Duck season summary

jode hillman

jode hillman

Well-known member
With the past few seasons being quite lackluster, I had tempered expectations for this year. Nevertheless I had two young gunners in the fold ( my son Ethan and a friends son Adam) and a eager Retriever so it seemed a full slate of gunning was on the board. Our September youth day had the boys dropping a few Canada Geese, but no ducks were seen. Our first split early season was shortened to a mere 5 days in mid October. The ducks again were light and uncooperative.
It seems to be a repeat of prior years patterns.

Our second split opened a few day before Thanksgiving and historically has been my best gunning for teal and puddle ducks. This year was no exception. Ducks had stacked up for about a month and a few days of limits on green wings had me smiling. I switched this season to shooting a 20 gauge exclusively. This coupled with the decision to only shoot ducks feet down and committed. It really made a big difference in enjoyment and birds bagged.

Usually the marsh gets hammered during the 3 day Thanksgiving holiday, burning it out for weeks. This year heavy northwest winds and bAd tides kept that from happening, so the teal action continued well into December. As it got colder more big ducks came into the mix.

After The Christmas holiday NJ, along with the rest of the East coast was locked in a historic cold snap. Fresh water froze tight, soon the salt marsh followed suit. By early January it seemed time to hang up the waders. However I decided to look back on my logs from 2013, the last season that had extended cold. I noted spots of open water, and when I checked this year those same holes were open and paved with ducks. Thus began a two week late season that rivaled some of the best gunning I've ever seen. Multiple species, banded waterfowl, good friends and lots of action filled those days!!! I even had to call in and get additional HIP survey logs! I echo many of the sentiments I am reading from Eric and others that the 2017-2018 season is one I won't soon forget. I hope everyone else's season was just as enjoyable as mine. A few pics below will help add some substance to my written report.


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Thanks for sharing pics, we hunt jersey also and found it hard to find open water the past 3 weeks, but figured if we did there would be lots of ducks there!!
 
It's definitely been one for the books Jode! I had my best season to date numbers-wise. Mother nature really threw us a bone this year.
 
Jode

Glad you are having a strong one too. So tell me, what does she charge to clean ducks? I might hire her.

Eric
 
Thanks for the photo collage. It definitely seems that for most, this will be one of the most remembered seasons.
Congrats on all the success and on getting the boys out there to enjoy it too.
 
Your Welcome Dean. Things started to open up some the past few days, but it was great right up until the close of south zone. Thursday
 
Craig F said:
It's definitely been one for the books Jode! I had my best season to date numbers-wise. Mother nature really threw us a bone this year.
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Yup, that's why I tried to make the best of it. Had to make hay while the sun shines
 
Eric Patterson said:
Jode

Glad you are having a strong one too. So tell me, what does she charge to clean ducks? I might hire her.

Eric
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She loves to eat duck! If she can't shoot them herself she's happy to help clean them.
 
James Woods said:
Great Jode. Thanks for this post; brings back so many great LI memories in like conditions.
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I am sure it does, hopefully I will remember this season fondly in the future
 
benp said:
Thanks for the photo collage. It definitely seems that for most, this will be one of the most remembered seasons.
Congrats on all the success and on getting the boys out there to enjoy it too.
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If it wasn't for the boys and the dog, I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten out as much.
 
Congrats on the awesome season jode. This year has definitely been a treat here in jersey after a few really tough seasons. This has definitely been my best season as far as number of ducks and definitely in quality of ducks. The challenges of the ice only added to the enjoyment honestly, like you I had to look back in my notes for ideas on open water as well as put my boots on the ground and look for new spots I had never hunted before. Overall an amazing season from the early season teal along the Delaware bay to multiple days of killing cans and broadbill in far below freezing temps it was an experience and an adventure and I'm very happy so many others got to enjoy similar results! Also I'm very happy the younger generation you introduced got to experience a season like this, it will keep them coming back and we need more quality hunters!
 
Same held true here in Rhode Island. I think this is my 18th season hunting ducks, and it clearly has been my best so far. The conditions seem like they have been the same as you describe them in New Jersey (which really isn't all that far away).
 
been a good season Jode, glad to see you had some time to enjoy yourself. wished we could have hooked up for a hunt at some point but you know how it goes there is never enough time. See you soon!
 
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