Has anybody been out wildfowling on the coast recently

[harrycatcat1]

As the title really has anybody been out on the marsh recently to cheer me up as I have not been out because of a bad sore throat, a chest that feels on fire and no breath in my lungs and a cough like a 60 a day smoker. I am keeping in for a while as I don't want it to develop into bronchitis like last year.

 

So tell me a story to make me jealous, tell me where you have been and what you saw

[ayano3]

Well Harry, I had a great day picking up Thursday and a **** day on the marsh yesterday. I have also had a cough, cold and felt a bit **** but the sea air did me good. I met joknob as arranged at 5am to go on Sheps. He kindly put up a friend (Nigel Vardy) up for the night at his accommodation near the marsh. We did see quite a few Geese on the morning flight but didn't get a shot. Lots of Widgeon come on the marsh but all too high and way off us. We decided we had time to go to get a full English before we come back for the 11:05 tide, which wasn't big enough to even fill the creeks. We see lots of duck out on the mud and just on the edge of the tide but they were too far off and didn't play game !! The evening flight was a complete waste of time, didn't see or hear a single duck or goose. It was not a day wasted as the full English was lovely, but the shooting was non existent.

 

I hope that has cheered you up Harry ;-)

Edited December 3, 2011 by ayano3

[harrycatcat1]

Well Harry, I had a great day picking up Thursday and a **** day on the marsh yesterday. I have also had a cough, cold and felt a bit **** but the sea air did me good. I met joknob as arranged at 5am to go on Sheps. He kindly put up a friend (Nigel Vardy) up for the night at his accommodation near the marsh. We did see quite a few Geese on the morning flight but didn't get a shot. Lots of Widgeon come on the marsh but all too high and way off us. We decided we had time to go to get a full English before we come back for the 11:05 tide, which wasn't big enough to even fill the creeks. We see lots of duck out on the mud and just on the edge of the tide but they were too far off and didn't play game !! The evening flight was a complete waste of time, didn't see or hear a single duck or goose. It was not a day wasted as the full English was lovely, but the shooting was non existent.

 

I hope that has cheered you up Harry ;-)

 

Thanks for that mate it has cheered me up

Just wondering have you got shares in that cafe unless that is you know the waitress

I am hoping to still get on the 12th, would I still be ok on that YBR and not get washed off with the tide @ 7m. or would I be better going on the 10th full moon and 6.8m @05.39.

I have been on a full moon morn and not seen a thing, I suppose its the luck of the draw.

 

Regards

 

Hcc

[Terry P]

Heres a write up of a trip a mate and I had to scotland last month,I posted it another forum to thank a couple of its members for the help. Hope it cheers you up a bit.

Not being the literary type I rarely put reports of my fowling trips, but my last visit to scotland has prompted me to try and share some of the joys, when on those rare occations it all comes together. I also have two forum member to thank for their infomation and effort that the trip the succses it was.

another forum member Daf and I decided to try the mighty tay for a couple of days fowling. I contacted Neil(Iwalkbynight) for a little advice and to get an idea of the number of pinks using the area, not only was he forthcoming with his wealth of experience but also said he'd meet us and take us to a couple of his favourite spots. We arrived at the pre arranged layby and had our heads filled with wonderfull tales of pinks as stories were swopped it was great to meet a like minded fowler. Neil decided it was time to be off and headed into the pea soup fog with Daf desparatly trying to hand onto his tail lights. At the second spot we were greated by the sound of wink winking all around. Neil explained how to find the dyke then wishing us luck vanished into the ever thickening fog leaving us to listen and allow our imaginations to run riot.

We rushed back to our accom grabbed spud the lab, guns, ammo and flasks and headed out into the gloom. The geese were still there we could hear them from the road unfortunatly so was the fog. Neil had warned us about the walk and he was'nt lying, I must have had about 10 kilo of mud on each boot, spured on by the never ending calls of the geese we ploughed on, then it was trial by reed bed, there is nothing like these back home and I had visions of disappearing for ever if I left the path, we soon found ourselves on the foreshore or at least in shorter reeds, heading off towards what we could see of the dyke. Although i had checked the tides before heading out it was still very erie haeding out just watching metre after metre after slippery meter appear out of the fog, just when we were starting to think we would be back on the south side the end was reached. For the whole journey we'd been thrilled to the core by the wink winks of god knows how many pinks flying and calling. As the light began to fade skein after skein passed over head bombing us with their droppings but not a single one could be seen. So daf and I shared our flask and just lay back to soak it all in and enjoy a moment that we may never experience again.

Deciding to head home that dyke went from being cursed to blessed as with viz down to a few metres we would have never found our way back to land without it, final land was reached and we took a few minutes to enjoy what though in terms of birds in the bag was poor in pleasure was so far unrivalled and there was no need to discuss where we'd be trying for the morning flight.

I really don't recall if I slept that night but I did'nt need my alarm to wake me, looking through the window and all I could see was stars, my hopes soared. The fields were soon behind us and we entered the reed bed full of hope as all we could hear were pinks, in the dark we blundered out of the reeds and just fell to knees as a with a mighty whoosh and hundreds of alarm calls a huge number of geese lifted, they could be made out in the glow of dundee, totally gutted we just watched them head off into the dark, then amazingly more geese to the right began to call and the geese in the air turned and headed back to settle with the ones on the ground a little further out. By literally crawling we got to the edge of the mud and found clumps of reeds to get tucked into, my heart was going crazy but my imagination had bombed off to another planet.

After a short time the geese calmed down and began to buzz, the whole foreshore seemed to vibrating I texted daf to make sure I was,nt going mad. There was a dark ridge just dissurable about 200m out on the mud and its on there that the geese were sitting.Every know and again the whole lot would call getting loader and louder and I was sure they were about to lift but they were soon back to the buzzing,by now my heart was doing overtime and my mind had convinced me that out there on the mud was every goose in scotland. The light was just improving when it started to rain but it had no chance of damping out spirits this morning. Eventually it sky begrugingly got light enough to make out the ridge, but the ridge was a moving mass of geese. a long black snaking half mile mass of feather headed off towards dundee, my mind was right. forthe next two hours we were treated to every antic and call a pink could think of, a shot now would meerly be the icing on the cake, as this alone had been worth the 300 mile trip.

The only draw back was my body screaming at me to change position but i was to scared to blink let alone move. Suddenly my attention was drawn to another small skein which was coming in to join the party, several had done this so far, but this one looked just that bit closer to the reeds wher daf was, i could imagine him haed down heart racing, two peace shattering shots run out and I was elated to see two pinks fold and head for the mud. The effect of those shots was incredable the noise was deafening and the sky was literally full of geese, the geese infront of me forced the geese to the right to wheel round a right over me, the sky above me was black , in what seemed slow motion i was up on my knees and trying to pick a single bird out of the whirling mass, I pulled the trigger and saw two collapse to the shot i swung onto another bird and yet two more fell and astonishingly another two folded to my third. the shooting had snapped out of my revery and in autopilot I reloaded and back another for two shots.

I turned to look at Daf he was covered in mud but there was no mistaking the huge grin beaming back at me, spud was sent to retrieve a runner whilst we collected our birds, inredably the geese just moved to the waters edge and settled there. After congratulations alround and a couple of quick photos and a text to neil

we headed back for a well earned fry up.

The second forum member i'd like to thank is Bill(moongeese). I've longed to bag a goose under the moon, but dispite many attempts have always failed. Bill took us out to a lovely spot of his and kindly put up with our gibbering exciement, he soon had us calmed and settled down. I'd love to say it was the perfect classic moon flooded night but it was'nt, it was how ever light enough for us to see skein after skein of pinks pass over but to high, after a short wait bill called a singleton in and daf had is first moon goose on his first flight. After a couple of embarrassing misses Bill called a pair in and I had at last bagged my first moon goose, before the sky was totally lost we were fortunate enough to back a couple more each. We'd forgotten the camera but those memories of that evening will never fade. Cheers Bill.

Sorry about the woffle but my hands are shaking just thinking about those flights.A couple of photos of the morning flight.

[anser2]

I had a good week on the Norfolk Coast. Out monday morning flight and though there was not enough wind I managed my first pink of the season and saw thousands. Out with a mate a couple of days later and again good numbers of geese about. I shot 4 pinks and let several skiens go over in easy range unshot at and just sat back and watched the remainder of the flight. My mate got a couple. Later we did a tide flight on one of the big creeks . My mate shot well getting 4 wigeon over decoys , but I only managed a couple of teal. Friday saw me back again with a different mate and again we got some pinks . 2 for me and 3 for my mate along with 3 wigeon. Finaly did the evening flight after canadas tonight . Missed the only bunch to come over me , but there were plenty about , plus a lot of whitefronts and pinks. One high mallard was the only bird in the bag.

Edited December 3, 2011 by anser2

[harrycatcat1]

Terry P

 

I did really enjoy that write up it was so good I felt as though I was there with you, thanks mate

 

edited to say good photos as well, thanks for sharing.

Edited December 3, 2011 by harrycatcat1

[harrycatcat1]

anser2

 

Thanks for that its nice to have reports off the east coast and even better when folks are getting a few

I just wished I lived a little closer to the coast

 

Regards

 

Hcc

 

keep the reports coming by the way

[scolopax]

Sat at work for another few days and gagging to get out! Hopefully back end of next week, might have a bit of a mooch around to see if there are any Whitefronts from the recent influx using our foreshore. Normally though November and December are pretty dire on the Humber as all the wildfowl have decamped to inland reserves.

[ayano3]

You will be fine on the yellow brick road on a 7 but please get there a couple of hours early to rebuild the stone hide

[harrycatcat1]

I feel a bit bad really letting my mate down as we had arranged to go to Kirton tomorrow but I just dont feel well enough with this cough and a chest that feels as though its on fire. A tip for the young ones is dont let your age increase after 35

[ayano3]

Thanks for that advise Harry, shame its almost 20 years too late :oops:

 

Went out on 'Flat top Bush' tonight, bagged 2 Mallard on the green. It absolutely bucketed it down out there, hail stones too. My tide table is now useless as it got flooded, teach me to not leave it in my coat pocket. The dog had one very good retrieve as one of the duck planed out quite a way back. No photo's tonight obviously. Harry I have had that awful 'Man Flu' but the sea air does you good, well thats what the wife believes :blush:

[harrycatcat1]

Thanks for that advise Harry, shame its almost 20 years too late :oops:

 

Went out on 'Flat top Bush' tonight, bagged 2 Mallard on the green. It absolutely bucketed it down out there, hail stones too. My tide table is now useless as it got flooded, teach me to not leave it in my coat pocket. The dog had one very good retrieve as one of the duck planed out quite a way back. No photo's tonight obviously. Harry I have had that awful 'Man Flu' but the sea air does you good, well thats what the wife believes :blush:

 

 

I really wished I could have been there mate, even the thought of it cheers me up

[UK fowler]

Thanks for that advise Harry, shame its almost 20 years too late :oops:

 

Went out on 'Flat top Bush' tonight, bagged 2 Mallard on the green. It absolutely bucketed it down out there, hail stones too. My tide table is now useless as it got flooded, teach me to not leave it in my coat pocket. The dog had one very good retrieve as one of the duck planed out quite a way back. No photo's tonight obviously. Harry I have had that awful 'Man Flu' but the sea air does you good, well thats what the wife believes :blush:

Crispy duck for tea then No3

[joknob]

im beating on rothwell estate monday and tuesday and will be going down to caravan for 7ish tuesday night for a couple of days,might try kirton for a change.craig

[ayano3]

Its Pheasant first, one of last weeks that's been hanging a few days. Then duck in tomato and onion sauce later in the week. I shot like a buffoon and we see more mallard than usual. I blame the torrential rain and hail stones for missing a couple

[motty]

I've been out after the pinks since, but i'll tell of a flight i had on the 25th of last month.

After an unsuccessful morning flight, me and a mate of mine (who had a day ticket) headed out to one of my favourite parts of the marsh for evening flight. We were there early and were hoping bag a duck or two, as well as being in a decent place for the pinks going out to roost.

We hadn't seen much activity 'fowl wise, when the tide started making the edge of the green. Then the brent started flighting the tide's edge, followed by packs and packs of wigeon. We downed a couple straight away, well retrieved by Shandy,my lab bitch. Then things started to go wrong. First, it started hammering it down. Then the brass separated from one of my homeloads and jammed up my xtrema. I took the gun apart but the empty case was jammed in the chamber. I couldn't find anything to dislodge it - i will learn to carry something in future!!

Eventually, i took a battery out of my torch and it dropped down the barrel and knocked the shell out. With a lot of time wasted, i decided to take it out on the wigeon. I missed out on so many chances before, but took out some real high birds with 36gm 2 steel homeloads.

The next problem was the wind. It was so strong it carried a couple of the wigeon too far out on the tide making it very difficult for the dog to retrieve, so we ended up losing them. I hate not picking birds but there was no way we could get them.

With the light escaping fast, we called it a day. We could still hear the wigeon whistling away as we walked back. We heard the pinks come back in total darkness.

We were quite happy with our 7 wigeon, it had been an interesting flight.

[harrycatcat1]

I've been out after the pinks since, but i'll tell of a flight i had on the 25th of last month.

After an unsuccessful morning flight, me and a mate of mine (who had a day ticket) headed out to one of my favourite parts of the marsh for evening flight. We were there early and were hoping bag a duck or two, as well as being in a decent place for the pinks going out to roost.

We hadn't seen much activity 'fowl wise, when the tide started making the edge of the green. Then the brent started flighting the tide's edge, followed by packs and packs of wigeon. We downed a couple straight away, well retrieved by Shandy,my lab bitch. Then things started to go wrong. First, it started hammering it down. Then the brass separated from one of my homeloads and jammed up my xtrema. I took the gun apart but the empty case was jammed in the chamber. I couldn't find anything to dislodge it - i will learn to carry something in future!!

Eventually, i took a battery out of my torch and it dropped down the barrel and knocked the shell out. With a lot of time wasted, i decided to take it out on the wigeon. I missed out on so many chances before, but took out some real high birds with 36gm 2 steel homeloads.

The next problem was the wind. It was so strong it carried a couple of the wigeon too far out on the tide making it very difficult for the dog to retrieve, so we ended up losing them. I hate not picking birds but there was no way we could get them.

With the light escaping fast, we called it a day. We could still hear the wigeon whistling away as we walked back. We heard the pinks come back in total darkness.

We were quite happy with our 7 wigeon, it had been an interesting flight.

 

 

I loved that write up because these are the things that make you remember the flight and also make you keep going back for more and you can even laugh at the gun jamming, (after the event anyway)

Thanks

[harrycatcat1]

im beating on rothwell estate monday and tuesday and will be going down to caravan for 7ish tuesday night for a couple of days,might try kirton for a change.craig

 

 

Let us know how you get on Did you have a session on Wainfleet?

[joknob]

yep,geese wrong footed me last week,and talking to a friend last night and he reckons they,ve all gone now ! craig

[motty]

I loved that write up because these are the things that make you remember the flight and also make you keep going back for more and you can even laugh at the gun jamming, (after the event anyway)

Thanks

Yeah, i certainly won't forget that flight. I'm still getting visions of me in torrential rain, up to my knees in water and trying not to drop any parts of my gun. All the while watching the wigeon going past and shouting to my mate 'my ******* gun's jammed' repeatedly.

I can see the funny side.

[Psyxologos]

As the title really has anybody been out on the marsh recently to cheer me up as I have not been out because of a bad sore throat, a chest that feels on fire and no breath in my lungs and a cough like a 60 a day smoker. I am keeping in for a while as I don't want it to develop into bronchitis like last year.

 

So tell me a story to make me jealous, tell me where you have been and what you saw

 

I have been out three times lately, I saw 3-4 thousand of geese, only 300 yards away from me. On the positive side, my gun did not need cleaning!

[harrycatcat1]

I have been out three times lately, I saw 3-4 thousand of geese, only 300 yards away from me. On the positive side, my gun did not need cleaning!

 

 

Cheers mate I am hoping to have my own story if I get out next Monday

[sitty tree]

nice one lads some good reports there well done.