Waterfowl hunting

S

sethlopez85

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LAST EDITED ON Oct-13-11 AT 06:32AM (MST)[p]Is just a week and half away can't be any happier, built three blinds so far, looks like it's going to be another great year.. How many of you are duck hunters?

My drinking buddies have a hunting problem
 
Got my Maxus tuned up and ready to go! Getting my decoys restrung and ready to hit the refuge ASAP! Here's to a good season!


Some times I practice shoot and release! :)
 
I had a blind for about 30 years and hunted 40 to 50 days per season until we lost our blind around 6 years ago. I will start hunting waterfowl again when I retire, for now I fish a lot at Lake Almanor in the Winter.
 
I started dragging my son around with me when he was about 4 years old. I'd put him into a one man raft, painted camo, tie the rope around my waist and pull him thru the marsh. He shot his first duck, on the wing at age 7. Now he takes me hunting.
He has a place in Merrill, Oregon and hunts Lower Klamath and Tule Lake. He also has a blind 20 minutes from his house in Chico.
I'll be poppin some caps as usual.
 
We had a private blind just north of Sacramento last season on some flooded rice, it was awesome hunting but a long drive from home so my fuel bill was incredible from Dec. thru Jan. My hunting partner had a baby in Sept. and we decided not to renew our lease. My heart wasn't exactly broken. Besides I can get to the Mendota Refuge in less than an hour from my house and Los Banos in a little over an hour so I will still have plenty of good hunting days.

Some times I practice shoot and release! :)
 
I have $570. out for resi's and rice blind in colusa! heading tule lake for a week maybe Tuesday! ya good time of year!
GR
 
Ducknuts, surely you jest!!!!!!

It's a Kali forum so we get to talk about anything California, Mountain Lion moratoriums, High taxes, gun restrictions, screwed up F&G, etc.

Hope you guys knock em dead this year. I was a serious duck hunter since age 8. Hunting all of the Valley refuges, joining duck clubs, freelancing in the bypasses and flooded islands in the Delta. Moved to NE Kali and hunted these refuges regularly, Modoc on Tuesday and Thursday, Ash Creek on Sunday and Wednesday, Saturday wherever it was better the previous week.

Switched from waterfowl to upland about 6 years ago. No crowds to fight, can sleep in and still chase my dogs around and I have a personal vendetta against Chukar. Spend 3 weeks each spring finding their nests and squishing their eggs. (j/k) But i do take it personal at times. A covey gives me the slip one weekend and next weekend I'm hunting that same spot, usually from a different direction. Once i get my payback, I'll go find another covey. Sound like a sickness?? Problem is the only cure i know of is getting too old to chase the lil buggers. Not there YET.
 
I love the upland as well! Used to own two upland hunting machines, Two German Shorthaired Pointers that would chase birds from sun up til sun down! I got them when I was 7 years old and they last one died 8 years ago just after my 21st birthday. After that I got 2 labs and got into waterfowl hunting, 2 different monsters. Would like to get another GSP some day, but for now my lab and I will see you all on the wetlands!

Some times I practice shoot and release! :)
 
wouldn't have the call name cacklercrazy if i wasn't a waterfowler. love to chase the little guys when ever I get the chance. I got a bear to fill before I get to crazy about chasing geese.
 
LAST EDITED ON Oct-14-11 AT 09:08PM (MST)[p]I'm an old time Humboldt Bay sculler. Now I mostly hunt Brant here on the Bay.

I used to scull all over Kali. Big Lake, Fall River, Robert's Res. Almanor, Eagle Lake, Oroville Afterbay, Big Sage, Indian Tom, San Louis, Oneil Forebay, Merced River, Morro Bay, on and on. If there was open water with birds, it was game on. I used to average a couple hundred birds a year.

Not so much any more.

Here's my scull. I built her in 1970.

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goat, I never sculled Tule Lake, just Indian Tom. I used to hunt White Lake?, Sheepy Ridge a lot though.
 
My old high school buddy, who owns the sister boat to my boat sent me this photo. He lives in Kalispell, MT and sculls the Flat Head River.

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heres a story........(from a duck hunting forum else where!!)

This is a CRAZY story that I just had to share. Next time these guys will be packing heavier firearms I'm sure.

My friend Steve XXXXXXXX and I were duck hunting yesterday (10/08/11) in Portage Valley (Alaska) and we were attacked by a brown bear. We are both OK but we killed the brown bear within 10 feet of our duck boat blind. This is one of those stories where you are just glad to be alive to tell it. I have lived in Alaska for over 25 years and been around bears but never thought I would encounter one in my blind while duck hunting. I have provided a brief description of what happened below.

We had a small bull moose run about 10 feet behind our duck boat blind. We heard some grass rustling and thought it was another moose, but then we see a brown bear following the trail of the moose. When the bear gets about 20 feet from our blind he looks up and sees us and heads right toward the front of the blind where I am sitting. I fired 3 rounds (3" #4 shot) into the bear at point blank range. My friend says I fired my last round when the bear was 2 feet away. He goes on to say that my head and the bears head were 2 feet apart at one point. After firing my third round, I dove away from the bear and out of the blind and my friend Steve fires 3 rounds (3.5" #4 shot) into his head that sends the bear to the front of the boat on the ground about 10 feet away. Steve reloads as the bear is doing the death spin. He puts 3 more rounds into the bear. I get up, reload, and fire 3 more rounds into the bear. The bear isn't moving at this point in time.

Neither of us was hurt (not a scratch). We we were just scared shitless. We had 2 dogs with us. The older dog (Mynx) was out of the blind with hackles up about 20 feet away from the bear. The young (5 months) dog (Lulu) was hidden under one of the chairs in the boat, She was shaking and wouldn't come out for awhile. On a side note, we got one duck (a gadwall).

I have attached a few photos. You will see our boat blind is destroyed. That was from me diving out one side of the blind and the bear coming in the other. There is also a picture of blood on the blind to show how close the bear was when he got shot. We think the bear was a 7+ foot brown bear...which is large for this area of Alaska.

I feel really fortunate just to be here today and tell this story. I can't tell you how much all you mean to me. I know our family doesn't express our emotions often enough. I want to take this opportunity to tell all my family "I Love You".

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GR
 
Hey Eel, Thanks for posting up those pics. Love to see that stuff, made my evening. I was able to explain to my son what that "cool looking boat" was all about.

Some of my earliest hunting memories are of loading shotgun shells with my Grandpa and then heading out to get some birds. I was in awe the first time I saw him knock a greenhead down with his Ithica double. He taught me how to load my 20-gauge paper cases with unique, nitro card over powder, felton blue streak wad, and 1oz of shot with a thin card over shot and a roll crimp. I believe he shot either red or green dot in his 12. I love the smell of that burnt powder mixed in with the smells of our flannel-lined dennim jackets, lake mud, and duck blood. Looking back, it was the "how" that was just as important as the "what".

I'm sure you could tell stories long into the night. If you come across any other pics, I for one really appreciate seeing them.

(By the way, how old were you when you started shooting smokeless??)

My hat is off to ya!
 
Here are a few pics from the youth opener up north last month. My son also killed a banded Gadwall on the hunt. I drew a resi for opening day at Delevan, should be good.

BC

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Wow eelgrass, what some fond memories, I too come from a long line of scullers growing up in Humboldt bay.i too used to scull lake alaminore around thanksgiving for honkers roberts, eagle and the theremedo afterbay, but my heart will always be in Humboldt bay sculling for Brandt and all the migrating widgon.I live in colorado now and until it freezes I do well here, but when people see my mcdade sculling boat my grandfather built they have never seen one... take care and stay in touch and thanks for the memories and the photos...
 
Eelgrass,
I come from a long line of scullers out of Humboldt Bay. I was born in Eureka in 1945 and my Dad Ralph Green started taking me sculling when I was 6 years old. I got my first shotgun when I was 7. When dad was done shooting any birds dead on the water were his and the cripples were mine to shoot. I remember the old time market hunters of that era George Dean and Wes Dean both were excellent scullers and dead shots. I can remember rowing out in the middle of north bay and as the sun came up over the mountains (kneeland) there were so many birds in the air it looked like a swarm of Bees and Pop would say "I don't know whats happening but there sure isn't the birds there use to be" I believe the limit was 15 when I first started hunting, can't really remember.
Both of my parents are buried at sea (Ashes were put to rest in Humboldt Bar which was their wish).
Glad to seed your keeping the tradition alive in Humboldt bay.
I live in Eugene oregon now but would like to chat more my e-mail address is [email protected].
Have a great hunting season

Remember Swing through the bird, follow through

Art Green
 
Had a good morning but no good birds all spoonys. My 3 year old femal lab did great so that made my trip.. How did the rest of you do?
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My drinking buddies have a hunting problem
 
I didn't hunt the opener but my buddies got two limits including the first band of the year (gadwall). They shot Los Banos wildlife refuge, I'll be hitting Mendota not this weekend but the following. A lot of season left.

Some times I practice shoot and release! :)
 
my rice shot 4 limits with 7 specks....."IN AN HOUR" Geese took longer..won't ne any good for about 3 weeks until migration start.
Not one bootlip! I will be at Colusa Sat-Sun!
 
I missed opening weekend, as I was coaching baseball in Arizona. But, Monday was a day I'll remember for a long time. I have a friend who's son is a corporal in the Marine Corps, and this young man is a pretty special young man to me. He was on leave, at the end of his leave, and he told me he wanted to go hunting with me on Monday, so I took him and his father out to my favorite blind on our club. Other than a couple poachers who had an unpleasant visit with the Game Warden, we were the only hunters on about 600 or so acres.

I didn't even take a shotgun, only my calls, and left the shooting to the two of them. We had a nice hunt, not a ton of birds, but enough for a good day. They shot some birds, and shot quite a few shells. We left at 9:15 as he had to pack and make it to San Francisco for his flight.

By now, he's been in Okinawa for a day, and is preparing for his deployment to Afghanistan in under 2 weeks. That was a big part of what made this such a special hunt for me. This kid is headed to a combat zone, and the last thing he wanted to do before leaving home was to have me take him duck hunting with his father. It was quite an honor for me to make his wish come true.
 
LAST EDITED ON Oct-27-11 AT 01:14PM (MST)[p]Growing up, i had about 8 ponds scattered out and i'd make a loop on foot to check them for mallards. i'd usually get a couple anyway and sometimes also have a bucket full of wild Portabella mushrooms after the 5-6 miles it took to cover them ponds.

Then i got exposed to the refuges and waiting in line overnight to get on early or at least get on when others left. I was young enough to not be bothered by the long days and sometimes lack of sleep to hunt this way but was always tired when it came time to pluck them birds.

Then i got in with a couple good friends that had some great ponds to shoot. We'd usually only shoot the greenheads and then, only on the rise. Limits were usually not a problem, actually, the hard part was not getting over your limit as sometimes there would be a couple few hundred mallards on a single pond.

Since i've been living here in Plumas Co. i've had the option of setting out some deeks and maybe getting a good shoot within a few minutes of my cabin. Early and later in the season has always been best but i've a couple places where a guy has just as good a chance of shooting a pair of honkers as catching a trophy rainbow trout. Nothing like watching your pole with a shotgun in your lap. We've had some pretty good shoots over at Eagle Lake while fishing too but usually not as good of birds.

I also, most recently, had several great years shooting a private place off Maxwell rd up I-5. The place was right across from Delevan refuge and we'd usually always get our limits of snows and specks from the low flying groups coming or going to feed from the refuge.

I always loved the hunting and the shooting but for some reason, the cleaning of the birds after a long day was a chore, i always did it, i just didn't look forward to it. Maybe i should have breasted those birds but we always plucked them and sometimes it just seemed too much after a hard day in the field. Now i can take or leave them birds and i probably won't even get my stamps this year. You guys get after em!. Give me a Pheasant, chucker, or quail hunt and for the table any day as they are so much better eating, IMO, and easier to clean. :)

Hope you guys have a good season and a great time!

Joey
 
Just talked to a friend about 5 minutes ago about heading out there this weekend, with this cold front coming through and the potential for some wind it could make for a good hunt! getting the itch to shoot some mallards!

Haven't heard any reports on the bird counts out there but it was a decent shoot in Los Banos on the opener so maybe it will be decent in Mendota? I'm sure there will be plenty of the early season regulars out there (teal)

Some times I practice shoot and release! :)
 
I had a message on my phone when I got off work yesterday from F&G to basically ignore the fact that I drew Lano Seco for the pheasant opener. He said that he had inadvertantly drew 24 reservations instead of 10. So numbers 11-24 were not going to get a card in the mail but had made it up on their results web site? Said he was sorry for getting my hopes up. Since I don't ever check their web site, I hadn't got excited. But he was professional and apologic so I respect that. They made a mistake and admitted it.

I only appled for Sat, Sun and Wed at a handful of refuges the first week of pheasant season. If I draw Fleming up here in the Honey Lake Valley, I'll hunt that. If not, I have an invite in the Klamath Basin to hunt pheasants on the refuge and glass/jump shoot some mallards on private ditches.

I've done the refuges here on the pheasant opener and then hit the Skeddale Mountains for some afternoon chukar and quail several times. More likely I hunt the refuge all day to get 2 roosters. Good luck guys.
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-02-11 AT 03:17PM (MST)[p]Been hoping for some cold weather storms to drive some birds down into the Valley. I had some GREAT hunts with my 12 year old Son last Season near Durham.
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Best of Luck,
Jeff
http://www.elkmtngear.com
 
Shot Mendota yesterday, not a whole lot of birds down yet but did manage a couple mallards, a teal and a widgeon. Had a little fiasco in the morning and didn't get to the refuge early enough. People were already shooting when we got there and we didn't hunt the lot we wanted but all in all not a bad early season day! We also forgot it was the phesant opener and we jumped two rooster walking out of our hole. If we would have known we could have added two chickens to the bag! Oh well, there is always next time!
I also wanted to video the hunt with my new iPhone 4s but was in too big of a hurry to get out of the lot and left it in the truck! Another chore to conquer on the next outing!

Some times I practice shoot and release! :)
 
Bone Collector, That is a great picture of your son with the ducks on the strap and the band hanging out there where you can see it, PRICELESS.

Picking my son up Thursday in Stockton. Getting back from Iraq. He always shied away from upland game, would rather waterfowl hunt BUT I have him convinced to go out next week. Such a great year I'm hoping he gets hooked. He's killed a total of one chukar in his life. When I told him I was over 90 for the year, he said he had to try it again.
 
Nick, -1 :) unless you know something about those birds i don't, Chucker is about as good as it gets in a game bird. I can't chase em any more but i've had my share and enjoyed every one.

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"
 
Just doing a bit of "leg pullin".
Sometimes when ya least expect it, .....FISH ON!

Paul, chuckers are great!
 
I'm primed and pumped to go Brant hunting......but there's no birds. I counted a total of 20 on all of South Humboldt Bay before the opener. Last Saturday I heard it was down to 7 birds. I looked but didn't see them. There was only one set of decoys out on the whole bay.

I don't know if they haven't arrived yet, or they just bypassed us.

Keeping an eye out as the season is open until Dec.6.

Eel
 
Taste like a mix of bald eagle and spotted owl it's delicious!

My drinking buddies have a hunting problem
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-15-11 AT 09:35PM (MST)[p]>I started dragging my son around
>with me when he was
>about 4 years old.
>I'd put him into a
>one man raft, painted camo,
>tie the rope around my
>waist and pull him thru
>the marsh. He shot
>his first duck, on the
>wing at age 7.
>Now he takes me hunting.
>
>He has a place in Merrill,
>Oregon and hunts Lower Klamath
>and Tule Lake. He
>also has a blind 20
>minutes from his house in
>Chico.
>I'll be poppin some caps as
>usual.

My dad and uncle did the same with me. I was really young when I started going with them to the refuges. Their decoy cart was pretty big and floated. I would sit in the cart because the water was too deep for me.

Now I duck hunt 3-5 days a week in December and January after all the deer hunting is outta the way. Most hunts are done within 10 miles from the house before work. Get out, shoot a limit of drakes, then head to work.
 
Paul, bring your shotgun in Dec and we will chase chukars.

The old saying goes, "You hunt chukar once for fun, then you chase them the rest of your life, for revenge!"

We have lots this year and as old, crippled and fat as I am, I have limited out 3 times in 3 hunts. Yes, I WILL shoot them on the ground, if the opportunity is there!

"If God did not intend for man to hunt animals, he would have made broccoli more fun to shoot"
 

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