Day one in the field with Robert in NJ
Our coastal zone first split and north zone second split (along with small game) opened Saturday. Knowing the coast would be the most popular option I opted to hunt the north zone with my dad (on his birthday no less) and my friend Tom. Tom had recently purchased a Duck Boss 13, his first duck boat, and was excited to use it for the first time. My hunch that the north would be less crowded was proven correct, but amazingly for a split opener the birds were few and far between. We hunted the morning tide without a bird even giving us a look and after speaking to a few other friends no one had much success.
Here is Robert inspecting to make sure my gas tank is in compliance...
And joining my Lion cork gadwalls
And this sums up the morning hunt...
Being that I am a sucker for punishment I took a quick nap and went back out in the afternoon by my house on the coast. This would be Robert's first venture to the waterfowling history rich region of Barnegat bay. Temps dropping into the 30s with a gale warning would be a good baptism into coastal waterfowling for Robert.
We saw a multitude of black ducks that didn't want to play, as well as a few mallards, but again nothing wanted to work.
We have some weather coming in next week so hopefully that gets something going on the puddle duck front.
The afternoon hunt on the bay
Limited out on sunsets