Post by IndianaHunter on Mar 8, 2007 11:18:01 GMT -5
2006 was a great year in the field but it looks like 2007 can be even better. 2006 finished off with a trip to the east coast to take in some fantastic goose, sea duck and pheasant hunting. My good friend JJ Smithey and I packed up on Friday 12-15-06 and headed to Closter, NJ to hook up with good friends Jimmy Byrne and Nugbuk… We call him Nug because no one can pronounce his given name as he is from the Republic of Georgia in Southwest Asia on the Black Sea. Both great guys and lots of fun to hunt with as we have wild boar and pheasant hunted with them before…
We had a full two days of hunting scheduled for Saturday and Sunday so the drive went by quickly.. Between JJ’s Blackberry, aka “crackberry”, my air card loaded laptop, (it’s was Friday and we still had to do our business), and the beautiful scenic drive, we were in NJ by dinner…
Saturday morning we met out first outfitter in the early A.M... After a quick stop for a bagel and coffee, we were in the field getting a few minutes of shut-eye before legal shooting light. Our guide, Larry VanKirk of Storm outfitters, www.stormoutfitters.com/ was nothing short of spectacular. A great spread of decoys, well laid out coffin blinds, and man could he use a goose call… Even though it was a bright blue jay day, without a cloud in the sky, we had birds coming from every direction and he brought them straight into our sights…. What a morning…. Full limit…
That afternoon we headed south to a favorite hunting club of theirs, Bent Creek Preserve. www.bentcreekpreserve.net/, to let the dogs work on a few pheasants. Jimmy has a Vizla and Nug has a Drahthaar, both great bird dogs with fantastic pedigrees. We had a leisurely afternoon watching two great dogs work the fields. 20 birds were put out and I believe we ended up with 17… I know we pushed at least two out of the field into some thick woods.
We topped off the day with a big slab of rare meat and a few Bass Ales and diet cokes..
Sunday was a unique hunting experience for JJ and I as we drove right through the middle of New York City to get to Long Island Sound. There in Gardner’s Bay we setup for some fast-paced sea duck hunting… The number of birds and the pace at which they flew all morning reminded JJ and I of a Midwestern dove hunt!! Only using 3 ½-12ga shells… Old Squall’s (Long Tailed Ducks) and White Winged Scoters were everywhere at first light. It was a solid 50 minutes of shooting as fast as you could load your gun before the first letup in the action. That was unbelievable!! Now as cool as this was, the real treat was being away from the main blind boat using an old wooden layout boat… Here your profile is very low to the water level and what were 40-yard shots or better in the main blind boat, here they came right into the decoys… Our guide, Capt. Charles Niggles of Outlaw Guide Service www.outlawguideservice.com/ is a third generation outfitter and provided us with great service and an outstanding hunt.. I believe we had a full limit of 28 birds but if not it was 26 or 27.
I goose and pheasant hunt here in Indiana, but sea ducks.... Man, I will make it back to Gardner's Bay for another fast paced morning of sea duck hunting as often as I can...
IndianaHunter
We had a full two days of hunting scheduled for Saturday and Sunday so the drive went by quickly.. Between JJ’s Blackberry, aka “crackberry”, my air card loaded laptop, (it’s was Friday and we still had to do our business), and the beautiful scenic drive, we were in NJ by dinner…
Saturday morning we met out first outfitter in the early A.M... After a quick stop for a bagel and coffee, we were in the field getting a few minutes of shut-eye before legal shooting light. Our guide, Larry VanKirk of Storm outfitters, www.stormoutfitters.com/ was nothing short of spectacular. A great spread of decoys, well laid out coffin blinds, and man could he use a goose call… Even though it was a bright blue jay day, without a cloud in the sky, we had birds coming from every direction and he brought them straight into our sights…. What a morning…. Full limit…
That afternoon we headed south to a favorite hunting club of theirs, Bent Creek Preserve. www.bentcreekpreserve.net/, to let the dogs work on a few pheasants. Jimmy has a Vizla and Nug has a Drahthaar, both great bird dogs with fantastic pedigrees. We had a leisurely afternoon watching two great dogs work the fields. 20 birds were put out and I believe we ended up with 17… I know we pushed at least two out of the field into some thick woods.
We topped off the day with a big slab of rare meat and a few Bass Ales and diet cokes..
Sunday was a unique hunting experience for JJ and I as we drove right through the middle of New York City to get to Long Island Sound. There in Gardner’s Bay we setup for some fast-paced sea duck hunting… The number of birds and the pace at which they flew all morning reminded JJ and I of a Midwestern dove hunt!! Only using 3 ½-12ga shells… Old Squall’s (Long Tailed Ducks) and White Winged Scoters were everywhere at first light. It was a solid 50 minutes of shooting as fast as you could load your gun before the first letup in the action. That was unbelievable!! Now as cool as this was, the real treat was being away from the main blind boat using an old wooden layout boat… Here your profile is very low to the water level and what were 40-yard shots or better in the main blind boat, here they came right into the decoys… Our guide, Capt. Charles Niggles of Outlaw Guide Service www.outlawguideservice.com/ is a third generation outfitter and provided us with great service and an outstanding hunt.. I believe we had a full limit of 28 birds but if not it was 26 or 27.
I goose and pheasant hunt here in Indiana, but sea ducks.... Man, I will make it back to Gardner's Bay for another fast paced morning of sea duck hunting as often as I can...
IndianaHunter
