First Hunt, Last week of the season

[4_Wheelin'_Wizard]

Last weekend me and a friend (Jarrod_C) headed out for our first hunt. After searching the Harrison Mills area for a good spot we ended up settling near the Harrison River. we had a few decoys and a blind we had constructed using a canadian forces issue half shelter, plastic garden mesh from home depot, strips of burlap and hours of elbow grease. We set up around lunch time and enjoyed a few Tim Horton's bagels and began trying to call in some ducks. after about an hour one came flying by so we let shot fly and he dropped. Next thing we know ducks are coming from both directions and caught us a bit off guard. Despite our enthusiasm only one more dropped although we may have clipped one more but it kept going. After a lecture from someone who obviously wasn't aware of hunting laws and not a fan of the idea in general we retrieved the ducks with our pontoon boat, packed our gear and headed for home. All and all it was a pretty good day. we managed to work some kinks out of our gear and had a good time despite only going home with 2 buffleheads. We're both very excited and can't wait for next season so see you out there.

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[kastles]

congrats. looks lice a nice area to hunt and i like the way you seet up your blind.

kastles

[Qwa-honn]

I hunt the area also. Is that close to morris?

[4_Wheelin'_Wizard]

yeah pretty close. it took us awhile to find a spot

[Marc]

It's a start boys, those little buffleheads aren't the easiest of ducks to shoot either, small and extremely fast fliers.

[branthunter]

Just a warning my friends. You guys need to be careful 'cause you're treading on very dangerous ground here. It is very easy to become addicted to this thing of ours and once that happens your done---there's no shaking it. It will absorb you, regularly drain your play money account, keep you away from work and more important things like family and friends, lead you into dangerous situations, and send you down the path of temptation. There will be many occasions when, after two hours has passed since you shot your last bird (the 7th, with one more to go for your limit) you'll find your self thinking "Oh Well, maybe I'll give 'er another 1/2 hr., ----and then another---and then another----'til you end up picking your set in the dark and hitting deadheads or ice floes on the way home------with 7 birds. Over the course of your life afield you will often be seen facing in the direction of some ducks that are flying away from you and looking down at your gun shouting "What the f---s wrong with this thing".
You'll spend the fall getting up at ungodly hours (even though it's often just as easy to get a limit if you get up at 8am.), going out on the river when it's blowing so hard even the seagulls are holed up in the local soccer park and the wind will flip your boat if you're not real careful about how you hit the waves and how much throttle you give it, hanging onto your hope to get another shot hours after you first started to shiver, hugging and kissing wet dogs, struggling with hands so cold that you have to use a stick to push your safety off to shoot, standing around in ankle deep mud in cold wet marshes and mucky fields, ignoring a numb left foot that started when you noticed that new leak in your waders when you first stepped into the water that morning,enduring hands so raw and sore from the cold and chafing of decoy lines that sometimes it hurts to hold a pencil and all the while holding with those hands an instrument that can bring instant and hideous death or maiming to you or your pal if you're careless, taking drugs for the tendonitis you got from twisting and push/pulling your punt pole, staggering and cursing through the mud in the dark bent over with decoy sacks, blinds, gun, and a sling of dead muddy birds, floundering your way out of ditches you didn't see as you rushed around picking your mud set on a fast rising tide, plucking birds when your back is knotted in spasms and your thumb is aching, and thinking all week about nothing else except when the next good weather pattern will arrive so you can do it again.
When your friends ask you what you were doing yesterday you'll talk in a perhaps somewhat prideful way about some of the above and get looks that say "Your kidding right?". Once hooked there will be nothing you can do to help yourself and the only cure will be another day chasing birds. You will find your self depressed twice a year, once at the end of duck season and perhaps even more severely on the 11th of March at the end of brant season, if you are foolish enough to go down that treacherous road. The only cure for that depression is to go away someplace warm for a couple of weeks and then come back and start getting your decoys and punts ready for next season.

[Alex]

That's it Brant Hunter! You need a time out!!!

[branthunter]

That's it Brant Hunter! You need a time out!!!

Already planned Alex--I'm heading south right after brant season.

[f350ps]

Thanks for that Bob, I got a good chuckle!! K

[870]

well put bob,

O and I do partially blame you for my waterfowl addiction.
thanks a lot....

[branthunter]

well put bob,

O and I do partially blame you for my waterfowl addiction.
thanks a lot....

A mea culpa cheerfully endured my friend.

[Crazy_Farmer]

"Misery loves company", a great waterfowling book if you can find it, pretty much embodies all the more "colourful" moments of waterfowl hunting

[Marc]

Someone asked me not to long ago" aren't you tired of shooting ducks?" umm...no. " What do you do with them all?" Eat them. I had one for supper last night actually. I'd eat one a week if I could or if the wife would let me. :mrgreen:

It's more then a meal, it brings back all the thoughts of being out in the marsh with good company and sharing your last sandwich or apple with your dog.

Waterfowl Hunting is my passion ever since my father took me out for the first time when I was only 8 years old. I walked into a bog hole up to my armpits but had a blast all day even though I was soaked to the bone. Got to see my first black duck shot by my dad and that night for supper I put two and two together and been hooked ever since.

Marc.

[4_Wheelin'_Wizard]

wow sound like you have a novel full of war stories branthunter and by the looks of that post you should become a writer haha. I get home from work in the fall every year and I was thinking this would be an awesome hobby to get into. Spending time outdoors after being away at work for so many months is VERY refreshing. it helps not only having friends willing to come out and tough it out with me in the marsh but i appreciate the input from all the seasoned vets on here. lookin' forward to next season

[Ddog]

i hunted ducks and geese for years usually the farmers fields where there would be hundreds of ducks, mostly mallards and widgeon but lots of gadwall and teal. One thing i never ever did was shoot any kind of diver. tell me seriously , why shoot buffleheads or any of the divers? unless a mount is it the plans.
Do you actually eat those stinkers?

[kyleklassen]

o.k i'm drinkin' and i promised my self i wouldn't get out of hand. ...1 when we hunt divers we often hunt "hundreds of ducks" just like you describe. i only type with one finger so this will take a while.( a rabid goldeneye took the other back in aught 5) so don't feel sorry for us diver hunters due to numbers, and i can bet after you shot the hell out of your fields it took a few days for the birds to come back. my divers are waiting again the next day ,but a little wiser they can't just go sit on the posted property across the highway and behind 7-11.......most of the mallards on the south coast have either been into the liquid manure sprayed dairy fields or the rotten dog salmon by january so are they really"better" i know everyone will jump on me for that last one, but i'am talking strictly south coast mallards roosting at night on salt water.(which a majority do).

[kyleklassen]

.....dare to be different. i am definatly not advocating people do this as there is precious few oppurtunities as it is............and i do not advocate going diver hunting just to get a mount. if you don't hold these birds in high regard you don't deserve one on your wall. its a specialized sport you don't do it because it's easy or really fills the freezer, its like bow hunting. now would everyone just leave my scoters alone.lol

[Ddog]

ok whatever you said, but the question wasnt answered through any of that. and after we shot the hell out of the fields there were so many migratory birds coming through, there were ducks every day, easy to get a 2 -5 man limit in 3 different fields in ear shot. IT was and still easy without a doubt the best goose and duck grounds in LM/FV and i know a few that still hunt there and its the same as always. limits in drakes, leave the hens.
So back to the original question.
do you actually eat them?

[f350ps]

i hunted ducks and geese for years usually the farmers fields where there would be hundreds of ducks, mostly mallards and widgeon but lots of gadwall and teal. One thing i never ever did was shoot any kind of diver. tell me seriously , why shoot buffleheads or any of the divers? unless a mount is it the plans.
Do you actually eat those stinkers?
To each his own, don't knock it till you try it. Remember, some of us hunt Brant. Now there's a treat to eat! K

[kyleklassen]

i don't hunt stuff i don't eat.

[branthunter]

What I wish is that the decision makers would open a sea duck season between the end of our regular duck season and the opening of brant---I'd love to use my brant longlines to lay a sea duck set out on the crab grounds or anywhere we hunt brant.

[kyleklassen]

yep that would be good.

[Marc]

When I lived back east it was a different bag limit for sea ducks. So you could shoot your six puddlers and if you wanted to go and shoot another 10 mergs and 5 sea ducks if I recall correctly. Cormorants where open season NBL in New Brunswick.