I am really enthused about this year's waterfowl season. Sea ducks were a little late in arriving due to our wonderfully mild October and November, but I got in some great shooting a few weeks back.
The season continues through Jan. 20, and, if the weather cooperates, we should have good sea duck hunting throughout this month and into the next.
Duck numbers are up throughout the bay area. I saw lots of mallards and surprising numbers of mergansers while enjoying a superb Canada goose hunt with Norbert Wagner the day after Thanksgiving near the Chester River in Kent County.
Reports of canvasbacks in the upper bay area have come my way and this is indeed good news. The canvasback is the Rolls-Royce of Chesapeake waterfowling and its increasing numbers adequately justify the scheduled Jan. 7-14 season.
I didn't see any snow geese while hunting the farm leased by the Wagner family, but quite a few were brought in to Jeannie's Picking House, behind Vonnie's in Kennedyville, while I waited for my bird to be dressed. Wagner assured me that plenty of snows were in the area.
Canada goose numbers in Kent County especially are excellent. Joining us on the post-Thanksgiving goose hunt were Dick Broden, Steve McBride, Henry Rouseman, Eddie Ward, Tim Thalheimer and Norbert Wagner Sr. Wagner's two pre-teen sons, Norbert and Tom lent helping hands in retrieving, spotting and working the strings on a couple of Higdon motion decoys.
In my experiences, stuffers consistently have been the most successful decoy system. A stuffer is a taxidermist-mounted goose used as a field decoy. But, the motion decoy really impressed me.
The neck on the full-sized decoy can be easily manipulated via cords running from your blind. The gunner can make it appear to be feeding, preening or acting like a sentinel.
"Frequently decoy-shy geese will work over a spread, but not completely commit to set down in it. But, this motion decoy makes it almost irresistible for geese not to lock up and glide in," Wagner said as he placed two of the unique decoys among the two or three dozen traditional full-body feeder decoys.
We were into Canada geese by the thousands all morning.
solely Instead of hunting out of a pit or traditional blind, we comfortably worked our geese from lay-down ground boxes furnished by McBride, their creator. The ground box is made of nearly indestructible polyethylene and the shape resembles a 12-inch-high bathtub.
McBride brought along fitted camo coverings, but simple burlap would work just as well. Put a couple of hand-warmers in with you, a thin foam rubber pad on the bottom and you will be ready for the nastiest weather.
Hunter's Moon Enterprises, 2415 Harford Road in Fallston is the closest source of both products that I am aware of, though they can be in short supply.
Anne Arundel County sports superb waterfowling prospects. The duck hunting can be especially good throughout the area.
If you are new to the sport and want to learn more, I recommend joining the local Ducks Unlimited Chapter and getting the following books -- "The Outlaw Gunner" by Harry M. Walsh and "Gunning the Chesapeake" by Roy E. Walsh, both of which are published by Tidewater Publishers, and "The Duck Hunter's Handbook" by Bob Hinman and published by Winchester Press.