Spring has sprung here and the bears are out of their den. I've heard of a couple being taken and one was a real whopper with an almost 28" skull! Of course thats a green measurement so after the drying period he'll measure better than 27 3/4"

To be on topic, the waterfowl have also returned to Alaska and on April 2nd the "Subsistence Waterfowl Season" opened. FYI, April 2nd in Dillingham wasn't much of a good day to duck hunt. There was 10' of snow and ice and no ducks.

Subsistence waterfowl hunting is a federally mandated allowance for rural hunters to sesonally pursue game for the table. So for an example, in some areas that only allow one brown bear to be taken every four years by sport hunters, a brow bear can be taken every year by subsistence hunters with the trophy being destroyed and the assumption is made that the meat will be consumed. (I've tried it a few times and generally its not very good,) So! I am a "Rural Alaskan" and I get to hunt waterfowl during the spring season. The overview of the spring season is that all normal hunting laws must be followed regarding take, i.e. no firearms larger than 10ga, no herding animals with airplanes, but other rules like bag limits do not. I or we are allowed to take all legal species like geese, swans, cranes and ducks, but some exclusions like Stellars Eiders are verboten. As I just mentioned, bag limits do not apply but it is understood this hunt in for table fare so filling the boat with goose carcasses and then unloading the boat at the landfill will get you in hot water in a hurry just like anywhere else.

Now! hopefully I've provided sufficient background and off with the story. I can walk off of one of the local roads here in Dillingham to the south west and head toward the bay. Its about an hour walk to the gravel and mud beach. When hunting there Dillingham'ers hope for geese passing back and forth from each side of Nushagak Bay and ducks as a side bet. Since my dog "Babe" is a bit on the smaller side she handles ducks better than even the small geese so I prefer the ducks myself.

Last Friday morning I headed out fairly early for around here, (6:30am,) and headed for the beach. In my usual spot not much was going on so I decided to extend my exercise session and head a little further out. I'm a bit of a fat lumpy turd so I need all the walking I can get. Over in the next creek drainage I found them all, and by all I mean ALL. Thousands of ducks, certainly hundreds of geese and a few cranes were all passing thru and landing in the mud flats just I suppose another mile from where I'd planned to hunt. Babe and I made it out on to the mostly frozen mud and took a lesser canada goose and four ducks before we decided to wrap it up after about two hours of hunting. The next morning a friend and I went with Babe back out and the hunting was even better with two geese and nine ducks being taken in about three hours of hunting.

Sunday, (yesterday,) we just had to go back for one more try and my wife Tina joined us to handle the dog and observe. Not a darn goose showed themselves but wave after wave of pintails blew thru the fog, snow and cold into and over our decoys. We picked the bulls out of the flocks and by 11:00am the two of us had taken 19 sprig. I've hunted waterfowl in California, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota and Saskatchewan and I have never had a duck shoot or more to the point a sprig hunt like that. The birds were still coming into the mud flats long after we were picked up and gone off the area and were not decoy, hunter or dog shy in the least.


Babe did a fantastic job retrieving. Shes mostly steady to shot and we lost no birds. I did have to with her to run down two long range sail'ers but I don't think thats to bad.

The darned dog will not hardly look at the camera for the photos so I gotta hold her head forward. Shes not shy, I think its just snooty.

I suspect we'll give it one more try this week and then Tina and I are flying down to the beach on the open ocean to camp and beach comb and hunt for Mothers Day. Babe is certainly going and I'm hoping to get her to retrieve a brant or two.

Great pics and story. You certainly will have enough duck to tide you over for a while. Congrats again.

Awesome! I knew there was a reason I've always aspired to be a "rural Alaskan" someday.....

Wow! One bull sprig every few years is all most of us can hope for.

Forgot to mention, one band. The take on waterfowl is incidental around here in relation to what the lower 48 does so bands as far as I know are rare. Additionally, I don't know of any recent bird banding projects around these parts, so theres little reason to think banded birds would be around here other than passing thru.

Scott, thanks for the report. I had the pleasure to stop in Dillingham in the middle of winter. The beauty of the place was awesome. Please keep us posted on your waterfowling adventures as the season progresses.

quote:

Originally posted by SGraves155:
Wow! One bull sprig every few years is all most of us can hope for.

HA! 12 years and counting for me.

Great hunt(s), and thanks for sharing the story and pics, Scott. Before you posted the pics I thought to myself, 'that's cool and all, but what about the young left without a hen?'. Then I see your pile of bull sprig and think, RIGHT ON!

Awesome all around, and great to see I'm not the only lucky SOB that has a lovely wife who will accompany her man into the field.



Please share the band info when you get it back; that stuff always intrigues me.

Congrats Scott, and I mean mostly on your wife. I've got a real good picture of me taking my wife hunting for Mother's Day. I'd never sleep soundly again...

I gave the band to the feller hunting with me but will forward the info here when he fills me in. While hunting on Summer Lake State Wildlife Refuge in Oregon one time I was lucky enough to take two banded honkers out of one flock. Yep,.......banded on Summer Lake State wildlife Refuge.

The lighting wasn't bad so it was fairly easy to pick out the bulls. They were really low on the deck too so there was plenty of time. I'm not sure anybodies laying eggs quite yet. They've only been here in strength two weeks. The only hen we killed in the three days of hunting was a hen mallard that was the second bird of a pair killed that came into the decoys. She swung round in front of me too close for too long and I couldn't help it. All the sprig were fluing their courtship dances so it was beautiful to watch.

Tina, Babe and I leave Thursday at 1:00pm to fly out to the beach west of here! We'll stay thru Monday afternoon and then back to civilization.

scott - before you got the dog, was mark trained to retrieve?

Regarding your goose banded at Summer LAke. Many years ago, I shot a banded honker there and later when I got the report back from the feds that it was banded at the Christmas Valley Golf Course.
Talk about a somewhat embarassing report. But for you that dont know Christmas Valley,there's NOT much there.