Waterfowl guide/trip suggestions?

[h2ofowlr]

I had the most fun seaduck hunting when we went with Ben Getty in 2009, Addicted used him twice, Looks like his website is down so not sure if he is still doing it. Getty NW Guide Service I think is what he went by on here.

His boat was repossessed, so he may no longer be in business.  I believe Avery purchased it and sent it back to Steve at Duckwater for repairs and possible sale.

Yeah Ned already said that sorry to see any small business go under, tough times we live in.

It wasn't all economy in Ben's case.  You guide a lot of local hunters and show them all the good spots.  You show up the next weekend and all the local hunters you took out that have boats are now sea duck hunters.  They are not the smartest birds, so they can be easy to shoot given you know where to go.  All of a sudden you have a ton of guys finding a new waterfowl pastime and re-painting all there worn decoys black.  We see a drop in sea duck numbers and then the season harvest gets cut back specifically speaking about Scooters.  Then the WDFW fears that hunters will then target GE, BB and other ducks, so those are also cut.  He would also pounded many long time sea duck hunters spots, so there hunting went down the tube and several other Sea Duck guides pulled out.  Most of the guides were smart and only guided out of state individuals which made for good hunts.  The one who tried to do it different is now out of business.   

[Glockster]

I could not really stand that guy....mostly his ego, but it's probably not completely his fault.  There is another chat site specific to just duck hunters that used to be very popular.  A couple of guys posted beautiful pix and stories of their seaduck killing escapades every weekend for about 3 years. They would take folks out for free and help promote the sport, nothing wrong with that.  Then as it got so popular, they lobbied for and won some restrictions, like the one harliquin per year and seaduck punch card deals.   

But what really popularized seaducking, in my opinion, was when the state started actively destroying public walk in in hunting at the Skagit wildlife areas in the name of 'salmon restoration'   Guys who loved duck hunting started looking for other things to do.  Seaducks are easily accessible and extremely dumb (they decoy to shotgun blasts), so that was a natural direction for most of them to go.  That ,and the lil buddy Capt. Getty & gang running whack and stack trips every day probably had a bit to do with the scoter decline in the N. Sound.

[h2ofowlr]

Otto's?

[Ned]

Otto's?

John and Jason dont guide. They host a few hunter but neither has a capt license to guide on the salt.
They have great spots but thankfully keep them secret.