Posted By:
Scott-Tolar
Field Editor
Roanoke River 12-16-2008 13:12
Cloudy, Heavy Fog – 40-45 Degrees
Went out for a hunt on the Roanoke this morning. I saw some ducks, but since I was by myself it was hard to spot the ducks until they were upon me since at this spot they come from all over.
Dixie the wonderdog has fully recovered from her surgery and had her first day afield since the Nov. opener. She has been in duck retriever withdrawal for at least 3 weeks now. She was pretty antsy so I had to put the shock collar on her to get her under control.
In spite of the collar, she managed to flare the first flock of ducks, a group of about 10 woodies. After she was re-introduced to Mr. Franklin’s wonderful invention(electricity) she quickly calmed down. Sort of.
I had several ducks fly by at easy range, but they would surprise me from the direction I was not looking in. Typical luck for me. I then managed to drop a woodie drake and Dixie got to make a retrieve on a cripple, she had fun. I later dropped a Greenwing drake(about 9:30 am). I saw several large ducks(mallards,black ducks) at about 75 yards but they would not decoy. I also saw several large flocks of teal early, but they never came close to me.
A fun day, two ducks. Happy dog.
Posted By:
Paul – Kiker
Guest
Anson, Richmond, Chesterfield 12-10-2008 05:49
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Yesterday, a friend and I hunted quail all day in Anson & Richmond Cos., NC and Chesterfield Co, SC. We skipped around, released the dogs at lespedza food plots, circled a 10 acre area around the plot then loaded the dogs and moved to the next food plot. We mostly talked about the good old days for quail hunting, but did manage to find 4 average sized coveys of 8-10 birds per covey and killed 6 for the day.
Last year the impoundment in the lowgrounds on my land along the Pee Dee in Chesterfield Co. never had water due to the drought. Yesterday, it was half full of water. With the rainfall we’re supposed to receive this afternoon and tomorrow, should have close to a full pond for the opener in SC on Saturday.
Hope you guys have fun on opening morning in NC. Should be plenty of water in sloughs and beaver ponds for Saturday with the anticipated rainfall over the next 36 hrs.
Remember, take the kids with you and be safe.
Paul
Posted By:
Scott-Tolar
Field Editor
Roanoke River 11-29-2008 17:23
Cloudy, High Winds – 35-40 Degrees
Went out for the Nov. closer on the Roanoke.
My hunting buddy managed to connect on a widgeon and a ringneck. I didn’t even get to pull a trigger.
There were a few ducks flying, but not many. perhaps we might get some cold weather to move the ducks down.
The bright spot is that when the season starts back up in December my lab will be fully recover from her surgery and ready to hunt.
Posted By:
Scott-Tolar
Field Editor
Roanoke River 11-28-2008 15:13
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
Went out for a hunt on the Roanoke River this morning. Saw a few ducks, but no large numbers in the area I was hunting.
I did manage to take a greenhead,a greenwing drake and a ringneck drake. The teal and ringneck decoyed and were taken just off the water in the decoys. The greenhead(a redleg migrator)circled the decoys 4 or 5 times before I realized he was not going to decoy and I took him at about 40 to 45 yards( the very edge of range for steel shot).
Without the dog it was hard work to retrieve the ringneck and the greenhead as both were cripples and had to be chased down but we managed to recover our birds.
I can’t wait for my lab to recover from her surgery and get back in the water.
Posted By:
Scott-Tolar
Field Editor
Lenoir County 11-27-2008 10:06
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
Went out to hunt a series of ponds off the Nuese River this morning. I had to go without my trusty lab Dixie, she had to be operated on this week for Pyometra(I think that is how it is spelled)and she will be on light duty for 10 days. She howled like a banshee when I pulled out this morning at 4:30am.
I got set up in good time and once again I was beset by mergansers. At least 75 or 80 of them. I tried to ignore them, but they aggravated me. They would fly into my decoys and then swim off. After about 30 minutes they would take off from the other side of the pond and fly around for about 10 minutes and parachute back into my decoys. Wash,rinse, repeat. Over and over. At about 9:30, I knew it was time to pull out so I would not be late for turkey. So when they parachuted it that time, I stood up and smacked a hoodie drake. Without a dog, I had to go get it myself. Made me sad.
Had some geese circle me in the area and pass within the very outskirts of range(about 40 to 45 yards), but I did not try them. I will hope they come closer on another trip.
[Edited By Scott-Tolar on 2008-11-27 15:05]
Posted By:
miltone
Web Member
Beaufort County 11-23-2008 06:30
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Scott, I enjoy your reports so I will get off my hump and write one myself. We need to get other guys to do the same. I guess we
all figure if we write to much all the guys from the west will flood in here. I check the reports from VA and MA and those guys don’t post nothing.
Well my report:
Actually two reports:
Wednesday 11-19-08: Cold but clear and some wind from the west. Hunting by myself. Set up mallards, ringnecks, and teal. Just after opening time a pair came in side ways to me and I took the lead bird out real nice
with a over head swing shot. Droped out side
the decoys. Wind not blowing to much so I waited to pick this one up. About ten minutes later a large flock of 30-35 ringnecks came in pasted high once. I let then pass the second time. I love to hear
the sound of those wings. They turned back and cupped wing right in my face. Beautiful.
Took out two birds. Picked up these three.
The first one was a ringneck drake. Now had
two ringneck drakes and one ringneck hen in the boat. About 10 minutes later three came in low, right to the edge of the decoys. I took all three. Two more ringneck drakes and a ringneck hen. All over for me in 45 minutes. This is the frist time this has happened to me in the last 6 years. Great.
Saturday 11-22-08: Went back to the same place as Wednesday but with my two buddies.
Same conditions. Same spead. Hoping to clean
up on the ringnecks but it turned out different. Had three mergansers come in early and took them all. Nothing moving for
about 20 minutes. Then from the right of us a large flock of about 18 large birds can in and dropped into us with wings fully cupped.
We took them with two automatics and one double barrel between us. Six birds fell from the sky after 8 shots. I believe I had one assit and two of my own. It was raining ducks. Went out to pick up. 5 mallard hens and one mallard drake. First time any of us had had this large of flock of mallards decoy on us this good. About 10 minutes later a flock of abouy 9 mallards worked us good but never came in. Never saw any ringnecks. Stayed about another hour and 1/2 and did not see any more birds. But that one flock will be a with all of us forever.
Posted By:
Scott-Tolar
Field Editor
Nuese River 11-22-2008 12:53
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Went out for a hunt on the Nuese. As usual the Nues proved it is a unpredictable place to hunt. The water has dropped 6 feet since Monday. The hole I scouted from land(and was unable to hunt from the land) on Monday was almost too low to get into today.
We put in the river and started up the swamp we intended to hunt. We could not get into the back of the swamp where we wanted, but we did the best we could and set up near the mouth of the channel going into the backwater.
We had a flock of about 5 woodies come in right at shooting time, we took two of them. In fact, one of the ducks, the drake I shot, actually landed in the boat and hit the dog in the head. She was surprised to say the least. My buddy’s duck, a hen, went down about 10 yards behind the boat. We opted to not send the dog at that time as we were hoping for more woodies in the opening minutes. We saw some woodies and some mallards, but got no more shots.
We stayed in the spot until about 9:30 am. My 11 year old was getting cold so we decided to head in. We sent the dog on a blind for the hen which she made quick work of. A textbook blind in heavy brush.
A good day.
Posted By:
Paul – Kiker
Guest
North Dakota 11-16-2008 08:09
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I arrived home this past Friday evening after a 3 week trip to ND hunting waterfowl and upland birds and by far the best trip ever. Waterfowl were everywhere until the big snow and freezeout and after the storm we hunted ducks in pea fields. Pheasant hunting was superb and more huns than I’ve ever seen in previous years. I took my 3 setters(Andy,Mollie,Sam) and yellow lab(Maple). They worked triple time during the trip and did not want to get out of my suburban for routine pit stops on the 2 1/2 day return home trip. Just slept and rested. This year I rented the home from one of the landowners and our group really enjoyed staying close our hunting areas. Prepared our meals at the house, ate wild game taken during daily hunts, washed our clothes about every 3rd night, but had to travel 17 miles to the nearest gas pumps. What can I say. It was fun!!!
On a local note, my oldest son hunted ducks yesterday and bagged 2 woodies and one drake mallard.
Paul
Posted By:
Scott-Tolar
Field Editor
Lenior County 11-15-2008 15:33
Cloudy, Rain & Thunderstorms – Over 70 Degrees
Went out for a Saturday hunt and it was eventful if nothing else.
When I left the house at 4am it was not even sprinkling, it was overcast, but dry. I got to my spot and set up my decoys. At legal time(about 6:10 am)it was so dark due to heavy cloud cover that shooting was a impossibilty. Then at 6:28 am it happened.
Due to it being so warm, I was in my camo T-shirt and lightweight face mask. Suddenly the wind picked up and I saw a few fat raindrops hit the pond. I somehow had a funny feeling and picked up my raincoat and put it on. No sooner than I zipped it up, the bottom fell out.
It poured down rain for so hard for 45 minutes that I could not see my decoys. My canoe filled up with water and my gear was floating around in it. Lighting was striking the ground all around the area. It was so bad it scared my lab Dixie and she cowered underneath my hunting chair as we sat concealed in the underbrush. With weather that rough I decided it was better to hunker down that it was to move while the lighting was that fierce.
About 7:20 it began to lighten up and by 7:45 it was down to a light rain. Then the second surprise of the morning occured.
Ducks started parachuting into the pond from all directions. Just one down side, they were all hooded mergansers. Several hundred of them over the next 2 hours. I took 2 large nice hoodie drakes(they are good for dog training this summer). The dog made 2 excellent retrieves including a very nice 150 yard blind on a wounded hoodie that really made her work for it.
Not the best hunting day I ever had, but interesting anyway.
Posted By:
Scott-Tolar
Field Editor
Campbell Creek 11-11-2008 16:54
Sunny & Clear, Morning Fog – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
We went out for a Veteran’s Day hunt at the impoundments since the holiday fell on a Tuesday. I didn’t expect to see too many people as most businesses no longer give this day as a holiday(a trend I personally find offensive). But I was wrong. The parking area was loaded when we arrived at 3:45 am. We set out for a little used impoundment that is usually ignored by most hunters. In fact we were the only ones in this impounment while the main impoundments were packed. We were hoping to have them run the ducks to us.
Didn’t work out that way. At a few minutes before shooting time a flock of woodies blew through, we had to let them pass. Then a flock of 5 woodies came in low at about 10 minutes after legal time. We managed to take one wood duck and the dog made a excellent retrieve. We watched as the hunters in the impoundments around us pounded away at the ducks, lots of skybusting. With the impoundments so crowded, I guess no one wanted to try to work them. I saw no one decoying birds, it was all pass shooting.
Talked to a group coming out at the same time as us(about 10:00 am). A group of three hunters, one wood duck between them.
We saw a fair number of ducks. Just too many hunters(with us contributing to the overcrowding problem).
