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So how was your season?


wildfowler.250
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Well the season finished for me a few of days ago. Managed to bag a couple of pinks mid-week which was a nice end to the goose season. Thankfully managed to connect with more teal this year than the year before,(last year they ruined my cartridge ratio). There seemed to be a few less mallard than previous years? Highlight had to be a pinkfoot on the Solway. Not so much the goose itself but to see somewhere totally different was refreshing,(thanks very much to those involved!). Also dropped a feather perfect goldeneye between blizzards in January. Not my first but a good memory and he's off to the taxidermist as we speak.

 

 

 

Interested to hear how everyone else got on!

Edited by wildfowler.250
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Not one of the best , but not one of the worst neither . I rely on the right wind and water on the marsh for decent duck flighting conditions , had the odd windy night and lucky enough there was enough water from early November , ended up with having done just over 50 flights and a few walks around the marshes during the afternoons .

 

As for the geese , I dare say there were as many as other years and they are now travelling further afield to find the freshly lifted sugar beet fields , I know of one field that I could shoot on started to lift the beet just before Christmas then packed up until early January , in the mean time the Pinks found it and numbers quickly built up to a few 1000 , nobody went after them as they were only eating the tops and the geese were feeding undisturbed while the harvester and tractors were working on the other side of the field , this carried on well after the field was finished and as the geese were left alone they quickly became less suspicious of cars pulling up to take photos and at times I went past they were well in shotgun range , but all good things come to a end and the tractors moved on to start ploughing and within a day or two they moved on to greener pastures .

 

My highlight was getting a Whitefront in full condition and another young one without the Black bars on the last week of the inland shooting , our coastal season finished today as we don't shoot on Sundays and no shooting on the estuary on a Monday as part of the agreement when it was made into a reserve , although having said that I haven't heard any shooting since the inland season finished .

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Not a very good one for me. I struggled to get the hang of my new Franchi and had a very lean start to the season with just one gadwall in the first month , but should have had quite a few mallard in September, just could not connect with them. Then the Franchi clicked and started to hit some ducks at last. Couple of very good flights on the coast in October and November , but the inland shooting in the Broads never took off , mainly due to the lack of water. However in December had some great flights on the Washes. Then hit by illness , so did little shooting after Christmas , though I did manage a few pinks , but no ducks. Mallard, wigeon gadwall and teal found their way into the bag along with a hand full of pinks. Monday morning to go and then that’s it. Not expecting much , but got to see another season out on the marsh.

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Not a very good one for me. I struggled to get the hang of my new Franchi and had a very lean start to the season with just one gadwall in the first month , but should have had quite a few mallard in September, just could not connect with them. Then the Franchi clicked and started to hit some ducks at last. Couple of very good flights on the coast in October and November , but the inland shooting in the Broads never took off , mainly due to the lack of water. However in December had some great flights on the Washes. Then hit by illness , so did little shooting after Christmas , though I did manage a few pinks , but no ducks. Mallard, wigeon gadwall and teal found their way into the bag along with a hand full of pinks. Monday morning to go and then thats it. Not expecting much , but got to see another season out on the marsh.

That's annoying about the new gun. Good luck for tomorrow and hope you're on the mend!

Not one of the best , but not one of the worst neither . I rely on the right wind and water on the marsh for decent duck flighting conditions , had the odd windy night and lucky enough there was enough water from early November , ended up with having done just over 50 flights and a few walks around the marshes during the afternoons .

 

As for the geese , I dare say there were as many as other years and they are now travelling further afield to find the freshly lifted sugar beet fields , I know of one field that I could shoot on started to lift the beet just before Christmas then packed up until early January , in the mean time the Pinks found it and numbers quickly built up to a few 1000 , nobody went after them as they were only eating the tops and the geese were feeding undisturbed while the harvester and tractors were working on the other side of the field , this carried on well after the field was finished and as the geese were left alone they quickly became less suspicious of cars pulling up to take photos and at times I went past they were well in shotgun range , but all good things come to a end and the tractors moved on to start ploughing and within a day or two they moved on to greener pastures .

 

My highlight was getting a Whitefront in full condition and another young one without the Black bars on the last week of the inland shooting , our coastal season finished today as we don't shoot on Sundays and no shooting on the estuary on a Monday as part of the agreement when it was made into a reserve , although having said that I haven't heard any shooting since the inland season finished .

A Whitefront is definitely high on the list! Well done!

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I have had fantastic season. Shot a few new species, learnt a hell of a lot but still a lot to learn. Shared some cracking flights with others and also enjoyed every single flight whether shots were fired or not. I would love to tick a whitefront off the list but doubt that will happen but it wont stop me trying. Will give it a week or two and then start to refurbish the duck tubes ready for the mallard to hopefully use again.

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Wildfowler.250 ...... Well done on your Goldeneye , hope they make a good job setting it up and it will be nice to see the finished result.

 

Goldeneye were never common down here, but after a few days of sharp frost the Broads would freeze over and the diving type duck would come down the rivers to open salt water and then you would see virtually all the different breeds of duck on one place , this would also include Goosanders and Mergansers and rafts of Coots , now with these recent mild Winters and the threat of a hard weather ban if ever there is another bad winter , I know I will never shoot any more Hard fowl on the estuary and I very much doubt anyone else will without having a gun punt to push on them .

 

anser2 ... Good luck on your final day of the season and lets hope lady luck is looking down on you .

 

m greeny ........... Glad you have had a excellent season , your Pintail flight was one you will remember possibly for ever and hopefully , you will be telling us next season about how you bagged your first Whitefront , we will be keeping our fingers crossed

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Wildfowler.250 ...... Well done on your Goldeneye , hope they make a good job setting it up and it will be nice to see the finished result.

 

Goldeneye were never common down here, but after a few days of sharp frost the Broads would freeze over and the diving type duck would come down the rivers to open salt water and then you would see virtually all the different breeds of duck on one place , this would also include Goosanders and Mergansers and rafts of Coots , now with these recent mild Winters and the threat of a hard weather ban if ever there is another bad winter , I know I will never shoot any more Hard fowl on the estuary and I very much doubt anyone else will without having a gun punt to push on them .

 

anser2 ... Good luck on your final day of the season and lets hope lady luck is looking down on you .

 

m greeny ........... Glad you have had a excellent season , your Pintail flight was one you will remember possibly for ever and hopefully , you will be telling us next season about how you bagged your first Whitefront , we will be keeping our fingers crossed

Thanks marsh man but there's no chance of me bagging a whitefront around these parts in Cumbria so may have to take advantage of the BASC permit scheme and travel to an area that has them. My pintail flight was a flight of a lifetime and I could of quite easily doubled my bag that day but I'm not a big bag man and still enjoyed the rest of the flight as pintail after pintail poured in to the decoys.
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Far too few outings for my liking this season (life just too busy to go that often):

 

I made two visits to the Wash and despite tricky conditions i shot geese both trips. My two Scottish trips also proved fruitful and i shot geese almost every outing. Sadly I didn't find the time to go to the Washes this year. in general I shot very few ducks as i either didn't see many or didn't fire at them as i was waiting on geese.

 

Inland I did manage to add a new species in the form of a couple of Egyptian geese whilst decoying Canada's over Winter Wheat.

 

Looking ahead to next season I hope to add a south coast club that is close enough to make day trips. In terms of species i just have the Pochard and Whitefront left, hopefully I might have the chance for one of them.

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Thanks marsh man but there's no chance of me bagging a whitefront around these parts in Cumbria so may have to take advantage of the BASC permit scheme and travel to an area that has them. My pintail flight was a flight of a lifetime and I could of quite easily doubled my bag that day but I'm not a big bag man and still enjoyed the rest of the flight as pintail after pintail poured in to the decoys.

Nice to know you were more than satisfied with your bag of Pintail and you restrained from shooting any more than you needed , Top man.

 

Strangely enough , my biggest bag in a morning flight was also at Pintail and unlike now, 40 odd years ago when this flight took place I never had a self imposed bag limit , good bags were far and few between and if and when the time came when you could get a good bag I am afraid to say you took advantage of the situation .

 

This particular morning I was in the right place at the right time and the only reason I stopped shooting was I had to get back to go to work and I would have been getting very low on shells , even so I ended up with 17 , which I know will never be repeated by me , or maybe anyone else come to that as I doubt I saw more than 17 last season and didn't shoot any .

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Well that's it. My final flight of the season has come and gone without adding to the years bag. Never less I did not regret the early morning rise it was great to be on the saltings again. Its funny how the bird populations can change from day to day. last weekend there were several mallard and teal about , but today I only saw one mallard. No pinks were seen at the weekend , but today a lot headed inland in the first glimmer of the dawn , but all well wide except for a bunch that came over just out of range. A few days ago a handful of greylags were seen , but today there were a lot , but again all were well wide of me. I had left the young dog in the car as I knew there would be little cover where i was heading. The old girl seemed to like having the flight to her self and was far better behaved than usual even better she had all the crumbs of my choc bar to herself. She is now in her 11th year and this may be one of her last flights though she seems much fitter now than she was at the start of the season , but like her master she has heath problems too.. It was great to be there watching the brent flocks pouring past by the thousand with Meg's brown eyes watching every bird and a faint twitch in her tail. " you know what they are girl" I scolded her , but a brief flash of her eyes reminded me of the times when we had plucked a hidden wigeon or two from the black flocks. So we returned to watching the brents go by as I carried on talking to her about the days we had shared together. I am afraid I talk to my dogs a lot , though I know they do not have a clue what I am talking about. This might be one of our last flights together , nether of us is getting any younger and though I never had a shot and she never had a retrieve it did not seem to matter , just an old fowler and his old dog on the marsh watching the brents go by .

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I have had a really good season. I have shot more duck than ever, and had some very memorable flights. I shot the three main goose species and all of the duck apart from pochard and goldeneye.

One flight on the Ouse washes stands out. It was over a half frozen wash, where ducks and geese kept us interested all day - fantastic! I shot my first shovellor that day.

I still managed to bag several pinks on the marsh, but it was certainly a wild goose chase this season.

I had a couple of cracking inland flights thanks to a PW member. One was early season on the greys, the other a fantastic moon flight for pinks.

I managed to stick a few pintail in the bag towards the end of the season, carefully picking my flights and weather conditions.

One of the things I have enjoyed most this season, is my young dog learning his trade on the marsh. He has done very well, considering the limitations of his trainer.

 

If next season is half as good, I will have thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Well that's it. My final flight of the season has come and gone without adding to the years bag. Never less I did not regret the early morning rise it was great to be on the saltings again. Its funny how the bird populations can change from day to day. last weekend there were several mallard and teal about , but today I only saw one mallard. No pinks were seen at the weekend , but today a lot headed inland in the first glimmer of the dawn , but all well wide except for a bunch that came over just out of range. A few days ago a handful of greylags were seen , but today there were a lot , but again all were well wide of me. I had left the young dog in the car as I knew there would be little cover where i was heading. The old girl seemed to like having the flight to her self and was far better behaved than usual even better she had all the crumbs of my choc bar to herself. She is now in her 11th year and this may be one of her last flights though she seems much fitter now than she was at the start of the season , but like her master she has heath problems too.. It was great to be there watching the brent flocks pouring past by the thousand with Meg's brown eyes watching every bird and a faint twitch in her tail. " you know what they are girl" I scolded her , but a brief flash of her eyes reminded me of the times when we had plucked a hidden wigeon or two from the black flocks. So we returned to watching the brents go by as I carried on talking to her about the days we had shared together. I am afraid I talk to my dogs a lot , though I know they do not have a clue what I am talking about. This might be one of our last flights together , nether of us is getting any younger and though I never had a shot and she never had a retrieve it did not seem to matter , just an old fowler and his old dog on the marsh watching the brents go by .

Nice write up Robert , and although we both hope to have one or two more seasons to look forward to, the years of been out in all the weather conditions and advancing age related illness are beginning to take its toll on not only us but our dogs as well , my old one is now retired due to joint problems and when I am a bit under the weather , sitting down the marsh in a Hail storm and walking back in the pitch dark is not so appealing as it once was .

 

Anyway , this time next year we might be saying exactly the same as now , so only time will tell .

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Lets hope so Marsh man and i might even see you on the marsh as if i manage to sell my house and and all goes well I will be returning to the Broads this year.

Good luck with your house sale anser2 , you might find a buyer on the same day the board goes up , or it might be sitting there for ages like ours did . we put ours on the market at the end of last Summer and with a bit of luck we should be signing the contract within the next few days then hopefully be on the move around the 13th of March , or so they tell us , I was born one road away from where I am now , so apart from three years when we lived in Gorleston I have been over here for close on 67 years . I don't think I will miss going up and down the stairs each night and the constant threat of floods every time there is a tidal surge, but what I will miss is the sound of Pinks calling out just above your roof all night like they did on a foggy night a few weeks ago and within walking distance of the estuary , still , there you go it will still be there and while I can I will still visit it each day .

 

When I say on the move , we are only going about 2 1/2 mile down the road to a small bungalow in Bradwell , it will be a couple of miles further to go after the geese but a bit closer to my duck and main pigeon shooting , so what you lose on the roundabouts you then gain on the swings .

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Iv had a great season, had lots of successful flights, lots of blanks too, I had good crack and banter with the lad I shoot with , learnt a bit more, and also realised I knew less than I thought I did,we thought we had it all worked out last year, then this year it al changed.. Finished the season on Sunday when I dropped my first pink with my newly bought 8 bore, (go out on a high)... Only 6 months 9 days till it all starts again... Roll on the 1st

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When I say on the move , we are only going about 2 1/2 mile down the road to a small bungalow in Bradwell , it will be a couple of miles further to go after the geese but a bit closer to my duck and main pigeon shooting , so what you lose on the roundabouts you then gain on the swings .

I was looking at a couple of places in Bradwell a few weeks ago !!! Small world. I used to live there back in the early 1960s , before moving in the late 60s to Belton and then onto St Olaves in the early 70s to run a pub. The pub came with a few hundred yards of a river frontage and marina and in winter produced some good mallard flighting.

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