eelgrass
Long Time Member
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- 31,964
Some things never change.
I love hunting brant. Always have, always will. Brant is a sea going goose. I hunt Humboldt Bay, CA. The place to hunt them is a spit of land between the ocean and the bay. When the birds are in, there is stiff competition for places to put your decoys out and hunt. The spit is public land, and the prime spots are points of land that extend out into the bay. I used to hunt the spit back in the 1960s and was involved in my share of confrontations. Brant hunting is a huge deal locally. The birds come in off the ocean, out into the bay, lose elevation, and come into the spit.
About 1965, my partner and I got tired of it and decided to try a new tactic. Instead of fighting for a place to hunt we decided to put decoys out in the bay itself. We would put the decoys about 500 yards out from the spit. Then we would anchor our scull boats about 80 yards from the decoys. If and when brant would land in the decoys we would scull up and get some shooting. It took a couple seasons to figure out the channels, wind, tide, and how the eelgrass beds were exposed but once we figured it out we started killing record numbers of birds.
The guys on the spit weren't too happy about it. We were taking birds they thought were theirs. They would yell, cuss us, and even shoot trying to scare the birds. It didn't work, and our attitude was "cry me a river".
The one draw back to our plan is that if you get caught out there in the wrong tide and wind conditions in a scull boat you could be swimming, at the very best.
My partner has long since moved on but I still do it solo. The last two days of the season this year (Dec.5-6th) conditions were right and I went out and did great! At one point I had a flock of about 30 brant within 20 yards. They were so duped they wouldn't fly until I slapped an oar on the water.
Now, 45 years later, the guys on the spit are still yelling and cussing, trying to intimidate me. The cuss words are the same their dads used to use too.
I guess you could say this old man schooled them young kids on brant hunting. I called my old partner who lives in Kalispell MT. He got a good laugh. He is still 1/2 owner of our home made decoys too. Our 18 decoys are still the best decoys on the bay, and a huge key to our success.
I got some bad news for those young kids too. Next year, Lord willing, and the conditions are right, I'll be back out at the same spot.
Eel
I love hunting brant. Always have, always will. Brant is a sea going goose. I hunt Humboldt Bay, CA. The place to hunt them is a spit of land between the ocean and the bay. When the birds are in, there is stiff competition for places to put your decoys out and hunt. The spit is public land, and the prime spots are points of land that extend out into the bay. I used to hunt the spit back in the 1960s and was involved in my share of confrontations. Brant hunting is a huge deal locally. The birds come in off the ocean, out into the bay, lose elevation, and come into the spit.
About 1965, my partner and I got tired of it and decided to try a new tactic. Instead of fighting for a place to hunt we decided to put decoys out in the bay itself. We would put the decoys about 500 yards out from the spit. Then we would anchor our scull boats about 80 yards from the decoys. If and when brant would land in the decoys we would scull up and get some shooting. It took a couple seasons to figure out the channels, wind, tide, and how the eelgrass beds were exposed but once we figured it out we started killing record numbers of birds.
The guys on the spit weren't too happy about it. We were taking birds they thought were theirs. They would yell, cuss us, and even shoot trying to scare the birds. It didn't work, and our attitude was "cry me a river".
The one draw back to our plan is that if you get caught out there in the wrong tide and wind conditions in a scull boat you could be swimming, at the very best.
My partner has long since moved on but I still do it solo. The last two days of the season this year (Dec.5-6th) conditions were right and I went out and did great! At one point I had a flock of about 30 brant within 20 yards. They were so duped they wouldn't fly until I slapped an oar on the water.
Now, 45 years later, the guys on the spit are still yelling and cussing, trying to intimidate me. The cuss words are the same their dads used to use too.
I guess you could say this old man schooled them young kids on brant hunting. I called my old partner who lives in Kalispell MT. He got a good laugh. He is still 1/2 owner of our home made decoys too. Our 18 decoys are still the best decoys on the bay, and a huge key to our success.
I got some bad news for those young kids too. Next year, Lord willing, and the conditions are right, I'll be back out at the same spot.
Eel
