Tim Bouchard
01-15-2006, 11:32 PM
It continues…….
2005/2006 Hunting Journal Entries
DATE: November 30 – December 4, 2005
LOCATION: Valdez, Alaska
SUNRISE: 9:10 AM
WEATHER: Clear
TEMPERATURE: 5-10 degrees
WIND: 5-20 mph
EQUIPMENT USED: Avery® Floating Pit Bag, Avery® Floating Gun Case, Avery® Gauntlet Gloves, Avery® "Square-Bottom™" decoy bag, and Avery® Skull Caps.
HUNTERS: Brian Rhodes, Ryan Rhodes (The Swampers), Corey Stalker and Avery® Pro-Staffer Tim Bouchard
Day 3:
The goal…. Harlequins. The forecast, not good. One thing that I have learned in my travels is NAOO has some amazingly accurate forecasts and some very bad forecasts. Valdez is one of those places where you just don’t know if it is going to be on or not. Makes it part of the fun. The forecast called for calm winds, so it was to harly beach we go. A quick turn out of the small boat harbor and we see the forecast had a little too be desired. But it was not bad enough yet to stop us from trying. We headed to our favorite harlequin spot. The tide was coming in and almost near its peak, not bad conditions, but I prefer a little lower and going out. In the winter time in Valdez we see normal tides in the 8-12 foot range. Making knowing where to place the decoy and boat a must else you find yourself sitting on the bottom before you know it.
We setup at the stop with our tail end of the boat almost on the beach and our decoys out in front. Two gunners would be sitting in front with two of us sitting in back to film and take pictures. Then we would switch. The decoy spread for harlequins is not big, only a dozen are put out. As ever duck hunter will tell you if you are where they want to be they will come. We do put a group of 6-7 barrow decoys out also, for the black and white birds that fly over.
We started off with more barrows than harlequins. You got to love when the birds throw you for a loop. We were sitting in about 1-2 foot chop, which is more then we normal have in this spot. It seemed for this reason the harlequins seemed to be avoiding it. Then we got a couple of flights for drakes harlies coming in. Nothing like a little blue duck cupped into to the decoys 15 yards out. With a single shot Brian had got his duck he came to Alaska for. So we switch shooters to let Ryan add another to his bag. Well a bunch of rounds later, more than he and Corey would like to admit, we had another drake harly and a couple of barrows.
The wind was starting to kick up more and forced us off the beach for the afternoon. We decided we would head back and do some scouting and possibly shoot some mallards in the afternoon.
Our normal mallard hole was frozen shut, something that I have not seen in the last couple of years before Dec. 16, the end of the season. So we scouted some new water for some sea ducks. This is when scouting pays off. Pulling up to a bluff we looked out to a raft of a few hundred birds, made up of scoters, old squaw, barrow goldeneye, common goldeneye, bufflehead and mallards. We normally see and shot some scoters, but not huge numbers. Well we found where they like to sit. Tomorrow we would setup for some sea ducks.
Day 4:
Scoters & Old Squaw (oops. Long Tail sorry). We normally only head out about 20 minutes before shooting time. Alaska is the only place you can sleep in and still shoot a limit of ducks. It helps that sea ducks like to fly later, but the main fact is sunrise is not until 9:30am in December. We decided to head out earlier and push the birds off their feeding spot and setup quick before they came back. Well it worked, kind of. The scoters took off, but landed about ¼ mile away and stayed there all day. On the good side the goldeneyes, buffleheads and old squaw could not resist coming back.
The old squaw were a special treat for me. We had seen them in the past, but we never connected with them. This new area seemed to be the key. The new location had a muddy bottom compared to the normal gravel bottom of Valdez Port. There is only a few location like this in this area. And they hold our scoter and old squaw population. I scored my first old squaw first thing in the morning. It was not a fully mature drake, but I was still very happy to have gotten one in the bag. Little did I know what would come.
One of the nice things about Valdez is the birds get up and move to gunfire. Normally when one bird comes in and a shot is fired birds pick up and move around. That was the case all day long. Every time we left anchor to go pick up birds more were landing in the decoys as we motored around. We were getting a mixed bag, by mid day we had old squaw, common goldeneye, barrow goldeneye, bufflehead, red breasted merganser, common merganser, and mallard. We were rounding off our species list for the trip. One of the highlights of the day was an old squaw flock that came in. Three of us were gunning and one filming. The flock was 21 birds (counted on video later). There were a few nice drakes in there. We each picked one to take. Right as the flock came into the decoys they converged into a ball. Seven shots were fired. 13 of the birds fell. I am never for just destroying a flock, but I have never seen that happen. I am trying to convince Corey to mount the whole flock!!
With three hours left of shooting we discussed heading to harly beach to end the day. The weather was suppose to be the worst today, but it ended up being the nicest. Since the forecast was good for the next day we decided we would end the trip with harlequins.
Day 3 Photos
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/harly1.jpg
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/harly3.jpg
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/harly4.jpg
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/harly5.jpg
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/harly6.jpg
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/ryan_brian_harlies_avery.jpg
2005/2006 Hunting Journal Entries
DATE: November 30 – December 4, 2005
LOCATION: Valdez, Alaska
SUNRISE: 9:10 AM
WEATHER: Clear
TEMPERATURE: 5-10 degrees
WIND: 5-20 mph
EQUIPMENT USED: Avery® Floating Pit Bag, Avery® Floating Gun Case, Avery® Gauntlet Gloves, Avery® "Square-Bottom™" decoy bag, and Avery® Skull Caps.
HUNTERS: Brian Rhodes, Ryan Rhodes (The Swampers), Corey Stalker and Avery® Pro-Staffer Tim Bouchard
Day 3:
The goal…. Harlequins. The forecast, not good. One thing that I have learned in my travels is NAOO has some amazingly accurate forecasts and some very bad forecasts. Valdez is one of those places where you just don’t know if it is going to be on or not. Makes it part of the fun. The forecast called for calm winds, so it was to harly beach we go. A quick turn out of the small boat harbor and we see the forecast had a little too be desired. But it was not bad enough yet to stop us from trying. We headed to our favorite harlequin spot. The tide was coming in and almost near its peak, not bad conditions, but I prefer a little lower and going out. In the winter time in Valdez we see normal tides in the 8-12 foot range. Making knowing where to place the decoy and boat a must else you find yourself sitting on the bottom before you know it.
We setup at the stop with our tail end of the boat almost on the beach and our decoys out in front. Two gunners would be sitting in front with two of us sitting in back to film and take pictures. Then we would switch. The decoy spread for harlequins is not big, only a dozen are put out. As ever duck hunter will tell you if you are where they want to be they will come. We do put a group of 6-7 barrow decoys out also, for the black and white birds that fly over.
We started off with more barrows than harlequins. You got to love when the birds throw you for a loop. We were sitting in about 1-2 foot chop, which is more then we normal have in this spot. It seemed for this reason the harlequins seemed to be avoiding it. Then we got a couple of flights for drakes harlies coming in. Nothing like a little blue duck cupped into to the decoys 15 yards out. With a single shot Brian had got his duck he came to Alaska for. So we switch shooters to let Ryan add another to his bag. Well a bunch of rounds later, more than he and Corey would like to admit, we had another drake harly and a couple of barrows.
The wind was starting to kick up more and forced us off the beach for the afternoon. We decided we would head back and do some scouting and possibly shoot some mallards in the afternoon.
Our normal mallard hole was frozen shut, something that I have not seen in the last couple of years before Dec. 16, the end of the season. So we scouted some new water for some sea ducks. This is when scouting pays off. Pulling up to a bluff we looked out to a raft of a few hundred birds, made up of scoters, old squaw, barrow goldeneye, common goldeneye, bufflehead and mallards. We normally see and shot some scoters, but not huge numbers. Well we found where they like to sit. Tomorrow we would setup for some sea ducks.
Day 4:
Scoters & Old Squaw (oops. Long Tail sorry). We normally only head out about 20 minutes before shooting time. Alaska is the only place you can sleep in and still shoot a limit of ducks. It helps that sea ducks like to fly later, but the main fact is sunrise is not until 9:30am in December. We decided to head out earlier and push the birds off their feeding spot and setup quick before they came back. Well it worked, kind of. The scoters took off, but landed about ¼ mile away and stayed there all day. On the good side the goldeneyes, buffleheads and old squaw could not resist coming back.
The old squaw were a special treat for me. We had seen them in the past, but we never connected with them. This new area seemed to be the key. The new location had a muddy bottom compared to the normal gravel bottom of Valdez Port. There is only a few location like this in this area. And they hold our scoter and old squaw population. I scored my first old squaw first thing in the morning. It was not a fully mature drake, but I was still very happy to have gotten one in the bag. Little did I know what would come.
One of the nice things about Valdez is the birds get up and move to gunfire. Normally when one bird comes in and a shot is fired birds pick up and move around. That was the case all day long. Every time we left anchor to go pick up birds more were landing in the decoys as we motored around. We were getting a mixed bag, by mid day we had old squaw, common goldeneye, barrow goldeneye, bufflehead, red breasted merganser, common merganser, and mallard. We were rounding off our species list for the trip. One of the highlights of the day was an old squaw flock that came in. Three of us were gunning and one filming. The flock was 21 birds (counted on video later). There were a few nice drakes in there. We each picked one to take. Right as the flock came into the decoys they converged into a ball. Seven shots were fired. 13 of the birds fell. I am never for just destroying a flock, but I have never seen that happen. I am trying to convince Corey to mount the whole flock!!
With three hours left of shooting we discussed heading to harly beach to end the day. The weather was suppose to be the worst today, but it ended up being the nicest. Since the forecast was good for the next day we decided we would end the trip with harlequins.
Day 3 Photos
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/harly1.jpg
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/harly3.jpg
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/harly4.jpg
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/harly5.jpg
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/harly6.jpg
http://www.nwtaxidermy.com/pictures/hunting_gallery/swampers/ryan_brian_harlies_avery.jpg