Layout Hunting Divers NY Style....

[David Rearick]

DATE: November 16th-18th, 2007

LOCATION: New York

WEATHER: Cold with moments of hail, sleet, snow and rain

TEMPERATURE: Ranging from 20’s-40’s over the weekend

WIND: Heavy to Moderate

EQUIPMENT USED: Avery® DIY Lanyards, Avery® Skull Caps, Avery® Fleece Hand Muffs, Avery® Finisher Blind Bag, Avery® Pit Blind Bag, Avery® Boater’s Dog Vest, Avery® Game Hog Game Strap, Avery® Sportsman’s Camera Bags, Avery® Floating Gun Cases, GHG® OS Divers and Puddle Ducks including Redheads, Coots, Bluebills, Canvasbacks, Mallards, and Blacks, LS Canada Floaters

HUNTERS: Frank Clifton, Jody Dennison, Arliss Reed, Rick Murphy, Ron Zega, and Avery® Pro-Staffers David Rearick and Mike Bard along with Black Labs - Monte, Zin, and Ice

Journal Notes:
Our original intent for our three days of hunting was to chase snow geese East Coast style in NY. After a hunt on Tuesday by Mike, Frank and Jody and a subsequent scout, they found a secluded area holding a good number of divers and puddle ducks just waiting for someone to get after. Being an active diver hunter in PA, I was all up for a change, if everyone agreed on it, as the plans had been in motion for the snow goose chase for over a month. After some phone conversations and relaying of information, we all decided that our best bet was a three day weekend of running two spreads for divers, puddle ducks, and geese on the waterways of NY. Frank did a great job of scouting out multiple areas for the three day adventure and Thursday afternoon after a successful opener in PA, I hooked up the boat, loaded the 2-Man layout boat, and kenneled Monte for the 5 hour drive to Mike’s house in central NY.

Day One:
After what seemed like and endless drive, I arrived at Mike and promptly went to bed, as we were getting up at 2:30 to make the drive to our hunting grounds. When the alarm went off, we were both up and ready. We quickly heated up the trucks and headed to the meeting spots, strategically placed along the route to gather our crew. We had two boats for this operation, mine to tend the layout and Mike’s to work the puddle duck/goose spread and both were jammed with enough decoys and gear to cover anything the birds threw at us this morning. After a tough launch navigating through buoy’s and rock piles, we made our way straight into the 25 mph headwind waves crashing over the stern straight into the face of Mike who had drawn the short straw and had to man the spot light. After a rough, punishing ride of wind and water we made it to the headwind side of the water we were hunting and drifted slowly searching for the appropriate spot to drop the layout. After some conversation we had indeed found the spot holding the large black mass of divers the previous day and made short work of setting out the 2-man and approximately 10 dozen decoys, in a pattern shaped to decoy birds in your face. As LST approached, we traded guys between the boats and set our first two shooters in the layout for the morning flurry. Even before we were situated, both our shore spread and layout spread reported success and dogs and boats made pickups as the birds continued to move through the dreary snow filled air. I had brought Monte along to get him a taste of layout hunting and retrieving from the boat; being edged from the boat caused him to dive almost completely under on his way to the downed birds floating in the choppy water. With no dog ladder the Avery® Boaters Dog Vest proved its true value by easily allowing me to hoist the 85 lb black lab over the side of the boat with various divers clenched firmly into his jaws, only being released into my hand as he has been trained to do.

As the morning progressed, it quickly became apparent that we were nearing our daily limit and we made a solid count on the large variation of birds that had been stacked neatly in each’s individual own pile attached to an Avery® GameHog strap. Everyone had their turn in both the layout boat and the shore blind and everyone had a nice mixture of color hanging head first from their GameHog. With three members sporting full limits and others being one short, we decided to do a quick scouting mission, pick up both rigs, and head to shore for some much needed hot food and beverages, as we had two full days of hunting ahead of us and enough birds to call today a success only being 5 short of our 7 man limit.


Day Two:
With a very successful day one behind us, we were excited for day two. After our scouting mission from the previous day, we decided to try our luck at another spot and see just what birds we could work into the decoys from a distant point barely visible the day before. Our plan was similar and we set out across a much flatter body of water in search of what we had seen previously. With more well trained first mates, we made much shorter work of setting out the decoys and getting myself and Mike loaded into the layout for the first shift of the morning.

Once LST was upon us, the first duck of the day was a prime black duck taken by Mike, as it was on his side followed by a super drake oldsquaw (long tail) that Mike dropped effortlessly into the decoys just feet from our partially submerged hide. Ducks continued to work both blinds well, but clearly the major mass of birds seen the day before had moved on. Goldeneyes and even black and surf scoter worked the spread and were taken by different hunters throughout the morning. The shore blind made good on different puddle ducks and even some divers that ventured into the string of divers leading them across the sandbar below. With the water becoming flatter and the ducks beginning to sit more content across the water, we decided to call today a little early and then scout for the rest of the day to find another good spot for day three of our hunt. While not quite as many ducks as yesterday, our bag of seaducks, divers, and puddle ducks made everyone very happy with our day two.


Day Three:
With two great days of mixed duck action under our belt, we hoped for even possibly a good goose or puddle duck shoot for day three. After some great scouting by Frank and our boys at the BWDC, we headed to a new spot that was loaded with bluebills, geese, and puddle ducks. After a little longer drive and much longer boat ride, we ventured out much farther from the shoreline than normal and made adjustments to the decoys to allow for the increased depth. As the sun crested the horizon and glistened on the water the birds began to come in large waves and amount into a black mass behind the layout. Seeing similar numbers before, I knew once the sun got up and the birds could more easily see our puny spread of 8 dozen compared to the thousands behind us, we would be in for some great action, even if it was mainly bluebills.

It wasn’t long until my thoughts became reality and approaching bluebills no longer overshot our decoys, but they rocketed down to the deck and approached only like bluebills can, feet off of the water and with rocket like speed. Our best toll of 50 plus birds hit the decoys 15 yards out and left faster than they had approached three shorter because of the deception offered by the decoys. At this point Mike and I had been running the tender and were the only two people short of blue bill limits. Mike and I traded out and large flocks started to work our fakes and the show from one of my favorite birds was on. After a short set, Mike hopped out to assist the tender again and I remained in the 2-Man layout solo and before the tender could even get set behind me, a pair came through the decoys and the drake remained bobbing amongst his plastic cousins. A short while later Mike got back into the layout with me and manned the left side of the boat. With two loons approaching on the water from our left, a black duck mistakenly got to close to the layout and after a short volley, I had him down in the water behind me. Never really taking a great black duck drake, I was excited when the boys in the tender, brought him by me for a look. He was definitely one for the wall and a great way to almost end the weekend. With only one bluebill needed for my limit, the next prime greater drake made the mistake of committing to our spread and he filled my limit and ended our three day weekend.

[Rob Jepson]

Nice stuff boys...I see a lot of green-headed divers!

[Mike Bard]

The non-layout, secondary spread worked out pretty nicely for those waiting their turn in the layout boat and not in the tender...thus all the green headed divers and most of the blacks...plus that one unlucky drake pintail.

[Aaron Hitchins]

That is as good as it gets. I love the variety, putting that many birds on the deck must have made for a memorable three days!

Aaron

[David Rearick]

Aaron, seeing as you are just a short jump away, you need to come down here and bring your dad with you a time or two to experience it first hand..

[Scott Turpen]

Sounds like a good 3 days of hunting. Good JE.
Always wanted to hunting from a layout.

[NYBackwater]

Thanks for trucking up all your gear Dave and teaching us some new diver tricks. You'll have to get back up and kill some more mallards and blacks. I would also like to thank Mike for letting us use his outfit to kill all those puddlers

[Greg Owens]

Looks like you guys had a great time out there. I would love to give layout hunting a try some day...

[RICK MACFARLANE]

Nice je david,Im sorry i coulden't go it sounds like it was a blast.

[goosegrinder87]

way to go we are hunting out of our layout boat friday and sunday on the mississppi should be good