Jan 2nd 2011 Duck/Goose scout

[warnniklz]

Woke up late this morning. Loaded up the twelve anyways and headed up valley. Went up Nicomen island to see what was going on. Not much going on really. The fields have snow and are frozen. People are skating on the fields. There's a handful of ducks here and there in some ditches. Drive by Nicomen Slough and there was a lot of ducks, snows and canadas.

Later on I got out to Langley and checked out Derby Reach park and everyone and their dog were out enjoying the brisk sunny weather, so there was no geese or ducks there. However there was geese within the park boundry and on the golf course. So nearby I have a place I can hunt so I'll be out way before daylight with every deke in the shed out in the field. Hopefully I'll be able to suck some flights of canadas in.

[Steeleco]

I don't live too far from Derby reach and see birds on the fields all the time, but how do you go about hunting them? Langley has some archaic rules when it comes to hunting.

BTW, good luck. There's not shortage, take as many as you can!!

[warnniklz]

They guys I hunt with and myself know a couple of farmers who have let us hunt his land for years now. Places we've got permission to hunt, has been us just simply scouting where geese are during the open season ten in the off season knocking on doors and building relationships with the land owners.

Hopefully I'll limit out tomorrow. I think that'll be a fitting start to 2011

[Crazy_Farmer]

No snows in Nicomen Slough its all Swans. Long neck snows

[warnniklz]

Thanks for the heads up. Seen half a dozen with pink legs and short necks.

on another note. I've never hunted Nicomen slough. I've heard of people seeing people heading over the dyke with shotguns. But I can't figure out if and where you can hunt it.

[Crazy_Farmer]

Yeah its possible some could be in there, last time I looked there was over 400 swans lined up in there. Still cant legally hunt the snows there even if you could. There isnt really anywhere close near the bridge you can hunt its all closed. The fraser valley map shows the cutoff but even going west theres alot of houses right on the slough so you're really not 100m away from them when you're out there.

[warnniklz]

Everywhere that was accessible was close to the highway and a lot of people around. Not my ideal hunting conditions by any means.

[bandit]

The snows were all hiding in Richmond. Drove through just after lunch and saw I would guess well over 1000 in Terra Nova park. It was an incredible sight, and noise - feel sorry for the neighbors! Will upload a pic if I can work out how.