New Site

Anyone who comes to this site...check out www.huntersparadise.netforums.us

its an excellent place to shoot the breeze with other hunters!

Seasons over...time to move on!

I have really been slacking with posting on here. My camera died and I just didn't want to type stuff up without photos. I don't really remember all the details, so I'll just post up a few photos with some commentary if I feel like it!!


I think people from the DU site have seen these before. These are just a few of the ones I took....enjoy!!

Recap of 2007-2008 season

This has been a banner year for ducks hear in SE PA. We have had good hunts just about every trip out averaging about 4 ducks per hunt. The goose hunting was good, but we decided to stay on the ducks since the really never wanted to leave. Usually we are shooting geese and mergansers after Christmas. This year was differant. Even the types of ducks we shot were new for the area.

We were able to harvest mallards, woodies, blackducks, GW Teal, Pintails, Redheads, Ringnecks, Hooded Mergies & Common Mergies. I ended the year with 64 ducks. Not to bad considering that amount of time I hunted and the area I hunt. My goose count was really low this year. Only 14. I'll make up for that in Sept.

We also started training a new pup this year. My brother in law Tim got a great little female choc. lab. She made her first retreive at 6 mons. I'm very happy to have her in our little club now. My lab Koda on the other hand is having a little trouble learning to share the work. The last few years its been all about him. He is getting better though. We will have a chance to work them together during the off season, which in turn should make for a real good season next year.

Above are a few pics of our season.

Tom

Scratching out a few....

The weather conditons and flight patterns, have not been too friendly to those of us in the foothills of NC.... but we are managing a few birds here and there.

Hunt 1: Two weeks ago (12-29-07), I had a traveling decoy ("Dirty Bird"), made by Doom Decoy Company http://www.doomdecoy.com/DoomDecoy/DOOM-Home.html. We managed a drake Mallard and a Ruddy Duck (sorry no pic of the Ruddy) while I had "dirty bird". The decoys had been to Canada, NY, the Dakotas, Utah, and went to Oklahoma when I finished up. Below is a pic of "Dirty Bird", 2 black duck decoys of mine (also from Doom Decoy), the drake mallard I shot. The black Lab (Max) belongs to a good friend of mine (Anthony). Max made a 100+ yard retrieve on the drake mallard I shot. it was a nice show from the blind, and Anthony was quite proud.
Photo: Courtesy of Anthony

Below is another pick of the drake Mallard, and the hand made call I aquired this past summer from Waccamaw Calls. It's a hand made Curley Maple mallard call, and produces one of the best feed chuckles I have ever heard (sounds like a mallard feeding on an acorn - nice and ducky). You can check out Waccamaw calls @ http://www.waccamawcalls.com/

Photo: Courtesy of Anthony

Hunt 2: This past weekend (1-5-08), I had the privilidge of hunting on a private pond in Central NC. Had a great time, and scratched out a couple ducks. Met a couple new guys, made new friends, and had a blast. The pond was frozen over, so I got to break some ice..... set some decoys.... and have some fun! :)

Photo: Courtesy of "Mac"

You can check out "Mac" and his adventures: http://www.skinnymoose.com/moosedroppings/

Thanks to Rick for the use of his layout blind, and access to hunt.... and thanks to Billy, Rick and "Mac" for the warm welcome I recieved - and for all the good company this past weekend. ;)

While hunting, I manged a drake and hen Shoveler.... and the drake had some real nice colors (almost full plumage). In the pic below, is Billy and his Chocolate Lab Hershey. Hershey made a nice "blind" retrieve on the drake "spoonie" I shot.
You can check out Billy and Hershey @ http://www.averycreek.net/ , or at some of the field trials around NC/SC this year.

Photo: Courtesy of "Mac"

It turned out to be a real nice day (nippy, but nice), and we saw some ducks and Canadas. The birds weren't cooperating the best in the world, but it was a real good time hanging with the "crowd". I thouroughly enjoyed hunting "new water", meeting new people, and making new friends.



Happy hunting,
Troy Smart
AC Caldwell County DU
Lenoir, NC

Final Day of the First Season

Yesterday was the last day of our first season. We had hunted the past three days with some success, 2 of us killing 2 on sunday, 2 of us killing 6 on monday, and 4 of us killing 13 on tuesday. I hunted out of my layout boat yesterday after watching large numbers of Buffleheads, Goldeneye, and Canvasbacks using the river, while the other 3 guys went back in the back to some backwater. I dropped three Buffleheads, but the Cans just weren't being very cooperative. Everytime i got up to move my boat around or pee or something, thats when they would fly in.

We are supposed to have another small cold snap over our break, so once the season comes in again on the 26th i'll probably be laying out again trying to kill the divers again, unless I can find some Canadas somewhere.

Just a couple divers....

We had been observing some divers on a local lake - in very huntable numbers. As it got closer to our last segment opener, we decided to hunt two parties - with hopes of catching the birds trading from seperate resting areas we had found. As luck would have it, the birds moved out before the opener. We only saw 4 birds, and killed 3 of them. I took a Bufflehead drake and hen with one shot, while my buddy "pillowcased" a mergie with a spectacular shot. It was a fun day in the blind, but slow over all. We also seen a drake Scaup, but his mind was on other things besides decoys.

Weather fronts/patterns looks to be shaping up nicely, so hopefully some birds will come in. Most reports across the State have been sub-par, with a few exceptions. Looking forward to a busy month and 1/2, til the season closes.

Happy hunting,
Troy Smart
AC Caldwell County DU

Finally Some Ducks!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things are starting to look up in SE PA! Myself, brother in law Tim, and good friend Rich went to are favorite spot hoping that a cold front that was coming would bring us a good day. We got what we hoped for. Cold weather, perfect wind, and hundreds of ducks mostly mallards were in the air from daybreak to shortly after lunch. The ducks didn't decoy well. I only brought 6 mallards, 6 blackducks, 6 ringnecks, and a pair of buffleheads. I went light because of what I saw the days before while scouting. I tried to match what I was seeing.....small groups! I was not expecting flights of ducks with nearly 30 birds each. We made the best of it slowly picking off pairs and single as the passed by. My decoy spread should have been 4 times larger, but who would have known that so many ducks would have showed up over a days time.

The GHG dekes did their job, and brought in 11 mallards & 1 pintail. It should have been more, but you know how it is................

I got to take a nice young drake pintail! This duck is a rare visitor hear this time of year. We always seem to see them in the spring on their way home. Not during hunting season. That duck was worth the day to me.



We also saw....Blackducks, GW Teal, Wigeon, Ringnecks, Buffleheads, and Common Mergansers.
Just a pefect day!

Tom