Heading for the marsh

[Islandeer]

Nice you got out anyways,all days afield are god ones... Did you see the BIG sea lion that has been hanging in the river? I almost shat mysef on Saturday while i was up to my waist near the mouth of the river,this monster emerged about 10 ft away!! Talk about throwing your weight around!!

[todbartell]

now now Marc, I thought you told me to always make sure of my chokes and to pattern my loads and practice before going bird hunting! hmmm?

go later this week and kill some ducks

[Marc]

I saw something broach the water and thoughtit was a whale at first but I realized there was only about 3 feet of water. It could have been hin Islandeer.

So tomorrow, Moosenuts and K-1 and I are heading out for another kick at the cat sorta speak and try our luck at some ducks. Thanks for reminding me firebird I still haven't changed my choke out yet.

Marc.

[farmboy]

Over here(lowermainland) the only times I head out to salt marshes, Westhlam Island near the Tsawwassen coal terminal is to shoot snow geese. It usually very good during opening day (thanksgiving weekend) the Snows especially the greys one, young geese are easy to decoy in.

We use a duck punt and head out quite far to the fartherest outer marshes. I usually passed up shooting the local mallards ( not bright orange feets). I wait till late October to shoot mallards on my farms and usually these are Northern mallards with bright ornage feets and they are much bigger.

The best days for me hunted Snows are light foggy days, I used GPS to navigated to our area and we just called them in. Usually loners(Snow) flying very low comes to our calls.

During last year Christmas holidays, I had friends on holidays whom came down to my farms and we had some very good shooting. The 3 of us got limits of mallards and occasionally some drake pintails.

Enjoy. P.S Marc you got mail.

[Marc]

Well we managed to scratch:

1 bufflehead
2 Golden eyes
1 Merganzer
1 Hen Mallard.

Nash made some awsome retireves and fun was had by all. I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

Marc.

[ruger#1]

marc are you going to eat that fisheating duck

[Marc]

We thought the meganzer was a golden eye at first glance and then realized after we had nocked it in the water that is was a meganzer. One of the guys out with me is still trasining his dog so I told him to take it home and use it to train his dog. Freeze it until he wants to use it again for training. The golden eyes and the buffle will be breasted out and probably used for a stew. the Mallard I`m going to use for roasting.

this might be hard to believe but I`ve been hunting ducks since I was 14 years old and I`m going on 39, and this is my first mallard ever.

I`ll post some pictures tomorrow.

Marc.

[Marc]

Here is how it all played out. We put the boat in the water load the decoys, bear, and dogs make our way out at 7:15am we get to where we figure we'll se some ducks and settle in to where we're going to set up. I decide I'm going to stick to a big up-rooted tree and hide behind it at the mouth of the river that feeds into the bay. I saw some buffleheads and Golden eyes flying up and down it the last time I was in the area.

K-1, Moosenuts and his Lab Zoë, trudge off with their decoys in tow to a spot where they figure the mallards are going to want to be. Every half hour or so I notice they are setting up further and further away from their decoys.

At first light I let a couple of ducks go buy as they were just skirting the 40-yard mark. Then the first opportunity at about 25 yards, it was a bufflehead and no one had a duck down yet so I decide to exercise my dog.

A couple of hours pass and the nice dry grass I was standing on now has water up past my gum rubbers. I find this out after my first boot fills with water. I put a wool blanket up on the log and put the dog up there to try and keep him warm and dry. He's 9 years old now so I try to baby him as much as possible. (I brought Nash as a back up dog for Zoe as she hadn't been out duck hunting for a while.) I climb out of the water and onto the log with the dog as well.

About a half hour later the boys are hollering for me to come and get them with the boat. I said I've only got my short boots on and I'll get soaked going to the boat. So Moosenuts who's got chest waders on wades back to the boat and picks the dog and I up.

We row the boat over to where K-1 can get in.where it was dry land before I'm now able to use the motor,and we pick up the decoys they had set out.

We head back to the rooted tree and set out the remaining decoys for one large spread. I think the final count was 39 decoys. We tie the boat along the log and hunker down waiting to see what' going to fly up the river.

By days end we had 1 bufflehead, 2 golden eyes, 1 merganser, and a 1 hen mallard.

Out of the 5 ducks in the boat Nash ended up retrieving 4 of them and we had to chased the meganser in the bay with the boat to get close enough for a finishing shot. Nash made a couple of realy long retrieves. We were trying to get Zoe on the ducks but she was concentrating on the decoys. By the time I released my dog, two of the retrieves he made had to be a good 200 yards before he caught up to the ducks in the river current before turning around and heading back.

Zoe was more interested in picking up the decoys instead of going for the down bird. I told Moosenuts I'd give him a hand to train her in the off season, as it would only take a bit of training to put her back on track. We did a couple of mock retrieves with her with the ducks we shot and she had no problems. I think she didn't see the birds drop so she didn't know what she was suposed to be fetching. It'll come with time.

It was a great day out with the boys, I wish now I had done more of it earlier in the season.

Marc.

[ruger#1]

looks like Nash is to embarrassed about that last picture.he wont even look.

[Marc]

He's to busy watching the water. He's amazing, there are times that he sees the birds coming in before I do.