Jay K
Active member
It has been a pretty challenging season here in NJ for myself and a lot of folks. Lack of weather up north has lead to basically stale birds, the ones here seem to be pretty fat and happy, very content with their safe food sources. The running theme of the season seems to be "just 2 black ducks."
I had off Monday so the plan was to try a new spot. Day started off not so lucky in that I dropped my headlamp in the water at the ramp. The first luck of the day was it turned on, and I left it on, for the entire trek through the very dark bay at 5am. I set up in a nice little pocket off a bigger body of water I had been eyeing on Google maps. It was slow at first legal and then I ended up wounding a black duck. After a pretty long and disappointing search, I set back up. Didn't take much longer for the ever-faithful next black duck to show up. This one did it perfect and I downed in one shot. As I picked the bird up, I saw it. It was banded. After 10 years of duck hunting, I finally shot a band. I was in disbelief. I remember saying to myself "You just shot a band..." over and over. To say I was over the moon happy is an understatement.
Rest of the early morning was uneventful. I wasn't going to shoot another black duck because I had one unrecovered. I had broadbill decoys with me and after watching a small raft across the river all morning, I went over and switched it up. I set a small 14 decoy line of broadbills. Only had a group of 4 buzz by but not close enough. I decided to call it for the day with a nice banded bird in hand. As I stood up, about 50 yds down river in a pocket in the marsh, something caught my eye. I saw a head pop up and a wing tip flutter. I walked down and it was a wounded black duck. I dispatched it quickly. It was the right thing to do and I wondered was it the one I shot? Sure enough, later on that night after breasting it out, Boss #4 copper plated bismuth was removed from the bird (another advantage to shooting Boss). It was the one I shot. 300-400 yds from where I shot it, the complete opposite side of the river, 3 hours later.
It was just a lucky day all around. The banded bird was pretty special. The band took a solid hour and half of acid etching. Everyone was guessing it was quite old. Muriatic acid for 3 minutes, rinse, examine, repeat. Finally, I was able to get the last 2 numbers. When I reported it, I realized how special it was. It was a 10 year old bird, hatched the year I started waterfowl hunting. It was born in NJ, likely lived here it's whole life, was shot and killed right across the bay by a hunter who also lived in NJ his whole life. As you can see it was also shot in a storied duck hunting marsh here.
The plan is to honor the trophy by having a special decoy carved proudly displaying the band.
I might pause before I say "just black ducks" when someone asks me how my hunt went, going forward. After 10 years I was starting to take them for granted and I don't believe I will going forward.
I had off Monday so the plan was to try a new spot. Day started off not so lucky in that I dropped my headlamp in the water at the ramp. The first luck of the day was it turned on, and I left it on, for the entire trek through the very dark bay at 5am. I set up in a nice little pocket off a bigger body of water I had been eyeing on Google maps. It was slow at first legal and then I ended up wounding a black duck. After a pretty long and disappointing search, I set back up. Didn't take much longer for the ever-faithful next black duck to show up. This one did it perfect and I downed in one shot. As I picked the bird up, I saw it. It was banded. After 10 years of duck hunting, I finally shot a band. I was in disbelief. I remember saying to myself "You just shot a band..." over and over. To say I was over the moon happy is an understatement.
Rest of the early morning was uneventful. I wasn't going to shoot another black duck because I had one unrecovered. I had broadbill decoys with me and after watching a small raft across the river all morning, I went over and switched it up. I set a small 14 decoy line of broadbills. Only had a group of 4 buzz by but not close enough. I decided to call it for the day with a nice banded bird in hand. As I stood up, about 50 yds down river in a pocket in the marsh, something caught my eye. I saw a head pop up and a wing tip flutter. I walked down and it was a wounded black duck. I dispatched it quickly. It was the right thing to do and I wondered was it the one I shot? Sure enough, later on that night after breasting it out, Boss #4 copper plated bismuth was removed from the bird (another advantage to shooting Boss). It was the one I shot. 300-400 yds from where I shot it, the complete opposite side of the river, 3 hours later.
It was just a lucky day all around. The banded bird was pretty special. The band took a solid hour and half of acid etching. Everyone was guessing it was quite old. Muriatic acid for 3 minutes, rinse, examine, repeat. Finally, I was able to get the last 2 numbers. When I reported it, I realized how special it was. It was a 10 year old bird, hatched the year I started waterfowl hunting. It was born in NJ, likely lived here it's whole life, was shot and killed right across the bay by a hunter who also lived in NJ his whole life. As you can see it was also shot in a storied duck hunting marsh here.
The plan is to honor the trophy by having a special decoy carved proudly displaying the band.
I might pause before I say "just black ducks" when someone asks me how my hunt went, going forward. After 10 years I was starting to take them for granted and I don't believe I will going forward.
