Late season

[reeltime]

put 260 miles on the truck today and didn't really see anything to get me all fired up enough to set up and hunt.  so more scouting tomorrow after making sure something local didn't open overnight.

 

[Paula]

On 12/27/2017 at 10:37 AM, BigVal said:

Thanks pygmy, 

All I know is the merg didn't come home with me! Lol

What is a merg and why don’t you want it?

[BigVal]

1 minute ago, Paula said:

What is a merg and why don’t you want it?

Merganser, a bird that doesn't taste great. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

14 hours ago, reeltime said:

couple of young energetic duck hunters that were way under boated and certainly under powered motor.

when I pulled in to the ramp they were trying to start the boat motor and after watching them pulling on the starter rope for better than 10 minutes I walked down to talk to them.

they said the motor is always hard to start,  my response was that if your having that much trouble before you leave the launch maybe it would be best to not go out as there is nobody here to come and get you and you will not get to where you want to go as its all packed in with ice.  I went back to the truck and changed up plans to keep an eye on them and another boat came in and launched, a much bigger boat.

my buddy bailed on me so I rigged off the shore and off the kids went. when I saw them dropping the decoys I knew it was not going to be good. so I shot a few birds and watched them shoot a couple also and then saw that they were really starting to get packed in with ice.

where they set up along the ice line the wind was pushing flow ice right to them and by 830 they were packed in so bad the motor wouldn't move them.  So I went over to where the second boat was and when they went to pick up birds I walked down and called them over and asked them to go help those kids before they really got in trouble and the ice got too bad to even get to them while I would stand by with my boat in case something bad happened.

so with some work they were able to get close enough to get a rope to them and they were finally able to drag them out of the ice and back to the ramp.  they were more than a little happy to be back on land and knew they made a mistake not listening, finally in daylight I saw they were dressed like they were going deer hunting, no waders.  They said they were told not to wear waders......OIY and they also had no life jackets on.  I had a lengthy talk with them about cold water,big water late season duck hunting and in the end I think they have a much better awareness of the dangers of this late season game of waterfowling on the big waters. 

I talked to the guys that brought them in and thanked them for helping out,,  this having my guts still healing sucks, well that and the massive amount of ice that has built up in the last 30 hours.

Good for you and thanks for typing that up. Its remarkable how some people dont understand how dangerous the late season can be, especially this year. No life jackets is insane

[The_Real_TCIII]

12 hours ago, BigVal said:

Merganser, a bird that doesn't taste great. 

Youre missing out man! Our New Years merg will be in the oven at around 1pm, ready for the table by 5!  (None of this is true)

[Pygmy]

My buddy cooks up the mergs and feeds 'em to his beagles...They think they taste great !!

[The_Real_TCIII]

I know of a guy that rescues raptors and tried to get him to take divers to feed them, he passed

[Paula]

4 hours ago, Pygmy said:

My buddy cooks up the mergs and feeds 'em to his beagles...They think they taste great !!

Beagles will eat anything

[BigVal]

I'm going to hunt the morning tomorrow, I don't feel like driving to find safe ice, I'll hunt near home and deal with the ice. Hunting buddy hit a local spot and shot a limit of mallards three geese and two gadwall yesterday evening in a half hour. I was at work lol

[MrGroundhog]

44 minutes ago, BigVal said:

I'm going to hunt the morning tomorrow, I don't feel like driving to find safe ice, I'll hunt near home and deal with the ice. Hunting buddy hit a local spot and shot a limit of mallards three geese and two gadwall yesterday evening in a half hour. I was at work lol

What areas you hunting? Sounds like You did well with ducks. It seems like the waters are freezing up everywhere. We usually field hunt for geese, but might try the lakes for some ducks. Can’t wait to get out, got the next three days off. We’re in the finger lakes area, but haven’t been seeing many birds on the open water or in. the air

[BigVal]

1 hour ago, MrGroundhog said:

What areas you hunting? Sounds like You did well with ducks. It seems like the waters are freezing up everywhere. We usually field hunt for geese, but might try the lakes for some ducks. Can’t wait to get out, got the next three days off. We’re in the finger lakes area, but haven’t been seeing many birds on the open water or in. the air

All but one hunt this late season has been on the Niagara. I had a buddy hunt Seneca out your way yesterday and sent me videos of lots and lots of reds and blues flying

[MrGroundhog]

We might try the mighty Seneca for some ducks one of the mornings. 

[reeltime]

What a morning. Fighting ice packs and ice build up on the square back canoe as well as the decoys.
Once the ice cleared out and we were a half dozen shy of our limit it was time for Ziva to not be a spectator any more.

She had been setting in the truck watching us and man the sad looks I got when we had to move our set up. .. So I got her ice pad and got her set up for about 2 no utes before I shot a drake whistler and drake blue Bill.

We ended up with a 4 man limit but 1 guy had to leave early so we let him shoot his 6 and left.

The 2 kids that asked to join us had a blast, good thing they asked cause I can not be trying to lift push or pull the boat especially after it iced up so bad.


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[The_Real_TCIII]

I love a shore hunt, hoping to get one in this season!


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[mlammerhirt]

Man I need to try this sometime.....looks like a blast!

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[reeltime]

Shut out this morning. 20+ wnw wind so after getting hit with the first wave spray I will be a big ole ice block. So we are gonna set here and watch birds pile in at daylight. Already hearing golden eyes flying in. Grrrrr

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[BigVal]

First spot way too much ice flowing (big chunks) next up get buddies boat and can't launch at our first spot we tried, next we get to another launch that had been broken up and usable but that side of the river had lots of ice flowing. We hunted a shore spot with less ice for an hour shot 2 Drake blues and 2 Drake reds. Should have slept in. Fields for tomorrow if I can get up. 

[helmut in the bush]

30 minutes ago, BigVal said:

First spot way too much ice flowing (big chunks) next up get buddies boat and can't launch at our first spot we tried, next we get to another launch that had been broken up and usable but that side of the river had lots of ice flowing. We hunted a shore spot with less ice for an hour shot 2 Drake blues and 2 Drake reds. Should have slept in. Fields for tomorrow if I can get up. 

Way to get after them, I wish I knew someone around here with your ambition

[BigVal]

1 hour ago, helmut in the bush said:

Way to get after them, I wish I knew someone around here with your ambition

I always regret not going, and wish I could hunt after the season so I told myself I'd hunt hard this season. So far so good

[reeltime]

what am ugly day, ice didn't open till late morning and by then there were to many sight seers and bird watchers. but we scratched out a good shoot on whistlers and bluebills.  I gotta say some of those people are walking examples of proof that its a good thing breathing is an unconscious function. Had a guy telling his wife hey a boat washed up on shore here maybe I should drag it up here and call it in,  he may have poo'ed a little when I said don't touch my boat ( we were tucked in the icebergs, then he tops it off with oh wow those are not real ducks...... wow! I finally had to leave cause I couldn't take it anymore with the people.

 

tomorrow morning should be interesting, the wind is cranking now and is supposed to be all night and tomorrow with -20 wind chills.   my buddy was just checking one of my spots and he text back snowing and blowing too hard to see if its open.  I text back for him to walk down stick his toes  off the dock if they get wet its open, if they are cold and dry its froze over.....he didn't see the humor lol

time to go drag all the decoys and oars out of the shower (judy was not impressed when she saw the shower full of decoys lol) and I need to go find my spare  200' anchor rope  so I can tether off the square back when I go out to retrieve birds.

[Pygmy]

Damn global warming !!....<<grin>>......

[reeltime]

Well we didn't get the cold temps or the wind we needed so I improvised and still shot a limit of birds and Ziva got to do some work and we have some good training birds for this summer.

 

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[The_Real_TCIII]

57 minutes ago, reeltime said:

Well we didn't get the cold temps or the wind we needed so I improvised and still shot a limit of birds and Ziva got to do some work and we have some good training birds for this summer.

 

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Im jealous! Ive got a brand new box of longtails in the basement and I dont think theyll get wet this year. I have no way to retrieve so the lake shore is out and im literally afraid to attempt to launch my boat

[BigVal]

TcIII, no long tails but if ice blows out on the river I'll give ya a pm and set something up, headed over to check now. Gotta work this week but next week is possible. 

[reeltime]

Tc if you wanna jump in on a hunt let me know. Things change here by the hr but we can usually scratch out a hunt.

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