How was your h20fowl season?

25 January 2007, 11:21

Kamo Gari

Hopefully better than ours here in PDR of MA. It was, in a word, pathetic. Normally, my bag is around 150-200 birds (I hunt ducks a great deal). This year, including seaducks, I shot perhaps 30. My buddy, who has hunted here for 30+ years, said that it's the worst season he's ever seen. Granted, having temps in the 60s right into January played hell with the migration (no ice in *any* water until last week--and of course NOW the birds are in

), but just wanted to know how others made out.

25 January 2007, 20:53

Brett

Kamo,

Sorry that that your season was not too good. The shooting out west has been good again this year. I just went over my journal and I shot well over 100 ducks this year, mostly widgon.

Hope your season is better next year.

Regards;
Brett

25 January 2007, 22:58

skl1

I had bad luck with ducks. We're on a point and might see a pair right at shooting time. Probably got 6 ducks.

But we always got our 2 geese. Could have shot more if the limit was higher. It's a great spot for geese.

25 January 2007, 23:06

Neil A

We have also suffered from a mild winter here as a result the duck hunting has been not very good. Some resident geese around to keep things interesting but overall not a very good season from a numbers perspective. We also had a fairly early close (for us) this year and that really affected things as well.

That said, it's always to good to get out and chase these crazy things. As we all know-it's an addiction!

26 January 2007, 00:56

Kamo Gari

Addiction you say? Ya think? I duck hunt 100 days a year, most years.

Thanks for the responses. Glad to hear it was better in some other spots. Oh, well. Next year hopefully things will be back to normal. Still have late goose season to work on.

Cheers,

KG

26 January 2007, 04:01

Palmer

In the Ozarks we are not on a strong flight path but we still had a slightly better than average year.

It was warm at first but we had a good freeze North of us for the last week or two of the season and that really helped our average.

In our blind we averaged 2.3 ducks per hunter per hunting day over the entire season. About half were Gadwalls and the remainder Mallards, Woodies and Green Wing Teal.

26 January 2007, 06:20

thornell

Kamo Gari, The season has been slow. We have had a few good days, but nothing spectacular. The last day of the Arkansas season is Sunday, so I will give it one more try this weekend.

P.S. I would like to get in touch with you next year, and come try out the sea ducks.

27 January 2007, 01:44

Kamo Gari

I'd be happy to host. As I think I've mentioned, normally we absolutely clobber them. My buddy has a layout boat, and it's an insanely fun time. Here's a pic of me a half mile off Cape Cod in December. I dumped three eider out of the flock you see heading for safer waters...

We try not to head out with the layout in heavy seas, but sometimes there's a pretty good chop. It is in Winter in New England, after all. In a *really* good chop, this kind of hunting is NOT for the faint of heart.

I'm sitting up in the shot, but normally you lie flat on your back, with gang rigs lined up in front of you like landing lights on an airstrip, as seen below.

With the layout painted battleship grey and rising only half a foot or so off the water, you disappear. When the birds come in, you sit up and start a-blastin'.

We run a tender boat to retreive, bat clean-up and for safety purposes, keep in close contact using two-ways. We haven't lost a man yet.

Oldsquaw, ww scoter and eider seen below on a different hunt.

And another from a pretty good day for 3 of us.

Early season birds in this pic, so birds weren't prime, but the feathers don't seem to affect the taste of the sausage...

Cheers,

KG

27 January 2007, 03:26

Craig Nolan

Kamo Gari, nice pics of your sea duck outfit; our season here in Ca was generally not good, primarily due to lack of any winter weather (other than just cold and still), and an ever-increasing preponderance of refuges/sanctuaries/flooded ag fields where you can't hunt, resulting in birds that no longer return to their traditional and historic nesting and feeding areas, i.e. private duck clubs.... By the by, I've shot scoter and oldsquaw here in the SF Bay, as well as Barrow's and Common Goldeneye; how do you eat these stinkwings????

Regards,
Craig Nolan

27 January 2007, 03:33

Palmer

Fabulous pictures. I have to try that some day. Are those 3" or 3 1/2" shells?

27 January 2007, 03:43

Kamo Gari

Palmer: 3" shells.

Seaducks, esp. eider, are incredibly tough birds. I mean, *incredibly* tough. We never shoot anything less than 2s, and BBs are not at all overkill.

Cheers,

KG

27 January 2007, 03:47

Kamo Gari

quote:
Originally posted by Craig Nolan:
Kamo Gari, nice pics of your sea duck outfit; our season here in Ca was generally not good, primarily due to lack of any winter weather (other than just cold and still), and an ever-increasing preponderance of refuges/sanctuaries/flooded ag fields where you can't hunt, resulting in birds that no longer return to their traditional and historic nesting and feeding areas, i.e. private duck clubs.... By the by, I've shot scoter and oldsquaw here in the SF Bay, as well as Barrow's and Common Goldeneye; how do you eat these stinkwings????

Regards,
Craig Nolan

Cool that you gun the Bay. I have family in Marin (San Rafael). Seaducks, to be honest, are only edible (to me) in sausage. I was totally unconvinced that they'd be edible in any form, until I tried some my buddy's butcher friend tossed together. First, he smokes (this is the secret, methinks!) about 25 lbs of breast meat, which is then mixed with pork. Tons of spices are then added, and the end result is a bloody fantastic spicy sausage! Kind of like a chorizo, actually. You'd never know it was borne of skunkheads and other salty birds.

KG

30 January 2007, 00:20

Craig Nolan

Kamo Gari, there is some surprisingly good diver and seaduck hunting in the SF Bay, in various locations, and it is cool to be hunting while looking at the SF skyline or one of the numerous bridges....the sausage sound great, I'm thinking that the pork-to-duck ratio would be on the order of about 10:1

....

No Eiders here, but lesser/greater scaup, barrows and common goldeneye, surf scoters, the occasional oldsquaw (I've seen 3 total and shot 1), buffleheads, cans and a few redheads....We've got a floater on the bay, when the ducks decide to come in to the dekes you literally could do jumping jacks on the blind in an orange jumpsuit and the birds wouldn't stop!!

Regards,
Craig Nolan

31 January 2007, 04:44

Kamo Gari

quote:
Originally posted by Kamo Gari:
quote:
Originally posted by Kamo Gari:
quote:
Originally posted by Craig Nolan:
Kamo Gari, there is some surprisingly good diver and seaduck hunting in the SF Bay, in various locations, and it is cool to be hunting while looking at the SF skyline or one of the numerous bridges....the sausage sound great, I'm thinking that the pork-to-duck ratio would be on the order of about 10:1 ....

No Eiders here, but lesser/greater scaup, barrows and common goldeneye, surf scoters, the occasional oldsquaw (I've seen 3 total and shot 1), buffleheads, cans and a few redheads....We've got a floater on the bay, when the ducks decide to come in to the dekes you literally could do jumping jacks on the blind in an orange jumpsuit and the birds wouldn't stop!!

Regards,
Craig Nolan

Hiya Craig,

Sounds like we big city boys on both coasts do things in a similar fashion... See below. That's me with the cod and seaducks, gunning Boston Hahbah; cast and blast, baby! I think that's in October. We also get into stripers on their way south. It's a hoot bashing a limit of seaducks and hanging 20lb+ bass that are blitzing all around. The other pic is another of me in the layout just north of Boston, which can be seen in the backround. I just can't get enough!

On the species topic, here's what I've shot here--some rare (to us), but most are fairly common.

Eider (common)
Scoter (white wing)
Scoter (common)
Scoter (surf)
Oldsquaw
Bufflehead
Goldeneye (common)
Ring-necked
Merganser (common)
Merganser (hooded)
Merganser (red breasted)
Scaup (lesser)
Scaup (greater)
Shoveler (northern)
Mallard
Black duck
Blackard/Mallack (black duck/mallard X)
Gadwall
Widgeon (American)
Wood duck
Teal (gw)
Teal (bw)
Brant
Canada geese
Coot ( )

And some others I think I've forgotten. Last year (2 seasons ago) my bag had some 17 species. Birds buddies have shot, or that we've seen but couldn't shoot (see your comment about refuges):

Redhead
Pintail
Snow goose
Eider (King) (!!!!!)
Ruddy duck
Canvasbacks (a great big flock sits in Fresh Pond every year, and never anywhere else. FP is in Cambridge, BTW. )

So, um, redheads and cans, you say? Hmmm. Any inclination to consider a duck hunt swap?

Glad to see this forum getting some talk; BSing with fellow patients (mental)/waterfowlers is good stuff.

Oh, and as to the sausages and your skepticism, well, I don't hold it against you. It was a real Deer Hunter (the Russian roulette scene) moment for me, eyeballing the sausage I knew was seaduck-based, and trying to force myself into actually putting it into my mouth...I was very, very pleasantly surprised, however (unlike Stevie ).

KG

P.S. Palmer, still haven't found those pics, but I'll bird dog 'em up.