[swancaller]

Man we have the ducks now. we only picked up 12 ducks today and lost 2 to diving. mallards, blacks, buffle head, blackheads, ruddy all in the bag today. lost a teal and a wigeon. my hunters today we not on top of their game.......oh shoot they sucked. they each went through 2 boxes of shells and i shot the cripples for them. but that is hunting.

 

[cskiff]

Swancaller, another fine post with good pics, you guys seem to do pretty good in Currituck, Currituck has been good to us this year at the south end, but Back Bay has been mighty slowww!!!

 

[MarkTakacs]

I second the nice posts with pics.............good to see what and how others are doing.
Do you guys use any overhead cover or do you tuck under the pine with ducks over head?
Our black ducks in the salt marshes of the lower shore in MD will circle for days overhead before committing...........you better have good cover.
Do you guys experience the same thing with blacks or any of the other high flyers?

Mark

 

[flemflamman]

isnt that a scissor rig?

 

[swancaller]

I dont use the scissors on this boat. I use the duck blind material to throw over the side and use the same rail as a scissors it allows me to cut down on the weight and stay in shallow water.

We dont usually have a problem with the ducks overhead. Yesterday I listened to some idiot blow on a timber type call all day long. He would not shut up on that thing. He would have killed some ducks if he would just shut up sometimes. On opening day it pays to be quiet. I did not even have to see the ducks I just listened to the guys in the marsh call. I would hear one blind stop then the next blind start. all the way down the line then the ducks would come out and BLAM I would eat them up. One of the guys came by on this way home and said you guys with the float blinds really draw the ducks in......I thought now not calling like I was in Arkansas timber hunting did it. You can tell them until you are blue in the face that a blue bill doesnt quack!!!

I dont call unless the duck has circled us and is leaving then I call him back. just a little feeder calling does wonders.

The guide the owns the lodge is one of the few masters I have ever seen with a duck call. he blows 2 of them at one time and when he talks they listen. If the duck is coming he doesnt call at all.

Most people flare ducks by moving in a blind if the duck has come in that close while you were standing up the just dont move.

 

[swancaller]

sckiff we have been killing a lot of big divers down there the red heads have hung around this year but no teal ???? I will be hunting the south end Monday with the same party they want a red head to mount.

 

[getwood]

swancaller nice job. just wondering i hunt around hampton roads alot , ragged island james river , a marsh outside benetts creek and hopfully tcc collage in suffolk and been seeing alot of ruddy ducks golden eyes, buffs and a ton of scoters and a few pods of blue bills, my question is that i bought a manual mojo at walmart for 19 dollars and said what the heck i,ll get it was cheap. do you think it would work on divers or will it make them flare off?

 

[mrobertson]

swancaller you guys really hammer them down there. Great post/pics....keep em' comin. At least i know someone is harvesting some birds cause i sure aint!! It's been slow on the eastern shore of maryland for the last 2-3 years.

 

[pbramble]

getwood,
mojo duck has a new spinner, the wing thing, that costs $20.00. We've had good luck on blackheads, old squaw and scoters with it. So to answer your question, yes, they do help with divers. Here's a link to them.

http://www.mojodecoys.net/mojo_wing_thang.htm

 

[cskiff]

Swancaller, I havent hunted there in a week but my buddy is going in the morning, I will give you a report, last time we got teal, and a blackhead, today we hunted Back Bay and had 2 groups of blackheads buzz us for some good shooting and saw thousands of snows flying in the nose bleed section, man they were high, landing and rafting up in the middle of the bay.

 

[getwood]

pbramble thanks but darn i wish i about them before, they look pretty cool and easy to transport but thats ok i,ll just lug this one around for now ido alot of hunting along a shore line of ragged island .hopefully i,ll bring in those bbs ive been seeing out in the distance tired of shootin buffs,this past sat had a flock of em fly over tried callin a few times but until i realized that there was a couple of deer hunters walking within a 50yrds of me that probably flared them off but i did make them look and turn i guess they dont like hunter orange .[shy]

 

[swancaller]

I will post a picture of a simple and easy way to put up your spinner decoys no matter where you hunt or how deep the water is. after loosing 2 of them in 1 week to the stake falling over we made up some floating platforms and they are the bomb!!

Yesterday was a blue bird day for sure no wind and all sun. we only killed 4 blackheads and gave up at 11:00 the birds just sat on the water all day and didnt want to fly.

 

[cskiff]

Swancaller, my buddy and a friend got 4 ruddys and couple blackheads today in Currituck, they said the birds shut down around 9:30 am, nothing else flying, no redheads, report from south end of Knotts Island. gonna try Friday.

 

[swancaller]

If you friends were hunting on swan island shoal I was the boat that ran up some birds for them. I was just out riding the sound looking to see where all the birds were sitting at! there were 2 blinds with people in them on the shoal.

 

[cskiff]

That was probably them we are on the shoal just west of Swan Island, been a pretty good spot this year, ussually everyone starts picking up and heading in, we wait till 10:30 or so so they kick the birds up for us on thier way in[grin][grin]