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A Belated Start To This Years Fowling Season


marsh man
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3 hours ago, Krico woodcock said:

Marsh man, you are without a doubt the most enjoyable poster. Pure pleasure to read your  stories of times gone by  ,And knowledge you have to offer to others. 

Totally agree. We need more of his tales of old on here. 
OB

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2 hours ago, Pushandpull said:

Some nice reminiscences John. I guess that would have been "Deafy" Rose at the meeting ? - had a Moore and Grey gun ?

Breydon is a long way from my patch but I once launched from the old boatsheds with Billy.  It's all gone now and is as much history as the days of John Knowlittle unfortunately.

 

Evening Pushandpull , Yes you are right, George ( Deafy ) Rose , we had the double boatshed next door to George and Billy had the one the other side , if we were up the boat shed when he came back from a trip up the estuary I would give him a hand to lift his gun out of punt and put it on brackets in the shed , you imagine doing that now , his punt was very light and made out of marine ply and he let me take it for a row across the river to see what it was like , if I remember rightly you could turn it on a sixpence and it stood out of the water a bit higher than our two , our first one we bought off ole Diamond Allen who was mentioned in one of Patterson books ( Wildfowlers And Poachers , a double punt that had a tongue and grove deck and I believe it was about 20ft long , then when that one went we had another double one that the Platt brothers made and that one was 21 ft and we had a single one made out of ply that was 18ft .

Like you say it is now all in the history books with all the house boats that were scattered around the estuary now long gone and only the concrete bases left where the boatsheds once stood , George once had a houseboat at the top end of Breydon near the Berney Arms pub and later he had one on what we call Gordons Rond ( Duffels Rond ) , he was deaf as a doorpost when I first knew him when he worked at one of the boat yards and he made a bracket out of brass to put our sail into , lovely ole boy and his life revolved around fowling , I never did know how he lost his hearing then one day a chap who restore and build gun punts sent me a cutting out of a local newspaper written I believe by Percy Trett , a long past local wildfowler .

How true it was I can't confirm , but it stated it was a Christmas break in the 1930s , George went up the river on Christmas Eve with his gun mounted on the punt so he could catch the tides on Boxing Day , over that period their was was a very sharp frost and unbeknown to George it had weakened the mounting , George set off and after spotting a pack of Wigeon he started to push towards them , at long last he got into range for the big gun and after pulling the lanyard all hell let loose , the gun parted company and shot down the side of his leg and it stated it went through the side of the boat , how true this was I can't say , but it stated at the end , the last thing George heard before he lost his hearing for good was the sound of cock Wigeon calling out , I am sure poor ole George would remember that last sound for the rest of his time he was on this earth .

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9 hours ago, greenshank1 said:

Well Done MM

We never see Pintail at all so well done. 
Hope everyone has a great season. I was out last weekend and never even got a shot but it was magic just being back out with the dog at dusk on the shore. 
 

 

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Cheers greenshank ... Your landscape look incredible , far different to our flatlands , our marshes were reclaimed from the sea which at one time was nearly five miles inland , we have got a Roman fort ( Burgh Castle ) which is still in good condition that overlook the marshes , this fort is now five miles from the sea which once came right up to the edge .

Believe you me , I get my fair share of blanks and that is a big part of the package when it comes to wildfowling , all it do is to encourage me to go out the next time and try again .

Pity about your lack of Pintail , in some places they are fairly common , whereas a few miles away they are rarely seen , still with all this global warming and the different rare birds that come down to our part of the country it might be only a matter of time before some head up to your way , lets hope so and GOOD LUCK if and when they do . 

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17 hours ago, greenshank1 said:

Well Done MM

We never see Pintail at all so well done. 
Hope everyone has a great season. I was out last weekend and never even got a shot but it was magic just being back out with the dog at dusk on the shore. 
 

 

BC43D103-E6A0-4F43-A19B-EA14D7535D0F.jpeg

16D73770-06DB-48CC-A1BD-DF251E916941.jpeg

Fantastic looking bit of foreshore as you said just getting out great for your soul 👍👍

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9 hours ago, marsh man said:

Cheers greenshank ... Your landscape look incredible , far different to our flatlands , our marshes were reclaimed from the sea which at one time was nearly five miles inland , we have got a Roman fort ( Burgh Castle ) which is still in good condition that overlook the marshes , this fort is now five miles from the sea which once came right up to the edge .

Believe you me , I get my fair share of blanks and that is a big part of the package when it comes to wildfowling , all it do is to encourage me to go out the next time and try again .

Pity about your lack of Pintail , in some places they are fairly common , whereas a few miles away they are rarely seen , still with all this global warming and the different rare birds that come down to our part of the country it might be only a matter of time before some head up to your way , lets hope so and GOOD LUCK if and when they do . 

Cheers 

Yes , it’s typical Scottish west coast , lots of rocky bays and inlets . So it’s more small rafts of duck and small family groups of geese that are flighting . 
Again have a great season and keep posting 👍

 

1 hour ago, Gerry78 said:

Fantastic looking bit of foreshore as you said just getting out great for your soul 👍👍

Thanks , it is indeed great to get out . Have a great season 👍

 

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On 19/10/2021 at 20:59, marsh man said:

Evening Pushandpull , Yes you are right, George ( Deafy ) Rose , we had the double boatshed next door to George and Billy had the one the other side , if we were up the boat shed when he came back from a trip up the estuary I would give him a hand to lift his gun out of punt and put it on brackets in the shed , you imagine doing that now , his punt was very light and made out of marine ply and he let me take it for a row across the river to see what it was like , if I remember rightly you could turn it on a sixpence and it stood out of the water a bit higher than our two , our first one we bought off ole Diamond Allen who was mentioned in one of Patterson books ( Wildfowlers And Poachers , a double punt that had a tongue and grove deck and I believe it was about 20ft long , then when that one went we had another double one that the Platt brothers made and that one was 21 ft and we had a single one made out of ply that was 18ft .

Like you say it is now all in the history books with all the house boats that were scattered around the estuary now long gone and only the concrete bases left where the boatsheds once stood , George once had a houseboat at the top end of Breydon near the Berney Arms pub and later he had one on what we call Gordons Rond ( Duffels Rond ) , he was deaf as a doorpost when I first knew him when he worked at one of the boat yards and he made a bracket out of brass to put our sail into , lovely ole boy and his life revolved around fowling , I never did know how he lost his hearing then one day a chap who restore and build gun punts sent me a cutting out of a local newspaper written I believe by Percy Trett , a long past local wildfowler .

How true it was I can't confirm , but it stated it was a Christmas break in the 1930s , George went up the river on Christmas Eve with his gun mounted on the punt so he could catch the tides on Boxing Day , over that period their was was a very sharp frost and unbeknown to George it had weakened the mounting , George set off and after spotting a pack of Wigeon he started to push towards them , at long last he got into range for the big gun and after pulling the lanyard all hell let loose , the gun parted company and shot down the side of his leg and it stated it went through the side of the boat , how true this was I can't say , but it stated at the end , the last thing George heard before he lost his hearing for good was the sound of cock Wigeon calling out , I am sure poor ole George would remember that last sound for the rest of his time he was on this earth .

Keep em comin MM,  love to hear about the old Norfolk boys

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