Posted By:
Craig-Emory
Field Editor
millington 03-06-2011 04:16
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 45-50 Degrees
hunted a corn field. saw an awful lot of snow geese. got a lot of looks, but groups would not decoy. only one group did and we killed four out of the group and then had four singles come in, so we ended up with eight birds. all young birds. we saw a fair amount of canadians and some ducks here and there mostly on ponds
Posted By:
Michael-Wynne
Field Editor
Various 02-08-2011 12:49
– – –
Mixed season some real diver highlights later in the season and then sea ducks…but very slow start. Seems this site is dying so few reports, so few forums…thought maybe everyone went to the refuge or duck hunting chat but pretty slim there too…supports the stats I see every year hunter son the decline waterfowlers sliding the fastest. Depressing. It does take more resources than most other hunts and in this economy at least I can see the issues. Access to is always an issue. I’m bummed but I did make some new waterfowling friends this year so selfishly all is not lost.
Did want to say I saw a lot of illegal waterfowl hunting this year…or heard of a lot. Can’t figure why people can’t read the regs and I know this just fuels anti-hunters. Here’s a few. Met three guys in their 10 foot John (one guy was 350 lbs easy) with a dog at the Hart Miller Crab Supply Ramp. Tells me he’s heading over there behind the islands for open water hunting…watched him do so later in the day. Forget the smarts of the 10 foot boat…it’s not the gunning rig zone back there. Outside the islands in the bay yes, but not back in that inlet area. Ran into another guy coming out of there with a layout who had just done the same, then 2 more time people telling me about great spots where they pulled up by the big houses and hunted. One told me hunt those barges its great…I said blind site 17, he said huh? Well folks the two islands are blind site only islands and the barges are part of that blind site. Watched several boats pull up along the shorelines of the pax and bay out from the pax and hunt…maybe they had blind permits…maybe not. One at the ramp told us how he just goes up or down the river and finds a spot to hunt. The pax too is not in the gunning rig zone so best I can tell that is not legal. It was tough to explain this to my 12 year old out hunting his first year that almost every boat we ran into to talk with at the ramp had hunted illegally! I was puzzled to be honest.
MDW
Posted By:
Michael-Wynne
Field Editor
Western Shore, Southern MD 02-02-2011 13:39
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
Season ended with a great Squaw hunt, and some Scoters to boot. hunted the same location as the prior week…saw far fewer divers, many more geese high up in v’s, some puddle ducks high as well. But everywhere around us were Squaw, playing, feeding, flying, everywhere. Some nice flocks of Black Scoter too. Shot over a box of shells…man are they hard to kill. Great way to end the season.
MDW
Posted By:
Cliff-Brown
Field Editor
varius MD 01-31-2011 12:19
Mostly Cloudy, No Precipitation – 35-40 Degrees
The last week generated lots of good and bad reports, it seemd to be which day you hunted for some…everyone talked to had a great hunt Wednesday in driving rain and then mixed until the weekend when 50-50 were good, the rest ho-hum reports. Ducks seeme dto be the most eleusive (as ususal), divers seemed very concentrated from prior years. Goose nu,mber swer very high the last week in Talbot, Kent, QA …not sure of other counties..they also decoyed well.
Personally, we have good goose hunts 3 days
last week (T,W,Th) in Kent and good to great to poor duck hunts each of those days – more blacks that could be handled, no divers around excpet one large movement up high (to the flats?) and a second movement back south around noon.
AACO geese were good I hear last day. Some guys hunted our pond for a modest duck tally of 4 mallards but a nice end to the season.
I hunted in VA the last day of the Potomac and it was super for ducks…multiple species. Sure wish we had grasses in Kent like the Potomac (amd Flats!) have on the various back bays and creeks.
All in, a poor duck year for us….modest October, terrible NOv and weak early December…last part of last split was very good except no divers materialized..only one booby hunt. Geese were very strong all season. Had some incredible goose and duck hunts off the farm and a wonderful trip to MO between splits so no serious complaints except that I was born in th wrong flyway!
Have a great off season!
Cliff Brown
Posted By:
Craig-Emory
Field Editor
eastern shore 01-30-2011 19:17
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 35-40 Degrees
forgot to mention. on the way home from the shore, saw quite a few fiels with a lot of swan in them. have ben wondering for many years, why doesn’t maryland have a swan season. they are not native to our region. they are not helping the bay. va. nc. and other states have a season. why not maryland?
Posted By:
Craig-Emory
Field Editor
worcester 01-30-2011 05:30
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
on way down friday afternoon saw huge rafts of bluebills crossing the bay bridge and kent naeeows bridge. a lot of fields all the way down rt. 50 were loaded with canadians. hunted a marsh saturday morning, hearded a lot of shooting all around us. we saw very few ducks and they were flying high. saw brant, some canadian, but saw flight after flight of huge flocks of snows flying high. we did have two merganzers docoy and we did drop them. on way home canadians were in the air and in the fields most of the way home. probly the most hunters i saw on the road, on the way home this year.
Posted By:
Cliff-Brown
Field Editor
Kent 01-25-2011 21:00
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
Loads of geese today, some puddle ducks, no divers.
Ice actually not bad on Langford lower section and Chester. Tuesday.
hearing mixed reports -lower shore, QA Co. Good wx and melting should help last few days
Good luck
Posted By:
Craig-Emory
Field Editor
anne arundel 01-24-2011 03:57
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 10-20 Degrees – Ice
hunted friday evening. not much open water. did not see many mallards or canadians, but whot we saw realy wanted in the open water, but most would not commit.we did manage to kill 3 geese, 4 mallard, and 1 ring neck. just after sunset well over 100 mallards flew by. saturday morning everything was iced up. we had to break ice to put the decoys out. the first 45 minutes was very active. we would have 2’s and 3′ trying to decoy. we killed 6 mallards. but after that it was dead. we did see some geese, but they were far away.
Posted By:
Cliff-Brown
Field Editor
Various 01-23-2011 13:35
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 25-30 Degrees – Ice
Ice reports all over but mixed in terms of shutting down the hunting….ducks are around where the water is open…..Lower shore, hearing good reports, several areas along the southern Potomac – MD and VA.
Had second limit hunt this week in VA with nice mixed species bag. Curious to see what things look like Tuesday in Kent after the weekend cold.
Mike, sounds like you got out and had a blast!
Cliff
Posted By:
Michael-Wynne
Field Editor
Western Shore Southern MD 01-22-2011 17:52
Mostly Cloudy, No Precipitation – 0-10 Degrees – Open Water
Tried off shore hunt in location I haven’t been to in 26 years. Kicked birds whole ride out, glassed, picked a spot and set out long lines in 30 feet of water. Had tons of squaw moving, decent amount of buffies, some large puddle ducks, geese, and blue bills. Predominant duck seen squaw hands down. They were everywhere in the thousands. Missed way too many shots today, boat rocking in 4-5 footers early on. Decoys iced up hard and began rolling over, time to call it a day. All of the way in we kicked more birds including one blue bill flock close to shore that number at least 300. This might be my favorite new spot. Water all open, that ice hotline is a goldmine!!!!
MDW
