Had a pretty decent opener for 64th street yesterday. I had no expectations for the opener. In previous years that area was absolutely swarming with hunters - many of them inexperienced and not a few of them outright rude. Coupled that with the forecast showing low tide and bluebird conditions I basically went out to keep tradition alive and see what would happen. As it turned out, for public land it was a very good day with very few challenges beyond blowing the rust out of our barrels and shooting technique.
Previous years experience lead us to believe that this patch of public land was going to be packed with opening day hopers, so we set a time to show up nearly three hours ahead of opening time. Even with that target, I was still scrambling to get out of my parking and to the end of 64th. Arriving only a few minutes off the mark I was pleased to see only three other vehicles parked there one of whom was a member of my regulars and coming at my heels was the third member - bringing his girlfriend in tow to see what the fuss was all about. After telling her jokingly that we weren't going to get anything and she should have stayed home we all got our gear together, piled on sleds and started on the familiar long dike trudge to get out there.
Now in my 50s, for me marching out along the dike pulling decoys is getting more and more a challenge and much of it a mental one. Pushing aside negative thoughts on how the day would progress, I pulled my weight as best as I could, stopping frequently for a breather and also to take note of any ducks who were flying nocturnally against the light of the greenhouses nearby.
Because we had anticipated greater competition today, I had suggested we try a spot even further out than our usual from the previous season and so our next challenge was to find a path to get to it. Roughly knowing where we were going to go, we decided to crash through the vegetation at the dike and forge a new path. It was probably unwise as later in the day we realized there were more accessible areas to plunge off the dike than the torturous path we had chosen in darkness. Still, after a good 20 minutes of heaving our loads through thick brush we got out onto the flat sand and oriented ourselves to this new spot. With the help of our newest member, we were able to quickly pick our individual shooting angles, post our dekes and then wait for legal light.
Boundary Bay again reminded me how much hunting was about being in beautiful places over and above the bounty we could potentially take back. In conversations with non-hunters (and even some new hunters), I'm always asked about the effort vs gain equation. And I always have the same answer: if I wanted guaranteed food, I would go to the supermarket. But no grocery store in the world would give you sights like the sunrise over the Bay, with magnificent Mt. Baker rising above the morning mist. So while as duck hunters we pray for crappy conditions, on bluebird days we can still bask in the magic of our surroundings.
As dawn approached, we started hearing the rush of wings in the darkness and then with more light we could pick out the early birds testing their wings in the morning. Silhouettes became distinct species. But with an hour before shooting light I realized my shooting glasses had snapped in half in all of my bending down and fiddling. Horrified at the possibility of blurry eyed shooting I quickly told my friends and rushed back out of the foreshore to get my backups. With only 15 minutes to spare I was back in my layout blind, flushed and sweating like a pig, and having to collect myself before it was time to shoot.
Soon enough we had our first shots off and once again as with every early season I realized how much rust I had to overcome. While I missed my first opportunity, my friends quickly started dropping birds and just as quickly showed off their fat mallards in pride.
As a bonus, geese of all types also began their assault on the coast. High flying snowies we could hear as well as the usual Canadas (my buddy also later got a cackler). It was when one flight of snowies unwisely circled our spot that I thought I had got my first of the day. Winging a snowie juvenile, I followed its path down further into the bay and jumped out of my layout blind to run it down. Unfortunately, that proved to be a minor ordeal as the goose turned out not to be as crippled as I had realized. With each approach, it flapped just ahead and out of range until after I tried a quick dash, the not-so-injured bird recovered its energy and got back into the air. Frustrated, I stood and collected my breath before I realized a hen mallard was within range. Letting fly, I put her down and walked back to the group.
Returning with my first bird of the day, as I neared our spot I had to hunker down as my group were having quite a bit of action in my absence. After that flurry was over I rejoined them and they showed me they had been bringing down ducks and in one case a cackler goose.
The spot we had chosen had turned out to be very well sited. We not only were close to where the ducks normally crossed from the bay into the mainland, but we were also at a conjunction with another stream. Our decoys clustered around this site were working to bring in the more naive birds. All in all, our usual strategy of using layout blinds in this spot combined with our communication was giving us a much more decent haul than the previous year.
Also refreshing was that unlike previous openers, all of the hunters at 64th St. were very well behaved. While skybusting was still evident (with some who appeared to be quite good at long shots), we had no hunters who were poaching off our setups and there appeared to be good spacing between the groups. To those of you who were there yesterday morning, you did well.
The action kept up without many lulls throughout the early morning until our daily schedules began to call for the day's outing to close.
At about 10 we began checking our watches and then called it soon after. Then came the usual clean up, picking up of hulls and organizing for the long drag back to the dike and our vehicles.
All in all, a very decent opener. Not a limit for me but enough to start the season. Five fat mallards plus a teal.
Last edited by silveragent; 10-13-2024 at 12:33 PM.
I could hear the guns banging away this morning in the local salt water marsh. I will be waiting to hunt a little later in the season as I just cannot eat as many as I can shoot (my wife and daughter won't eat them).
Two days later I tried the exact same spot. The conditions seemed good with some cloud cover and a slight wind to push around my socks. However, except for a teal in the first few minutes, it seemed like the ducks were pretty shy after being blown up in the past two days. I stuck around because I was going to meet another hunter. My spot wasn't as good some others on 64th street as I did see other groups get scattered success.
However, geese started flying in abundance an hour into the day. Snowies in their chaotic groups, high flying cacklers and lumbering Canadas. Although I did try at some lower flying snowies, I wasn't getting close to the mark. Meanwhile, the other groups further west were doing their best for the ammunition industry by throwing lots of steel up in the air and getting one here and another there.
After my new hunter finally located me and we took some low success passing shots at some ducks I was about ready to call it. Even with the good conditions it seemed like my spot from opener was burned and I admitted that much to my new friend. However, as I was considering packing it in, a group of Canadas made an ill advised foray from the safety of the interior across the foreshore directly across seemingly every group out there.
What began as a flock of a dozen big Canadas was quickly whittled down as they made a low dash that was targeted by every hunter out there. Each group potted at least two of them and I realized that flock would never get to where I was and I resigned myself to admiring the shooting. However, one of the surviving honkers seemed to be wounded and the survivors landed not too far away in the bay. I suggested to my partner that we walk out there and see if we could bump any cripples from the remainder. We waited for a bit, gesturing toward the group to the other hunters but none seemed interested in following up so we got up and walked out into the bay.
My partner and I took ten minutes to try to pressure the group from two sides but the canadas were wise to us and took flight. Missing them with a shot I motioned my partner to head back but then I realized there was a cripple who had landed further away from its comrades and it was in no condition to fly. I didn't have to walk far before I got the range and put it down with a head shot.
So not a bad day if you can bring back someone else's leavings and it accounts to more than a kg of meat.
Last edited by silveragent; 10-15-2024 at 08:37 AM.