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Another One Put To Bed , How Was Your Season ?.


marsh man
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Today was the last day that for me had been a very average season that never really took off .

I started way back towards the end of October after we had monsoon rain one Sunday morning that left plenty of fields flooded , my first night I got a Gadwall and my last night on the 30th of Jan I got a goose and a duck , so I started all right and had a decent finish .

In between the first and the last day was run of the mill sort of flights with far to much water to get a good amount of duck coming into one splash , my best flight was 5 Widgeon on club marshes and on my own marshes I did manage 5 Mallard one night , in the past I would have several good flights and the odd flight of the season , this past season I did have the odd good flight but none that would have qualified for the flight of the season .

Goose numbers , .... I am not sure if there were as many coming down as other years , but there were more than enough to go round , the boys who concentrate on the Pinks had most likely had a good season , I did get the odd Pink but only went after them when I wanted one .

So that was roughly how my season went ...... Now how did yours go ? 

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Aside of being knocked out at New Year with pneumonia it was a poor season here. The pink numbers never settled down. Occasionally there were plenty then they were gone. The gales and flooding more or less wrecked it for February. On the plus side we were out at Caerlaverock and our monitoring system was a success again.

Back to dog training and fishing until September. Of course this excludes the list of things the management will present me with tomorrow morning.

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Been a productive season for geese all season really , moon flights really patchy but still worth going out .

Ducks have been difficult to shoot , but still some nights have been good even with no wind and tide . 

Pintail have only just started to be spotted and the season is over ! But the last two weeks have been good for ducks, the nagging wind and rain has finally got them moving .

Nothing went wrong learnt loads yet again even though I've been going yrs took my hip flask tonight and raised a glass with a 40 mph wind and lashing down with hail and rain ! 

 

 

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13 hours ago, Dave at kelton said:

Aside of being knocked out at New Year with pneumonia it was a poor season here. The pink numbers never settled down. Occasionally there were plenty then they were gone. The gales and flooding more or less wrecked it for February. On the plus side we were out at Caerlaverock and our monitoring system was a success again.

Back to dog training and fishing until September. Of course this excludes the list of things the management will present me with tomorrow morning.

Hope you are well and truly on the mend , now the weather is slowly warming up it will be a good time to get back out and regain full fitness . All the best MM

 

12 hours ago, shakin stevens said:

Been a productive season for geese all season really , moon flights really patchy but still worth going out .

Ducks have been difficult to shoot , but still some nights have been good even with no wind and tide . 

Pintail have only just started to be spotted and the season is over ! But the last two weeks have been good for ducks, the nagging wind and rain has finally got them moving .

Nothing went wrong learnt loads yet again even though I've been going yrs took my hip flask tonight and raised a glass with a 40 mph wind and lashing down with hail and rain ! 

 

 

Glad you had a decent season , before you know it you will be putting your boots on and getting ready the next one. Hope next season will be as good for you if not better MM

 

12 hours ago, Big Mat said:

Mediocre, couldn't get out when it was right, shot like a muppet. Alot of other pressures meant I didn't shoot when i wanted to. Bagged a couple of nice pintail last weekend.

Next season will soon roll around

I would had been happy with a couple of Pintail , very scarce around here now although you can still see a few on the estuary , I always classed them as the Holy Grail amongst the listed duck , at one time I would get a few virtually every season , then for some unknown reason the big numbers stopped coming down our way .

Next season allocate at least one morning or afternoon to go shooting , you will feel better for it ...... All the best     MM

 

12 hours ago, fandango said:

As always enjoyed..... never know when it’s going to be your last one 👍

Glad you enjoyed it , and like you say , for some of us it could well be your last season , although I am paying my club subs for another season so I hope I am spared for at least another one :lol:  All the best    MM

 

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Poor season for me on the Foreshores.   Despite looking good at the start and a few memorable outings, weather was mild  and the numbers of both ducks and geese were  below average.   Any pinks seemed sporadic and unsettled.  Travelling up to Scotland was slightly more productive, but hard work.

  Weather looked to be improving but rain took over and dominated the scene, testing patience and equipment to the limit. Pinks were around on some places i shoot throughout the season, but in lowish numbers,  shy and difficult to get to terms with.  The wet weather flooded fields giving plenty of options for wildfowl  did not help .

  A couple of frosty mornings on widgeon was memorable.

And one freak morning i had a marsh that had seen some over enthusiastic activity  throughout the season, all to my self the pinks were shy as usual at first on the way inland, but one skein late on came through nice and i got two.  A poor season too wet too mild and frustrating.

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, MARSH GUN said:

Poor season for me on the Foreshores.   Despite looking good at the start and a few memorable outings, weather was mild  and the numbers of both ducks and geese were  below average.   Any pinks seemed sporadic and unsettled.  Travelling up to Scotland was slightly more productive, but hard work.

  Weather looked to be improving but rain took over and dominated the scene, testing patience and equipment to the limit. Pinks were around on some places i shoot throughout the season, but in lowish numbers,  shy and difficult to get to terms with.  The wet weather flooded fields giving plenty of options for wildfowl  did not help .

  A couple of frosty mornings on widgeon was memorable.

And one freak morning i had a marsh that had seen some over enthusiastic activity  throughout the season, all to my self the pinks were shy as usual at first on the way inland, but one skein late on came through nice and i got two.  A poor season too wet too mild and frustrating.

 

 

 

Your season was very close to my own , at one time the weather didn't bother me and still don't up to a point , but this last season was something else , I lost count of how many nights it either rained when I went , or rained during the flight and with very little action you can only tolerate so much .

Every time it rained increased the size of the splashes on the marsh and towards the end it was easier to say what marsh wasn't flooded than the ones that were , apart from the odd time I had to defrost my windscreen , the season was virtually frost free without a single flake of snow.

Plenty of duck sat about on the estuary and that is where they mainly stayed , with no , or very little shooting on the estuary now the fowl don't get disturbed and now know where they are safe and you can now walk around the estuary wall and the fowl stay well within range , or just swim out and return once you have walked past.

If it wasn't for the big numbers of geese that are either resident or come down from the far north , I fear the wildfowling around here would only be a shadow of it once were , still we can still go and it's not all gloom and dome , plenty of duck and geese to see and a few do end up in the bag , so we will carry on while we can as like us , it isn't going to last for ever .

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9 or 10 flights locally.  3 Canada’s on the first.   Then a sequence of blanks broken by an occasional teal.   Seasons duck bag was three teal.   First season in fifteen years I have not shot a Pink on the Humber.   So all in all p poor. 

Had a good week in Scotland but geese were hard work so went ducking instead and had a couple of decent flights.

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On 20/02/2020 at 20:55, Big Mat said:

Mediocre, couldn't get out when it was right, shot like a muppet. Alot of other pressures meant I didn't shoot when i wanted to. Bagged a couple of nice pintail last weekend.

Next season will soon roll around

There will be a few Muppets that are quite offended by that! 🤣

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There were plenty of pinks around all season. I managed to shoot plenty, and at least one in each month apart from September. The story for ducks wasn't quite as good, but I still had one or two half decent flights. The inland washes were only visited once by me (I am not as keen when the water is that deep), but I still managed to get some ducks and geese.

I didn't fire a single shot at a pintail or Canada, all season - something that I hope to address next season.

My last inland flight (next to a local river) ended with 5 mallard and 4 pigeons in the bag. My last marsh flight in February saw me getting my final pink of the season.

All in all, not a bad season.

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Been my first season and shooting ducks geese inland. It has been amazing wish I started 30 odd years ago. The sites and sounds on a dawn flight or in full moon are just amazing. Find them hard to hit for some reason though. I am ok with pigeons but despite the larger targets I have not been very successful. I guess it is getting used to a no3 steel compared to a clear pigeon. Still managed to get a few in the freezer though and I love duck 

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16 hours ago, captainhastings said:

Been my first season and shooting ducks geese inland. It has been amazing wish I started 30 odd years ago. The sites and sounds on a dawn flight or in full moon are just amazing. Find them hard to hit for some reason though. I am ok with pigeons but despite the larger targets I have not been very successful. I guess it is getting used to a no3 steel compared to a clear pigeon. Still managed to get a few in the freezer though and I love duck 

Agree with that, a nice plump mallard..😊.. my season didnt really happen for numbers in the bag but enjoyed the waiting

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Fairly modest for me ...

I don't get excited unless the weather is really in my favour ..... so didn't really get going until after the kids 1/2 term hols when I went away. 

Always plenty of pinks around, and had some good shooting with 8, and also some 40g hevishot through the 12g.

I stayed patient waiting for tide and wind to combine to provide the perfect tide flight, but it didn't really happen ..... the best I ended up with was half a dozen pinnies.

So ... didn't go short, but didn't go mad either.

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Had a nasty cold most of the season (turned out to be mild pneumonia). But saying that my first seson has got me hooked. On my second time out to the foreshore I took down 2 greylag and boy that was memorable. I didn't hit anything that day (not uncommon for me) and then two geese fell to the ground with a good thud. Very tasty too. Had loads of opportunities but my poor shooting let me down. Im going to hit the clays and get some lessons too I feel.

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14 hours ago, Smokersmith said:

Fairly modest for me ...

I don't get excited unless the weather is really in my favour ..... so didn't really get going until after the kids 1/2 term hols when I went away. 

Always plenty of pinks around, and had some good shooting with 8, and also some 40g hevishot through the 12g.

I stayed patient waiting for tide and wind to combine to provide the perfect tide flight, but it didn't really happen ..... the best I ended up with was half a dozen pinnies.

So ... didn't go short, but didn't go mad either.

It seemed from start to finish the dull and wet weather was relentless , not once did the dykes freeze over , same with the flashes , if anything ,each week they were getting bigger and new ones appearing each time I went down the marsh .

Every season in the past seem to produce a period where you can put your own hard weather plans into place , we are lucky where we have got tidal rivers that stay open when the weather get well below freezing which can make excellent duck shooting, also I know where there are some dykes with underground springs that stay open when other dykes freeze over, these can produce really good flights for Teal , then after a good week of cold weather we start to go easy on them as they become hungry and a cold weather ban would be coming into force , but nowadays this is becoming more and more less likely .

We had a good supply of geese and if I was a betting man I would bet there were more geese shot than duck , I like the odd goose like most people do but like this year when it was getting harder to get a duck than a goose I spent most of my time chasing the duck , once I get the amount of geese I want then that is it as far as geese are concerned , but sadly that is not the case for a lot of fowlers .   

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