On the hunt in the NJ marsh

Charles H.

Charles H.

Active member
I arrived at our lodgings earlier this afternoon, my brother has been here since Saturday morning. He managed 1 brant, 1 bufflehead, 1 black duck, and two redheads before a nasty cut on the foot of one of his two drahthaars ended his hunt early and required a trip to the vet for stitches.


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I'll be here until Thursday afternoon and will try and update this post with pics and stories throughout the week. Hopefully I can get my Lab pup his first duck retrieve later this week. Wish us Luck!
 
Make sure to have your camera ready for pups first retrieve. Can't wait to hear the story and see feathers in his mouth. Good luck.
 
Good luck gunning this week Charles. Still slow along Del Bay, you must be over by the ocean with the brant. I've hunted Jersey for 40 years and have never seen a redhead!
 
Consider yourself very blessed with those redheads! We don't see them too often here.
 
And here is a trick for eating brant that have been feeding on sea lettuce. Cut the breast meat out and then slice thin, maybe 1/4 ". Make some seasoned flour with your favorite stuff, roll them in that, dip in egg, then roll in seasoned bread crumbs(or the flour again) and cook in a skillet with some olive oil.Comes out pretty good, the thin pieces allow the seasoning to take over the flavor, the meat is tender. Only about a minute on each side in the pan. Good luck hunting and hope you get into some ducks also.
 
greg, thanks for the recipe for brant. I have never been able to make them taste good, so I'll give it a try and report back. A friend says he splits them and puts them on the outside grill after marinating them.
 
Well the wind changed direction so we picked up to try another spot. When we got there we didn't like the conditions so we packed it in.

We saw mostly Buffleheads and Brant. Fog made visibility really tough.

Hoping for better luck tomorrow!
 
Well I had hoped to post a bunch of photos and stories each day while we were out, but man has it been S-L-O-W!!!!

There were four of us in the boat today as our friend Scott and his son Owen drove down to meet us at the ramp. We set up today on a point not far from where my brother got the redheads on Saturday. Right before shooting light we had a pair of Blackducks cruise in and out. We had 1 single brant give us a look, and a handful of Buffleheads. The past two days high tide has flooded the marshes. Areas that we counted on being above water had 1-2 feet of water. It's been pretty tough to hide our boat in those conditions.

Tomorrow my brother's Drahthaar gets a day off so my Black Lab Pup will get his shot. We did some throws off the dock this afternoon and I think he'll be fine. Hopefully we can get him a duck!
 
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Charles- think about hunting through low tide instead of high. The tides have been big and it gets very difficult to hide in those conditions, and the puddle ducks can go anywhere making them difficult to hunt. You might also find some sandbars that the brant like during low tide and can hunt the edges of the sedge banks then also with your boat. These last two seasons have been very poor here in Jersey, so don't feel bad. The duck numbers just aren't here.
 
Greg, the timing just hasn't been right, with low tides close to first light. We would probably be better off launching later in the day and hunting the falling tide but we like to be up and on the water for first light.

We hunted a different area today. Had some action early from Buffies, but then it tapered off. A little bit of activity when the wind picked up mid morning as ducks tried to find sheltered water. Still saw very little in the air. The few we did get to decoy were important ducks today though...



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So we ended the day with a handfull of buffies, and some positive first time experiences for my new hunting buddy Shadow.
 
I don't know how long you are staying, but I'll be at my usual haunt on Saturday mid-morning. Have to drive to Baltimore to get my daughter on an early flight back to college, then will drive back and over to the cabin and get going.Low tide is around noon and I'm going to hunt through that, because high tide has been dead. So if you're in the area, stop by in the afternoon. And good luck!
 
We have jumped around from area to area all week. Desperately trying to find some ducks. Today my brother was joined by his brother in law, and nephew. That makes 4 big guys, all their gear, decoys and a dog in one boat. My brothers Duckboss 17 handled it no problems! He has a 75hp Honda on it and man does it move!

As you can see in my post above, the day started as it usually does, with a beautiful sunrise.

We decided to target birds we knew were around, so we went to a spot we'd seen plenty of brant in prior weeks. Some brant even cooperated.


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My bro's Drahthaar made some awesome long retrieves. This little girl LOVES TO HUNT!!!


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We saw a handful of blackducks way up in the stratosphere, but not much else. After drawing next to no interest from even the Buffleheads and with the wind picking up, we decided to pack up and try out a different location. We set up on a small point that gave us a little shelter from the wind, and hoped for the best.

We were at the point where everyone is thinking about packing up but no one has said it yet... and then this happened....


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Banded locally as an adult in 2015. Perfect way to end the day!

We capped it all off with dinner at Allen's Clam Bar in New Gretna

So that's it for my Christmas Break duck hunting. My bro will hunt two more days, bu I have to head home in the morning and will be back to the classroom on Monday. But we'll still make our typical Saturday drive to the marsh to hunt.

Thanks for following along
 
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That last photo is awesome with you in the background doing the we are the champions pose.







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AfrikaansAlbanianAmharicArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CorsicanCroatianCzechDanishDutchEnglishEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchFrisianGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHawaiianHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKhmerKoreanKurdishKyrgyzLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianLuxembourgishMacedonianMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianMyanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianPashtoPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSamoanScots GaelicSerbianSesothoShonaSindhiSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTajikTamilTeluguThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduUzbekVietnameseWelshXhosaYiddishYorubaZulu
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