Some late season pics of Champlain hunts- more pics

That looks like a ton of fun John. I really like that boat blind. Have you ever noticed that goldeneyes seem to be able to turn their whistling wings on and off at will? I've had a few sneak into the decoys that were as silent as any mallard dropping in.
Pete, I will have to try that recipe next time I get a few whistlers-I usually don't shoot them but I might try a few to try your recipe out!
 
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Sitting here in Bama at 70 degrees your pictures are refreshing... I wore shorts under my waders yesterday and was sweating....... Congrats on the great hunt and the beautiful red head...
 
Victor, we all grew up with the local "traditions" of waterfowling;social and meteorlogical. I find it hard to get excited about going out for the early Canada goose season because I don't enjoy plowing around in a dew covered field or marsh while swatting mosquitos in the high heat and humidity that accompanies it. I hunt, but I don't consider it hunting weather, particularly waterfowl weather.

Give me a cold front, skim ice and sleet, a hot thermos cup of chowder or soup, and I am ready to go all day. That is waterfowling heaven.
 
Great pics. I miss the late season on Champlain.... it could be tremendous.


Managed a black and a buffie myself on Saturday in between snow storm and ice storm'
 

Victor, we all grew up with the local "traditions" of waterfowling;social and meteorlogical. I find it hard to get excited about going out for the early Canada goose season because I don't enjoy plowing around in a dew covered field or marsh while swatting mosquitos in the high heat and humidity that accompanies it. I hunt, but I don't consider it hunting weather, particularly waterfowl weather.

Give me a cold front, skim ice and sleet, a hot thermos cup of chowder or soup, and I am ready to go all day. That is waterfowling heaven.
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I understand and can agree with that... I am a fan of any weather cold enough to keep the skeeters off of ya....
 
John,

That snow hunt on the bank looks fun. One of my bucket lists hunts I hope to try someday is an ice hunt on Champlain.

*
 
Here a few pics of a hunt on the last day of Vt's Lake Champlain zone. The big white puffy thing is a roof to a portable garage that Cheech owned, draped over his 18 foot Lund Alaska with blind. Thats me on the left, with Shawn Giard standing up on the right, and Rob Hazen is sitting, unseen, in the boat.

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We had a good day with quite the mixed bag. A snow goose, a mallard, a hoody and several goldeneyes. It was cold that day, around 15 degrees as I recall. We had to hook a strap from the rear of my truck to the front of his truck to get his boat and truck up the icy ramp.

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At one point a loon had swam unseen by us into the decoys and gotten hung up underwater in the decoy strings. His thrashing around caused several seconds of confusion on our part trying to figure out what was going in the decoys. In this pic he has just extricated hisself and gotten a few feet away from the decoys before we could get out phones out for a pic.

For anyone who remembers the earlier posts about "Levi"(Johns 31inch Goldeneye) he is pictured here in all his glory. I honestly believe that the flock of Snow Geese that came by to take a look saw all the white on Levi and were sure he was one of them. Thanks for posting the pics John.
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Call me crazy but snow, ice and Goldeneyes has me a little envious. I can almost hear those wings whistling from here.
Thanks for sharing these photos.

Tim
 
Hi all. I'm glad you like the pics. We had one heck of a good time on those hunts.

Steve, the mask came from Midway Shooting supplies of all places. About a year ago they branched out to hunting supplies.

As to recipes for whistlers, I do most of my duck cooking on the grill even here in the winter in Vt. My favorite recipe is to take goldeneye breasts, with the skin ON, and put in a zip lock bag with an oz of olive oil, an oz of either soy sauce or teriyaki sauce and a heavy sprinkling of garlic ginger sesamee seasoning. Grill to a medium doneness over a hot grill and serve hot. The skin will keep the bird from drying out and I kind of like the char from the inevitable flare up. Cheech and I have eaten this on his boat many a cold day. It fantastic served with cheddar cheese and slices of apples.

As to the birds seeming ability to turn off the whistling, I'd say they must be able to when they want to. Its the silend ones that always sneak into the decoys when I'm looking the other way.
 
In the recipe section is a pic I posted last year of the ingrediants for this goldeneye recipe, including a pic of the label of the seasoning used, in case you want to look for it in the store.

John
 
Way to go, John and Cheech! I'm glad some folks had productive outings on Champlain this year.

Tough season for me, but I did finally manage to harvest some bufflehead over your super flatties.

Any trouble with ice build-up on the fixed boat blind?
 
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