How stormy is too stormy?

[BiohazardHands]

Hey everyone. New to waterfowl hunting. I live on Vancouver Island and am mostly hunting estuaries so far. This weekend a few buddies and myself are planning an overnight trip to one of our spots. It’s got a protected bay with some good little holes for the ducks/geese to come in and hang out. It’s supposed to horrible weather this weekend with big winds and a major downpour. I was curious if there’s such a thing as too stormy while waterfowl hunting?

From reading multiple posts I have read you should lead with a joke before asking for advice on the forum, so here’s a doozie.

Two fish are in a tank, one pipes up and asks “How do you even drive this thing?”

[Foxton Gundogs]

Is there such a thing as to many ducks?? Nope, never to stormy, perfect weather for ducks.

[RICKADY]

To stormy is when you can't take it anymore, birds aren't moving when its windy, none there move on, tell a few more jokes,
HNY

Hunting is only a addiction if your trying to quit.

[Foxton Gundogs]

Hate to disagree with you but wind is your friend when duck hunting. Drives them off open water and they flay like crazy looking for calmer water. The best shoots I have ever had over the years were on gale warning days. The key to duck hunting success is tough it out a little longer.

[Ron.C]

Agree with Foxton, love those windy days and have had some of my best shoots when the wind is howling and pissing rain. The only time we do better is when the temps drop and freeze all the water in the fields. Any open water in the estuaries fill with ducks fast.

[mastercaster]

Agree with Foxton, love those windy days and have had some of my best shoots when the wind is howling and pissing rain. The only time we do better is when the temps drop and freeze all the water in the fields. Any open water in the estuaries fill with ducks fast.

Had a day like that this year. All the ditches and puddle water was frozen right up when we had that real cold snap a month or so ago. We had our 16 birds by 9:00. The 1/4 inch ice that was frozen above the trampled down marsh grass was tough on the dogs, though. It was sharp like glass so when they broke through with each step they had to go through it pretty gingerly.

Sure wish geese had been opened because we had a couple of groups of Canadas that came over head so low that we felt we could have swatted them down if we had fishing rods with us. lol

https://i.imgur.com/9x4rSjo.jpg

[BiohazardHands]

To stormy is when you can't take it anymore, birds aren't moving when its windy, none there move on, tell a few more jokes,
HNY

Hunting is only a addiction if your trying to quit.


Two eggs were in a boiling pot of water. One pipes up and says “Im having a little difficulty getting hard. I just got laid a little while ago.”

[BiohazardHands]

I appreciate everyone’s responses. We will be attempting an overnighter and braving the weather. Is there any basic strategy when in that terrible weather? High tide will be our friend at first light and lots of rain and wind. We will be blinded up in a small tree batch in a little bay. We don’t have many decoys (6 total) so we are limited in that aspect and so far I’m only good at the basic quack and half assed at the greeting call. Last week the basic quack was all it took in mediocre weather.

[Beachcomber]

It’s too stormy when it is not safe on the water. Check the weather and the tides and then make the call

https://weather.gc.ca/marine/forecast_e.html?mapID=03&siteID=14305

[f350ps]

No such thing as too stormy, but hunt the leading edge of the storm! Birds will find their happy place a few hours after it starts and shooting will slow up! K

[Ron.C]

I appreciate everyone’s responses. We will be attempting an overnighter and braving the weather. Is there any basic strategy when in that terrible weather? High tide will be our friend at first light and lots of rain and wind. We will be blinded up in a small tree batch in a little bay. We don’t have many decoys (6 total) so we are limited in that aspect and so far I’m only good at the basic quack and half assed at the greeting call. Last week the basic quack was all it took in mediocre weather.

Which estuary will you be hunting? I plan on heading out Saturday morning and may be able to help.

[BowsUp]

First it rained
Then it blew
Then it frizz
Then it snew

Primetime for sure. Quote is from a Zack Taylor book.

[Redthies]

The worse it gets the better it gets.

[ACB]

It's too windy when you shoot against the wind and you get hit by your own shot, it's only happened once.

[Foxton Gundogs]

Birds land into the wind so you should have the wind pushing the shot not blowing it back at you. But I tAke your point.

[Beachcomber]

Well I confess I wussed out yesterday. Wasn’t feeling it and the waves were coming in pretty hard over the bow. Maybe if I had been with a better boatman I would have done it. Ended up doing some maintenance, arranging some fixed lines and cleaning otter shit off my boat and the dock. Not as bad a day as it sounds

[Laurp99]

I was also planning on heading out for some Ducks yesterday but the wind changed my mind, it was blowing fairly hard so a day of watching the Canadian Jrs win Gold followed by the Seahawks win over the Eagles kind of made up for it! :D

[silveragent]

I went out on Sunday when the wind at Brunswick was 30k. It was fun! The birds were whipping around and the decoys looked very active.

A couple years ago I went out during King Tide combined with a gale and that was a near disaster but still had a good story. We had to reset three times because the tide drove us nearly halfway to the dyke. Same year a cloud of hundreds of snowies was rolling overhead my buddy (while I had already packed up) and he shot and reloaded twice and couldn't bring down a single one even as they hovered because he had no idea where his shots were going in the wind.

[silveragent]

Went out on Tuesday. Wow the surf was throwing salt water right into my face. Wind was taking away my breath. Could hardly see anything from the droplets on my glasses. My decoys were sure bucking around and I'm not certain I got them all back. Glad my waders and uppers stood up well to it as I was pretty comfy inside, it was just annoying to contend with.

By mid-day I retreated to drier land with my sled as it was in danger of breaking free from my anchor with all my gear. Through it all, ducks were trying to find 'ports in the storm'. I was able to bring down a pintail and a widgeon. Was glad I got those two as I was skunked my previous day and would have hated to end the season on a zero. May go out one last time tomorrow.

[ACB]

Birds land into the wind so you should have the wind pushing the shot not blowing it back at you. But I tAke your point.
They also take off into the wind.