Drake Redheads over Decoys...

[David Rearick]

DATE: January 5th, 2008

LOCATION: New York

SUNSET/SUNRISE: 7:39

WEATHER: Cloudy

TEMPATURE: ~30-40 Degrees

WIND: South at 5-10 mph

EQUIPMENT USED: Avery® Floating gun case, Avery® Fleece Skull Caps, Avery® Finisher Blind Bag, Avery® Pit Bag, Avery® Fleece Calling Gloves, Avery® Neoprene Hand Warmer, Avery® Ankle Gaiters, Avery® DIY Lanyards, GHG® OS Redheads-Bluebills-Canvasbacks-Goldeneyes-Bufflehead-Mallards and Blacks, and GHG® LS Ringnecks and Bluebills.

HUNTERS: Frank Clifton, Jeff and Clay Tietjen, Zink Calls staff member Erik Nilson, Lynch Mob Calls staff member Rick Murphy, and Avery® Pro-Staffers David Rearick and Mike Bard

DOGS: Frank’s BLF Ice and Mike’s FCBR Moxie

JOURNAL NOTES:

With a hectic move and a few delays, last weekend’s planned New York hunt never happened for me, so plans were rescheduled for this past weekend. New York has been like my second home this year (You know its bad when Mike’s kids refer to their couch as “Dave’s Bed”) and this would be the last hurrah, until snow goose season, so with the layout boat in tow, Erik and I headed to NY for some redheads, bluebills, goldeneyes, and whatever else came to the spread.

With a south wind and a 9 mile boat ride dead South, it made for a brisk morning run at 4 am, but the icy cold wind hardly phased us, as we headed to the spot scouted out by Jeff the days before our arrival. Once at the spot, everyone made quick work of running the lines of GHG® divers and putting out the decoys and quickly got back into the boat to wait for legal time. Even before we could shoot, ducks were landing in the decoys, and things were looking very good for the morning hunt. Jeff had scouted this spot and told us that mainly Redheads and a few “other” divers had been in the area, so our plan was to shoot drake redheads and work on the other birds, as they presented themselves over the decoys.

It wasn’t long until we had our first ducks on the water and goldeneyes whistling out front. A bufflehead and drake bluebill were the first two ducks of the morning, but not the last. Just as the morning got started, the redheads began to fly there way down the shoreline and ate up the spread better than we could have hoped for. When the first flock hit the decoys, 4 drakes hit the water with one landing under 10 yards from the boat. The birds continued to work the decoys, bombing into them with reckless abandon, as they had been feeding on the weed bed in this spot. Flocks of birds upwards of 50 circled just over the decoys made it tough to keep from getting itchy on the trigger, but it made easy work of picking out drakes, as the birds committed 15-20 yards out from the boat. In addition to trying for only drake redheads, we decided early to not take any birds not fully committed with feet down over the spread today. We could have easily shot many more birds, if we had been greedy, but 12 drake redheads and 7 “other” ducks finished out the day with many other birds skirting, well within range, to be allowed to leave unharmed. It was good day on the water and Jeff’s son, Clay, who was observing for the day, got to see some of the finest decoying redheads you could ask for this cold January morning.

Moxie w/ an Early Morning Redhead...


Ice with a Drake Mallard...



Ice with a Bull GE...



The Line...


The Boys...

[Rob Jepson]

Man...that looks like a great hunt! Got anymore shots of the Redheads?

[Jason Mears]

Looks like a terrific hunt guys, nice work!

[Jude St.John]

The redhead is yet another duck I have never shot! I love the ducks on the boat photo!

[Kevin Addy]

Very nice, you guys are having a great year with quite the mixed bag.

[David Rearick]

Originally Posted by Rob Jepson

Man...that looks like a great hunt! Got anymore shots of the Redheads?

I did have a bunch that just were not good because of a general lack of sun. If we would have had sun, it would have bene game on for PICS. It also didn't help that what sun we had was in our face..

All I have that were even remotely useable are these ones...
http://forum.averyoutdoors.com/showthread.php?t=37195
http://forum.averyoutdoors.com/showthread.php?t=37188

[Fanatic]

awesome pics!!

[Arliss Reed "Cuz"]

Way to go fellas, sorry I couldnt make it, hopefully we can get together in the spring to chase some snows.

[goosenater]

Great job on the red heads!

[George Kuhns]

Nice hunt David. We had a few good shoots over here the last few weekends also. I guess all good things must come to an end.