Failure in duck hunting comes from a combination of factors that you can and can't control. But when failure becomes a constant, it starts to feel personal.
Can't imagine the COVID improved your shooting or your confidence. Ugh. I have to say that my jaw dropped at $1.25 million for any duck club buy-in. First, those are very expensive ducks. And, second, that's grotesque. What a strange place we're in.
Holly, I can certainly feel your frustration. The season is winding down, and I know there's some urgency around making the most of it...especially since these are generally the prime days. Seems like the flight is finally turning on, just as the season is about to shut down.
But...
I have always said that CA waterfowl hunters are spoiled. I know it's true, because I was right there in it for 20 years or so... after hunting NC for most of the previous 20 years. I recall listening to my fellow hunters moan and groan about slow shooting, or how the birds wouldn't work.
"I only got one mallard!"
"I only managed to scrape down a sprig and a couple of damned spoonies."
A friend cursed the high-flying pintails that would circle and circle and then move off when someone a couple ponds over fired a shot. But watching those same birds always took my breath away.
Simply seeing birds, even at a distance, almost all day long was practically a dream come true for a hunter whose most common experience is a couple flocks of wood ducks just at shoot time, followed by a sky full of nothing for the rest of the day. Maybe a hooded merganser or ruddy duck will pick up and scoot across the water (I don't shoot either, even though mergansers now have their own bag limit). We used to see teal a little bit, but even those little guys are hanging up above the Mason Dixon until the waters freeze right down to the Chesapeake.
Pintails? Mallards? Geese? Forget about it. Sure, they get them up in the northern part of the state, but if you want to see a place with violent competition for the hot spots... just try to grab a prime spot in Pamlico Sound or the nearby river marshes. Unlike the refuges where you can pretty much walk in and find a pretty decent spot, most of the accessible public waters require a boat, along with pretty intimate knowledge of the waterways.
I barely even go anymore. That's the sad truth of it. I fired four shells last year, and I ate no ducks. It's funny, a little bit, that in CA, I thought nothing of jumping in the truck and driving three hours to camp in the sweat line. But at least after all of that, I would see lots of ducks and generally get at least a couple of shots.
Here, I can barely get motivated to wake up at 5 and drive 45 minutes to the boat ramp. There's a branch of the Cape Fear River that is much closer, but it's nearly dry due to the lack of rain the past year or so. I could literally put on waders and hike up or downstream to find a pothole like my brother and his grandson did last Thursday. But for all the sweat, twisted ankles, and climbing over deadfall, they saw three ducks... only one in range (that they missed). The last bird flew over about 5 minutes after shoot time. The rest of the day they stared at empty sky.
But at least we got drawn for swans again this year. We'll be out there for a half hour to shoot our birds, and then we'll watch the thousands more trading from the open water to the fields. I guess I'll stop whining. I'm only a little bit jealous.
Weirdly enough, this has been our most successful hunt year ever. We haven't gone out that much, but we haven't come home empty-handed once. We even had an amazing experience in Sonoma during opener where we figured it'd be a bad duck day, so we went out for rabbits around 10am and ran into a couple of successful hunters packing out. We asked them how they'd done (10 ducks between three of them, I think) and explained we were going out for jacks. It was news to them that jackrabbits are delicious, and they were apparently so excited about learning this fact (I plugged HAGC VERY hard as a recipe resource) that one of them just *gave* us two of his ducks as a gift. We didn't see hide nor hair of a rabbit that morning, but we still came home with what turned out to be two fat, non-stinky spoonies.
Then Dex hit his first-ever limit on the sea duck hunt with you, Holly, and we saw tons of ducks (and the most exquisite sunrise of my entire life) while hunting Grizzly Island (and came home with a few)...it may not *sound* like much, but for us it's been a very good year. I've been so bummed to hear about so many folks getting skunked repeatedly -- both because I want everyone to have a grand time and also because it's spooky to think about what this might portend for waterfowl populations -- but the last couple of years have been pretty unfun and unsuccessful for us, and this year has been exactly what we needed to remember why we love doing this. (And you capture so perfectly exactly that rush of joyful satisfaction that turns UGH THIS STINKS into SHIT THIS IS THE BEST EVER...)
Jan 4, 2023·edited Jan 4, 2023Liked by Holly Heyser
This is a timely essay.
I haven't missed a single shot this year. Of course, I hadn't duck hunted until New Year's day due to complications of work and weather. This year, I wanted to learn an area in the North Bay that I had hunted successfully with my nephew in his boat last year. So when the weather cleared a bit Sunday, I headed out on a mile long kayak trip to get to the marshes.
As soon as I set up, a spoonie snapped in from the side and dumped right into my decoys. He was perfectly positioned so it would ruin about 5 brand new decoys. He exited the same way. Ah! A sign of hope, though! The day opened up, clear and still. It was beautiful. For a photograph. The ducks lounged in the middle of large expanses of water, the normally complex waterways erased by the king tide. Occasionally a boat would pass by and a huge number of ducks would get up, hover in a whirlwind of possibility, then settle back down. They never came near me, not even distantly, save for an occasional goldeneye or bufflehead that came in to swim in the decoys. Then, one single Canvasback shot by, 'on a mission', to my right. I swung, snapped a shot, and he folded onto the thickly brushed levee. Success! I searched for him for over an hour before I gave up. It was not the ending I was hoping for. My donation to the local scavengers.
I still count it as a good day out, a worthwhile scouting trip, but I wouldn't want to repeat that too many times. Hope springs eternal, and there is next weekend.
Tangentially related, I was scouring the web for tips on identifying ducks in flight and ran across this lovely article on Audobon. I was a third of the way through it when the author started talking about stocks and rendering fat for use throughout the year and I was like, "This has to either be Hank or Holly's writing." Sure enough...the internet is a small world some times.
I can somewhat relate... although I haven't worked NEARLY as hard as it sounds you have, I have been unsuccessful in obtaining any ducks for two years now. Two depressing, annoying, and chagrined years where every duck hunt I go on, we see hoards of ducks flying into fed ponds on the horizon, or no ducks at all. Most of it has to do with available land/water to hunt on, which there is very little of (that's not private and out of bounds) in my neck of the woods and a lot of that has to do with richer folks obtaining and heavily feeding ponds in the area. Going out hunting is fun, even if you don't get something, until you do it again... and again, and again, and again. It can be SO disheartening. Luckily, I can always rely on a few successful Canada goose hunts to lift my spirits. I am still missing my seared mallard breasts and duck confit though!
Holly this sounds very close to my experiences in general, which is why I love your stories so much- you say things I might think but wouldn't necessarily express to my buddies. My season has been somewhat different though- we had I would say maybe excessive success in the Delta, but with geese not ducks. My refuge duck hunts this year were mixed - a few limits but many days with only a couple of birds. I came up considerably shorter than I would have if I'd have shot straps of spoonies, but that isn't how I roll, and now I don't have a pile of spoonies in the freezer to wonder what to do with. It seemed that we waited for ducks to show up, and when they finally did in late December the numbers spiked spectacularly everywhere, then ground to a semi-halt as the storms came and spread the birds out. I also decided to revise my "birds-don't-fly-in-the-rain" and "the storm-blew-them-out" theories (the latter especially as applied to Greylodge), perhaps too late, but it became necessary if you wanted to hunt. And we had some OK hunts in nasty weather - although I don't particularly enjoy it, I'll gladly do it, especially if the wind will get 'em flying. I totally agree that it's real easy to pretend to be OK with getting skunked bc you just want to "get out." The other side of it is that I absolutely loved hunting with my many excellent friends, and by myself too, and I can be happy with quality shots on a sprig and a teal for a day's work. I'm basically just thrilled to be out at sunrise in the beautiful areas we hunt. Many states have nothing that even comes close to our CA refuge system and flyway, so there's that to be grateful for.
Sounds like my last 3 days of the season in Washington, except I got skunked all three days. I do enjoy the experience but sure wish I ended the season with a few ducks! Yesterday the skys were full of ducks and geese, all helbent on some other location than landing in our decoys, and we watched many of them cup up and drop into a field a 1/2 mile away.... on private land.
Can't imagine the COVID improved your shooting or your confidence. Ugh. I have to say that my jaw dropped at $1.25 million for any duck club buy-in. First, those are very expensive ducks. And, second, that's grotesque. What a strange place we're in.
Holly,
Very impressed with your waterfowl hunting dedication!
Damn that Covid!
Holly, I can certainly feel your frustration. The season is winding down, and I know there's some urgency around making the most of it...especially since these are generally the prime days. Seems like the flight is finally turning on, just as the season is about to shut down.
But...
I have always said that CA waterfowl hunters are spoiled. I know it's true, because I was right there in it for 20 years or so... after hunting NC for most of the previous 20 years. I recall listening to my fellow hunters moan and groan about slow shooting, or how the birds wouldn't work.
"I only got one mallard!"
"I only managed to scrape down a sprig and a couple of damned spoonies."
A friend cursed the high-flying pintails that would circle and circle and then move off when someone a couple ponds over fired a shot. But watching those same birds always took my breath away.
Simply seeing birds, even at a distance, almost all day long was practically a dream come true for a hunter whose most common experience is a couple flocks of wood ducks just at shoot time, followed by a sky full of nothing for the rest of the day. Maybe a hooded merganser or ruddy duck will pick up and scoot across the water (I don't shoot either, even though mergansers now have their own bag limit). We used to see teal a little bit, but even those little guys are hanging up above the Mason Dixon until the waters freeze right down to the Chesapeake.
Pintails? Mallards? Geese? Forget about it. Sure, they get them up in the northern part of the state, but if you want to see a place with violent competition for the hot spots... just try to grab a prime spot in Pamlico Sound or the nearby river marshes. Unlike the refuges where you can pretty much walk in and find a pretty decent spot, most of the accessible public waters require a boat, along with pretty intimate knowledge of the waterways.
I barely even go anymore. That's the sad truth of it. I fired four shells last year, and I ate no ducks. It's funny, a little bit, that in CA, I thought nothing of jumping in the truck and driving three hours to camp in the sweat line. But at least after all of that, I would see lots of ducks and generally get at least a couple of shots.
Here, I can barely get motivated to wake up at 5 and drive 45 minutes to the boat ramp. There's a branch of the Cape Fear River that is much closer, but it's nearly dry due to the lack of rain the past year or so. I could literally put on waders and hike up or downstream to find a pothole like my brother and his grandson did last Thursday. But for all the sweat, twisted ankles, and climbing over deadfall, they saw three ducks... only one in range (that they missed). The last bird flew over about 5 minutes after shoot time. The rest of the day they stared at empty sky.
But at least we got drawn for swans again this year. We'll be out there for a half hour to shoot our birds, and then we'll watch the thousands more trading from the open water to the fields. I guess I'll stop whining. I'm only a little bit jealous.
Weirdly enough, this has been our most successful hunt year ever. We haven't gone out that much, but we haven't come home empty-handed once. We even had an amazing experience in Sonoma during opener where we figured it'd be a bad duck day, so we went out for rabbits around 10am and ran into a couple of successful hunters packing out. We asked them how they'd done (10 ducks between three of them, I think) and explained we were going out for jacks. It was news to them that jackrabbits are delicious, and they were apparently so excited about learning this fact (I plugged HAGC VERY hard as a recipe resource) that one of them just *gave* us two of his ducks as a gift. We didn't see hide nor hair of a rabbit that morning, but we still came home with what turned out to be two fat, non-stinky spoonies.
Then Dex hit his first-ever limit on the sea duck hunt with you, Holly, and we saw tons of ducks (and the most exquisite sunrise of my entire life) while hunting Grizzly Island (and came home with a few)...it may not *sound* like much, but for us it's been a very good year. I've been so bummed to hear about so many folks getting skunked repeatedly -- both because I want everyone to have a grand time and also because it's spooky to think about what this might portend for waterfowl populations -- but the last couple of years have been pretty unfun and unsuccessful for us, and this year has been exactly what we needed to remember why we love doing this. (And you capture so perfectly exactly that rush of joyful satisfaction that turns UGH THIS STINKS into SHIT THIS IS THE BEST EVER...)
This is a timely essay.
I haven't missed a single shot this year. Of course, I hadn't duck hunted until New Year's day due to complications of work and weather. This year, I wanted to learn an area in the North Bay that I had hunted successfully with my nephew in his boat last year. So when the weather cleared a bit Sunday, I headed out on a mile long kayak trip to get to the marshes.
As soon as I set up, a spoonie snapped in from the side and dumped right into my decoys. He was perfectly positioned so it would ruin about 5 brand new decoys. He exited the same way. Ah! A sign of hope, though! The day opened up, clear and still. It was beautiful. For a photograph. The ducks lounged in the middle of large expanses of water, the normally complex waterways erased by the king tide. Occasionally a boat would pass by and a huge number of ducks would get up, hover in a whirlwind of possibility, then settle back down. They never came near me, not even distantly, save for an occasional goldeneye or bufflehead that came in to swim in the decoys. Then, one single Canvasback shot by, 'on a mission', to my right. I swung, snapped a shot, and he folded onto the thickly brushed levee. Success! I searched for him for over an hour before I gave up. It was not the ending I was hoping for. My donation to the local scavengers.
I still count it as a good day out, a worthwhile scouting trip, but I wouldn't want to repeat that too many times. Hope springs eternal, and there is next weekend.
Tangentially related, I was scouring the web for tips on identifying ducks in flight and ran across this lovely article on Audobon. I was a third of the way through it when the author started talking about stocks and rendering fat for use throughout the year and I was like, "This has to either be Hank or Holly's writing." Sure enough...the internet is a small world some times.
https://www.audubon.org/news/a-duck-hunters-tips-quickly-identifying-waterfowl-wing
I can somewhat relate... although I haven't worked NEARLY as hard as it sounds you have, I have been unsuccessful in obtaining any ducks for two years now. Two depressing, annoying, and chagrined years where every duck hunt I go on, we see hoards of ducks flying into fed ponds on the horizon, or no ducks at all. Most of it has to do with available land/water to hunt on, which there is very little of (that's not private and out of bounds) in my neck of the woods and a lot of that has to do with richer folks obtaining and heavily feeding ponds in the area. Going out hunting is fun, even if you don't get something, until you do it again... and again, and again, and again. It can be SO disheartening. Luckily, I can always rely on a few successful Canada goose hunts to lift my spirits. I am still missing my seared mallard breasts and duck confit though!
Holly this sounds very close to my experiences in general, which is why I love your stories so much- you say things I might think but wouldn't necessarily express to my buddies. My season has been somewhat different though- we had I would say maybe excessive success in the Delta, but with geese not ducks. My refuge duck hunts this year were mixed - a few limits but many days with only a couple of birds. I came up considerably shorter than I would have if I'd have shot straps of spoonies, but that isn't how I roll, and now I don't have a pile of spoonies in the freezer to wonder what to do with. It seemed that we waited for ducks to show up, and when they finally did in late December the numbers spiked spectacularly everywhere, then ground to a semi-halt as the storms came and spread the birds out. I also decided to revise my "birds-don't-fly-in-the-rain" and "the storm-blew-them-out" theories (the latter especially as applied to Greylodge), perhaps too late, but it became necessary if you wanted to hunt. And we had some OK hunts in nasty weather - although I don't particularly enjoy it, I'll gladly do it, especially if the wind will get 'em flying. I totally agree that it's real easy to pretend to be OK with getting skunked bc you just want to "get out." The other side of it is that I absolutely loved hunting with my many excellent friends, and by myself too, and I can be happy with quality shots on a sprig and a teal for a day's work. I'm basically just thrilled to be out at sunrise in the beautiful areas we hunt. Many states have nothing that even comes close to our CA refuge system and flyway, so there's that to be grateful for.
Sounds like my last 3 days of the season in Washington, except I got skunked all three days. I do enjoy the experience but sure wish I ended the season with a few ducks! Yesterday the skys were full of ducks and geese, all helbent on some other location than landing in our decoys, and we watched many of them cup up and drop into a field a 1/2 mile away.... on private land.