Well it's over.....

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Today was the last day of the duck season over in Ontario. The lakes are all frozen solid and the river has more ice in it that I've ever seen. Still lots of canvasbacks, whistlers, and redheads around though.

But with all the ice it's tough to get on the water to hunt. Yesterday we made a quick try in the afternoon managing to kill two whistlers, four canvasback, a bufflehead, and one of the other guys also took a much prized drake redhead that was banded. I've shot and seen shot thousands of diving ducks and it's the first banded one I've seen taken, quite a trophy and I sure wish it had fallen to my gun. Jim had hunted in the morning with some other guys taking four redheads and three oldsquaw. They kept getting wiped out by ice flows so only hunted for a couple hours and gave it up.

This morning we were headed back out but with the below zero temps during the night we didn't have much hope. The spot we wanted was glazed up solid and the couple others that were open had half the duck hunters in Ontario standing guard so we just went back to the camp, cooked breakfast, and packed up our gear.

Off to Philly this weekend for pigeons and geese with Davis and Kaas. Unless we get into some late season geese over in Ontario that's going to wind up my season. I've gotta rob a bank or something so I can go back to Argentina this summer! Roll on September, my life gets pretty boring from here to then.


Destry

[Andrew Thompson]

Pics, man

[Gerald McPherson]

Sure leaves a fellow felling strange does't it Destry. Still wanting to kill something!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gerald

[Don Kaas]

Weather, the inconstant mistress of waterfowling. I expect big things in Maryland this week. My boys have been killing lots of ducks along the Chester River and the geese have been regular visitors to the fields. On my creek here, the frigid weather has moved the mallards to the deeper pools that remain open. Down along my drive where it meets the town road, a two pairs of mallards began to gather just after Christmas in a spot safe from hunters. I started, as I often have, to stop and toss out some corn into the icy riffles above the pool. 4 birds grew into a dozen in a few days. This morning I took the dogs for a early walk. It was 19 degrees. As we neared the drive's gravelled end, first 5, then 10 and finally a whole mass of ducks flushed from the hickory guarded pool. As they gathered and circled above the trees, I lost count at 32...a few blackies but almost all mallards in sparkling winter hue. Even the hens looked grand in the bright sunshine. The cocker and setter gazed skyward, the little scottie tugged as the last of the tamer stragglers sprang up to join the others. We turned around and made it the half mile home. I put the dogs in the house and took 10 pounds of whole corn down to the pool. They'll be back...

[Destry L. Hoffard]

To me the last day of duck season is the saddest day of the year. You always start worrying over those days that you could have gone hunting but laid in bed, the days you didn't shoot well and could have had a limit if only you'd have been handling your gun a little better, the long cold days left in the winter with nothing to do, the even longer hot summer with only fishing (a poor subsititute) to occupy your time, and on and on and on.

But there weren't many days I laid in bed, and I shot pretty well most of the year, so the remorse isn't too strong on those accounts. I counted up birds killed for the year, it came to 95 ducks and 8 geese, certainly a season to be proud of.

Hopefully another goose or two on Friday and Kaas has given me hope for a few more ducks as well. But to me it's still over, when I folded up the wool blankets off my bed in Ontario I knew the fun had really ended. But there's always next year, Good Lord willing.....


Destry


P.S. I've got to get all my pictures developed, I'll try to do that this week.

[Gerald McPherson]

I remember about 20 years ago the last day of quail season having only a couple of hours to hunt pulling into to a small area getting out and turning ol Spanky loose and while getting my gun out and loading Spanky disappeared. I walked about 10 yards and lo and behold there he was like a tomb stone. I walked in and flushed the covey and only killed one. I hunted until almost dark finding no more birds that I remember. But I do remember returning to my truck loading up Spanky. I stood there in the cold feeling good and thanked the OLD MASTER to have been blessed to be able to enjoy that year as I had. So DH you are so correct. IF THE GOOD LORD WILLING. All my old hunting friends are gone but boy did we have some fun!!!!!!!!!!! Gerald.

[Patrick Devlin]

It sounds as though you have an ample store of great memories to hold you over until September however if the withdrawal becomes unbearable you could have great gunning off the coast of Maine until January 31st.

Patrick

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I've been wanting to get out there to try for eider ducks since I was a kid. Just too many trips to make and not enough time or money unfortunately.

Destry

[Patrick Devlin]

So many ducks so little time. Perhaps another time, although I freely admit my prejudice the Maine coast is beyond compare albeit harsh in January to say the least.

[Kurt Densmore]

I had to resort to this kind of amusement last weekend....Will be chasing rabbits and crows really soon.

[Patrick Devlin]

Ah I can just imagine sitting on the ice and smelling the deer steaks sizzling on the old Colman, not a bad way to spend a winters day.

Pat

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Kurt,

If you get into some crow shooting give me a call. I haven't been in ages but am a pretty decent crow caller still.

Destry

[Don Kaas]

NJ regular waterfowl season ends on Tuesday. The warmer weather has opened Barnegat Bay and the old Sandy Island Gun Club...I have my invitation. We have 2 days scheduled in MD at the end of the week but I fear the dreaded "business conflict" may raise its evil head on both counts...it may be over for me as well...:banghead:

[peter holden]

Destry.
You might want to shoot Eider, but have you ever tasted one. i dont think you will cook a second one.
i hope this note finds you in good health.
Peter.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Peter,

Good to see you posting again. How was your season on the foreshore?

I've not ever eaten eider but I have eaten long tailed duck which they say is the roughest of all the ocean going waterfowl. We shot them on Monday and it took till Thursday for the lady to make them palatable through various operations and soakings.

The man to ask would be King Brown, they shoot a ton of sea ducks up his way in Nova Scotia and I'm sure he's eaten them all.


Destry

[Patrick Devlin]

I have an old chessie, Cider, that has eaten everything from large rocks to my wife's underwear but will turn her nose up at a well cooked eider. I have found that marinating in butter milk for 24 hours does improve the taste substantially.

Pat

[peter holden]

Destry.
Still 3 weeks of the season to go. I have had an average season so far, approximately 270 widgoen, 35 mallard,40 teal, 80 geese, plus snipe, golden plover, pheasants and grouse.
Health issues have stopped me going out as much as i would have liked. I have had to give up work due to ongoing arthritus problems, but you gotta keep going.
best wishes pete.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Peter,

That's average???!!! I usually kill around 80-100 ducks and 25-40 geese a year, to me that's average. This year I didn't quite hit 100 on the ducks and the geese came up wayyyy short of normal. If you've taken that much game you've had quite a year by my standards.

Do you ever do any decoying for plover? I had the opportunity to do that on one of my trips over your way and it was one of the most memorable experiences of my sporting life.

I've still not killed a red grouse or a gray partridge, I need to get back over there and do that one of these days.


Regards,
Destry

[peter holden]

Destry.
I decoy the goldies when there are big tides, this pushes them of the mud flats and onto the fields next to the marshes. they decoy well, its a technique that the old victorian gunners used. They make fantastic sport and are definately one of the best eating birds taken on the foreshore. It makes it even more memorable when shooting them with my old higham 16g muzzleloader, though the VH20 sorts them out with just as much satifaction.

As for partridge, i prefer to shoot partridge than pheasant i personally think partridge are a lot more testing to shoot than pheasant, though not as testing as grouse, but grouse shooting is very expensive. as a result its not often i get the oportunity to shoot grouse.

Peter.

[bruce willis]

Wow Mr. holden thats a lot of ducks and geese! Do you eat all those ducks and geese? That's 345 ducks and 80 geese plus other birds. I agree with Mr. hoffard that my total amount of ducks is much more humble.

[Don Kaas]

I just received a call from my boys in the goose pit outside Rock Hall, MD. Limits of Canadas, yesterday by 11 a.m. and working on a limit this chilly day (it was 15F this a.m.). Ducks are scarce. Last day in MD tomorrow...

[peter holden]

Hi Bruce.
Nothing goes to waste, everthing is cooked and eaten.
i wouldnt dream of shooting fowl/game and not eating it.

Pete.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Bruce,

In my experience, the folks in the UK are much more familiar with game on the table than we folks here in the US. You can still buy wild game at the butcher shop on that side of the water. We took a batch of widgeon into Aberdeen (Scotland) once and sold them to an actual wild game dealer. We'd shot them the last evening we were there and just didn't have the opportunity to get them into better hands.

Peter,

I was particularly interested in decoying the plover when I went over the first time. I went so far as to have a dozen decoys carved to take along and a friend from Malta sent both my English friend and I some calls they use down there. After a bit of practice I had the plover working right in to the whistle and made a couple of nice bags.

Here's a pic of my gear after my best afternoon:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b398/MarketHunter/ParkerPlover2.jpg

What sort of decoys do you use? My English friend has some SportPlast Brand ones from Italy that look pretty good though they aren't vintage style by any means. If I was going again I'd get another dozen whittled up. I tried just my dozen at first and did have shooting but when I put both rigs out together I really got them coming in.


Regards,
Destry

[peter holden]

Destry.
i have wood decoys that i carved and painted, but i prefer the silhouette ones i made.
I made these by finding a suitable picture of a goldie on the internet, increased its size slightly then take a print of it, cut it out, glue and varnish it to the silhouette.
It is easy, cheap, and quick to produce 30 or 40 of these. They arent bulky to carry and because goldies usually fly in a pre determined direction using silhouettes doesnt present a problem. I usually make the silhouttes from thin plywood or aluminium.
Thats a good bag of goldies you got there Destry im sure that would be a memorable sessions shooting.
Im just about to go and try and get a few snipe with the .410 its a perfect frosty morning here and hopefully they will sit tight long enough for me to get a bit of sport.

regards Pete.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Peter,

Thats a great idea, though I like a few full bodies in amongst a rig of silhouettes just to give it some depth. My experience being with geese rather than shorebirds but still a similar situation. I agree on the size of the rig for plover, 30 or 40 would be perfect. On my best shoot I had about 25 or more out and it made a big difference to the original dozen. One of these days I'm going to go back out to the Western Isles and spend a little more time on them. I'd love to try them out on the tide flats, we did all of our shooting in pastures during the high tides when they were inland.


Regards,
Destry

P.S. How did you do on the snipe? Does anybody over there still use a pointing dog for them? They did in the old days here from what I've read though as wild as they are some days I can't imagine a dog would be much help a lot of the time other than for pickup.

[peter holden]

Destry.
I dont know of anyone here that uses a pointer for snipe. to be honest not that many people can be bothered to put the time and effort in for snipe.
I managed 7 which i was pleased with given this time of the season, they were excellent sport with the .410
I am going to have a go at the canadas tonight, there are about 1,700 on the local estuary.

regards Peter.

[Don Kaas]

Destry- don't forget to bring your "tinnies"...

[Destry L. Hoffard]

If I had a dozen I'd bring them along for sure, I think I've got maybe one.....

DLH

[Don Kaas]

How do they know?...I am up to over 50 birds in the flock I am "supporting" on my creek. I was in Michigan last week on business for 3 days and I was afraid they'd leave but when I pulled in the drive on Thursday after our second blizzard in a week there they were...mallards and a few blacks mixed in. I switched the "support" to a mixture of molasses covered whole corn and wheat. They are going through 12 lbs. a day. This morning they were joined by a little knot of at least 6 pintail drakes- a beautiful sight. All but a few mallards flushed up the creek a 100 yards or so when I walked down the bank with my bucket. I am sure the word is now out that good things can come from silver Mercedes SUVs idling near creeks.