Return to Chincoteague Island

Kelly Murphy and I planned on returning to Chincoteague Island for a rematch with the Brant.  Didn't happen.  Kelly tore up her knee at work, the evening before our leave started.  So I had to regroup. Luckily, Mike was able to get off work and go with me.  We went with a new guide this time, Andy Linton.  His pitch was pretty good, sounded knowledgeable enough, and eager enough, to take us on a good hunt.  He did OK.  His blinds were good, his decoy spread was OK, his blind locations were OK.  BUT, the naked truth about duck hunting was enough to overpower whatever might have been right.  You need weather!

Some times you can go out in the middle of the day, on a bluebird day and still shoot a limit of ducks.  But the nasty weather will win out.  Whether it is wind, snow, rain, or whatever else you can have to make you miserable, it usually makes for a better duck day.

Mike and I had one total bluebird day, with 5 mph wind.  One day of morning fog then sunny and hardly any wind.  The other day, was miserable.  Rained steady, all day long.  Breezy and cold and a real bitch to be out in.  Guess which day was our best?

Not that we had a world of shooting by any means, but we each killed some Canada Geese, we each killed some Brant (as you can see in the flick, Mike's was weighted down with bands :-) and Mike was able to kill a couple species that he had never gotten before.  Actually they were his last two he needed to fill his list of all the normal puddleducks and divers in North America.  So all in all, he had a big trip.  I enjoyed myself as well, even though I was disappointed to see the Brant numbers were down.  We've heard since then that the Brant season will probably be closed for a few years until they can get a couple good nesting years and get the population stabilized again.

For anyone who was worried about it - The Island Creamery is still going strong :-)

Whistling Ducks

My second trip down to Argentina, we shot in a completely different part of the country than we did the first year.  That suited me just fine.  I wanted to see all of Argentina that I could.  I also wanted to shoot as many possible species of ducks as I could.  I knew very little about the migration paths of the birds down there.  I still don't know everything, but I have studied it quite a bit now, and you can definitely see where some species are migrating through in greater numbers than in other areas.

Anyhow, the first morning I shot by myself on a very small pothole.  Didn't see many ducks, due to being right in the middle of a stand of very tall reeds.  The only ducks I saw were either straight overhead, or sailing into my decoys.  I had a great shoot, killed my very first Rosy Billed Pochard.  Actually killed a nice pair of them.  Shot Teal and Pintails and had a really great shoot.  When I left, and met up with the other hunters, I saw that one of the guys had killed a beautiful White Cheeked Whistling Duck.  He had no idea what he had killed, just another duck to him.  I was a little jealous, but, what the heck.  He had killed 8 birds and I had killed 50.

The next morning we hunted on a private gunning club.  Somehow Jorge had membership to the place, or at least permission to use it.  We hunted in pairs that morning and when the hunt was over and we got back to the truck, I saw that the other pair of hunters had killed a Fulvous Whistling Duck.  Again I was a little jealous, but once again I had killed far more birds than the other guys and I had killed a Coscoroba Swan as well, so I couldn't be too disappointed.

The following morning we boated out to blinds well offshore on a big lake.  For a while it looked like a bust. Very few ducks were flying, but we could hear some shooting in the distance.  That was the only time I ever knew of any other hunters within miles of our party.  There were hundreds of Black Necked Swans on the lake, and eventually one ventured close enough for me to drop him.  Drop him I did!  Right in the boat we had tied to the back of the blind.

As the morning went on some ducks began moving around and our shooting picked up.  Jorge had promised me that we would see a lot of whistling ducks on this lake.  I didn't understand why - there certainly weren't any trees near the lake.  But he was right.  I saw several White Cheeked Whistling Ducks and finally got a few of them moving near us and I killed a half dozen or so.  They are truly beautiful.  I'd give anything to have one mounted.

Well, we were watching opposite directions, and without any warning Dave started shooting.  I looked up and saw a small flock of Fulvous Whistiling Ducks passing high on his end of the blind.  He killed one on his last shot.  I was crushed.  Travel halfway around the world and missed out on the opportunity.  Whatever, I was stacking up the birds, so I wasn't going home too disappointed.  About then, Jorge motioned to me that a duck was coming over real high and he wanted me to try the shot.  I led the bird about 10 yards and folded it up.  It fell probably 75 yards in behind the blind.  I wanted to go look for it immediately, didn't want it lost in the reeds, but Jorge said we would get it on the way out.

Finished up our shoot, gathered the decoys and headed in.  Sure enough, in a patch of open water back behind our blind we found that high duck I had killed.  My first Fulvous Whistling Duck.  I was good to go after that.

I have since killed a bunch of both the Whistling Duck species, but will always remember my first one of each.

A Nice Break

Living here in North Carolina, we have long, hot Summers.  Most years, Summer lasts well into October or even November.  That is tough.  Growing up in the Midwest, we were having cool weather in early September and Fall was in full swing by October.  So, waiting on Fall to arrive in coastal Carolina can be an ordeal.

Anyhow, a few years back I just happened to have a day off that coincided with the opening day of our little three day early season.  I thought, what the heck, even though the weather was still in the low 90's, I'd run up the Pamlico Point and give it a try.  On the drive up there, the night before, I noticed the wind was freshening and the temperature seemed to fall a little more than the previous evenings.  By the time I got to the trailer in Lowland, it was real nice out.  Cooling off nicely and a stiff breeze.  Humidity seemed to be way down,  even the mosquitoes had vanished for the evening.  At least it made it feel sort of like duck hunting weather.  I had no idea what the forecast was, but you know "hope springs eternal" with duck hunters, so I was quite content when I went to bed.

Morning came early and I immediately stepped outside to see what the weather was like.  It was still real windy.  Hadn't cooled off much more, but the air was fresh and I was pretty excited by the weather change.  Even if there were no ducks, at least it looked like a good morning to be out.

I went to Spring Creek and picked out a spot in the marsh to take advantage of the strong NNE wind.  I don't think there were any other hunters in the marsh that morning.  Probably the hot weather we'd been having had discouraged anyone else from hunting.  So I settled in to wait on daylight and see if any birds were down.  A good half hour before shooting time the Teal started pouring into my decoys.  Blue Wing and Green Wing both.  I was really excited about my prospects for the morning.

I love to eat Green Wing Teal.  Don't care that much about Blue Wings.  So just before shooting time, when it was still too dark to tell them apart, I let the dog exercise a little and flushed the birds from my decoys.  Thought I'd wait until the light was a little better, so I could try to bag a few GW's.  About actual sunrise the marsh really came alive with Teal.  Some shooting in the distance stirred up a lot of ducks.  In 15 minutes I had my limit of Teal; all Green Wings.

Picked up my decoys and headed back to the trailer.  I was really happy with the morning's shoot and felt lucky to have caught such a nice break on the weather.  When I got back I saw a friend just pulling into his driveway.  I hollered at him, told him to come over and help me pick some ducks.  He drove over and dropped the tailgate on his truck to show me three Canada Geese he had bagged that morning.  Said he had been hunting the entire early goose season with no luck.  But, the nice, cool, windy morning had paid off for him too.

Of all the bad luck that you can have while hunting, that day the luck had been all in my favor.

Stolen Hunt

Years ago I read a book entitled "Last Casts and Stolen Hunts".  It was an OK book.

Didn't really think on the title too much until a few years later when I stole a hunt.  Kelly Murphy and I were on a 10 day hunt up in Lowland on the Pamlico Sound.  On certain days of the week we were allowed to hunt in the state Gameland Impoundments for puddleducks.  The rest of the time we hunted out on the open water.

One day in particular we were heading out to shoot Scoters, right at the mouth of the Pamlico River, where it opens up into the Sound.  If you aren't familiar with that area, the River runs Southeast into the Sound.  The last several miles of the River are a really straight line, NW-SE.  So when the wind comes up Northwest, combine that with the natural flow of the current in the River and it gets pretty nasty, pretty quick.

So anyhow, that day the forecast was for SW winds 8-10 knots, turning W mid-morning then eventually NW in early afternoon, and building to 20-25.  I knew before we headed out that the Scoter would move between 0730 and 1030, so we would safely be off the water before that wind turned and came up strong.  No problem.

Well, the wind was almost West by the time we got on the water, but NOAA still didn't call for the big change until early afternoon.  So I thought we'd be OK, but I knew to keep an eye on the weather.  The Scoters cooperated pretty well.  We had a fine shoot that lasted about 2 hours until we had our limit.  We were just starting to bag up our guns and close up the gunning boxes when I noticed the decoys turning a little farther to the NW.  I told Kelly we should get our rig in and get out of there as quickly as we could because the weather was changing a little sooner than the weatherman had called for.

By the time we gathered up our 25 decoys we had waves breaking over the bow of my Herter's Model Yukon.  We headed for Oyster Creek, keeping the boat quartering into the 3-4 foot waves.  Only took 10 minutes to make the lee of Cedar Island and then we were in a lot calmer water for the rest of the ride into the landing.

By the time we got to the landing, probably 40 minutes from when we fired our last shot, the wind was up to 30 knots and building.  I was very happy to be standing beside the boat ramp and not out there fighting that mess.

We shot well that morning and Cain worked well so we had made good time on our hunt.  We've picked up enough decoys to be fast and efficient at that as well.  Good thing.  The way the weather changed, even 5 minutes later and we could have been in a real mess.

The title of that book came back to me then, and I told Kelly we had just stolen a hunt.

Disappointment

Duck hunting has turned into something I never wanted. I look forward to duck season, but then, when it arrives it is too full of disappointment. Bad weather days that prevent you from hunting. Crowds. Poor sportsmanship. Lack of birds. Low limits. Totally wrong weather forecasts that convince you not to hunt. Why even bother?

It is just about to the point when this 50 year veteran of waterfowling is going to quit. Just too much disappointment to outweigh the enjoyment.

Nacoma's Chief

Way back in the 1960's, when I was a young teenager, a friend of my Father gave me a Lab puppy for helping him train his dog. I read a book on how to train a retriever (appropriately titled - Training Your Retriever, by James Lamb Free). That did help me learn the basic steps of dog training. I think Chief should have read the book himself, he was a little smarter than me and could probably have made better use of the book. But anyhow, we made it through the first summer and were ready for duck season.

He was even more ready than I realized. From the first bird he ever saw fall, until the very end of his 13 year hunting career, he was all I could ask for. Big and strong. Loyal, playful, smart. We were best of buddies. We both suffered when I went into the service, but he welcomed me home for each hunting season with a big smile and a wagging tail.

He was a fast swimmer, both on top of the water and under the water. I saw him dive on more cripples than any other dog I've hunted over. Once he got after a bird, he NEVER quit.

Every time I see a big rangy Black Lab, I think of Chief. I'll miss him always.

Barnegat Bay

In December 2011, I made a trip to the famous Barnegat Bay. It was worth it. I met up with Dave Schneider, who I had met in Maine a few years before, gunning Eider. We hunted with Ray Bukowski and Brian LaFay of Reedy Creek Outfitters.

The trip was all arranged 10 months in advance and all went well, except the weather. It had been a very warm winter up to that point and unfortunately that continued during our trip. Sunny, warm and no wind. Really had it going our way! But we managed to make the best of it. The first day we shot Sea Ducks from a layout boat. Uncomfortable for an old crippled guy like me, but all in all a very exciting shoot. Been a few years since I had shot any Oldsquaw. Dave had his chance for a triple-play on Scoter, but missed his shot on the Black Scoter. He had never shot any White-Wing or Surf before, so it was still a great shoot for him.

The next two days we went into the marshes and small bays down near Tuckerton/Brigantine. Really neat terrain. Seemingly endless bays and channels all surrounded by grassy flats (referred to as salt meadows by the locals). Brant and Black Ducks were everywhere. Due to the terrible hunting weather, not a whole lot moved but we pretty much made the best of it. The last day we had 3 beautiful passes on Brant; 30 yards out, wings cupped and feet dangling.

Dave took 3-4 birds home for mounting, the rest are in my freezer.

The guides were really knowledgeable duckmen. The had great decoy spreads, mostly consisting of E. Allen decoys. Those decoys ought to be good since they run $90 apiece. The guides said it was worth the money not only due to the success they had shooting over them, but the decoys were very durable and they were still using a lot of the decoys they had when they first started guiding. They also had great boat blinds. Home made affairs, and each a little different, but comfortable and effective. Their knowledge of the area, combined with daily scouting put us in a decent spot each day.

I've heard about Barnegat Bay since I first read about duck shooting, and I am very happy to have gotten up there. To hunt a place with such a wonderful gunning heritage was really great.