an hour over that. Pretty much in good fun, but I could tell he was a little upset. After a while, I saw another nice flock of 'Bills coming our way. I pulled off my other glove and threw it through the floor and hollered for him to grab it for me. He grinned and said sorry, then came up shooting.

I eventually rescued the glove and we both had a good laugh over it. I had some really cold, wet hands, but at the time it was a good joke.