Hunting Washington Forum
Other Hunting => Waterfowl => Topic started by: duckmen1 on October 27, 2014, 08:26:45 PM
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Thought it would be fun to keep a thread going this year on success. Last year was an awesome year dropping 101 ducks and a few geese. So this years season I have high hopes. Started early goose season with 5 geese dropped between two of us the first day and 4 the second day. The third day saw a bunch but no shots. These photos will be of total birds on trip and me with my birds primarily due to not wanting to post others without permission.
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Day one and two totals.
Haven't hit duck hunting up yet due to big game hunting trips and work but hoping this week will have more to show for.
Going into this season with the least amount of areas to hunt since I started duck hunting due to private lands selling off and other area closures. So hoping the knowledge I've gained and persistence I plan on putting into the season will pay off.
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We had a slow couple days local to my area only getting 1 mallard. So took a trip today and did decent. Saw tons at first light then other hunters took a few shots and things died quickly. But stuck it out and took what we had offered to us and made a decent hunt out of it. Missed a few but did decent overall on our shooting. The mallards called right in and worked over us perfectly and took full advantage of the opportunities by them.
Our stoegers and the benelli once again proved flawless work.
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why am I not hunting with you
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A quick little jump shoot. Most stayed too far but this one got a bit to close. And shot one single duck that was not pictured
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Another trip. Was a fun two man limit. If I would have shot better early on we would have had more mallards and less buffies. But still had a great time.
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And the most recent trip. A last minute decision after finding out I had the day off. Called a hunting partner up and my brother and had a good hunt. 16 ducks. 2 mallards. 3 teal. 1 ringneck. 8 shovelers. And two widgeon. And 3 geese. Good day. For the most part we shot them up. I missed one bird off the start and got gun caught on jacket raising on another flock which caused me not to shoot but otherwise birds that came in went down. But made up for.that on 3 teal that I dropped all in the group.
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I would try to get you out Irishevox but honestly though schedualing is tough to go right now and each hunt I go on is last minute decision. Some hunts are on a whim after getting off work. Other hunts are a lot of work that most aren't willing to do to get there. We definatly work hard on some of our hunts to get what we do. Wish I could hunt with everyone but even close buddies right now are waiting for a phone call to hunt.
Sorry Irish I didn't see your other thread of unofficial pics otherwise I would have posted there on my pics. But since I got this going now I'll stick with it.
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sounds good I like seeing them regardless
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A little two man morning hunt. We were gonna go for and evening duck and goose to to add to the morning but opted to have some fun at the range. Missed one duck and didnt see a pair coming in other wise we shot good.
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Seeing the biggest flocks of mergansers ive ever seen. So taking them out for now
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A slow thanksgiving hunt. But took out two fisheaters.
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Decided while I was out taking care of buisiness I would bring the shotgun along and do a quick jump shoot. Found a flock of 6 mallards and got two. Also thought I would try to take better field photos instead of in the truck. They look nicer. :)
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Definitely nicer composition on the field pick. Keep knocking them down. :tup:
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I don't know anyone that shoots "Hollywoods" aka spoonbill/shoveler on purpose. Now I've never shot a merganser or eaten one so I don't know how they taste. The people I've hunted with over the years in Eastern WA. would not shoot them as they referred to them as a "POS" and not worth eating.
Someday I would like to harvest a mature fully plumed drake Shoveler for the wall.
I've seen lots of photos with shovelers being affected with rice breast.
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I don't know anyone that shoots "Hollywoods" aka spoonbill/shoveler on purpose. Now I've never shot a merganser or eaten one so I don't know how they taste. The people I've hunted with over the years in Eastern WA. would not shoot them as they referred to them as a "POS" and not worth eating.
Someday I would like to harvest a mature fully plumed drake Shoveler for the wall.
I've seen lots of photos with shovelers being affected with rice breast.
I've been known to wack a bootlip or two but I seldom do anymore. I remember a few years ago we hunted a spot that was just covered in them and we shot mostly spooners for a couple hunts. I've still never shot a good drake though. I can't say I've even had one come into the decoys this year, seems to be more mallards than ever for me this season.
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I actually really enjoy targeting shovelers getting them as there Decoying in. They decoy a little different then most ducks and there's just something about them that I like. As far as rice breast it has never been an issue for us. Never seen them with it. Now as far as taste of the different ducks I soak my meat overnight and it draws a lot of the blood out which makes the meat a milder flavor. I mix all the duck together and then mix an equal amount of elk or deer burger with and then make salami for sandwhiches. That's my favorite way of doing it. If I was to cook it differently I would probably pass on different kinds of ducks like mergansers. Because I don't consider myself Lokidog quality chef. :chuckle:
But that puts my season total of ducks at 40 so far. Haven't put in as much time as I normally do but still getting out little bits here and there.
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Yeah man... I dig the field photo :tup:
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I actually really enjoy targeting shovelers getting them as there Decoying in. They decoy a little different then most ducks and there's just something about them that I like. As far as rice breast it has never been an issue for us. Never seen them with it. Now as far as taste of the different ducks I soak my meat overnight and it draws a lot of the blood out which makes the meat a milder flavor. I mix all the duck together and then mix an equal amount of elk or deer burger with and then make salami for sandwhiches. That's my favorite way of doing it. If I was to cook it differently I would probably pass on different kinds of ducks like mergansers. Because I don't consider myself Lokidog quality chef. :chuckle:
But that puts my season total of ducks at 40 so far. Haven't put in as much time as I normally do but still getting out little bits here and there.
I'll take that as a compliment. Maybe saltwater fish ducks taste better? If you want to save Mergansers for me for next summer's BBQ get-together, I'd be more than happy to turn them into Salsbury steak. :tup:
Nice birds stacking up.
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Yes that was a compliment lokidog.
Took a mid day trip to a couple different areas yesterday got two jump shooting then one decoying. Made a great stalk a on the mallards and a great shot on the teal.
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Nice.
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really nice... pretty drake teal!
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Very slow day. Nothing flying. Sat over decoys for hours then had to get a little success jump shootingNot the greatest pic. Weather got the best of me. Just wanted to head home and go bowling at basspro. :chuckle: sucked at that too. But my best game was a 172. Over all fun day anyhow
Season total so far
Ducks44
Geese6
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Well it was a really good day on the water. I shot at 8 birds and got 7. The one I missed was because I shot at a pair. Hit the first one and swung to shoot the second. Ended up hitting the first one again by accident as it fell right into my line of fire. :chuckle: Got 4 mallards and three teal. Brother got 4 mallards a 2 teal and a bufflehead. And brought a buddy out getting him into duck hunting. He got 6 buffleheads and a hooded merganser. His shooting really started picking up as the day went on and that just so happens to be when the divers started flying and puddlers quit. He was really happy to have such a great day. Wish I could have gotten better field picks but dealing with water levels changing we quickly ran out of land as soon as the last bird was shot so no time to get pics until we were back in the truck.
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So it was a good 3 man limit. My only complaint was hitting two mallard hens off the start then having mallards cupping in all morning but due to light conditions and being straight over head I was having a hard time telling drakes from the hens so had to keep passing to be on the safe side. So settled with 3 little jets. :chuckle:
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Well last night I decided to go hit up a spot I normally jump shoot. This time I had planned to get out there before light and set a few decoys. As I'm carrying decoys and float tube as well as all my gear about 20 minutes before light I'm getting up to my spot. I see some clump in the water that looked outa place. Geese. Dropped down and loaded up with bigger shells and tried to get into position for first light. Can't believe they didn't see me. Got set up hoping they would stay in the area. Few minutes before first light they started swimming even closer feeding. Waited for legal light and then some to see better. At this point they were 30 yards. So I jumped them and ended up with a triple. Then set up my decoys. 2 ringnecks landed to my right. Not coming in and diving where they were I decided to stalk those too. Jumped them and 2 shots and 2 birds fell. Later decided to walk around because I was not seeing anything. I spotted a flock of widgeon. Made a stalk got to 45 yards. An eagle spooked them and then they came back. Another flock landed way out and the eagle began to go after my flock again this time it looked like they were gonna leave for good so I shot and got one widgeon hen. Then things died so went to scout and see what was going on elsewhere. So much for doing a decoy hunt. Ended with a jump shoot again. :chuckle: good morning over all
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"Good morning overall." I'd say!!
Awesome!
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very nice... I need to get out and shoot some honkers I have been slacking this season, the swans have over run the farm I have access to hunt and I think the Honkers are staying clear! not really sure though.
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Limit outa the layout boat. First time this season using it so coulda shot better. But started off with a triple on ol hollywoods. :chuckle:
Coulda waited to finish a puddler limit but loki inspired me to wipe out the fish eater :chuckle:
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:tup:
Save those fisheaters for me and bring them to the summer BBQ, I'd like to cook up a big batch of Salsburey Merganser. I haven't been able to shoot any in a while.
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All my waterfowl has been mixed together and put into one big batch ready to make summer sausage. If I get more I will try and keep those separated for the remainder of the season. I can't garenteed I'll be able to make it to the barbecue though. But ill see how it goes. Would love to go.
I can say the big numbers of mergansers really died down and starting to see other ducks in the area like widgeon are finally starting to show. Teal mallards and shovelers as well as buffleheads and ringnecks are the main amount of birds I'm seeing. Usually I see tons of bluebills and coot. Not seeing any of those this year. Goldeneye have been showing well but I didn't pick up sea duck authorization so there safe this year.
Gonna end up working a long 5 day stretch starting Friday. So not sure if I will get any hunting in between then and Christmas. So gonna slow me down a bit. I'll try for a bit tomorrow probably.
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A slow morning today. But the sunrise looked awesome. Did have a group of 4 hollywoods come in and ended up with a triple out of them. Saw birds later in the morning but other plans had me heading out.
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Finally got back out to an area that was producing well all year. But this day was different. We waited forever for the flights of puddle ducks but they never showed. So instead of coming home empty we decided to do a bufflehead hunt. Got 15 buffleheads and two goldeneye. We made fun on that shoot. First group we shot at was a blast. Big raft of buffleheads came up and we took charge. I emptied my gun had time to reload and empty again. 6 shots drops 6 birds. But between the three of us 12 birds were down off the first group. Later after waiting forever and not seeing the puddle ducks still I decided to hit another Buffy for my limit. 3 of us totaled for 17. Is was a nice relaxing day. But between water levels and extremely warm temps my areas have deminished the puddle ducks. Need colder temps and my areas should get good again.
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My goal is to get back on the puddle ducks and geese. So gonna hit up some different areas on my next days off and do some Decoying on big water. Maybe my luck will get better. Got new calls that sound amazing and can't wait to put them to the test.
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This Frazier wind looks to cool things down. I was hoping to fish, but with the forecast rwinds, maybe a duck hunt would be better. Nice shooting on the buffies.
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3 man shoot. Resulted in few birds but had fun. No birds flying today. Think theres just been too much pressure in my area. Birds are getting to the point they arent coming into my decoy spreads. Keep changing it up and trying new spreads in new areas. Scouting hasnt resulted in much of any birds seen. Gonna go on a day trip later this week to another spot and hope we see more action. Hoping to get a new personal record on this season duck totals. Last year got 101. Im at 73 now.
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A good two man shoot today. A limit for me and 5 for my buddy. A mixed bag. And we passed on a mergnser because we new we had a better oportunity soon to follow. Missed a few. I got a double on nice drake wood ducks. Getting the big one mounted. Beautiful birds. Ducks decoyed well. Headed out to another area tomorrow. Not prime conditions for this spot but none the less there will be birds.
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Nice, seems really late for those wussy Wood Ducks. :chuckle: Before moving west, Wood Ducks made up the majority of my waterfowl kills.
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I don't ever see wood ducks while hunting. In fact in all these years I had only ever shot one drake woodie and that was it till yesterday. So it was a special moment for me. Had to work really hard to retrieve these birds though. Beavers had flooded out the area I got them and I couldn't wade the channel across to the other side. So had to go way up to a crossing point and head back down wading about waist to chest deep for about a 120 yards to get them while breaking about two inches of ice the whole way.
Today we limited on a few mallards, couple goldeneye, and the rest were buffleheads. Didn't see a whole lot of puddle ducks for the duration of our hunt so we hit up the divers. Then worked on some touch ups on our concealment to our blind and as we were getting ready to head home saw lots of puddle ducks started to show up in another one of our spots. But we couldn't do anything about it. :chuckle: I will post a pic later when the pics are sent to me. I'm worn out.
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Sounds good, I swam for a woody once, late November in a spring fed pond in WI, brrrrrr. :chuckle:
I probably won't be out this weekend as lots of folks are here for the long weekend, several near where I hunt. I try not to wake them up when I can. ;)
Missed a Harlequin a couple of days ago, still smarting from that one. :( :'(
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Went out to add to the bird numbers today. After seeing the ducks I decided to quickly turn my focus onto geese when they appeared. Dropped a triple on those. That was good enough for me. Called it a day and came home to relax.
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Here is the trip from the other day. Worked our butts off. Then another hunter showed up and ruined the puddle duck action by chasing everything all morning in his boat and shooting under power. So we decided to hit the buffleheads up for practice. Ended up with a good shooting session. It was still a fun day overall. Two man limit. Mallards goldeneyes and buffleheads.
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Very relaxing day. Very high water levels due to rain. Super foggy. Nothin I could see or here flying. Got these too that ended up swimming into the decoys before I saw them.
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Is that some kind of crossbreed on the right?
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Drake Scaup. Nickname bluebills. Shoot a lot of them most years. Seen very little this year. But gonna make my next trip to an area I usually see them, so we will see what happens.
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Drake Scaup. Nickname bluebills. Shoot a lot of them most years. Seen very little this year. But gonna make my next trip to an area I usually see them, so we will see what happens.
I don't see too many scaup, I was thinking they didn't have quite as dark of a head compared to body, but the blue bill definitely had me in the diver direction.
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I have seen a ton this year and have harvested a bunch over here in Whidbey island.
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I went to the area I see the most bluebills and only saw a couple today. Was very surprised. But did have a great hunt. First set of shots I called three mallards in and I dropped all three. Finished the limit on divers. And a couple bonus coot. :chuckle:
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:tup:
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Had a fun day. But I am close to done with my season. We dropped 16 buffleheads and goldeneye.
Waited for the puddleducks but they werent showing then the "drivenshoot" boat showed up again. so we made a little fun of the trip and got some shooting action in. And it actually snowed most the day. Feathers that is. :chuckle:
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That's a lot of Buffles. I like them marinated with some lemon and grilled. :tup:
That sucks about the boater. I try to make sure I am stopped with the engine off when I shoot out of my boat, and I don't even have anyone to see me or bother.
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A little mid week hunt I did. Produced these two birds. Slipped in lauching marsh rat and soaked my feet resulting in numb feet all morning. But it was fun.
Saturday we got 3 birds. No pics of this trip. Unfortunate day but loved going to sportsmans show. Gotta practice my quick draw skills. Haha
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Last trip of season. Had great potential for a puddle duck shoot but others changed those chances for us so we made best of it and had as much fun as we could due to circumstances.
Brings my final waterfowl count
Ducks 114
Geese 12
Coot 2
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Nice. Those buffles don't look as small on the water as they do next to other ducks. :chuckle: I grilled some up a while back, they are tasty.
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Compared to the giant merganser. :chuckle: shot it at 10 feet in the head. It was the last bird of season and the way the moment unfolded was a good ending.
But I have to say I'm a little jealous of that black mouth Loki. :chuckle: that thing was nice
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Compared to the giant merganser. :chuckle: shot it at 10 feet in the head. It was the last bird of season and the way the moment unfolded was a good ending.
But I have to say I'm a little jealous of that black mouth Loki. :chuckle: that thing was nice
Thanks, had the shotty with me just in case I got attacked out there. :chuckle: My wife is much happier with the salmon than the ducks. :drool: