Anyone know a rail hunting guide in NJ

Josh Schwenger

Josh Schwenger

Active member
I am interested in rail hunting this year but know nothing about it other than you hunt from a rail skiff and they push through an area at high tide. Was hoping to find a guide that I could just get on a boat. I know that Maurice river area was popular. Anyone who knows a guide that would be helpful.
 
Josh. We never used guides for rail hunting. When I lived in south N J , this was our method of rail hunting in early season mild weather. We hunted from the Cape May County causeways. Long pants, long sleeve shirts, sneakers and a good quality flotation belt were worn. For our cartridges a floppy hat .was worn. Then my hunting buddy and I would wade and swim the cuts and creaks holding our shotguns out of the water with one hand. Flushing and shooting clapper rail birds until our shell ran out. A railroad style hat only comfortably holds six or eight shells, plus your I d . Most fun hunts I can remember. Bob.16876153895164629590614531355249.jpg

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Thanks for the reply Bob it at least gives me an area to look into. My friend Shaun suggested we try a large canoe he has and try to shoot seated taking turns paddling. I guess if I wear my PFD and bring my larger Garvey as the support boat we can give it a try.
 
Josh-there are a lot of clapper rails in the salt marshes along Delaware Bay. I've never hunted them but see them frequnetly, and you can hear them also in September yakking it up. You need something that will float on 3-4"s of water to push those meadows, they are pretty thick and don't always flood that much. But the birds are there. Send me a note in August and I will give you a couple of ideas.
 
It depends if you're talking about clappers aka mudhens. Or the more preferable and traditional Sora rail. Sora only eat seeds like rice and yellow flower,( tickseed) and their prevalence is heavily dependent on those crops. Which is heavily dependent on rainfall that year. Last season was a poor year for rice on the Maurice River. Hopefully this year will be better. For guides you can check out the camp family out of Mauricetown, or the Plummer's out of Millville. Both are usually heavily booked up but it's a start.
 
Thanks a lot Jode I tried to find them online but no number or contact I guess my wife can try facebook. I'm sure it's difficult to book but maybe I can try to get in. I'm honestly not sure what I want to hunt I just want to get more experience in the waterfowl world.
 
Josh Schwenger said:
Thanks a lot Jode I tried to find them online but no number or contact I guess my wife can try facebook. I'm sure it's difficult to book but maybe I can try to get in. I'm honestly not sure what I want to hunt I just want to get more experience in the waterfowl world.
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Look for Carl Camp on Facebook and Kim Plummer . Those would be the guys you want to contact. I don't think they really advertise anywhere.
 
No idea if you can find a guide in New Jersey, but a sora rail hunt down there in a rail skiff is a bucket list hunt.

I've hunted rails up here out of boats that are perfectly functions, but not make for poling the grass. With someone good poling the boat, it's a lot of fun.
 
greg setter said:
Josh-there are a lot of clapper rails in the salt marshes along Delaware Bay. I've never hunted them but see them frequnetly, and you can hear them also in September yakking it up. You need something that will float on 3-4"s of water to push those meadows, they are pretty thick and don't always flood that much. But the birds are there. Send me a note in August and I will give you a couple of ideas.
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If the water is that shallow, wouldn’t walking be an option as well?
 
Not really William, it is unstable ground and it is not hard bottomed in most places. I'm not saying you couldn't do it, but it is very difficult to go far without going in up to your knees or deeper in mud. Then you have to get out, which is much harder than getting in. I would not advise it.
 
greg setter said:
Not really William, it is unstable ground and it is not hard bottomed in most places. I'm not saying you couldn't do it, but it is very difficult to go far without going in up to your knees or deeper in mud. Then you have to get out, which is much harder than getting in. I would not advise it.
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Ha, that occurred to me right after I posted that.
Sounds like soras never hit salty areas, but I wonder if I could walk some of the more solid marshes around Ocean County on a higher tide and flush some clappers or virginias this fall…
 
The coastal marshes have harder ground for sure and are quite different than the Delaware Bay marshes. Not that you can't find mud hole on the former. But it would be a better option where you're talking about for walking. I used to hunt some of them, mostly from Tuckerton south, and walk out to salt ponds to hunt ducks. Virginia's are freshwater birds too and like the rice. But you might find some clappers.

You can hunt the Delaware Bay marshes by floating the creeks with the tide and knocking two clamshells together, they will sometimes come out to the creek for that. I don't know if you're going to get them to fly that way though.
 
greg setter said:
The coastal marshes have harder ground for sure and are quite different than the Delaware Bay marshes. Not that you can't find mud hole on the former. But it would be a better option where you're talking about for walking. I used to hunt some of them, mostly from Tuckerton south, and walk out to salt ponds to hunt ducks. Virginia's are freshwater birds too and like the rice. But you might find some clappers.

You can hunt the Delaware Bay marshes by floating the creeks with the tide and knocking two clamshells together, they will sometimes come out to the creek for that. I don't know if you're going to get them to fly that way though.
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Well that’s a good tip, thanks! I’ve been wanting to rail hunt for years, but really haven’t figured out where or how to start. I have a canoe, but I’m not sure I can convince any of my duck hunting buddies to go out for rails, so I’ll probably end up going it alone if I try it this season.
 
If you have a shallow drafting canoe, you could probably do the marshes on Delaware Bay. You need the highest tide of the cycle to be in the day and a full moon tide. You really would just have to plan around that and you could probably get around for a couple of hours on top of the meadows. You go in September in shorts and a t-shirt, who wouldn't want to do that? If it's hot enough you won't even mind if you fall in. Get with me in late August and I will give you a spot to try that I think would work.
 
One other thing William-when you do this wear cheap sneakers, not rubber boots, because the latter will just get sucked off never to be found again. The former may also, but you won't care.
 
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