Coastal AL Opener
- Thread starter Carl
- Start date
Chris Finch
Well-known member
There are so few birds here I took the day off. (Hunted thanksgiving morning saw 10 birds and we got 1 teal). Only saw a few squirrels earlier today, but the carving bug is starting to build. I'm hoping to finish a Shang Wheeler broadbill in a bit
Good luck, looking forward to the full report
Good luck, looking forward to the full report
James Woods
Active member
East of Albany, New York. No birds this am. 68 degrees today, November 27; Last year it was in the teens and we had 8 inches of powder on the ground---and birds in the am!!
Global warming.
Global warming.
Warm with a east wind this morning, low awas about 57, high ended up 72. Not real ducky weather for the opener but oh well.
The east wind has piled the water up in upper Mobile Bay and the water was a full 1' above predicted tide levels.
We woke up early, got to the ramp and were pretty much set up by 5:00am. 5:57am was legal shooting time.
So 30 minutes before shooting time, a boat stops less than 100 yards away near the entrance to channel leading out of this bay I am on.
They sit there for a while and I am thinking they missed the entrance & ran aground or something. So I motor down and say "y'all OK?".
Yeah, they say surprised and low and behold they have decoys out. So I told them they were setting up 100 yards down wind of me.
"oh, sorry, we'll move". So I go back to my blind. They didn't move. Turns out they had a boat with a burlap blind, no other concealment (we stick cane around the boats even with a boat blind when hunting open water down here) and 1 dzn brand new mallard decoys. Obviously this was their first time doing this. Their odds of seeing a mallard in this bay is about the same as hitting lotto.
In the end, there were so few ducks on our end of the bay it didn't matter. Guys in one corner did well early then everyone started shooting coots. It was pitiful.
About 8:00 a buddy called me and said hey, we're down here covered up in redheads and bluebills, there is an empty blind south of us, get down here.
So we picked up really fast, took off and were set back up 2 miles away less than an hour later.
His call saved our day.
My boy got two nice young drakes:
View attachment IMG_0515B.jpg
Dad & him split a bluebill, he hit it, I finished it. Dad got his redheads and a hen hoodie too.
View attachment IMG_0517B.jpg
Afterwards we did some scouting and found a big Vallisneria bed no one hunted that morning that had about 150 bluebills and redheads feeding on it. Guess where we will be in the morning??
PS..Notice the new hat!
The east wind has piled the water up in upper Mobile Bay and the water was a full 1' above predicted tide levels.
We woke up early, got to the ramp and were pretty much set up by 5:00am. 5:57am was legal shooting time.
So 30 minutes before shooting time, a boat stops less than 100 yards away near the entrance to channel leading out of this bay I am on.
They sit there for a while and I am thinking they missed the entrance & ran aground or something. So I motor down and say "y'all OK?".
Yeah, they say surprised and low and behold they have decoys out. So I told them they were setting up 100 yards down wind of me.
"oh, sorry, we'll move". So I go back to my blind. They didn't move. Turns out they had a boat with a burlap blind, no other concealment (we stick cane around the boats even with a boat blind when hunting open water down here) and 1 dzn brand new mallard decoys. Obviously this was their first time doing this. Their odds of seeing a mallard in this bay is about the same as hitting lotto.
In the end, there were so few ducks on our end of the bay it didn't matter. Guys in one corner did well early then everyone started shooting coots. It was pitiful.
About 8:00 a buddy called me and said hey, we're down here covered up in redheads and bluebills, there is an empty blind south of us, get down here.
So we picked up really fast, took off and were set back up 2 miles away less than an hour later.
His call saved our day.
My boy got two nice young drakes:
View attachment IMG_0515B.jpg
Dad & him split a bluebill, he hit it, I finished it. Dad got his redheads and a hen hoodie too.
View attachment IMG_0517B.jpg
Afterwards we did some scouting and found a big Vallisneria bed no one hunted that morning that had about 150 bluebills and redheads feeding on it. Guess where we will be in the morning??
PS..Notice the new hat!
Last edited:
Chris Finch
Well-known member
Nice job!
I'm glad the noobs didn't ruin your day. I like the hat too.
I'm waiting on the divers up here saw 8 mergs and 2 buffies on my scouting run, not good.
I'm glad the noobs didn't ruin your day. I like the hat too.
I'm waiting on the divers up here saw 8 mergs and 2 buffies on my scouting run, not good.
Dwight Harley
Well-known member
Thanks for the report Carl. Let us know how you do tomorrow.
Kevin Puls
Well-known member
Sweet. I somehow have managed to not kill a drake redhead in my career. Are they locals or do you really have birds arriving there? There has been nothing here to make me believe I have missed anything.
Definitely not locals. The only local ducks we have here are woodies, mottled ducks and a few park mallards.
So these are all migrants from the PP Region and beyond.
We've got more divers now than I saw scouting just a week ago. And more gadwalls too. So they are trickling in on this full moon.
But its still nothing like the number of ducks we historically had by this time in years past.
Interestingly, between the 5 limits of mallards we & my buddies boat killed, the vast majority were this years birds. So we must have had a bumper crop of redheads this year.
So these are all migrants from the PP Region and beyond.
We've got more divers now than I saw scouting just a week ago. And more gadwalls too. So they are trickling in on this full moon.
But its still nothing like the number of ducks we historically had by this time in years past.
Interestingly, between the 5 limits of mallards we & my buddies boat killed, the vast majority were this years birds. So we must have had a bumper crop of redheads this year.
Well, this has my hopes up for the morning, but it sounds like the entire Atlantic flyway has been slow.
Carl--what do you do with the hoodie? I shoot a drake or two every year for the feathers--I just love them for tying flies. But I struggle to find a way to eat the breasts that I can stand. Last year tried a single hoodie breasted out in a pot of chili with garlic sausage, pork, and some mallard and black duck breast. With the tomatoes, veggies and beans, it probably came to something like 3 quarts of chili with maybe 10 ounces of hoodie in it. (Marinated hoodie, at that.) Still made the whole batcj taste fishy.
Carl--what do you do with the hoodie? I shoot a drake or two every year for the feathers--I just love them for tying flies. But I struggle to find a way to eat the breasts that I can stand. Last year tried a single hoodie breasted out in a pot of chili with garlic sausage, pork, and some mallard and black duck breast. With the tomatoes, veggies and beans, it probably came to something like 3 quarts of chili with maybe 10 ounces of hoodie in it. (Marinated hoodie, at that.) Still made the whole batcj taste fishy.
Todd Langston
Active member
Still hoping to get down that way in the middle of December. You able to get out more this season?