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How Good Or Bad Was Your Season ?


marsh man
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For most of us our wildfowling season in done and dusted and now we can look back to see how good ( or bad ) the last five months have been .

 

From my own findings I would say the duck side have been pretty poor to say the least , I started around the second week in Oct when the geese had just arrived and as it turned out I shot three Pinks before I shot a single duck . On average I go five nights a week , so from mid Oct you can say I have been around 70 times.

 

While there was only a couple of marshes with water on I was getting one or two decent bags of Widgeon , with 6 being the biggest , then as more and more marshes began to flood the numbers dropped to the odd 2 or 3 on a decent night , then just before Christmas it more or less came to a standstill with just the odd one in the bag now and again , duck then built up on the estuary rapidly when we had the short cold snap in January but it was unfortunate they didn't move far off there day or night , and it wasn't till the last week a few came on the marshes and I got a Gadwall and a hen Shoverler on the last night which was Thursday as we were shooting Friday and Saturday.

 

So although it hasn't been a disaster it hasn't been a vintage season neither , P W member Kent was saying on another thread that he or someone he was talking to was saying it has been the worse for two decades , well my present diary goes back to 1990 and this is the lowest amount of duck I have had since then, in fact two years ago I had more Widgeon that year than all the duck and geese combined together this season .

 

Now for the geese .... I would say there wasn't as many as previous years but more than enough to go round and the ones who chase them about would have ended up with more geese than ducks , this year they were more spread about than normal with a lot moving a bit further South into North Suffolk where no doubt it is less dangerous for them than the marshes shot by the wildfowling clubs in Norfolk .

 

So that's my season , how was yours ??

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Mine is not quite done yet .

For me it has been very good , I will be close to shooting three times the amount of duck I did last season and have had more geese too.

That is despite a couple of lean spells in which I have suffered a few blanks including my last 6 flights .

It has also pleased me how well the dog has worked this year he is really starting to understand what is required of him , I look forward to having a pair of dogs to work next year .

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The season start of poorly for me inland in the Nene valley in Northants for geese. The late harvest meant that there were a lot of stubbles in the wrong place for me; the geese were going out the wrong way for the bit of ground I shoot. That coupled with some poor shooting on the only pair of canadas that came round on the two early trips. They were shot, but not by me, I found thin air.

 

A trip up to the Wash for some proper fowling at the end of October, was a so near, so far event. If my friend G. and I had been another 70 yards further out, it would have put us under some little lots of pinks. We thought that we had hit the edge of the mud in the dark on the walk out, but it turned out to be a series of mud pans.

 

From the end of October we can flight the two large irrigation lakes on my game syndicate, but the evening flights have been poor all season with very few mallard (the mainstay) and no geese, either canadas or greys. Three mallard all season off of there for me, all drakes.

 

The highlight of the season for me were two trips back up to the Wash in mid November with the very kind assistance of muncher, motty, fenboy and Washwildfolwer from this site. I had a long pink on the Friday from one area, with an evening on the Ouse washes where I had a mallard and a golden plover and witnessed a very strong mallard flight, followed by a pink, 4 wigeon and 3 teal in a fantastic morning flight with fenboy and Washwildfolwer. That has been it for coastal exploits.

 

Inland, up in the Nene valley, January was the saviour on the geese. A trip between Christmas and New Year produced a single grey over a splashy field, and Jan. 2nd being a bumper morning when the same field flooded to a depth of 4-6 inches all over. Four greys and a mallard duck. The next trip up on the 24th produced a grey and a canada for me.

 

I rounded the last weekend off with a morning flight on Saturday on my syndicate, taking two canadas and a tufty and back up to Northants for a pair of greys. 13 geese for the season, two pinks, three canadas and nine greys.

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I shoot mainly on the North coast of Norfolk and inland on the Broads in East Norfolk with the odd flight in the Fens. This has been my worst season for ducks since 1978 , a year when I moved across the county, got married , changed my job so had little holiday time and no transport. For a full season as bad as this one I have to go back into the 60s when I was still learning the game. This season a combination of a poor breeding season produced few duck in the opening weeks , followed by a lack of east winds in the autumn which resulted in a light migration from Northern Europe , a very quiet mild spell of weather right through to mid December meant we had almost no strong winds for the opening months of the season, and then to cap it all we had almost no cold weather to freeze the wildfowl out of Europe or the inland lakes except for a few short days in mid January, plus with all the heavy rain and flooding inland the duck had a very wide choice of feeding areas, all these conditions combined to produce the worst conditions for duck shooting in recent years. So far my bag of duck is about 50% down on an average year.

 

For geese it was better with a few decent spells of wild weather from mid winter onwards producing a couple of nice flights on the coast and the waterlogged fields ( the beet fields remained unploughed ) encouraged the pinks to stay longer on the coast that in recent years. Inland was a lot better with some good days in the Broads. For pinks my bag was average for the past few year , though well down from a decade ago. However the reduction in my bag of pinks has been a personal decision. A decade ago I got to the stage when it was becoming difficult to dispose of the bag so a started to flight them a lot less and shoot fewer. In any case given the choice I would rather shoot duck than geese. Despite there being plenty about , somehow I failed to get to grips with the greylags with just one shot this season. A mixture of my ill health resulted in not flighting the clubs Broad all season and ill health with my wildfowling partner also resulted in several cancelled flights on his marsh which holds a lot of greylag at times. Canadas are becoming so rare these days they are not a regular feature in the bag any more.

 

There are still a few weeks left on the coast and indeed last year February was brilliant and I shot more duck than in the whole of the previous season. But the omens this year do not look good with very few duck seen over recent visits on the coast and on several days I never saw a bird.

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Fairly rubbish season down here in the westcountry with regards to ducks, too much flooding pretty much killed the foreshore shooting although the lads on the inland marshes did alot better, flooding also prevented me from accessing the foreshore for about 3 weeks,

As for geese( Canada's) , plenty around if you wanted to get under them it wasn't too difficult, I personally don't bother chasing them, I guess if I wanted to I could of shot 4 X as many as I have

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Fenboy .... Glad you have a good season , local knowledge, living within a small distance from your shooting grounds and being available at a minutes notice can and do make a big difference and with you spending long hours at work you do well to fit it all in and still manage coastal fowling which isn't easy at the best of times . Good luck over the next 18 days .

 

Penelope..... I am sure you would have had a better season if you had the time and lived nearer to our neck of the woods , as it is you haven't done bad on the geese , plenty of burgers for the weeks ahead .

 

Anser2..... More or less the same word for word although touch wood I didn't suffer from ill health, apart from everything beginning to slow down due to old age but there isn't much I can do about that.

 

During our last two days shooting last Friday and Saturday there were still several Pinks in the area , in fact not to far from your old Public House and like I say there is less disturbance down there than the club marshes .

 

The last duck I shot on my land was a hen Shoverler , so if anyone want a pair to try or set up ( duck and drake ) you are welcome to them , if not I will use them for training my young dog during the coming months , as luck would have it my last shot of the season on Saturday I got a drake Mallard with hardly a mark on it , that is now on the plate all ready to go in the oven for tonights tea , it was a toss up between the Shoverler or the Mallard , and the Shoverler lost by a short head :lol:

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I'm not complaining John, for the amount of time I've had it's not been too bad a season, although a few more duck about on my syndicate would have been nice, but it's an extra to the pheasants.

 

Next season I should be back in my old club, now that I have a dog who should be ready by then, so a bit more coastal work for me, the nearest marsh is 7 miles from home and the furthest about an hour. Not sure what will happen with the goose shooting in Northants.

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I'm not complaining John, for the amount of time I've had it's not been too bad a season, although a few more duck about on my syndicate would have been nice, but it's an extra to the pheasants.

 

Next season I should be back in my old club, now that I have a dog who should be ready by then, so a bit more coastal work for me, the nearest marsh is 7 miles from home and the furthest about an hour. Not sure what will happen with the goose shooting in Northants.

 

How old is the pup now and how is it coming on? Mine is doing alright but could do with being a lot more steady....but he is only 18 months so hoping he will calm down for next season.

You going to join the BWA again?

 

Cheers

 

Rich

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The couple of flights I done were ok. No large numbers but came away with birds.

 

Soon as the rains started all the birds went inland on farm land that stayed flooded or on the reserves close by and that was about it, game over.

 

Went lots of times to reccy but nothing about so never bothered getting muddy.

 

Hoping for better next season.

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Inland Duck

Another good season but due to late flooding on local rivers i had some exceptional shooting the last 3-4 weeks.

Inland Geese

With the ever increasing Greylag shooting was good up till 2nd week of October when the Greylag then spread about. Pink's returned the second week of September but i left them alone until late October this season I've not had much trouble on Cereal crop's again another very good season with Geese still on the estates. But one estate has had horrendous problems with Brent Geese and the first time in many years I've needed to reapply for a Licence normally sending my Dog's at the Geese and firing a shot or two is enough but this season I've had to resort to Shooting a few.

Foreshore Duck

Another good season for me as i don't chase the Duck due to what I have Inland but had my share.

Foreshore Geese

Exceptional season had Pink's mid September when they first returned and managed to get under the small scouting Skeins. Right through the season I've been shooting Pink's very regular.

Conor had another fantastic season getting a few more first's

So to some up another great season on par with those in the past one gripe would be I'd like to see us getting some proper Cold Snowy weather like we used to WITHOUT a Cold weather ban.

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The shoulder gunning was good but this, for me, has been another dire year for punt gunning.

 

Every planned trip has been canceled due to strong winds or the disappearance of the duck following heavy rain coupled with the complete absence of cold weather.

 

Still enjoyed every minute of the season though!

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The shoulder gunning was good but this, for me, has been another dire year for punt gunning.

 

Every planned trip has been canceled due to strong winds or the disappearance of the duck following heavy rain coupled with the complete absence of cold weather.

 

Still enjoyed every minute of the season though!

Nice to know you are still carrying on the art of punt gunning.

 

Our estuary would have been the same ( if it was still allowed that is ) except for a week to 10 days in January when it was alive with duck and in the sort of flocks you pray for . Good luck for the rest of the season .

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This was my first ever season on wild fowl, started well with 3 mallard and 3 teal in the first 4 weeks through September, then the pinks arrived in October and from then on I became possessed with trying to study them, their movements and feeding habits, I tried very early mornings, then lots of evening sorties , watching waiting and listening to huge flocks moving about on the marshes, but only getting the odd bird more by luck than judgement, finally I reverted to my knowledge of decoying , Mainly pigeon over 5 decades, I invested in 8 sillosocks and one hypa flap, first time out I had a nice brace, shooting from 11.00 am until around 3.00 pm. so persevering with this method I started to get odd birds, then in early December it all came together , one overcast misty morning they came and came over and over , small groups descending from the gloom to present right above me, I quickly bagged my 4 bird limit, returning two days later, on a very wet morning I set up and had another 2 making my 6 bird limit in a week, not bad for a complete novice. but it was pretty much down hill from then on, as the geese became more timid, moving around at great altitude and only coming down when totally confident of safe feeding, I took a few over many visits but the last 3 weeks drew blanks on every outing, finishing with 12 geese and 6 ducks, I can only look forward to next season. back on the pigeons yesterday I had several ducks and a large skein of geese come quite low overhead, had someone told them they were now safe , I think so,but look out pigeons, already showing in large numbers over the rape fields and the farmer insisting I get down to business, no time now to think of water fowl. :lol::yahoo:

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Well so far I've had a great season (Still got a good eight flights left to go). This is my first season wildfowling and I've shot my first goose (Canada), my first duck (Mallard) and truth be told not a lot else, although some of that is due to inept shooting rather than lack of chances! I also made full membership in my club.

I'm also completely and utterly hooked! Off out again tonight so fingers crossed!

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Well so far I've had a great season (Still got a good eight flights left to go). This is my first season wildfowling and I've shot my first goose (Canada), my first duck (Mallard) and truth be told not a lot else, although some of that is due to inept shooting rather than lack of chances! I also made full membership in my club.

I'm also completely and utterly hooked! Off out again tonight so fingers crossed!

Top Man well done to you.

Keep going keep learning the knack of shooting Wildfowl will come Most importantly be safe and enjoy your Flights and surroundings

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Had an enjoyable season but did not get a lot only new to the club but a member has told me it's been the worst season for a long time in terms of numbers of duck especially wigeon and mallard a few teal about tho but according to members who have been in club for a while very very poor numbers of most species. Ended up with 3 teal and 1 wigeon for about six visits but there was 3 of us shooting most days so that gives you an idea of how it's been. Still enjoyed getting out tho and looking forward to next season already. Plenty of snipe shot tho.

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Iv had a great season, went quiet on the duck front since start of December ..... But still happy to be out there trying to get under them, iv had more geese this season than last season, but more importantly iv learnt abit more about locations and flight lines for next season.. As some one has said ..there's still plenty of flights left in this one yet

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Iv had a great season, went quiet on the duck front since start of December ..... But still happy to be out there trying to get under them, iv had more geese this season than last season, but more importantly iv learnt abit more about locations and flight lines for next season.. As some one has said ..there's still plenty of flights left in this one yet

Glad you have had a good season Smiler , same with most forms of shooting you never stop learning , more so in wildfowling than in other types of shooting such as Pigeon or Game.

 

Every year there will be different challenges from the previous year , mainly the weather , this year it has been very wet and mild , next year it might be very dry , cold with snow and the fear of a cold weather ban.

 

Yet that is what we enjoy , the challenge to try and outwit wildfowl in all conditions , if we found it easy how many of us would have been in for the long haul ? , I know I wouldn't, as I find the harder it is to shoot wildfowl the more enjoyment I get when I do succeed in bringing one or two home .

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This season as been a bit disappointing for me yet it showed so much potential at times, to be very good.

Early seson the local greys up in humberside provided the most interesting sport for me, with a few mallard and quite a few teal about, although i did not try too hard for duck there were a fair few about.

Pinks started to show up as usual in the third week of September, but were steady to build up as far as i could tell.

But by late october early November in most of the areas i r,regularly shoot in the country th e pinks were here in bigger numbers than i have ever seen in my 40+ years wildfowling.

One possible exception could be certain parts of the wash and some parts of norfolk, i have seen more geese in previous years than this season generaly although one area on the wash was very consistent for me and the pinks yet this area as not that good this past couple of years but it really pulled its socks up this year.

Overall i think its been an ok season for me and i think if i could turn the clock back about the only thing i could have done different is be a bit less apathetic and maybe put a little more effort in to duck shooting rather than relentlessly pursuing geese all the time.

The weather did not help i will admit but must not grumble just learn, and never forget the fact many of my seasons have been saved in the last fortnight of the season its not over yet.

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My season overall has been good. I would say it is all but done for me.

I have shot as many pinks as I did last season. Plenty of early season mallard found their way into my bag. I have shot more Pintail, Wigeon and Gadwall than I ever have in a season.

I had very few blanks, which is nice.

Edited by motty
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Pretty rubbish. Too much flood inland to get any great numbers of duck about on the estuaries.

Heck when you have good grazing land flooded for hundreds of acres in patches were would you go if you were a duck

Pinks have been weird staying out on floods rather than comming in to roost on the sand

Frost? None to speak of that's been my hope this year

 

Strangely had my best season on mallard ( this is due directly to the duck tunnel program) had a few great flights on geese but only in a few short windows of the right conditions that occurred ( had to just drop everything and go)

 

If these warm wet winters become the norm coastal wildfowling will become history

 

Be interesting to see what the comming breeding season produces. Birds should be in fine fettle and if it isn't too wet so the young can find enough food all summer could be a real cracker

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The answer in my case is c**p.

Not got out much and added to that we have a bunch of white settlers in the area that are calling for a ban on shooting. Any suggestions as to how best to deal with them, other than using Alphamax #1!!!!

Edited by Local lad
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Awsome season for me regardless of how many birds in the bag. My little spaniel is coming on a treat even suprised me by how well she brings big greylag back to hand with no problem at all. Learnt an awful lot regarding our club marshes and tides flightlines etc so all in all a top season all round.

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