Marsh Hen Hunting in South Carolina

[Larry Eckart]

Guys,
One of the things I have enjoyed in my five years in South Carolina is the marsh hen season each fall. "Marsh hens" is the general name for clapper rails and king rails.

This is an old school kind of hunt.

Marsh hens have a bad rap because some people think they taste bad (No!)

Marsh hens have a bad rap because they require some work poling or paddling (Yes!)

Marsh hens have a bad rap because they are "skinny as a rail." (Yes!). There is not much meat beyond the breast and a bite on each leg. Their breast is about the same size as a dove, maybe a bit smaller.

They live in the thick spartina grass of the saltwater marsh. You never see them when the tide is normal. But you hear them at every change of tide cackling their peculiar cry: "Tide Changing! Tide Changing!"

Each fall there are a few weeks when the moon and tides get together and move a lot of water. This is how much water: I couldn't get my boat on to the trailer when I was done hunting today because the tide was up over the slope of the ramp to the flat area of the launch. Not a problem: just wait a while for it to go down.

A favorite combo is "Cast and Blast" that includes fly fishing for redfish and hunting for marsh hens. You fish when the tide isn't quite high enough to hunt. When the tide really kicks in, it reduces the area the birds have to hide in. You still have to work but it's doable.

I recently bought a Wilderness Systems Tarpon 100 sit on top kayak to got with my Boston Whaler 13'. The two are a cool team for hunting. The Whaler gets me there safely. The kayak allows me to reach shallow flats to fish or hunt.

Today I did not get a hook up fishing for reds but that kayak was made to hunt marsh hens. It cuts through the spartina grass like butter. I used a canoe previously and that was tough.

I flushed about 20 birds today, knocking down 7 (the limit is 15). My shooting still leaves much to be desired but it was so nice to spend the morning on the marsh doing two things I love. The kayak merely quivers when you shoot.

I am still having issues getting my Macbook to talk pictures when posting on our forum. If you want to see pics of my hunt you'll have to highlight the link below and right click on it to go to the address. Some browsers may require you to copy it into your browser.

If that's too much work I understand.

Ah, it's that time of year again!

Larry


https://www.flickr.com/photos/riverlarry2/albums/72157659230313325

 

[Kevin Puls]

Sounds like a blast, hope to try it someday before it is all said and done. Saw it on a hunting show, back before hunting shows were garbage. Congrats on a nice hunt.

 

[greg setter]

Rail hunting is really fun. I did a Sora rail hunt here in New Jersey a few weeks back. The Sora's and Virginia's stay up in the freshwater parts of the rivers in the wild rice. There are a lot of clappers in the brackish section, but I have never hunted them. There are only a few people pushing for rails up here, there is a family near Delaware Bay that does it. A friend of mine gets a few tides every fall with them(You don't get a day, you get a tide). A tide is the high tide, you get about 2 hours of pushing until the water starts to drop out. These guys make their own boats and poles, they are very specialized to that area, and once you have been a few times, you can see why. The Sora's are way smaller than the Clappers, 6 of them was a nice accompaniment to my salad that night..... This week the tides are really big, it would be a good time to push, as everything is really flooding at high tide.

 

[Dave Speer]

As I mentioned on the YouTube thread, I've always wanted to try poling for them.

I haven't found them (soras) here in TX in the right situation for that, not that it doesn't exist here. I have found them while teal hunting shallower or more broken water. Also on a private rice farm lease, but the furrows would prevent the boat. Fun to hunt.