Posted By:
mwingfield
Supporting Member
Charlottesville 01-09-2006 11:43
– – 40-45 Degrees
Goose hunted 1/7/06 in my hot spot on the X. Set up before sunup, but the first group came in at 8:00. Last year the first group would come in @ 7:10 every day. I am working with my lab, Sam and this is his first year hunting in the field. I took one bird from the first group, working with Sam. He did well on the retrieve, used hand singles once. The next group came in at 8:15, took one bird, Sam did great. Being by myself I picked up the decoys. At 9:00 aprox. 125 geese came in, saw me and turned and landed near the pond, I must have seen close to 200 geese on Saturday, all by myself.
[Edited By mwingfield on 2006-01-09 11:48]
Posted By:
Drew-Hawkins
Field Editor
Creek off Potomac – 1/7/06 01-09-2006 08:13
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
Hunted our spot on the creek and had a first… no ducks seen at all!!! Saw about
30-40 geese and had one flock go right over us. Too high for our liking. A big group had gotten up earlier from other hunters going in.
General Observations –
From what I have experienced and heard the genral situation is this. Puddle ducks are few and far between except in protected or undiscovered areas. The few that do commit are VERY blind shy at best. They generally sit dow well beyond a decoy spread. I say this again, We need weather badly. Divers are holding pretty well on the river (mostly bluebills). They have been hammered pretty hard with folks going after them since they are the only real gunnable birds right now. The number are down a bit from their peak a cuple of weeks ago.
Geese are still pretty huntable, but you might have to stay out and wait for their return trip from their feeding areas.
Good luck out there.
Posted By:
Bluebill Buster
Web Member
Lake Gaston 01-09-2006 08:12
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 40-45 Degrees
Made a trip down to Lake Gaston for the weekend. Hunted the Virginia section with very poor luck.
Had only one group of ducks even pay attention to the spread. Group of 3 mallards we were able to cox back into the spread and we took a drake. Hunted the afternoon and were surrounded by coots, saw maybe 10 bills or ringnecks while riding over to our spot but nothing close to our spread then either.
Went there a month ago and the lake was packed with ducks. If they are on the lake, they are obvisiouly somewhere else.
Not only a frustrating am because of the birds, but also managed to get my foot caught on the roots of stump. Couldn’t get my footing in time and half fell in. Thank god I had my wading belt on, otherwise I would have been soaked. Just had a small case of wet feet. Also helped the water was knee deep too.
Just a friendly reminder… when you are out wading, wear your belts! We forget too often to do this. Not only can it save your hunt but it could save your life!
Posted By:
tperreault
Web Member
Quantico Creek 01-09-2006 07:36
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 35-40 Degrees
Hunted Quantico Creek Saturday 7 Jan. Saw many Geese flying high. Had about 30 Mallards rafted about 150 yards from the blind but would not come in for nothing. On the way back saw about 1500 ducks on the main potomac seem to be staying away from the creeks for right now.
Posted By:
long gunner
Guest
Lower Eastern Shore 01-08-2006 17:15
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 35-40 Degrees
We hunted on Magothy Bay on 1/6/05 and did not see much. The brant ate us alive and we normally do not shoot them, but when I saw silver on a leg I let him have it.Band looked old and weathered. Reported it online for the first time. Ended up with a pair of Black ducks and 4 Brant. Did not see enough to get excited about going back, but will try again.
Posted By:
Kenneth-Burnett
Guest
James River, Nelson County 01-07-2006 08:20
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 40-45 Degrees
Saw very few birds while floating and nothing when set up with decoys. Came home with the skunk smell.
Posted By:
mwingfield
Supporting Member
Charlottesville 01-06-2006 13:13
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 45-50 Degrees
Goose Hunted 1/2/06, first group came in and turned out of range with 30 birds. Next group had 8 birds, came short of landing and turned with in range. Next group with 12 birds were about to land when we shot. The last group came in quite while we were picking up from the last shots, turned at the max range, and only dropped one. Had a great day and my lab retrieved his first geese, he worked well with voice, whistle, and hand singles.
Posted By:
Bluebill Buster
Web Member
N.Va – Potomac 01-05-2006 12:55
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 40-45 Degrees
OK, this high water/tide crap has got to go! I had to get out of the blind early today if I wanted to retrieve my dekes from the river. I would say the river is up about 18 inches than normal.
All of this water has got the birds reversed in their flights. Birds that usually are flying into the swamps at day break are leaving in the AMs. Much harder to get birds to turn around and come back to dekes than stopping birds coming to you.
Divers are plentiful, but I will agree that the puddle ducks must be lost. Or maybe in someone pool! 🙁
Posted By:
Richard-Nunnally
Web Member
01-04-2006 11:55
– – –
If you are looking for geese, (canadas) there are plenty to go around. As far as other ducks……… If you can find them please let me know where. We need some weather bad!!!!!!!!!!!! There are still some divers on the big rivers but as far as puddle ducks I can not find any.
Posted By:
Bluebill Buster
Web Member
N.Va – Potomac 01-03-2006 12:05
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 40-45 Degrees
Hunted Monday for the first time in over a week, visiting the folks in NY. Thought we would have an ideal day and set up, with the low cloud cover, fog, and no moonlight. WRONG! Saw lots of puddle ducks flying away from the River and the back water area we were hunting. Probably saw 30-40 ducks, mainly in group of 5-8. Had a group of 3 circle dekes, but lit outside of spread. Nothing flew from 7:15 on.
On the way back to the house did some scouting and couldn’t believe the amount of bluebills, buffleheads, ruddy’s with mixes of redheads in these rafts. I swear there was two rafts that had to be 400 yards long and 100 yards wide. I have no idea how many ducks that would equal to but I would guess it approaching 20,000 birds. Its not uncommon to see groups of 1,000 birds sitting together but this was spectacular. The kicker though… they were 75 to 200 yards off shore near a housing development.
Went out in the afternoon and set up the goose spread. No ducks flew, but boy what a day of geese. We had our limit after the first two groups came in, 6 in each group. Never had geese commit landing gear down every single time as we did that day. We continued to call at the geese after our limit and they all wanted our spot. Once a larger group of geese was on the water though, they didn’t seem as interested. Note to self, geese coming to resting spot at night feel safe in bigger groups in the evenings.
I did hear the most ridiculous amount of shooting coming from Powells creek way. My hunting partner wanted to get in the boat and check out the spot and what they were killing. Don’t know for sure but if these boys didn’t have limits plus some, it was because they can’t hit a lick! Must have heard close to 100 shots in 4 hours!
