Steve Steffy
Well-known member
Thought I might share a few pics from the last hunt of the season. Gene R. and I both hunted the Eastern Shore before the season ended. Since I can't e-mail all of the pics to him I thought I might post a few up here. Thanks again for the invite Gene...I had a great time and I'm already planning at least a couple of trips down next season.
I finally made it out in my Huff again after a less than stellar beginning to the season. I should say, I was finally successful and harvested some birds from the sneakboat. Better late than never I guess. We didn't slaughter the birds by any means, but I'm not a real "numbers" guy anyway.
This was day one of our hunt on one of the "Tumps" we decided to set up on after I was humbled by the big waters and lack of experience with my boat.
This style of hunting is like nothing I have ever experienced before. The tides, the tumps, the variety of birds. If I never hunt waterfowl without my boat again I won't be disappointed. This is absolutely the ONLY way to go! Here is Gene tinkering with something.
And coming back from a scouting foray by his E. Allen Squaws...
Boredom set in as I stared at a flock of scoters to my right. I was trying to "will" the birds to come into my spread but it didn't work. So I settled for taking pictures instead. This was the last day of the hunt, late in the afternoon.
And here are a couple of my prizes from the morning hunt.
They tell the best story of the hunt...there are many more that I would rather not share as Gene will surely attest to. The second day into the hunt we had 25+ mph winds and I wasn't real comfortable taking my boat out in that. Gene has much more experience with boat and decided to give it a shot. He did end up bagging a brant of his own and a bufflehead as I watched from shore. (That was fun in itself.) The amount of brant that were trading around that morning was phenomenal (by my own standards anyway). When Gene was finished we ended up scouting most of the day and finally set up shop around 3:30 where I bagged a single canvasback (and the first duck from my boat).
That night we discussed plan for the morning and our last day. We decided to try for brant again and see what happened since I had never shot one. As we motored out. A huge flock lifted from the water and never returned. We put the decoys out and figured we'd give it an hour or two. There was still a pretty stiff north wind and a flock of brant came whipping right by us from behind. They just kept on going and we never fired a shot. We decided to pull anchor and head out after scoters and cans.
As we neared the launch Gene noticed a couple flocks of brant sitting on the south side of a couple of tumps. I admittedly thought...well thats too bad. I guess they'll be here next year. Never once did it dawn on me that we were in sneakboats and on the upwind side of the flocks of brant with a channel splitting up the flocks - ideal conditions for a sneak. Gene looked back at me and offered up a suggestion..."You want to put a sneak on?" Then the light bulb came on. We motored upwind a bit got the boats set up, cut the motors and loaded the guns. "You take the birds on the left, I'll take 'em on the right." We both ducked behind our spray dodgers and began our sneak. My boat was a bit ahead of his as the birds on the right flushed. I looked over and wondered why he wasn't shooting. They seemed to be in range? Oh, I get it now. He sacrificed his shot so I could hopefully get my first brant. "Crap, the pressures on now." I thought as I ducked down further behind my dodger. A few more yards and its go time. I closed the distance a bit more and popped my head up as I mounted my gun. The flock lifted as I realized I still had my bulky PFD on. Nevertheless, I adjusted and managed to drop my first two brant from the flock. Thanks Gene!! I motored around and collected my prize as Gene pulled his boat up to the launch.
We headed to our last hunt of the day and I finally began to get the hang of decoy deployment / pick up on the last day of the hunt. A little practice and tweaking of the boat over the summer and I will be raring to go for next season.
Steve
I finally made it out in my Huff again after a less than stellar beginning to the season. I should say, I was finally successful and harvested some birds from the sneakboat. Better late than never I guess. We didn't slaughter the birds by any means, but I'm not a real "numbers" guy anyway.
This was day one of our hunt on one of the "Tumps" we decided to set up on after I was humbled by the big waters and lack of experience with my boat.
This style of hunting is like nothing I have ever experienced before. The tides, the tumps, the variety of birds. If I never hunt waterfowl without my boat again I won't be disappointed. This is absolutely the ONLY way to go! Here is Gene tinkering with something.
And coming back from a scouting foray by his E. Allen Squaws...
Boredom set in as I stared at a flock of scoters to my right. I was trying to "will" the birds to come into my spread but it didn't work. So I settled for taking pictures instead. This was the last day of the hunt, late in the afternoon.
And here are a couple of my prizes from the morning hunt.
They tell the best story of the hunt...there are many more that I would rather not share as Gene will surely attest to. The second day into the hunt we had 25+ mph winds and I wasn't real comfortable taking my boat out in that. Gene has much more experience with boat and decided to give it a shot. He did end up bagging a brant of his own and a bufflehead as I watched from shore. (That was fun in itself.) The amount of brant that were trading around that morning was phenomenal (by my own standards anyway). When Gene was finished we ended up scouting most of the day and finally set up shop around 3:30 where I bagged a single canvasback (and the first duck from my boat).
That night we discussed plan for the morning and our last day. We decided to try for brant again and see what happened since I had never shot one. As we motored out. A huge flock lifted from the water and never returned. We put the decoys out and figured we'd give it an hour or two. There was still a pretty stiff north wind and a flock of brant came whipping right by us from behind. They just kept on going and we never fired a shot. We decided to pull anchor and head out after scoters and cans.
As we neared the launch Gene noticed a couple flocks of brant sitting on the south side of a couple of tumps. I admittedly thought...well thats too bad. I guess they'll be here next year. Never once did it dawn on me that we were in sneakboats and on the upwind side of the flocks of brant with a channel splitting up the flocks - ideal conditions for a sneak. Gene looked back at me and offered up a suggestion..."You want to put a sneak on?" Then the light bulb came on. We motored upwind a bit got the boats set up, cut the motors and loaded the guns. "You take the birds on the left, I'll take 'em on the right." We both ducked behind our spray dodgers and began our sneak. My boat was a bit ahead of his as the birds on the right flushed. I looked over and wondered why he wasn't shooting. They seemed to be in range? Oh, I get it now. He sacrificed his shot so I could hopefully get my first brant. "Crap, the pressures on now." I thought as I ducked down further behind my dodger. A few more yards and its go time. I closed the distance a bit more and popped my head up as I mounted my gun. The flock lifted as I realized I still had my bulky PFD on. Nevertheless, I adjusted and managed to drop my first two brant from the flock. Thanks Gene!! I motored around and collected my prize as Gene pulled his boat up to the launch.
We headed to our last hunt of the day and I finally began to get the hang of decoy deployment / pick up on the last day of the hunt. A little practice and tweaking of the boat over the summer and I will be raring to go for next season.
Steve
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