When in doubt scout!

A big question right about now with a lot of waterfowl hunters is, “Where are all the ducks?” The answer to that is neither easy nor concrete, but I’ll give you my observations from this year of guiding hunters and filming our DVD this year.

When our second season opened in the coastal zone of New Jersey where I hunt, things seemed a bit off. Normally by Thanksgiving weekend we would have good amounts of Bufflehead and Brant in the area with a straggler Oldsquaw or two. What we found was that there were still a good amount of teal around as well as some Shovelers, which have normally made themselves scarce by then.

Our first hunt included some scattered Bufflehead, a Drake Mallard and a Pintail. It was better than a skunk, but duck numbers just weren’t there like we expected. Also there was an absence of Brant in the area as well which was unusual.

That week, we experienced some cooler weather and bird species and numbers shuffled around a bit. Our next hunt within a mile and a half of that first hunt provided sightings of a really good amount of Black Ducks as well as a decent flight of Brant at low tide. At this point all seemed well in the world and the next day we hunted in an area that historically held good numbers of Bufflehead. It seemed they just hadn’t shown up in the numbers we expected to see. While we did harvest some birds the numbers were in the hundreds and not thousands.

Subsequent scouting trips indeed found more birds, but they were scattered and sometimes large concentrations were five or more miles apart. Still I believed we were two weeks behind the normal schedule.

A phone call from an old friend pointed me in the direction of a large group of Oldsquaw in an area I rarely hunt. It seemed early for a large concentration of these birds, but not to look a gift horse in the mouth we loaded up and headed to the spot. Sure enough my hunter for the day fired almost two boxes of shells from an over/under in about two hours. To say there were thousands of birds would be an understatement.

It’s been a weird year, that’s for sure but with a little effort we’ve kept the skunk out of the boat. Never before has good scouting been the tool it has this year! Many hours and gallons spent behind the wheel and on the water have me convinced that there are birds around, just not in some of the areas they’ve been in at other times.

We’re getting another good front coming for New Year’s Day, so I think that will shuffle things around again a little.

Remember “When in doubt scout”

New License Display Law in Pennsylvania

GAME COMMISSION APPLAUDS REPEAL OF LICENSE DISPLAY REQUIREMENT

New law takes effect on Feb. 13

HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe today applauded the enactment of legislation that will remove the requirement for hunters and trappers to display their licenses on an outer garment. The law takes effect in 60 days.

House Bill 735, sponsored by Rep. Keith Gillespie (R-York), was unanimously approved by the House on June 15, and was approved by a vote of 46-3 in the Senate. Gov. Tom Corbett signed the bill into law today, which will take effect on Feb. 13.

“Since 2003, the Game Commission has been supporting various drafts of legislation sponsored by Rep. Gillespie and Rep. Neal Goodman (D-Schuylkill) to remove this antiquated requirement,” Roe said. “With today’s new license format, this change in law will make hunting less complicated, improve license management by hunters and trappers, and limit the inconveniences and troubles associated with lost or misplaced licenses.

“While we are pleased with the change in law, it is important to remember that the new law doesn’t take effect for 60 days. So, hunters and trappers will need to continue to wear their licenses on an outer garment until Feb. 13.”

Getting Your Ducks in a Row

For many hunters the thought of using many dozens of decoys can be challenging to say the least. While the average puddle duck hunter may use a dozen or two decoys in their spread, the diver duck hunter however uses 5 or more dozen decoys and needs to keep them organized at the same time. At first, the prospect of using 10 dozen or more decoys can seem like a daunting task, until you consider the long line.

Long lining decoys is a method of stringing up to several dozen blocks onto a single line. By using this method, hunters can deploy a surprising number of decoys in a relatively short period of time. Simply put, the decoys are attached to a single length of tarred line that can be well over 100 feet in length. While there are many ways of doing this, I’ll share a way that is simple and relatively quick to put out large spreads of decoys.

The first step is the long line itself. For this, I recommend #120 tarred line that is used for trotlines etc. At one end attach a heavy weight and then measure twice the maximum water depth you wish to hunt in. At this point, you want to tie a small loop in the main line. This is where the first decoy will be clipped on. Continue tying small loops in the long line at intervals from 6 to twelve feet apart until you reach the desired length. After tying the last loop, again measure off twice the maximum water depth and attach another heavy weight on this end. You should now have a continuous length of line with anchors at each end and loops in the middle.

The next step is to make “droppers” that attach to your decoys. These droppers are short lengths of cord with one end attached to your decoy and another end attached to a “long line clip”. The clip will be how we attach each decoy to the loops in the main line. I prefer to make my droppers very short to prevent tangling when many decoys are in a tub or decoy bag. If you are hunting with a dog, you will want to make your droppers long enough to sink the line at least 2 feet. This way the dog can swim between the decoys to make a retrieve without being tangled up.

For more duck hunting tips look for our new Coastal Waterfowl Hunting DVD coming soon.

Breaking New Ground

I give Mike a lot of credit, he listened to my idea and decided to go with it. I know it was a big step to undertake filming hunting videos, but here we are a few days removed from the beginning of the project. Filming fishing is hard enough in the heat, rain, sun and fog, but now we are adding cold weather to the list of difficulties.

For those that aren’t aware, I spend a good part of the winter chasing Waterfowl along the coastal areas of New Jersey. The challenge of fooling the eyesight of wary fowl is hard enough without throwing a camera or three into the mix. Movement and glare are the biggest factors that are going to challenge us this winter. As I write this, I am still thinking about how to mount cameras in my boat to catch our action, and protect them from saltwater.

I can tell you this about our upcoming production. We’re going to do our best to make it educational and entertaining. Potential hunters can be intimidated by going to new places, and this DVD should give them a helping hand with what to look for and expect.

Often, I’m asked about the difficulties of hunting a bay that can be over 2 miles across at times. We discuss tides, winds and other factors, but it just doesn’t translate without them seeing it firsthand. The fact is the rewards can far outweigh the challenges with a little firsthand advice.

What do I hope to do with the video? I would really like to capture the essence of what I do, and why I return year after year to do it. The scenery is a little foreboding, but beautiful none the less. The sight of small groups of diver ducks skimming along just above the surface of the water is a sight to behold. Their wings beat almost faster than human eyes can see as they approach the decoys and pass by. Flocks of Bluebills can look like swarms of bees on the horizon as the gain and lose altitude as the sun rises. Geese and Brant with their slower wing beats and large wingspans glide into the decoys and look the size of jumbo jets as they approach. Then there are the Sea Ducks. Scoters, Oldsquaw, and the occasional Eider migrate through New Jersey yearly on their migration south. These magnificent birds are like nothing most hunters will ever see. Maybe I can bring that to you, at least I’m really going to try.

Captain Steve Horvath

Breaking New Ground

I give Mike a lot of credit, he listened to my idea and decided to go with it. I know it was a big step to undertake filming hunting videos, but here we are a few days removed from the beginning of the project. Filming fishing is hard enough in the heat, rain, sun and fog, but now we are adding cold weather to the list of difficulties.

For those that aren’t aware, I spend a good part of the winter chasing Waterfowl along the coastal areas of New Jersey. The challenge of fooling the eyesight of wary fowl is hard enough without throwing a camera or three into the mix. Movement and glare are the biggest factors that are going to challenge us this winter. As I write this, I am still thinking about how to mount cameras in my boat to catch our action, and protect them from saltwater.

I can tell you this about our upcoming production. We’re going to do our best to make it educational and entertaining. Potential hunters can be intimidated by going to new places, and this DVD should give them a helping hand with what to look for and expect.

Often, I’m asked about the difficulties of hunting a bay that can be over 2 miles across at times. We discuss tides, winds and other factors, but it just doesn’t translate without them seeing it firsthand. The fact is the rewards can far outweigh the challenges with a little firsthand advice.

What do I hope to do with the video? I would really like to capture the essence of what I do, and why I return year after year to do it. The scenery is a little foreboding, but beautiful none the less. The sight of small groups of diver ducks skimming along just above the surface of the water is a sight to behold. Their wings beat almost faster than human eyes can see as they approach the decoys and pass by. Flocks of Bluebills can look like swarms of bees on the horizon as the gain and lose altitude as the sun rises. Geese and Brant with their slower wing beats and large wingspans glide into the decoys and look the size of jumbo jets as they approach. Then there are the Sea Ducks. Scoters, Oldsquaw, and the occasional Eider migrate through New Jersey yearly on their migration south. These magnificent birds are like nothing most hunters will ever see. Maybe I can bring that to you, at least I’m really going to try.