I've been missing in action since last summer I think. Just too much fun in retirement.
But I was inspired by Phil Nowack's photo essay of his trips. So I thought I'd post up a photos with highlights of my season while waiting for more enjoyable weather for the last 2 weeks of duck and brant season. I am itching to get on the salt and chase brant but the weather is just too wild for big, shallow water.
My season started with a bucket list trip to a place I had always wanted to visit. So my wife and I went to Cold Bay, Alaska. We hunted with Jeff Wasley of Four Flyway, I couldn't give a higher recommendation if you are interested in going to Cold Bay.
I wanted to see brant and the lagoon and they didn't disappoint. It was a great visit with a great group of guys I had worked with over the years. All had either studied brant for graduate degrees or managed brant as part of their careers.
The eelgrass and water depths were really different from my experience further south in the Pacific flyway and the number of brant was phenomenal.
We had pretty nice weather and the tides were all late afternoon tides so we spent the mornings fishing for silver salmon.
Brant hunting was great too.
An amazing place and the weather was pretty nice.
As soon as I got home it was time to head to Alberta for my annual pilgrimage with a couple of other buddies that I worked with managing wildlife in the western US.
White beards fit in with the white coats and white decoys.
My 2 dogs had a blast. The younger one on the left experienced his first real hunt and was just beside himself when the birds started falling out of the air.
The lights went on and the young one couldn't stop watching geese.
I love the scenery at that time of the year especially passing through the Rockies.
Back to Washington for the opener and hunting from a boat or a blind.
What do you mean I have to share retrieves and space in the boat?
We hunted with another friend and got to make some more retrieves. You'll notice the younger dog is busy watching ducks flying around instead of posing for photos.
In November diver hunting started seriously. Finally got my son and grandson out on a duck hunt. My grandson shot his first duck with his second ever shot at a duck. A nice drake greater scaup flying over the decoys at 25 yards. I was a proud grandpa.
The next weekend my grandson shot his first limit of 7 ducks. Another wonderful first. The kid outshot his father.
to be continued in Part 2
