Elk River?

[mr user]

There is some promising looking land in grays harbor and down into the Elk River NRCA that look promising.  Anybody ever hunted ducks or geese in that area before?  Im considering giving it a look.

[cryfowl]

Hunted the Harbor most my life.  The flats you see off the East side of the Elk River Bridge are all part of a private duck club.  There are a few spots way in the back that you can hunt, but you have to know where you are.  The bay along SR 105 is really shallow and hard to hunt.  You get about an hour or two around high tide, but then you gotta run or you will be stuck in the mud.  If you hunt from shore you will be moving decoys every 10-15 minutes as the tides rip out.  Lots of birds, but most sit in huge rafts off shore and with miles of open water, it makes it difficult to decoy birds.  There is a walk in area at Johns River, but it gets hit pretty hard.  Used to be real good hunting until they tore the dikes out and drained the ponds.  Now it is primarily salmon and elk Habitat.  Not saying you can't get birds, but never my first choice.  Hunted near there once this past season in desperation and only killed a Buff.  Saw thousands of birds, but a 1/2 mile out in a big black wad.

[mr user]

Is the area very crowded during the season?

[BigGoonTuna]

i hunt the public areas on the north side of grays harbor.  lots of birds during the early season, but like cryfowl said they usually like to raft up out in the bay way out of range.  late in the season the hunting wasn't any good, just no birds flying(other than buffleheads).  usually jump a couple resident mallards when slamming the door on my truck when walking in.

[mr user]

Thanks.  Is it best to hunt by boat then? 

[cryfowl]

There are quite a few people that hunt that side of the Bay.  You just have to know where you are as there are a couple of real good looking spots that are actaully small State Parks.  If you have a boat then that's a step in the right direction, but it's got to be a big boat.  I had a 16' Jon Boat with a 15 hp I used to hunt out of.  I nearly died a couple times in it when the wind picked up so upgraded to a 18' extra wide and tall with a 90 HP pump.  There are still days I won't go out on the bay even in it.  I know the bay pretty well and every single year I end up getting stuck on a mud flat somewhere.  If you run a prop there are a ton of logs and stumps to deal with too.  There are a ton of people who hunt the walk in area at the Ocean Shores Airport, but the birds are usually pretty easy to get there.  You will have to hike a long ways though.  This past year was odd.  Tons of birds early season, but from about mid November to mid January, they just disappeared.  Didn't get back into the birds until the last week of season.