Posted By:
Zeke The Zen Puppy
Guest
01-28-2006 22:22
– – –
That’s true, Al. I bet I’ve banded a dozen “mexican ducks” with John in the last five summers.
John is perhaps the most-respected wetland biologist specializing in high desert wetlands. Spend a day hunting with him and you’ll feel like you received a one-day BA in duck-ology!
He is an excellent shot, BTW. I will miss hunting with John.
Posted By:
desert drake
Guest
Rio Grande 01-28-2006 05:13
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 60-65 Degrees
Hey, Sully—–I stopped at Bosque Del Apache to meet John Vradenburg who is now the chief waterfowl biologist there. What a great young man! Anyway, I was showing him my Mexican hybrid that was banded and he said, “I’ll bet I banded it.” Well, the lady at Laurel, MD, told me on the phone yesterday that it was banded in CO. I’ll fill you in on the details when I receive the certificate. John wanted to make sure that I said, “HI” to you. He told me that you two had a lot of great hunts together. Al
“A true duck hunter has quite a list of unwritten rules. This is what makes that person great, not only in hunting but also in life!”
Posted By:
Zeke The Zen Puppy
Guest
Button bay 12-15-2005 10:34
Arctic Blast – Froze Out
Put away the floaters, drag out the fields geese…. and the ice fishing gear.
W.P. Sullivan
Montpelier
navilluswp@netscape.net
______________________
It ain’t age that makes me look this way,
It ain’t the years, boy — it’s the miles.
– Chris Ledoux
[Edited By WP-Sullivan on 2005-12-15 10:35]
Posted By:
teal tumbler
Guest
lake champlain 12-10-2005 10:08
Cloudy, Snow Flurries – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Man, you’re giving up to early. There is still plenty of huntable open water. Though I’d agree with your overall accessment of the ducks. We did see some large flocks of mallards/ big ducks winging south yesterday afternoon. We’ve been working a 60 mile stretch of the lake north and south that is. And for the area we have covered this is the least amount of ducks we’ve ever harvested. Though the recent freeze up is promising to finish out the last week. On an otherwise enjoyable but slow, hard hunted season.
Posted By:
Michael-Bride
Field Editor
Lake Champlain 12-10-2005 07:47
Cloudy, Accumulating Snow – 25-30 Degrees – Ice
Well I took a ride over to Larabee’s Point yestserday afternoon to see what I had been dreading. One great big frozen lake. As far as you can see north and south and from
Vermont to New York frozen solid. Just one little bit of open water remains in the very center. So with a very heavy heart my decoys and waders are being replaced by tip-ups and creepers waiting for the ice to be safe enough for fishing. I really don’t know how thick the ice is,because it’s under a blanket of fresh snow,but it’s more than enough to end our season early around there. It’s been a really poor season for us. The puddlers were very spotty and the divers were just barely trickling through. Oh well thats hunting. I’ll just be that much more intense when October rolls around next year.
Best of luck to anyone who finds some hunting and Happy Holidays.
Good luck and keep swinging!Bubba…
Posted By:
Zeke The Zen Puppy
Guest
South Bay – Memphremagog 11-27-2005 18:32
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 10-20 Degrees – Ice
Getting pretty well iced up, but after a 8 year absence, I just had to try a ‘Magog hunt for Old Times Sake, at least once this year.
Icy, COLD and V.F.W. – “very few waterfowl” in range. Bagged two drake whistlers and Zeke made two handsome retrieves. He’s still adjusting to hunting from a boat.
‘Magog should ice over pretty solid soon.
PS: no bucks crossed thru my crosshairs again this year. Ended my rifle season in Peacham and Groton.
W.P. Sullivan
______________
“Dance with the one that brung ya” – Ducks Unlimited. More habitat on the ground means more ducks in the sky.
[Edited By WP-Sullivan on 2005-11-28 06:12]
Posted By:
Michael-Bride
Field Editor
Lake Champlain 11-26-2005 16:24
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 10-20 Degrees – Ice
You know it’s kind of ironic that you can have one of your worst days in the blind but still have the best day you can recall. That is if you measure success by shooting a limit of birds. Since October I’ve been waiting for this cold weather to move some bird and today I got my wish. I’m not sure my father and I even pulled up to shoot. Nothing was in range but if I say we saw five to six hundred puddlers and twice that many Snow geese It would be a conservative guess. From first light until we left at around 10:30 it was one flock after another heading down the partially frozen lake. The biggest amount of ducks I can remember seeing in that area. We saw mabey 30 or so divers around and all the rest we puddlers. Some were up in the ozone and others were dropping out of the sky to join others resting on the open water. I would dare say the big push is on. Hopefully when we set up tomorrow we’ll have a bunch of new birds to work on but if not we still had the most successful hunt of the year on a day when we never fired a shot.
To anyone who hunts around East Creek. As you might expect the Creek is skimmed over and the launch is getting slick so be careful.
Good luck and keep swinging!Bubba…
Posted By:
Zeke The Zen Puppy
Guest
Central VT ponds 11-25-2005 22:00
Cloudy, Accumulating Snow – 30-34 Degrees – Ice
Marshfield Dam produced a black duck and four mallards for me and Ben on Thanksgiving morning. Passed on a nice drake hoodie.
Woodbury and North Montpelier Pond are pretty well frozen up, but holding ducks in th open water out in the middle. Most of the farm ponds in the upper Onion River Valley between Peple’s Republic of Montpelier and Woodbury are frozen, as of today.
Saw a bunch of puddle ducks on the Winooski by Middlesex.
Posted By:
Michael-Bride
Field Editor
Lake Champlain 11-20-2005 07:07
Mostly Cloudy, No Precipitation – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
I can’t say there has been any big changes over on the lake. If anything thr water is higher than it has been. We did see a few nice flocks of puddlers winging around the stratosphere and got bombarded by some Whistlers at a range of about 10 feet but nothing for the boat. We spent some time talking to a couple of hunters in the same area and they saw about the same thing. One hunter stopped by the launch, after making his way down from Charlotte on a scouting mission, and said he saw very little activity as well. We really need some cold air to freeze up some of the flooded backwater. That will hopefully help move some birds down and certainly get them where we can hunt them. On a higher note my father went on a goose hunt in Rutland county on Thursday with some friends where they all limited out on Canadas and bagged five big puddlers. It was a partially flooded corn field and they saw about five hundred geese ten or twenty at a time and about two hundred ducks. Sounds like heaven to me. So with an ever increasing honey-do list I’ve decided to take a break to get things done and prepare for next weeks four day chase starting on Thanksgiving morning.
Good luck and keep swinging!Bubba…
Posted By:
Michael-Bride
Field Editor
Lake Champlain 11-13-2005 14:05
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
Some slight changes over on the lake this past weekend. After some fairly cold temps, from Thursday and into Friday we finally saw some of the calmest of backwater skim over with ice. This seemed to move a few puddlers onto the main lake. Or atleast the skies over it. Instead of one here and two there, as in the past couple of weeks, it was more like ten here and twenty there. They still did a pretty good job of staying out of range of even the best S.A.M. system but it was still nice to see them winging merrily along. Sunday brought us milder temps and way less puddlers but a few impressive waves and vollies of Whistlers fell all over themselves to land in our spread of Bluebill blocks. We did bust afew of them and I learned yet again that I must be packing slugs. Nobody could possibly miss a bird at 35 yards sitting on open water other wise. Could they? In all a good time both days. The lake is still high. Hunting pressure is still low. And I’m going for the record of most consecutive misses. But whats a few boxes of shells when you’re achieving hunting greatness.
Good luck and keep swinging!Bubba…
