Hows your season went?

[silver pigeon 3]

Been a real stop start season for me, birds about one day then a few weeks with very little about. Did ok in the end though, but this was helped by shooting better than usual for most of the season! Total trips to the foreshore was 32 the final bag was 9 Mallard, 5 Wigeon, 4 Teal and a Canada. A little down on last season.

[fenboy]

Well I survived my first season on the foreshore.

 

Walked miles , got wet, got cold, got muddy , shot very little and loved every minute of it .

 

Only 3 wigeon for the season two of which came on the last day , including my first ever cock bird .

 

They say fowlings a secrative sport but I have met some great guys who have given me some very good advice .

 

Special thanks to Graham (ayano3) for being my mentor over my first few flights and setting me off on the right track , I am sure we have many more flights to come together.

Also Big Mat for his company on the marsh , hopefully some of his enthusiasm has rubbed off on me .

 

Finally a big thanks to Wash wildfowler who I only met the other day but without who my bag return would be even smaller than it is and who has taught me perhaps the biggest lesson of the season , which is that I still have a hell of a lot to learn, I was amazed how you can spot a couple of pinks in amongst 100s of brent and shoot duck I cant even see ! look forward to meeting up with you next season.

[kent]

Well I survived my first season on the foreshore.

 

Walked miles , got wet, got cold, got muddy , shot very little and loved every minute of it .

 

Only 3 wigeon for the season two of which came on the last day , including my first ever cock bird .

 

They say fowlings a secrative sport but I have met some great guys who have given me some very good advice .

 

Special thanks to Graham (ayano3) for being my mentor over my first few flights and setting me off on the right track , I am sure we have many more flights to come together.

Also Big Mat for his company on the marsh , hopefully some of his enthusiasm has rubbed off on me .

 

Finally a big thanks to Wash wildfowler who I only met the other day but without who my bag return would be even smaller than it is and who has taught me perhaps the biggest lesson of the season , which is that I still have a hell of a lot to learn, I was amazed how you can spot a couple of pinks in amongst 100s of brent and shoot duck I cant even see ! look forward to meeting up with you next season.

Most of you bag tends to come on a few good flights, the dribs and drabs of singles just make it interesting. Big bags are not what wildfowling is about. My biggest bag this season was 4 geese in a flight, I could have done more but it is not an exercise in pest control or larder filling. Been quite poor though this year though with too much inland flood to draw duck IMO. Mentors are great, I only wish a perfect system existed within all the clubs. There is somewhat of a lack of a certain generation to take over on the committees etc in the near future

[ian g]

had a really good season first one as a full member and really enjoyed it shot a decent amount of duck first few months were the best with good numbers of pintail about after xmas there wasnt a lot of duck about so started chasing the pinks with some very good resuts

[washwildfowler]

Well my season has been great.. not just the shooting side of it .. I have met some great guys this season and have put them under ducks and geese 5 of them was there first and seeing there faces was excellent ..

 

at times I've not got my gun out its slip . Just sat and watched them shoot ..

 

My highlight of the season was meeting a certain guy.. who I now class as a very good friend .. we have done over 50 flights together this season.. and I've taken him all over the marshes with me and to some of the hardest places to get to also .. He can't walk very well , and has SDB.. he has never once turned down a flight out onto the marsh or complained about the distance .. so to me that shows true heart ..well done mate ..

Edited February 21, 2014 by washwildfowler

[washwildfowler]

Well I survived my first season on the foreshore.

 

Walked miles , got wet, got cold, got muddy , shot very little and loved every minute of it .

 

Only 3 wigeon for the season two of which came on the last day , including my first ever cock bird .

 

They say fowlings a secrative sport but I have met some great guys who have given me some very good advice .

 

Special thanks to Graham (ayano3) for being my mentor over my first few flights and setting me off on the right track , I am sure we have many more flights to come together.

Also Big Mat for his company on the marsh , hopefully some of his enthusiasm has rubbed off on me .

 

Finally a big thanks to Wash wildfowler who I only met the other day but without who my bag return would be even smaller than it is and who has taught me perhaps the biggest lesson of the season , which is that I still have a hell of a lot to learn, I was amazed how you can spot a couple of pinks in amongst 100s of brent and shoot duck I cant even see ! look forward to meeting up with you next season.

Glad you enjoyed it fenboy it was a pleasure , if you fancie a walk out in the summer give me a shout ....

[6.5x55SE]

I joined a New Club. August I spent ( no gun ) exploring the marsh ready for the coming season. 1st September I opened the season with a R/L at Grey-Lag. The new marsh has been very good to me shooting plenty of Pinks a few Grey's Ducking has been good with some nice Drake Pintail.I ended the Inland season with a R/L at Pinks and a very good evening Duck flight the last 20 days of the Foreshore I managed to bag Pinks and Pintail. So for it has been a truly remarkable season. One stand out highlight was seeing my 13 yr old Grandson shoot a cracking Pink with my 20ga. Roll on 1-9-2014.

[washwildfowler]

just a few pics of the season ... i hope you enjoy .. WW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fenboy]

Glad you enjoyed it fenboy it was a pleasure , if you fancie a walk out in the summer give me a shout ....

 

I would definately be up for that , will be able to take the pup out and introduce him to some creeks.

 

Cracking photos by the way.

Edited February 21, 2014 by fenboy

[Grandalf]

My season never really gets going until November. Once Remembrance Sunday is over I get my life back and can think about fowling. (RBL Organiser).

We had a lot of duck on our little marsh on the Blyth Estuary early on due to us having the only fresh water splash in the area. Then it rained and the numbers went right down as they were spoilt for choice.

Mid November saw me pushing out into Norfolk after the Pinks but they were slow to build up in numbers and there were cattle everywhere. Just as the season was hotting up The Memsahib's hip packed up due earlier radio-therapy treatment. This meant fowling had to be fitted in between nursing and house-keeping duties. She's a game old bird though and ensured I got out whenever it was possible.

Next up came the big tidal surge which overtopped the river walls and put the Blyth marsh under 7 feet of sea water. That slowed things up a bit so it was back to the Norfolk hunting grounds.

Then the rains really got their act together and there was a huge splash in every field and it was very hard to put a bag together anywhere. The geese and ducks were all over the place.

I had to end my season on 21st Jan due the Mrs going back into hospital for a new hip. However, in my last week I managed four flights which resulted in one blank and three geese on each of the other trips.

So overall I did fairly well and finished on a high.

Now, once the Memsahib is back on her feet again, it's try to move to a smaller house in the local village then think about fowling again.

At my age any trip out onto any marsh is a bonus - so as long as I am still fit enough to get out somewhere wild and a bit muddy then I will be happy.

[marsh man]

Last season I gave September a miss as I have lost a bit of interest in early season duck , round this way there is very little movement and there were still young duck in the dykes which put me off a bit, this was the first time I didn't go on the 1st for over 50 years unless it was a Sunday then it was the 2nd. I shot my first duck early October and then as luck would have it the dykes overflowed and left a nice flash of water that the duck soon found , I had some good evening flights right up to the night we had the tidal surge came down the east coast , I was out that night and it was blowing a gale , the duck were comeing on the marsh for shelter and they were everywhere I shot 7 Widgeon and a Mallard and then had to whip home to prepare for flooding which thankfully we didn't get but only just . From then onwards it slowed up a bit as more and more fields got large flashes on them, sill got 1 or 2 but you had to work harder for them .I got a few geese but didn't think there was as many as other years althouth the R S P B said there was over 9000 in December. I went beating on the last day then went down the marsh when it was just about dark and got a duck with my last shot so all in all a decent season .

[ayano3]

Great photo's Washwildfowler, I recognise the guy in the photos and of course 'flannel head' 'cloth ears' the springer. Its been a pleasure shooting together for quite a few trips this season on all of our marshes.

 

It's also been good to take Fenboy under my wing as a new member. We will all have to get a few walkabouts organised for the summer months to keep up with the ever changing marshes.

[Barls2-9-12]

A bit of a mixed season for me. It all started well better than the last few seasons had. I was getting a few ducks and the odd goose until the wet weather came and messed it all up.

 

The first flight of the season I had was on the 6 th of September and I had 4 mallard and 2 pintail and a wigeon so not a bad start.

 

I had 4 geese 3 pinks and one gray which was down on last by a fair way. The ducks died off after about the second week of November and it was a real struggle to get under them on the shore. Had a couple of good flights on the wigeon late in October.

 

Dec and jan really didn't provide to much to shout about. The last week of feb was pretty good as my last flight yesterday ended with 6 teal and the flight before I had 9 teal so a nice end to the season.

 

Also I was treated by the wife to a new pup in December so that was a real high point for me.

 

Will have to put some pics up when I get in on the computer. I was lucky enought to be taken to a few new places this season by a few old hands which was good of them.

 

Overall I had a good season and enjoyed every minute even when my jacket leaked from all parts. Roll on next season...

[washwildfowler]

Great photo's Washwildfowler, I recognise the guy in the photos and of course 'flannel head' 'cloth ears' the springer. Its been a pleasure shooting together for quite a few trips this season on all of our marshes.

 

It's also been good to take Fenboy under my wing as a new member. We will all have to get a few walkabouts organised for the summer months to keep up with the ever changing marshes

 

it's been a great ! season all round AYA .. some great memories and another one they can't take away from us ...already looking forward to next season and all the banter that goes with it lol ..

 

HAPPY DAYS ..

[Big Mat]

I am looking forward to next season, i've shot with some new people this year and on some different marshes and am looking forward to shooting in a few more places next season as well as putting some more time in leaning the marshes i already shoot more!

[anser2]

Well this season has been the worst for over 35 years for me. A mixture of last summers poor breeding season for home bred duck, lack of east winds bringing fowl over the North Sea ( with the exception of the end of January ) widespread inland flooding dispersing what duck were about and a lack of cold weather to drive any duck down to the coast. In addition the pinks on my local marsh have changed their feeding grounds and only rarely fly over my shooting area ( only had 2 chances all season ) and my shooting has below normal after a illness last summer have all resulted in my duck bag being down by 75% and my goose bag down by 90%.

 

There were a few highlights of course; morning flight on September 1^st was magic with a friend and me managing half a dozen duck on a marsh that I have not shot since I was a teenager. What really made the day though was some great retrieves by my lab , Meg, from the dense reeds , there was one long dropping mallard where the dog had to swim a 30 yard dyke, cross 30 yards of thick reeds run up and over the high river wall and then search for the mallard well out in the reed bed by the river and a second retrieve when my friend hit a goose that planed down over 400 yards away. Meg had to cross 2 grass meadows run through a belt of reeds , run up and over a embankment , through a second belt of reeds ,before running over two arable fields and picking the bird. She quickly had the goose back to hand with a look in her eyes that said it was all in a normal days work for her.

 

The other feature of that morning was the endless herds of curlew that kept coming up the river valley all morning. The trickle of small flocks at dawn became a flood as hundreds followed with the sun rise. Those curlew will remain etched in my mind long after any memory of the duck shot will have faded.For the remainder of the month duck were few and far between though I did manage a drake mallard on the coast.

 

There were flights in the autumn when came wigeon pouring onto a small flash produceing a couple of double figure bags. The birds came late, just dim shadows in the deep dusk and for once I shot straight missing very few birds. There were a couple of reasonable tide flights on the coast too , not many duck about , but those there were there responded to the decoys well and produced 8 wigeon and a teal on one windless morning and 5 wigeon on another. From mid November to mid January there were almost no duck about on the marshes I shoot on, I managed just 4 duck in a dozen flights both inland and on the foreshore. Though there was one night when I should have had a few mallard. I was in the North Broads next to a wide tree lined dyke on the inside of the river wall. The mallard were comming overhead 60-70 yards up and then corkscrewing down onto the water. One moment they we out of range , next they were sitting on the water next to you only to rise again and be lost from sight against the river wall and the trees. I never hit any of the nine mallard I shot at.

 

There were two inland goose flights that should have been bumper days , but the first was a blank when just as the first birds started to flight the farmer came over to round up his livestock and it was as well he did because that night the river walls broke and the marsh flooded. But the sight of the two trucks and a couple of sheepdogs herding up the sheep was just too much for the pinks. The second just after Christmas , again on the fresh marshes , but this time well up the river valley. We decoyed a small meadow where the day before 200 pinks had been seen feeding. The first bunch came well and I got a couple, but between us my mate and I got a little mixed up leaving the birds for the other and the skein got away unshot at. Another skein of pinks sneaked up behind us as we were watching a distant flock eyeing up our decoys and finally I shot a greylag that recovered just before hitting the ground.

 

At the end of January when south east winds and cold weather across the North Sea brought wigeon pouring into East Norfolk the fowling improved. A friend and I had a weeks fowling holiday and we never had a blank flight. There was a high pink coming off Breydon that I will never forget as it tumbled into the reeds and some great evenings flighting splashes on the grazing marshes that produced wigeon , mallard, ,teal , gadwall and a shoveller. The last month of the season on the foreshore was a bit of an anti climax with just one greylag and a couple of mallard added to the bag , but on the last night as I was huddled down in a creek I reflected I would not have missed any of the season , blanks and all , for the world.

 

Roll on September 2014.

Edited February 22, 2014 by anser2

[marsh man]

Nice write up Anser 2 the time that would have taken me to write that the new season would have nearly been upon us .

[DOLLSEYES]

I missed two months of the season due to work commitments,but ended up with 75 duck and 17 geese spread across 2 marshes and a flight pond.This includes 3 pinks and 2 greylag and a pintail.I had one of the best seasons i've had on the marsh, but the worst season on the flight pond.