Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2025 i Wildfowl

❚ DAKOTA DECOYS X-SERIES ULTIMATE LAYOUT Waterfowlers are always looking for the next best mousetrap, something that makes a challenging task a little easier. Thanks to Bill Willroth of Dakota Decoys, that better mousetrap is available in the form of Dakota’s X-Series layout blind. The key with this blind—no assembly required! Hunt it right out of the box, if you must. Featuring what Willroth calls a “tub-like” floor designed to keep water out and ‘fowlers dry, the X-Series layout sports a zippered foot-bag for easy clean-out, a convenient drag handle, and, perhaps best of all, a HUGE padded headrest guaranteed to induce mid-morning naps. $300 | dakotadecoy.com ❚ BANDED FINISHER LAYOUT What do zip-ties, duct tape, and Banded’s FINISHER layout blind have in common? Everyone knows what they are. Everyone…

An Arkansas timber hunt? Yes, please! Ever since I was little I always dreamed of ducks floating through sun-gleamed oak and cypress trees. This trip would be the first timber hunt I’d have the pleasure to partake in. I found out we’d be on public land lining up with everyone else and I knew I was in for an adventure. This would be true Arkansas timber hunting; no private duck clubs or flooded fields. It would be dark woods, 2-to-3 a.m. wake up calls, long early morning truck rides and chaos once you hit that public boat launch with parking lots jammed to the gills hours before a shot will be fired. This is what I wanted to experience and it’s definitely what I got. I’d be hosted by the…

II was sitting at my desk when an email popped up from WILDFOWL’s Editor-in-Chief, Skip Knowles. The subject line read: “Louisiana in November with SDS.” I opened the email to find that one of my dream hunts might soon become reality. Louisiana is rich with waterfowling history. From market hunting to call-making, the swamps and lakes teem with the roots of American duck hunting. While most of the Louisiana hunters have moved away from pirogues and cane calls, much of the sentiment remains. Waterfowl hunting may progress, and technology advance, but in the swamps of Louisiana you can still feel the old bones of waterfowling holding strong. After telling my wife that I would be missing our anniversary to hunt ducks—something I don’t recommend doing, at least on a regular…

WITH SO MANY CELEBRATED American decoy carvers, it’s challenging to feature just one. And it’s been hard for me, I admit, to extend much beyond decoys from the Susquehanna Flats or the Ward brothers. Those are the ones I grew up around, and they are in my comfort zone. So, for this WILDFOWL issue, I chose a carver that I knew nothing about and tried to learn something new. The image is of famed Massachusetts decoy carver Joseph W. Lincoln at his New England workshop in the early 1900s. To collectors, his name is as familiar as it is sacrosanct. There’s even a book about him, and some of his decoys have sold for prices higher than what I paid for my house. Lincoln was born before the Civil War,…

MY FIRST FIELD EXPERIENCE with Kent’s Fasteel 2.0 came on a blustery December morning. Flakes of white danced in the beam of my headlamp, and a stiff north wind bit my face and ears. I was confident the honkers would come low and slow, fighting the wind all the way to the field. They would be hungry for food, and I was certain my Fasteel 2.0 3-inch BB 1-1/4-ounce payload shotshells would perform. I’d given 10 of the shotshells a dance the week prior on the range. Producing muzzle speeds up to 1,500 fps, Fasteel 2.0 shotshells feature a reliable CX2000 Primer and a nickel head designed to resist corrosion. I tested the pattern of the Precision Plated Steel at 30-, 40-, and 50-yards using Browning’s Maxus II. My discovery:…

SUNDAY. THE FINAL DAY OF MY DUCK SEASON. I had one goal remaining. I had set it before the season began, and the timing was right. High river levels and loads of public pressure pushed ring-necked ducks to the upper end of a big slough. I took a six pack of Final Approach drake ring-necked decoys and hiked to the slough two hours earlier than needed. Kona, my male pudelpointer, was with me. The goal was to shoot a limit of ring-necks over a small spread of decoys. As the starry sky gave way to a glow on the horizon, ducks began landing in the decoys. Mallards, teal and wigeon. Lots of wigeon. Birds continued pouring in. Over the next two hours a few hundred puddle ducks landed. Kona gave…

❶ BAND: 1256-84316 HUNTER: Tony Tabasso, Northfield, NJ SPECIES: Gadwall (M) BANDED: 9/27/2021, New Brunswick, Canada RECOVERED: 1/10/2025, Atlantic Co., NJ COMMENTS: Tony is a career fire captain in Margate City, NJ. His buddy Austin Springfield is an Army Ranger based in VA. They were hunting the salt marshes outside of Margate and Longport, NJ when he shot this bird. ❷ BAND: 1256-33942 HUNTER: Mark Cauwels, Atwater, CA SPECIES: Pintail (M) BANDED: 9/13/2020, Colusa Co., CA RECOVERED: 1/11/2025, Merced Co., CA COMMENTS: Hi Ryan, this has been my year for bands. I typically shoot Wednesdays and Saturdays unless we have some sort of weather event which, based on the past few years, are few and far between. ❸ BAND: 1298-93755 HUNTER: Dustin Baker, Edon, OH SPECIES: Canada Goose (M) BANDED:…

STEVE ESPOSITO WAS RETURNING HOME from a guided sea duck hunt on the Chesapeake Bay when his buddy, Mark Nickel, called to tell him to get his new boat ready to hunt the next morning. Arriving at his home in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 1, Esposito hitched up his boat trailer and, with his hunting partners, Austin Ganley and Marsha Jani still tagging along, met Nickel at 4 a.m. before driving another 45 minutes to a Lake Erie boat launch. “It was another 45-minute ride to get to our hunting spot,” Esposito said. “The temperature was 25 degrees and a northeast wind was whipping up 3-foot seas. We set five-and-a-half dozen floating decoys, two spinners and put two tires on large rocks beneath the bow and…

They approached low from a long way off. Just when it looked like the black string of ducks was going to skirt around us, they turned. Without hesitation they sucked into the decoys, bellies and wingtips seemingly skimming the surf. “Get ready…we’ll take ‘em when they pass between the first two lines,” directed Melynda Dodds. “Now!” We fired. Ducks fell. Some needed swatting. Some were red feet up in the decoys, the tide already carrying them toward the Pacific Ocean. Nova, Dodds’s female Lab, started the morning with impressive retrieves. There was no need to pull anchor. Before we had a chance to admire the striking drakes, two more threads of ducks approached. One banked left, between our spread and a line of industrial buildings pocking the south shoreline. The…