Triple B on the Salt....

**David Rearick** · #1 01-14-2008, 12:00 PM

Date: January 12, 2008

Location: New York

Sunrise: 7:17

Weather: Clear and Sun

Temperature: 40’S

Wind: 5-10mph W

Equipment Used: Greenhead Gear® OS Black Ducks, Mallards and Bufflehead Decoys, Greenhead Gear® LS Canada Floaters, Greenhead Gear® FB Black Ducks, Avery® Finisher Blind Bag, Avery® Pit Bag, Avery® Finisher Blinds, Avery® Neo Tubs, Avery® Fleece Calling Gloves, Avery® Fleece Hand Muff, Avery® DIY Lanyards, Avery® Field Caps, and Avery® Fleece Skull Caps.

Hunters: Mike Dieck, Terry Connors and Avery® Pro-Staffers Mike Bard and David Rearick

Triple B on the Salt: Black Ducks, Brant, and a Band

With duck season winding down here in western PA and warm weather halting most good attempts at finding birds in cut corn, Mike Bard and I, decided to hook up and head out to Long Island, NY for a little salt goose and black duck hunting. With boat in tow and 5 hours until the meeting spot for Mike and I, the anticipation for some good salt marsh hunting outweighed the lack of sleep from the season and I headed off to a Wal-Mart just outside of New Jersey.

Almost like clockwork Mike and I both arrived at our meeting spot at the same time and quickly packed up and headed out. Uneventful drives thus far had kept us on time and we hoped for the best on our commute to our final destination for the weekend. Luck enough for us, the traffic was moderate and we arrived early enough to allow for a little rest before the next mornings hunt.

A salty sea breeze hit my face, as we turned the corner coming out of the launch and I was thankful that the weather was unseasonably warm and not blustering cold, as I had forgot to slip on my neck gaiter to skull cap before we left the ramp. Loaded down the 16’ V-Hull puttered along as the jet outboard churned salt water into propulsion and we worked our way through skinny waters to get to a pool far back into the marsh, where we would kick off the day. After arriving at our location and some talk about where we would spend the morning, we grabbed our blinds, a few GHG® Black Duck OS Floaters and Full Bodies, and headed to the edge of pool surrounded by salt/eel grass.

Even before the decoys were set, a pair of mallards dumped air trying to get in and we did our best to hunker down. Lucky for them, we were not ready and they left with nothing more than a good scare, as they saw Mike still setting up his blind. With the sun moving quickly through the clouds directly out front and the wind at our back, it made it difficult to scan the skies looking for birds working our small pocket of water. “From behind” was shouted out and I quickly stuck my head even farther down in my blind and scanned the sky through ¼” holes in the mesh of my Avery® Finisher. As three ducks worked overhead, a pair of drake black ducks broke off and centered on the hole directly in from of Bard and myself. The shot was called and as my gun hit my shoulder the black out front was down and the other bird was lifting straight up. I swung the gun to my left and pulled the trigger and the bird headed for the ground.

At this point it was apparent that the bird had been hit by one of two shots fired before me, but was still making his ascent out of the danger zone, when I fired pulling him back to the ground. Terry asked who had finished off the bird and I told him I had shot the bird last, not realizing that anything was out of the ordinary. That was until Terry exclaimed that the bird was banded and handed me a prime black duck drake, sporting a new looking, salt water shined band on his right leg. The morning progressed and we all finished with our limit of blacks and a bonus drake widgeon, so we packed our gear and headed out for low tide to await the return of the brant to the marsh.

Mike D. and Terry decided to make more room in there boat and take their blinds back to the truck, so Bard and I decided to get set-up and await the brant to come feed. Before we could even get decoys set, the brant were working the GHG® LS Goose Floaters and we could have easily killed our limit of two each. I decided to take a few PICS and wait until the other guys returned. After they returned, the brant got even thicker and it wasn’t long, before we had our Long Island four man limit of brant and black ducks. With brant in the air and a cool breeze at our backs, we picked up our modest spread and headed back to the ramp for the end of day one on the salt.

The Birds...

Banded Black..

Incoming Brant..