Scott Farris
Well-known member
I had the wonderful opportunity to shoot at er I mean over Tod's great brant rig. well I guess I should start the day from the beginning.
For New England we're in a bit of a cold snap. Tod and I made plans to meet at a coastal ramp, timed to be ready to heading out on the water at 8 AM. Okay that's 40 minutes after sunrise but it times us to slip in after the crazy hunters who want to be ready at legal. Not that that's a bad thing but did I mention it was cold? This is yesterdays weather.com record for the town we launched at:
I'm not sure if it was really -7 F but we weren't hunting in shirt sleeves either. Tod's timing was brilliant, 4 rigs were in the parking lot and the ramp was still broken open although filled with ice pieces. Someone had done a good job for us. We were able to get out do some last minute scouting and get set up for the last two hours for the falling tide.
I did make the mistake of saying out loud that I hoped we didn't finish the hunt up too quickly. Wed Tod had his 3 brant in less time than he took to set up the decoys. (Okay maybe a bit of exaggeration but I wasn't there to compare the time.) Well somebody with a sense of humor must have heard me and decided we needed the hunt dragged out a while. Most of the flights flared off like they were black ducks. We were sitting in riprock basically in the open in very bright sunshine and we eventually noticed just how much our SBE's were flashing. Tod's pretty wood stock and even my rusty barreled, black plastic stocked gun were reflecting right down wind the direction the brant were coming in.
I was lucky enough to be sitting in the sweet spot and took two brant out of two small flights. Tod took a huge black duck out of a flight just as they were starting to flair. We stayed at that count a while until Tod walked off to reposition the boat- 8 ft tides are a pain. So don't ya know it, in come a pair of brant and I muff the easy shot. Almost immediately a single comes in and I've filled my limit and Tod's still not back. I figure no way I'll ever get invited back, as most of you may know, brant are Tod's favorite and here I am with my three and he's skunked (who counts those huge nasty old black ducks anyway:^)
Thankfully the brant hadn't stopped flying. Relocated closer to the head of the decoys Tod was able to shoot up the next flight that came in over the decoys. He took two down with two quick shots, then his hunting partner, (me) starts screaming "UP! UP! UP!" Being a smart guy Tod din't look over at me to see what the crazy man was doing, he simply looked up and stoned his third brant. While Tod was watching the brant he shot and the majority of the flight heading out I was far enough back to see the one brant that hooked right and climbed back over head to get away.
Having filled his limit of Brant and Blacks Tod humored me and let me sit over the duck decoys in the hopes I could get a black even bigger than his, but it wasn't to be and we picked up and headed in.
Take with the rig in the back ground. The tides come up a bit further separating them from the rocks:
Closeup:
Since Tod got his birds and I bear witness to his true, clean triple on Brant, I'm hoping to get invited back again. To hedge my bets, yesterday I brought coffee muffins and sent him home with the extras!
Best!
Scott
For New England we're in a bit of a cold snap. Tod and I made plans to meet at a coastal ramp, timed to be ready to heading out on the water at 8 AM. Okay that's 40 minutes after sunrise but it times us to slip in after the crazy hunters who want to be ready at legal. Not that that's a bad thing but did I mention it was cold? This is yesterdays weather.com record for the town we launched at:
I'm not sure if it was really -7 F but we weren't hunting in shirt sleeves either. Tod's timing was brilliant, 4 rigs were in the parking lot and the ramp was still broken open although filled with ice pieces. Someone had done a good job for us. We were able to get out do some last minute scouting and get set up for the last two hours for the falling tide.
I did make the mistake of saying out loud that I hoped we didn't finish the hunt up too quickly. Wed Tod had his 3 brant in less time than he took to set up the decoys. (Okay maybe a bit of exaggeration but I wasn't there to compare the time.) Well somebody with a sense of humor must have heard me and decided we needed the hunt dragged out a while. Most of the flights flared off like they were black ducks. We were sitting in riprock basically in the open in very bright sunshine and we eventually noticed just how much our SBE's were flashing. Tod's pretty wood stock and even my rusty barreled, black plastic stocked gun were reflecting right down wind the direction the brant were coming in.
I was lucky enough to be sitting in the sweet spot and took two brant out of two small flights. Tod took a huge black duck out of a flight just as they were starting to flair. We stayed at that count a while until Tod walked off to reposition the boat- 8 ft tides are a pain. So don't ya know it, in come a pair of brant and I muff the easy shot. Almost immediately a single comes in and I've filled my limit and Tod's still not back. I figure no way I'll ever get invited back, as most of you may know, brant are Tod's favorite and here I am with my three and he's skunked (who counts those huge nasty old black ducks anyway:^)
Thankfully the brant hadn't stopped flying. Relocated closer to the head of the decoys Tod was able to shoot up the next flight that came in over the decoys. He took two down with two quick shots, then his hunting partner, (me) starts screaming "UP! UP! UP!" Being a smart guy Tod din't look over at me to see what the crazy man was doing, he simply looked up and stoned his third brant. While Tod was watching the brant he shot and the majority of the flight heading out I was far enough back to see the one brant that hooked right and climbed back over head to get away.
Having filled his limit of Brant and Blacks Tod humored me and let me sit over the duck decoys in the hopes I could get a black even bigger than his, but it wasn't to be and we picked up and headed in.
Take with the rig in the back ground. The tides come up a bit further separating them from the rocks:
Closeup:
Since Tod got his birds and I bear witness to his true, clean triple on Brant, I'm hoping to get invited back again. To hedge my bets, yesterday I brought coffee muffins and sent him home with the extras!
Best!
Scott
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