Bucket list Pacific brant

Andy Grant

Andy Grant

Well-known member
Ever since I lived in Oregon for a couple years, many years ago, I have wanted to harvest a brant. After being sidelined all last season due to injury, I have realized that I better go before I can't.

Does anyone know if the Oregon brant season is still viable? Or should I try to find a place in Washington? I live in Idaho right now and will need to make plans to travel now.

I am so interested in brant that I have carved a brant decoy from pine and have a couple dozen Herters model 96 brant rigged and ready. They are getting restless as well and need to get out. I have layout, but only a 16' trihull which I think is too small for the salt.

I am not looking to devestate the brant population, but would be quite satisified with 2 harvested, but just 1 would be good.

Any help or sugestions?
 
Oregon would be the last of the three Western States I'd pick for Brant. Very few places where they still occur in numbers that make them reliable.

Washington effectively has two different seasons. The season on Willapa Bay and the one on Padilla and Sammish. Willipa's season is short but it's in the books and you know it's going to be open. Padilla's season is authorized only after a physical count right after New Years and must exceed a set number due to this being the core wintering area the Grey Bellied sub-species. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't so you don't get disappointed that a planned trip gets cancelled.

You'll need a punch card for either of theses hunts and a boat as it is all open water hunting. Seasons are weekends and Wednesdays and only one of the weeks will coincide with the best tides. Open shallows bays in Washington can be treacherous and it's not the place for little boats if you aren't really familiar with the conditions.

There used to be a couple of Guides that booked on Padilla/Willapa but to my knowledge they no longer book.

California has the longest season of the three States and again the area is very restricted and you need to know right where to be else it will turn into a bird watching trip. Paul Gery who is a long time member of the site and the owner of NorCal Waterfowlers guides for them and knows what's going on with them in his area. If I wanted to kill a Brant I'd book with him, (and do it quickly as he books up quickly and in fact may already be), and enjoy the lack of need for a rig and the "where do I go" when you stand on the boat ramp of a Pacific Ocean Bay and ask yourself "what now"?

I moved to Washington in large part due to the Brant hunting on Padilla and enjoyed a lot of good years there and later on Sammish. Sadly it isn't what it used to be and when I go back to the West Coast to hunt them it will be to California where not only is the season longer but it doesn't have the zoo like atmosphere that the GreyBelly hunt has become. Willapa doesn't have that attached to it but it is also, in my opinion, the hardest of all of the bays that hold Brant to hunt. And perhaps the most unforgiving due to it's size and remoteness.

Steve
 
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I would either go to WA or OR. CA is too far and definately Mexico is to far. I can drive to either WA or OR in one day.

My last attempt was several years ago in Oregon. I know the spot. I saw brant, but didn't get one. I only had a dozen decoys out and they did not fully commit. I likely had one shot, but did not take it. I waited for them to come a little closer.... Should have taken the shot. They didn't come all the way in. I actually have three dozen decoys now. I forgot a dozen.

What do you recommend for shot in a 3" 12? I think it would be best to use something better thatn steel. No sense drving all the way there and cheaping out on shot.
 
Vince.....If I wanted large bags, lots of bands and to shoot rallied birds San Quentine Bay in Mexico would most definitely be my destination......I know a dozen or so people that have been....been invited....to the man when you talk to them in person its a "rally thing".....really very little reason for the birds to fly there without it.....on the internet or in a crowd they'll either dodge the answer or say that its just "normal boat traffic".......their welcome to it but I value Brant far to highly to shoot them that way.....


Andy....sounds like you already had the answer to your question.....if you "know the spot" in Oregon and had opportunities there then information on other areas is of little information......Brant aren't pushovers and they don't always commit.....my opinion has always been if the are within your acceptable range its time to shoot...committed or not.....they aren't "tough" birds are all and come down easily....long wings are subject to breaking and overall they are "soft" targets IMO......never shot them with anything bigger than 4's in Steel and my favorite load was #6 HeviShot in their 2-3/4" load....don't know if they still offer than one in the Waterfowl loads but it was a great load.....I know they still offer it I the Upland series which is the same thing as the waterfowl minus the waterproofing....on decoys rig size has little to do with success if you are where the Brant want to be and a rig of12 is as effective as a rig of 60 IF you are where they are going........out in the open water in a boat rig more is better but in places like Worth Matthewson hunts in Oregon more decoys is often just more work.........that said had a rig of 80 plus birds and added to it every year.......that being a "because I liked Brant decoys" thing and not a "if you didn't have that many you wouldn't be successful" thing.........






Steve
 
Andy~

re firepower, I echo Mr. Sutton's thoughts. My normal duck loads are Kent Fasteel #3s (2 3/4" 12 gauge) are fine. I've never shot at a Pacific Brant but I've watched many Atlantic Brant fall to comparable loads.

Best of luck with this adventure!

SJS
 
Steve....the only difference in the two on shooting is that being West Coasters they tend to "lean left" on impact......


Steve
 
Steve - You mean to tell me "hunters" & "guides" don't rally birds in the USA? Give me a break. I've been doing this way to long and in way to many places. Brant are one of my favorite waterfowl I value them as well. I made a suggestion. You made a blanket statement. Is that a halo over your head?
 
Like I said it has been several year since I have been on the Oregon bays during the fall. It sounds like WA could be my best bet. But either way I better heal up and start practice shooting.
 
Vince if you found my response onerous then you mis-read my intent.......wasn't intended to piss you off or to imply that Rallying only happened in one place and with one species.....do hunters and Guides rally in the U.S....of course they do....and will....my point was that based on the information I have, from people who have been, (and who with the exception of one have stated they will never return because of it), is that it isn't the exception there but the way it is done.....


My halo?......ask the 50 plus people from this site that hunted with me in Washington over the years if anyone of them ever saw me rally a duck......I've been in this game 52 years this coming season.....I grew out of that crap way back in my 20's.....if things I did in my teens tilts my "I don't rally and don't care to kill Brant in a place where that is the accepted method of getting it done" halo in your mind then I can live with that.......for the record I also know FOR A FACT that Paul Gery doesn't rally......that Fred Slyfield doesn't rally........that Mark Rongers doesn't rally.....and that very very few of the people that I hunt with do...and then not with me because they know its not how I want to kill ducks......I know people who d it regularly.....I don't hunt with them...and I sure wouldn't travel and pay to hunt in venue where my information tells me its going to happen......


Steve
 
I have no dog in this fight, but I think you need to more carefully read Steve's post: It clearly states that the people Steve has talked have stated that rallying the brant is the normal mode of operation down there. Not just "something that happens".
He was making a statement based on knowledge given to him from people with first hand experiences, why jump all over him?
 
I didn't find Steve's response nearly as onerous as his normal conversations.
If you don't like rallying it would appear you should avoid Mexico, although I've heard that good shooting is sometimes mostly the product of the tides. As to what constitutes legal and what constitutes sporting, for certain people, they can be at odds. I've shot ducks in Mexico. It was an amazing experience, the volume of birds far exceeding anything I've experienced in Canada (although my largest daily bag is still attributable to Canada). The way we shot the birds was to sit at a very small fresh water source, to my knowledge the only one in the area. no decoys, no early rising, in some cases no camo, no blind. The birds came in droves, and when one fired repeatedly into a large flock, they continued to circle, and often landed/drank and left. One morning we shot 60 over a stock tank the size of your living room in 20 minutes. I've told people it didn't feel very sporting compared to other hunts I've been on, and for that reason was possibly not as cherished. However, had the freshwater seep been on the East Coast, and I been well hidden, and effectively accomplished the same on a single black duck (ie taken him at his weakness in having to come to fresh water), my perception of the level of skill involved in the hunt might have been quite different (why, I cannot say, but sometimes the level of difficulty involved is directly proportionate to the level of satisfaction derived). The birds we shot in mexico were akin to what I've read about shooting bandtails at the traditional mineral seeps on the west coast (ie they had no choice but to come). Would I shoot them again, definitely. Would I spend more time relishing the single sage grouse I drove 37 hrs to pursue on public land with my own dog, and the difficulty that came with that endeavor, definitely). To each his own as long as the bag attained is derived in a sustainable manner and amount (not sure many could argue that the pursuit of west coast brant anywhere in their range is such). I think the rest of this topic has overlooked Alaska which is similar to Mexico in quantity of birds, price, and possibly higher in quality of perceived experience (depending on your views).
 
Steve....the only difference in the two on shooting is that being West Coasters they tend to "lean left" on impact......


Steve
Click to expand...
But, once they hit the water, the Coriolis effect steers them back hard to the right!
 
I missed my chance last time because in because I left two dozen plastic brant in the truck. I only had out my dozen cork brant, that I made. I wanted to harvest one over my own decoys. I also didn't take a passing shot, because I wanted to have it decoy.

I would not choose to hunt an area that relied on rallying brant. So the comment about rallying is valid. But I consider and apreciate all the advice given.
 
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