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So, how's your season going?


-Mongrel-
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I ask as I have to admit, mine so far has been really ....trying!

 

Weathers been a major factor down South, and I've been resorting to going out on flights I wouldn't normally have gone out for, and then watching duck fly by 200 feet high! Add to that the fact there is so much lying water in the surrounding land and it's no surprise the the normally large numbers of duck just haven't been building on the salt water as you'd expect and it all adds up to not very much at all in the freezer!

 

I'm hoping the incoming spell of cold weather (yes, at last!) will give us a grand hoorah to blow the last five weeks of the season out with, fingers crossed!

 

How are we fareing in other parts of the land?

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Pretty much the same in the N West. Duck are like currents in a bun this year spread out all over flooded fields etc. went out lamping a few weeks ago on one bit that's normally flat dry meadow, put more duck up than we did rabbits, squelching all the time though mud and flood water. Geese aint been playing either with un-gathered crops rotting in muddy fields

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Same over here is South Wales, I have had four foreshore ducks all season. Weather is too mild and there is so much standing water in fields inland they just do not need to go to the coast. I have done much better inland on the rivers.

 

Hopefully this colder weather that is here at the moment gives us a bit of a freeze. Fingers corssed!

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Very poor for pinks and canadas , no whitefronts yet, but starting to get a few greylags now. My goose bag is 80% down on what i would expect at this stage of the season.The weather has not helped the goose shooting with very few days of wind from the right direction. After a poor start the duck have been average. Though very much in spits and starts. Early November great for wigeon , otherwise just a scattering , No teal until December , but several since and plenty of mallard from late October.

 

On a brigter note off for a weeks holiday and the pinks have just started to feed on my shoot so going to be chasing them a bit this week and allow myself a slightly bigger bag limit. But the flashes are now frozen over on the shoot and doubtless much of my inland clubs ground which is a pity as they were starting to pick up over the past couple of weeks. Looks as though its going to be mainly river and foreshore ducking this week if the weather men are right.

Edited by anser2
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Not had the best season. Hardly managed to get out for half the season with uni and missed the whole of November.

 

I've managed 16 geese, 12 mallard, 3 wigeon and 2 teal all off the shore. Normally would have more wigeon and teal tbh,(missed a few teal this year though).

 

:lol: 16 geese is 16 more than I've had, I've hardly seen any let alone shot at one...apart from Brents (,seen, of course)! :mad:

 

...and 17 duck is almost twice what I've had. I'm going to give up and take up watercolours I think! :yes:

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My best season so far. Its down to trying new areas and now having a good dog though, rather than down to bird numbers. My birds have been mainly widgeon and Canada's. Only fired at one mallard and some teal. However, three teal for one shot! To be fair someone else also fired, so three teal for two shots. I have been lucky enough to have been a guest at three clubs this season and a member of two. Most people are saying the ducks are hard to come by due to the flooding. It needs to dry up a bit more and get cold for a good finish to the season.

 

Its not about the numbers, as mentioned, but the memories. Mine is some cracking retrieves from my young dog and one or two shots on the widgeon that I will always remember. One was on Saturday with the new 10 bore!

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off the top of my head ive had 4 mallard 3 goldeneye 2 teal 4 wigeon 5 pinks and 3 greylags , same as most other posts had a good start to the season but not done much since the clocks changed then had a good few outings in xmas hols but never had any decent fowling weather so bags were low/nil with floods everywhere and geese staying out all night on flooded stubbles . countryfile weather forecast predicts a bitter cold week with snow and ive booked a days pheasant shooting for sat :rolleyes:

if we get the cold spell predicted hopefully i will get some more shooting before the end of the season , all this week ive seen geese flying back north , cock pheasants sparring crows building nests

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:lol: 16 geese is 16 more than I've had, I've hardly seen any let alone shot at one...apart from Brents (,seen, of course)! :mad:

 

...and 17 duck is almost twice what I've had. I'm going to give up and take up watercolours I think! :yes:

 

Suppose I can't complain too much! I haven't had any 'big' days but when I have got under the geese I've usually managed two or 3 in a flight,(lot of blanks in between). This has been the first season for the new lab and she's coming on well which has probably been the biggest plus point. I just need to get her to improve her marking a little.

 

Would add a few photos but resizing is a complete pain!

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hopefully the end of this season gets better with this cold snap, its snowing by the bucket load here everywheres covered all ready, off top my head ive had 8 pinks, 4 greylags, 6 canadas, 13 mallard , 43 wigeon, 23 teal, 1 pintail and 1 shoveler most of which shot either on foreshore or inland ponds, canadas were all inland , better season than last anyway

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Inland for geese over the decoys its been a good season so far. The ducks started off Ok, but with all the flooding it thinned them out. After the big freeze in Dec I havent bothered feeding most of my ponds, we've been flighting flooded fields instead.

Been on the shore 6 or 7 times myself for about 15 geese.

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I've been out on the marsh six times in my first season as a club member without success (only fired at two birds and missed both).

 

So although I wouldn't class last Saturday's inland pond evening flight as Wildfowling, I'm well chuffed with my first ever Goose. Two of them came in like a couple of Lancasters. My mate missed the other one.

 

Howletts-12th-January-2013_1.jpg

Edited by otherwayup
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My bag to date:

 

11 Mallard

11 Wigeon

4 Teal

3 Gadwall

2 Greylag

 

Most of the birds where shot in Oct, if I exclude that month it's been a poor season really. The shooting hasn't been great since November.

 

As has been mentioned already, the flood waters have also affected bag numbers in my area. There's plenty of duck about, but they're well dispersed. Hopefully this cold snap may drive some back on the marsh :good:

Edited by Wildfowler12
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