Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2019-20 i Wildfowl

MAINE HUNTERS PAUL Reynolds and Scott Sicard first met and began hunting together when Reynolds joined the Saco Police Department. “He was my training officer,” said Reynolds of Sicard. “We immediately hit it off and became great friends. Scott had done some hunting before we met but he had not done any waterfowl hunting. I grew up waterfowling so I was glad to introduce him to the sport. Since then, we’ve hunted as much as our schedules and family life allow, and we’ve taken several banded birds, though Scott was unable to claim any.” It was a warm November day when the duo set out on their annual hunt with co-worker Chris Hardiman, whose stepfather, Bill Pidgeon runs Eiders Down Guide service and lets the group hunt with him every…

It’s easy to learn a lot about snow goose hunting by talking to some of the best goose guides in the country. All five of the guides mentioned in the story have been there, done that when it comes to killing snow geese. And they all know what works, and doesn’t work for them. While many people like to talk about goose hunting strategies in small nuances, for John Neu, the real key to success is something much simpler than calls, decoys, or guns and loads. “Probably one of the biggest things I would say is just being patient, sitting in your blind and being prepared every moment,” Neu said. “Because you never know when it’s going to happen. People stand up to stretch and they get caught by birds…

AFTER A THRILLING WATERFOWLING HUNT, you leave with those vivid moments seared in your brain from when it all came together. The sudden movement of shadows crossing the water through the spread, the wings tearing the silence from the air…gunfire and the smell of shotshell smoke pouring from the receiver. Not this time. Oh, we shot the pants off the ducks, sure. McGhee, Arkansas, was where we stayed at the Delta Resort and Lodge last November, bagging pintail, gadwalls, woodies, teal, mallards and more in the timber holes. A celebration of Realtree’s new Timber pattern done right, with swamp legend Blake Burris of Ole’ South Outfitters at the helm. But it was not the shooting that seared in my brain. It was the vibration and roar of a mud motor…

THE CONSERVATION community knew it was coming. Rolling back parts of the Clean Water Act was one of Donald Trump’s campaign promises. In September, Trump carried through on that pledge, essentially wiping out protections on millions of acres of wetlands and thousands of miles of ephemeral streams. Soon after, opponents and proponents alike went into overdrive, throwing around hyperbole as predictable as the sunrise. Environmental group Earthjustice claimed the move would make “America’s waters burn again” and “…return our water to levels of pollution we last saw before the Clean Water Act’s enactment in 1972.” A Washington Post headline read, “Make Drinking Water Dirty Again.” Proponents of the Trump administration’s rollback were equally dramatic, calling the action a victory for private property rights and landowners, farmers in particular. “Repealing the…

IT WAS A GOOD MORNING for these gents near Lake Geneva, Wis consin. While the main flyway for Canadas in those days was down the Mississippi River to wintering grounds in Southern Illinois just above Cairo in Union, Jackson and Alexander Counties, there was a sub flyway to the east. Migrating flocks often stopped over at the Horicon Marsh about 60 miles north of Lake Geneva then headed south. A hop, skip and a jump from Lake Geneva south across the Wisconsin/ Illinois border lies the Fox River that meanders down the west side of Chi cago, eventually joining the Illinois River, one of the legendary ducking routes in the U.S. These rivers funneled the fall migration on down to the Mississippi. Chicago had yet to sprawl to the west,…

THE CRANIAL CRUCIATE ligament (CCL) is a band of connective tissue that keeps the femur and lower leg bones of our retrievers working in concert so they can run, jump and retrieve ducks. A dog that outright tears its CCL, experiences several micro-injuries, or simple degradation to it will soon not be capable of any of those things. It can happen to any sporting dog, but for reasons that aren’t quite known yet, is way overrepresented in Labs. According to Dr. Ira McCauley, owner of McCauley Animal Clinic, it’s not even close. “When it comes to CCL disease, Labs are clearly predisposed. We see tons of golden retrievers, and plenty of Chessies, (Drahthaars) , German wirehairs, and other breeds, but it’s the Labs that are blowing their CCLs like crazy.…

IF YOUR PUP is dropping the bird or dummy on the way in, this is usually caused by “too soft of a mouth” and presents a situation that needs to be ad dressed and corrected. To properly address this issue, you will need the follow ing training aids: 1. A hard plastic dummy or a training buck 2. A slip collar First, assuming your dog has been trained to heel on your left side, prepare the slip lead by holding the lead so that it forms a “P.” Then while facing your dog, place the slip lead over your dog’s head and onto its neck. When properly placed on your dog, with your dog sitting or standing on your left side, the lead will instantly release all pressure on him…

PATRICK MALOUF IS CUTTING UP mallard breasts, wrapping them into smoked bacon with a dash of cream cheese and pickled hot peppers while men stand outside on a cement balcony smoking cigars and drinking dark liquor, watching greenheads come off their day loaf, circle once and cup into the acres of flooded corn below. He is telling the rest of us gathered around the kitchen bar, slugging from cans of Coors Light and Yuengling tallboys, the latest story he gave his wife when she quizzed him why he duck hunts so much. “I said, think if we owned a Macy’s department store, but you could only go there and shop for 60 days. You only have that small amount of time to take your best friends. When it’s over, the…

FOR THE MOST part, waterfowl hunting has brought me great joy. There have been sun-ripened Septembers on the Alberta prairies, pink dawns and mysterious ducks in Uruguay and Argentina, secret wood duck hideaways in Alabama. Green timber in Arkansas, burned barley fields in Montana, scabrock ponds in Oregon and lazy rivers in the Midwest—I’ve hunted them all, but after almost 60 years, many have faded into vague recollections. Oddly, the waterfowl hunts I remember most vividly are the ones that weren’t so perfect, such as that January day on Winchester Waste-way in Grant County, Washington, when my little outboard conked out two miles from the launch. To get back to the vehicle, I had to drag my car-topper upstream through sucking mud with the cold water sometimes a foot over…

FLYWAY VETERAN 1 HUNTER Bill Psoras East Northport, NY BAND # 1707-38361 SPECIES: Atlantic Brant (M) BANDED: 08/11/2005 LOCATION: Koukdjuak River mouth, NU RECOVERED: 01/13/2019 LOCATION: Freeport, NY 2 HUNTER: Richard Sharpe, Flushing, MI BAND #: 1158-20052 SPECIES: Large Canada Goose (F) BANDED: 07/27/2014 LOCATION: Near Attawapiskat, ON RECOVERED: 10/08/2018 LOCATION: Near Rose City, MI 3 HUNTER: Jimmy Pollard, Pontotoc, MS BAND #: 1697-73878 SPECIES: Mallard (D) BANDED: 09/12/2014 LOCATION: Upham, ND RECOVERED: 12/21/2018 LOCATION: Tallahatchie County, MS 4 HUNTER: Reid Williams, Linwood, MI BAND #: 1208-91121 SPECIES: Large Canada Goose (M) BANDED: 07/23/2018 LOCATION: Near Attawapiskat, ON RECOVERED: 10/13/2018 LOCATION: Linwood, MI 5 HUNTER: Joe Sparacino, Adams, NY BAND #: 1168-62577 SPECIES: Canada Goose (F) BANDED: 07/02/2015 LOCATION: Near Cool Spring, PA RECOVERED: 12/02/2017 LOCATION: Rutland, NY 6 HUNTER:…

THE STACKING TREND continues. Hevi-Shot’s Hevi-Hammer 3-inch 12- and 20-gauge steel/bismuth loads are available in 3" shells with muzzle velocities up to 1,500 fps. Hevi-Shot set a standard for downrange lethality because of its high tungsten content; it was better than lead, but costly. It was made by smelting tungsten with nickel and iron. When it started out, scrap tungsten was relatively inexpensive, but times changed and tungsten became part of other items. The cost escalated, hence increasing the price of tungsten-laced shells. Ralph Nauman, the head guy at Hevi-Shot, told me obtaining the right type of tungsten for their shells became difficult. Over the past few years, Hevi-Shot has been weaning us from tungsten loads to those using some tungsten shot stacked atop steel. Hevi-Hammer contains steel topped with…

“WE USUALLY DON’T get a big push of trophy birds like mallards or gadwalls in the places I hunt,” said Scott Kennedy, a fishing guide who lives in Orange Beach, Alabama. “My favorite places are the marshes of the Mobile/Tensaw Delta on Mobile Bay." Last year, Kennedy had one of the best hunts he's ever experienced there. At night, the gadwalls rest on open water south of Interstate 10. In the morning, they pick up and fly to the grassy marshes to the north of the highway. Kennedy was set up at dawn, sitting in his kayak blind. Any waterfowler who sees ducks is confident that sooner or later, the birds will drop in for a look. However, this was the first time everything came together. It was one of…

HUNKERIN’ DOWN FOR a spring snowstorm means different things to different people. If you’re in the Colorado Rockies, you’ll likely be hud dled by the fire waiting for the early spring storms to end so you can stop shoveling your driveway. But if you’re in a layout blind in a South Dakota cornfield, the you-know what’s about to hit the fan! And that’s a good thing!! Snow goose hunting can be one of the most exciting kinds of hunting you’ll ever experience. After all, what are the chances of 5,000 bucks or pheasants showing up at your treestand or local field at the same time? Because of the bird’s migratory nature, hunters from north to south can find some good snow goose hunting not too far from home. And with…