A Season to Remember

Craig F

Craig F

Well-known member
As many members have already covered, the 2017-18 duck season was one to remember thanks to mother nature. The cold weather that locked so many areas up earlier than normal provided unbelievable gunning for so many of us.

This was my first season in a new house in a new area allowing me to cover more ground within a moderate drive. I take full advantage of the three zone system we have in NJ, which allows you to gun from mid October until the end of January if you are willing to travel a bit. I can gun a half mile from my driveway if I want or drive upwards of an hour and a half to hunt new areas. This season some of the new areas I explored were extremely productive, always a bonus in uncharted waters.

Primarily gunning out of my two man boat after hunting for decades out of a one man sneakbox I have finally been able to get friends out to share my love of waterfowling. Just about everyone I have taken out has become fully addicted. This season I worked on getting one of my fishing buddies into a few firsts. First limit, we did that on the first hunt for him this season, first canvasback (I had to show him on my phone what they looked like before legal), and most important to him, his first gadwall. I always was inundated with grey ducks when he wasn't in the boat with me. This year on the last hunt he was able to get out on for the season we had a pair pitch in perfectly and he smoked the drake backpedaling over the rig. Needless to say he was pretty pumped.

I also had quite a few memorable hunts with my dad, including a great shoot on Christmas where we timed it just right to get home just as dinner was coming out of the oven (helps to have an understanding mother).

Two banded birds for me on the season, including a double banded brant. All in all I got out just shy of 50 times, the most I've gotten out in a season since I started keeping a log and not bad for someone employed full time!

Here's some selected photos from this season as I didn't do too much filming of my hunts. I regret not having some of the epic days on film, but I took a back to basics approach this season and it really paid off. 2018-19 will have a lot to live up to.

Sunrise amongst the cedar stumps of south Jersey

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A selection of teal shoots, we had unbelievable amounts of teal around this year

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Waiting on the next flight on an afternoon scout/hunt

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Thanksgiving weekend wood duck shoot

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Gunning in a snowstorm

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Great pictures; as usual Craig. Congrats on another highly successful gunning season. Great looking rig and decoys.
PS: I miss seeing your "World-Class" hunting videos.
 
Good morning, Craig~

Spectacular tale and photos - congratulations to you and your partners!

I have a couple of question about your vessel? (Roy High Boat ?)

1. What do you sit on?

2. How high off the floor is your coaming (where the flaps are hinged) ?

BTW: Back when I lived on LI, I gunned part of every day during a 30-day season. I don't keep track anymore - but this past season I started in mid-September on our Youth Day hereabouts and ended on January 26. It's a great way to live!

All the best,

SJS
 
Awesome season craig. It almost felt like we weren't in jersey this year. Certainly a season I'll never forget
 
Steve -

I'll have to get you the measurements, but for seating I use milk crates cut down to 7" for the stern and 5" for the bow with a momarsh invisilounge on top. This way I can store everything up under the bow deck while running or picking up decoys and I have a nice uncluttered cockpit. It's also very comfortable.


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Thanks for sharing Craig. It’s great to see that a lot of people had great seasons. Would be cool to take a trip up there and hunt some Brant and blacks.
 
An interesting day when you can kill cans and green wings on the same hunt! Are those black ducks yours or Mike Braun LZ decoys? They look like his, but I don't recall him making a feeder.
 
RLLigman said:
An interesting day when you can kill cans and green wings on the same hunt! Are those black ducks yours or Mike Braun LZ decoys? They look like his, but I don't recall him making a feeder.
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Yeah we had a ton of really good teal shoots this year right into late January. Certainly kept things interesting.

Those are Mike Braun LZ's, I have every head position he made.
 
I never saw his feeder style bird...wished I had picked a few up, very nice lines! Most of his LZ bodies are now Tanglefree Pro Flight birds, including his mallards, except this style.
 
RLLigman said:
An interesting day when you can kill cans and green wings on the same hunt!
Click to expand...


Was thinking the same thing!
We were a mile out on Mobile Bay one morning when a whole flock of woodies buzzed one end of the boat, my buddy dropped a nice drake to finish out his limit of along with redheads and gadwalls. We had 6 different species that morning, 13 species total from that blind that winter, including a scoter!
Gunning the coast is like that, some days you just never know what will drop into the decoys.
 
I've been fortunate to dial in a few areas that have pretty good variety over the years, but like you said on the coast you never know what is going to show up. I had buffleheads in the rig all morning one day (I give them a pass) and out of the blue had a group of a dozen woodies drop in feet down. All open bay coastal marsh. As they say, variety is the spice of life!
 
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