I cut out of work a few hours early yesterday and hit the road for my sea duck trip. I had plans to stay at a friends house in Connecticut so we could get an early morning hunt on the Long Island Sound.
On my way up I couldn't resist detouring over to get in a super quick pheasant hunt with the last 15 minutes of shooting light. They were all getting roosted for the night, but my dog managed to flush a couple and I took one shot one kill just before dark.
When I got to CT, my buddy and his family were just finishing roasting some pheasants I had given them a few days back. They tasted excellent, with bacon and an apple gravy that was really good.
The next morning we woke up at 5am and shot down to the docks to meet our friend/guide at his boat. The Sound was super calm and we got out very easy. We set out the decoys with time to spare before shooting light and got ready for the birds.
The ducks were absolutely everywhere, they decoyed really well and the overall movement was great. I had never been sea duck hunting before today, and I must say that it is like no other shooting I've done. They fly fast and come out of nowhere. With only 2 of us shooting, we went through almost 5 boxes shells! We shot several that dove down never to be seen again, and many more that went down hard and then flew away when we went to retrieve them. These are some tough little suckers, dispatch shots are very common. We even had one duck "come back to life" in the boat, with its head back upright and looking around at us!!
All in all we came home with both our limits of Old Squaw or Long-Tails as they are called now. It was an awesome day on the water. We even saw a seal toward the end!
Thanks for reading.
On my way up I couldn't resist detouring over to get in a super quick pheasant hunt with the last 15 minutes of shooting light. They were all getting roosted for the night, but my dog managed to flush a couple and I took one shot one kill just before dark.
When I got to CT, my buddy and his family were just finishing roasting some pheasants I had given them a few days back. They tasted excellent, with bacon and an apple gravy that was really good.
The next morning we woke up at 5am and shot down to the docks to meet our friend/guide at his boat. The Sound was super calm and we got out very easy. We set out the decoys with time to spare before shooting light and got ready for the birds.
The ducks were absolutely everywhere, they decoyed really well and the overall movement was great. I had never been sea duck hunting before today, and I must say that it is like no other shooting I've done. They fly fast and come out of nowhere. With only 2 of us shooting, we went through almost 5 boxes shells! We shot several that dove down never to be seen again, and many more that went down hard and then flew away when we went to retrieve them. These are some tough little suckers, dispatch shots are very common. We even had one duck "come back to life" in the boat, with its head back upright and looking around at us!!
All in all we came home with both our limits of Old Squaw or Long-Tails as they are called now. It was an awesome day on the water. We even saw a seal toward the end!
Thanks for reading.
