Sea/Diver duck hunting out west?

[Rackmastr]

Hey all,

I'm an Alberta transplant to Cranbrook BC and have spent most of my life waterfowling on the prairies of Alberta. I have a good spread of goose hunting gear and am well equipped to shoot good limits of dark geese in Alberta.

I've always had the itch to do a bit more variety of duck hunting and now that I'm in BC I figured I should look into heading west. Problem is, its all an 'unknown' to me.

If a person wanted to get into some good variety of ducking hunting or sea duck hunting, whats required at minimum? What time of year is best to head out there and is a guy over his head without good scouting/planning/decoys or can a person have a good successful trip learning it out there? Minimum boat size? Can you hunt decently from shore? Decoy spread size? What would be the best type of plan/area to add some variety of birds? What are the most common birds hunted in BC out there? Public land access to good hunting options? Island or mainland?

I'd happily hunt with those who are experienced and try to reciprocate by inviting them out to the prairies whenever to enjoy a field hunt, but right now just in the early stages. Have even looked at outfitters in Washington, etc as an option.

Far from a beginner but not a ton of info out there on doing a hunt like this.

[Firstblood]

Not a lot of duck hunters in BC and even less target the divers and sea ducks. What kind of sea ducks might narrow the list down. Im near Kamloops and have shot barrows goldeneye on the lakes here as well as all the other nice divers, seen scoters longtails on the bigger lakes. Brant are only ocean Im pretty sure.

[Wild one]

Never hunted sea ducks but members have posted pics from sea duck hunting on the island

If you want to do a diver/puddle duck hunt it can be done in Harrison. Actually a pretty good mix of species around there. Don’t live there anymore so can only offer info if you’re interested

BC does have a fair amount of duck hunters but 99% are in regions 1 and 2

[Rackmastr]

Not a lot of duck hunters in BC and even less target the divers and sea ducks. What kind of sea ducks might narrow the list down. Im near Kamloops and have shot barrows goldeneye on the lakes here as well as all the other nice divers, seen scoters longtails on the bigger lakes. Brant are only ocean Im pretty sure.

Interesting, didn't realize you could get the scoters and longtails on the bigger lakes near you even. Figured you had to go to the ocean or darn close to it.

Really I've just done enough field and lake hunting in Alberta that I want a bit of a 'change' and I see some of the scoters, longtails, harlequins, brants, goldeye, etc are all pretty neat and might be a good adventure.

I like the idea of a later season hunt to try and hunt birds in fuller plumage and most of my waterfowling ends here in late Dec.

[MichelD]

There is a small cadre of brant hunters who are on here occasionally who hunt the 10-day brant season in March.

[Rackmastr]

There is a small cadre of brant hunters who are on here occasionally who hunt the 10-day brant season in March.

I've noticed that. I'd make the trip out 2 times in a year or 2 separate years if I thought I could get into some Brant hunting in March. Pretty cool experiences for sure.