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Have The Season Started Yet ?


marsh man
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Leading up to the start of the new wildfowling season the forum was very quite with hardly a mention about any one getting excited , I did put a post on about pre season home work and it appears that very few bother .

I no longer chase the early season duck now as most of my fowling is over grazing marshes and now wait until the live stock have been taken off , a small part of me still get excited when the 1st arrive and yesterday morning I took my dog a bit earlier to see if I could see anyone coming off the marsh and to see if there was any late shooting going on , and to tell yer the truth I never saw a soul and didn't hear any late shooting , last night I had my tea and again took my dog back down the marsh , there was a bit of wind and a few spots of rain in air , I had a good walk round and on the way back I had a yarn with a bloke I know who live beside the marsh , in all the time we were yarning ,  (and it was now nearly dark ) , we never heard a single shot over the whole area , this would never had been the case a few years ago.

I know this have been a strange year but is the 1st of September losing it's appeal ? , and are people like me leaving it till later before they make a start ?

 

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Waited for the first of September and just done a evening flight with not much results The club I’m in that shoots a big lough didn’t have a good morning at all Due to outside members on a island hide deliberately shooting at high duck before they came into the shore hides but that’s. Another story 😤😤😤

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I was out yesterday morning and evening as it was the first day we were allowed on our marsh. Was only one of our club out and next door oy one was out, very quiet bird wise. Near no clouds no wind and only one shot from me, dog ran in and it flared as I pulled through it missing, couldn't take another shot as gun didn't cycle.oulked bolt and ejected the spent cart, thought wonder if I've got a bit of carbon off a 50 round of clays to get used to the Maxus again. Plenty of geese heading out to into the countryside on the stubbles. None would come in to my calling, turned a few small skeins but they turned back to follow the big skeins.

Got home and stripped my browning Maxus to clean it, the metal pin on the plastic sleeve that the gas valve pushes to cycle the action was missing, had snapped off a little way down inside the plastic. Had to take my Benelli SuperSport for the evening flight. 

Yesterday evening plenty of wind and cloud but dry so left waterproof jacket in car 🥴 another member came out for this flight. Next door a member went on and flushed some mallard and teal, took a shot not sure if he dropped one. I called a hen mallard dropped to my shot, retrieved by my dog. Say and thought this feels like bad weather is due, surely enough ten minutes later was like sitting under a fire hose. After forty minutes I called it a night, got that bad with sideways rain you couldn't see to shoot. Gear is hanging up in the garage drip drying.  Can't wait for Friday evening for next flight.

 

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2 hours ago, ditchman said:

early in the morning here on the cantley marshes it was like the "battle of the alamo".......must have heard 2-300 shots...........................

That would most likely be the flight ponds that were sold to the Italians , they feed them hard and drain the duck from supporting marshes , you most likely know the bloke who used to own them , at one time a top clay shot who had shot for England a while back , if you don't know him give me a shout .

Hope your moving house is going according to plan .

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I love the 1st day. just to be out on the marsh again, was out on the marsh two hours before first light. Could hear a few duck coming off a flight pond. Did not even lift the gun all morning as the few duck i did see was too wide of us or flappers. Was next to the car having a bacon roll with the guns in the boot and 50 0dd grays came over the top of us about 30yd up 🤬🤣. Always another flight.

Edited by fse10
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Me and my mate booked the week off and we have been up at 4am every day since the first and out in the evening. All our fowling is inland on splashes and stubble but its still a beautiful thing to part take in.

The excitement of ducks appearing out of the darkness and whizzing over your head on there way to some distance water is electric. We have had 3 ducks so far but not found the geese. Typically they were where we needed a week early and gone again by the 1st but sure they will be back.

 

Edited by captainhastings
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2 hours ago, Big Mat said:

I would say it's more due to a lack of Fowler's on this site now, I read but rarely post anymore. 

1st was as busy as usual where I went, my recon paid off and from what I could hear, others had a good morning. 

I am glad you made the effort to get out for the first morning , I fully agree with other members saying it is nice just to be out again , like you I used to do my recon because as much as I liked being out I still made the maximum effort in putting something in the bag .

 

11 minutes ago, Smokersmith said:

 Great photo , looking at that I recon it time to put your water profs on. 

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Screw it ... click on the link !!

Titled .... “Gordon’s alive ..!!! “

https://app.photobucket.com/u/smst973/p/3d70f798-f7b1-4c1f-9f3d-3a9c59a90847

1 minute ago, marsh man said:

 

 Great photo , looking at that I recon it time to put your water profs on. 

Thanks to lockdown I had waders that were actually waterproof for the first time in years!!!

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25 minutes ago, figgy said:

As our marsh is only small, recon is basically driving past and seeing what's on and around.

I agree with Big Matt that we've lost some fowler's and others that don't post anymore.

I remember some joined a Wildfowling forum.

 

Handy up to point where you can keep a eye on it while driving past , problem is , if it is a shared marsh then other people can do the same thing and then it become first on first served   , maybe we are in a far better position by having a lot of marshes to shoot over and I found at a early age , which was not always the case , but in a lot of places , the harder it was to get to a marsh the better the shooting was , we had some once that were inaccessible by cars and 4 x 4s as once the cattle were off in November every gateway became a bog and the only way to get them was a good hour and a half walk , this put many people off as when you stayed till it was dark you then had the walk back through the muddy gateways in the pitched dark and at times in inclement weather  , like most places we had blanks but when you hit it right the shooing on the flooded marshes was well worth the slog and the weight of the bag began to fell heavy time you got back to civilisation .

 

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5 minutes ago, scolopax said:

No consent issued for the upper Humber so no wildfowling on my local marshes, for now, for ever?!?

I was on a family holiday near the solway so snuck in a morning flight. Got two greylag so an excellent result.

Sorry to hear you might be losing your marshes , hopefully consent will be given before to long.

Well done on the pair of geese , sound like a very good holiday, at least you haven't got to self isolate when you get back home :good:

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I took the time off work to get out there but I'm still rather green to the marsh. The club I'm with want me to have a few outings with a mentor. Maybe next year. Mind you I did drop a muntjac on Tuesday evening and the sky was full of ducks where I was just a shame I didnt have my shotgun 

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This is my 26th season and I still cant sleep the night before the 1st. 

I was out in the morning and bagged 3 greylags, could have shot more but I didn't want to be dropping them into the standing crop they were flighting in over. 

IMG_20200901_070847_713.jpg.501c046269be426777e3ddd15af16bc7.jpg

At night I took my eldest son and his cousin out for a night flight. They were both out a few times last year with me but neither managed to bag anything. We had a lot of geese come in and after a few shots they managed to bag a goose each. Both of them delighted with their first goose, very proud of them both. I can see my ammo bill going up a bit from now on though.

IMG_20200902_094557_896.jpg.ce8c7d4a8a10a3a1306d3e2d1a874f85.jpg

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Marsh man,

Our little marsh is a club of only ten members with only three allowed each flight. We all have our favourite spots and will help eachother to call birds in and get under them. Great lads and club.

The club next door has more members as their marsh is bigger. The boundary fence is never broached unless to pick a downed bird but without your gun.

 

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10 hours ago, figgy said:

Marsh man,

Our little marsh is a club of only ten members with only three allowed each flight. We all have our favourite spots and will help eachother to call birds in and get under them. Great lads and club.

The club next door has more members as their marsh is bigger. The boundary fence is never broached unless to pick a downed bird but without your gun.

 

Sound like a nice friendly club to be in and it is good when you know who the other members are and where they are likely to be .hope you have a very good season figgy.

All the best    MM

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The weather up here has been really nice , it just didn't feel like shooting weather !

I'm more interested in push biking and sea fishing at scrabster! 

Went for a walk last night by our house it was nice to walk the shore and look at the places you like for an ambush on geese and duck .

Watched a couple of osprey fishing in the shallow water, not be long before they leave for home with the swallows, that's when the fowling season will start for me ! 

It was looking like a late harvest , not much had been done last week , it's been mopped up big time over the past few days. 

Counted 5 combines parked in one field tuesday they have ripped through the barley. 

Even the caithness harvest is well under way , plenty getting combined up that way .

The hungry pinks wont be long ! 

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6 hours ago, captainhastings said:

I think a lot of the lack of posts is people playing there cards close to there chests. Especially in land spots. Syndicates swoop in and buy all the rights and the one man and his mate can soon lose out.  Bit like fishing it don't make sense to publish a productive spot 

Agree a 100 percent I’m heading out in the morning to a big inland lough unfortunately a private syndicate has a flight pond behind some of the hides It’s just the way duck hunting has progressed Money Talks now days 

23 hours ago, aister said:

This is my 26th season and I still cant sleep the night before the 1st. 

I was out in the morning and bagged 3 greylags, could have shot more but I didn't want to be dropping them into the standing crop they were flighting in over. 

IMG_20200901_070847_713.jpg.501c046269be426777e3ddd15af16bc7.jpg

At night I took my eldest son and his cousin out for a night flight. They were both out a few times last year with me but neither managed to bag anything. We had a lot of geese come in and after a few shots they managed to bag a goose each. Both of them delighted with their first goose, very proud of them both. I can see my ammo bill going up a bit from now on though.

IMG_20200902_094557_896.jpg.ce8c7d4a8a10a3a1306d3e2d1a874f85.jpg

Great to see young Lads out hunting Well done 👍 

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