Sea Ducking

November 18: Decided to go sea ducking this morning. This type of hunting is different than normal duck hunting. All the hunting is done over big water, such as the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, from boats. The birds do not require as much finess or realism to convince to toll to a decoy spread.

The most common types of sea ducks we shoot in the Chesapeake are Surf Scoters and Old Sqauws. In this photo, the all-black bird with the white head markings is a scoter, the other birds are Old Squaws (also called Long Tailed Ducks):


Today we were going to target Scoters. A proven tequnique for attracting these birds is to flag them. Jeremy demonstrates:


It requires such little finesse to shoot these birds that we use black crab buoys as decoys. They toll to shapes, so anything the same size and color will work:


However, they have to be around...

We are used to large flocks of birds divebombing our spread, and I decide to go sea ducking today on the strength of a solid report from Jeremy Mercer of a great shoot yesterday, but the ducks never showed up today. Disapointing. Jeremy's quote "They were here yesterday"

We got bored, so bored that Jeremy turned on the decoys:


Returned to Chestertown, and hunted in the afternoon with Steve Picarde, Brent Prossner, Pat Stedman, Rob Hooper and Mark Prossner.

It was a better hunt:

Storm Surge

Last evening, a nasty storm hit the Chesapeake Bay. Wind gusts to 40 miles per hour, heavy rain, tornado warnings, and a strong storm surge. Excellent duck hunting weather. Jeremy Mercer and I hunted Hoopers Island. I did not take my camera on the hunt because of the rain, but the shooting proved excellent. In 2 hours we limited out on pintails, black ducks, and mallards, and also killed 3 geese. I did take some pictures of the storm however.

Waves crashing over the road at the causeway. This picture does not do the power of this scene justice. At times, my truck was covered by water as the surge broke over the causeway. I drive a large pickup, and the waves shook it like I was driving a cardboard box.


We had to take a boat in this weather to get to the blinds. Rough ride.

Even today, water from the storm surge still flooded my neighbor's yard.

Season Opener, 2nd Split

November 11, 2006

Opening day of the second season in Maryland; I shot on my family's farm near Rock Hall, Maryland. In the morning, I joined my father, Casey Owens, and Jim Burgess for a woodduck shoot on the Galehouse Pond. Because I am a moron, I showed up to the hunt 40 minutes late. That 40 minutes proved to be the best of the day. Supposedly, and I was not there to see it so I cannot verify this story, over 200 woodducks tolled into the pond just after legal shooting time. They came in groups from 2 birds to 25 birds. According to Casey, he'd "never seen anything like it". I don't know, I wasn't there. At any rate, I was there for 2 tolls, of woodies, with only 1 duck killed, for a total of 7 this morning.

In the afternoon, I shot the Gresham Hall Pond with Paul Spies, Renee Prossner and the Prossner brothers, Mark, Brent and Greg.

The crew:


We had a great shoot, killing 27 mallards.

6 birds tolling into the spread:


Birds, after the first shots, flushing in all directions:


This one did not get away, notice the feathers trailing behind him:


Renee, a first time shooter, takes aim. Her belly shirt was awesome in the blind:


The hunters and retrievers, Fin and Panzer, with the bag:

A Hoopers Weekend

November 3 to 5, 2006:
I spent this last weekend at Hoopers Island, trying to take advantage of the waning fishing season. I arrived Friday night, just before sunset, and ran out into the Honga for a half hour. I found some birds working on fish breaking the surface, and landed a 19 inch striper. As it was getting too dark to see, I called it a night and headed to the club.

Saturday was cold, below freezing in the morning, and the wind was blowing about 15 to 20. I started out early, leaving the house with John Ashton at 6 am. We found no birds, or fish, and at 8 am called the morning. I went back out on my own later in the afternoon. The wind had died, and the conditions seemed right for some more frenzied action with birds on the surface. After about 2 hours of searching, I finally found some birds on fish. As I jammed the boat in gear to race to them, the engine quit, I was out of fuel, and had brought no backup gas cans. So I sat and waited in the river for about an hour before I was able to flag down a waterman who towed me in. So far no fish for the day

Waterman towing Fin and I into the Harbor:


I refueled the boat, and headed out to catch the last of the evening bite, or at least I hoped. I motored up to the causeway, and found fish. I caught a few on my spinning tackle, then switched over to my fly rod, and caught several more.

Causeway at Sunset:


Sunday, I went out again with Kendra Richardson. We searched for fish for several hours, and just as we were about to call it a day, we found birds on breaking fish in the middle of the Honga. We both were able to catch a total of about 9 or 10 fish.

Here is another net picture, these things fascinate me:

Hunting and fishing with Mark and Dan

Dan Sheats came into town the weekend of October 28, so we decided to go hunting in Delaware on Saturday. I met up with Mark Henderson, and we went to Dan's parent's house in Odessa. Saturday morning, we headed to the top of the Leipsic river, just south of Smyrna Delaware. We saw some birds, and had one toll all morning. We came away with a hen woodduck, and a mallard drake. Fin made a great retrieve on the drake, it was a cripple and swam across the pond. Fin grabbed it against the opposite bank after swimming across the pond after him.

Dan and Mark, Dan doesn't know what he's doing, neither does Mark:


Dan and Fin:


Mark and Fin:


Fin and I:


All of us:


Saturday evening, we headed to Hoopers Island for some fishing on Sunday. We met up with Jeremy Mercer, drank a lot of brown liquor, and woke up late. We started fishing at about 11 am. Wind was smoking, blowing at least 25, so fishing was not easy, but we tried...

Dan and Mark at the Big Creek:


Dan at Big Creek:


Looking down Big Creek, Dan in Front, Mark in the middle with Fin, and Jeremy off in the distance:


We caught no fish, so we gave up an did some exploring on the Island.

Mark, crossing the field, lagging behind:


Jeremy wishing he had a quarter to ride the tractor like a big kid:

Maryland, 1st split

Only hunted two days of Maryland's early duck season. I went down to Hoopers Island. With me were Dave Foote and his two buddies. We shot mallards, teal and pintail. Overall, a good time, but the shooting was slow due to poor weather conditions. Ducking is best when its windy with an overcast sky, and even some precipitation. We had wind, but it was bright and beautiful.

The blind where we shot Friday Evening:


Some of the birds we shot Friday:


On Saturday morning, we hunted in a creek on the Island. The tide was way out:


Fin, hiding in the weeds:


Fin, slogging through the muck with a retrieve:


Also down were Brent, Karl and Rutledge. They went deer hunting and killed 3 deer, two does and big buck. Rutledge shot all three:


Next duck season starts November 11, this Saturday!

On the way home, I drove through the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge to see how many ducks were there. I saw many mallards, teal and pintail, but the real excitement came from this eagle who let me photograph him for about 15 minutes:

Manitoba

The trip to Canada was a success. In a weeks worth of hunting, we shot our limits every day and ended up bagging pintails, mallards, gadwalls, widgeon, blue wing teal, green wing teal, buffleheads, blackheads, redheads, canvasbacks, mergansers, canada geese, and snow geese. The intensity of the hunting surpassed any I've done in the past. Everyday involved hunting a spot we scouted the day before, often driving for hours before finding birds, then locating the landowner, and then obtaining permission. Naps were a luxury and rare with the schedule we kept scouting for spots. However, all the work paid off, and we killed many birds.

Finny exploring his aboriginal roots:


After First Hunt. This was at a pond, killed lots of gadwalls, a few mallards, and blue winged teal:


Also from first day, wish I had the camera in color, but this was a beauty of a blue winged teal:


This is Jeremy and I after shooting a Ducks Unlimited project:


About the third day in, we experienced layout field hunting for ducks. Though common in Maryland for geese, it is far less common for ducks. In Canada, we found this to be the most effective type of hunting. This was basically a mallard only game, with a few pintails in the mix. The first picture of the two is a typical flock of mallards over the decoys.


This is the bag shot after a good field hunt:


Can't wait to get back next year!