2018 Waterfowl thread

1963beretta

1963beretta

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Vaughan, Ontario
Since there are no threads about the upcoming waterfowl season, and in keeping with tradition, I figure I’d get the blood flowing on the soon approaching season. The guns are ready and duck and goose calls have been tuned. Ammo is fully stocked thanks to some phenomenal sales at Cabela’s and rebates from Winchester. What is exciting about this season is that I already have some dates penciled in for a couple epic hunts with friends and that my nephew will be entering his first official waterfowl season where he can carry his own firearm.

There will be some blood spilled as well as some tasty sausages and burgers made. I cant wait!
 
We have new willow blinds built to try out this year, and more decoys and calls to try out. The plan is a waterfowl hunt every Saturday starting in less than two weeks. I am just headed out to pick up a new county landowners map, as well as purchase my licenses. We finished last year with a hunt where we limited out on 40 geese in under an hour, so we are starting this season on a positive note.
 
1963beretta said:
Since there are no threads about the upcoming waterfowl season, and in keeping with tradition, I figure I’d get the blood flowing on the soon approaching season. The guns are ready and duck and goose calls have been tuned. Ammo is fully stocked thanks to some phenomenal sales at Cabela’s and rebates from Winchester. What is exciting about this season is that I already have some dates penciled in for a couple epic hunts with friends and that my nephew will be entering his first official waterfowl season where he can carry his own firearm.

There will be some blood spilled as well as some tasty sausages and burgers made. I cant wait!
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Yup, I'm just about ready. I purchased 11 boxes of steel shot, decoys are ready, shotgun, duck calls (I mostly call with mouth alone - quack! quack!). Just the lay-out blind to dress-up with marsh grass/cattails, that won't be later when I field-hunt geese. All bird and big game licenses are purchased. Opens up here in southern Alberta on September 8th.
 
Recently moved to Vancouver so I'm busy scouting new places to set up. Trying to decide if I need an inexpensive pump for the salt and save my Browning for freshwater stuff. At least my dog appears to be ready...
 
I’m in Petawaw, ON and I’m slightly confused by the lack of regulations that I can find... the municipal by-law states I only have to be 150m from any building and can’t discharge from municipal property, which is pretty straight forward, but that seems almost to easy to go park my duck boat 150m of the shore (or 150m up or down stream from the nearest building)and shoot waterfowl this close to a populated area... anyone in the Ottawa valley area know of any other restrictions that I’m not tracking for hunting in the Ottawa river? I know back home in NB the stand off distances for shotgun is several hundred meters, hence why the 150m is a bit odd for me.
 
everything is ready ammo, guns, calls, blinds decoys, truck is loaded and full of gas ready to giver , even the dog can feel the anticipation in the wind
NOW for the co operation of mother nature , and the birds and and and geesh only 5 more sleeps but who is counting
no fields are swathed or combined in this area as of today, not much for bird sign had a poor hatch in this area, but by the end of the week things should be heating up, birds will be moving in,
 
Hunting from a boat is allowed as long as the motor has been turned off and the boat has ceased its forward motion, assuming you are using a powerboat. Boat blinds are great for being able to set up shop just about anywhere. Public waters are just that, public. As long as there are no bans for discharging firearms in the municipaility or on the lake specifically, hunting bodies of water opens up a lot of hunting opportunities. I hunt on a lake where property owners feel that they own the water, but it isnt so. I’ve had police and CO’s called on me and all I got was a pleasant conversation with a CO or PO, had my licenses and firearm checked, and then wished good luck with the rest of my hunt. I will add that what you dont want to do is be disrespectful to landowners and start setting up near their homes/cottages. Pick spots on the lake that are away from where people are located and always shoot toward open water and not toward land. Also, make sure you leave the place how you found it. That means picking up all your shells and garbage. I’ll go to the extent of even picking up floating wads when I see them. This goes a long way to earn the respect of others who live on the lake.
 
Im going to be hunting mainly from a kayak this year for waterfowl. Plan on paddling up some rivers and creeks and hunt the open water of the south shore of st claire
 
Once again, we will be hunting fields exclusively this year. We don't even bother setting up a hunt, unless I see several hundred geese feeding in the field for a day or two while scouting. Last year we had in excess of 1000 dark geese come in every day. The best part is that every hunt was within 20-30 minutes drive from my home, I just picked up a new landowners map, and permission has been easy to obtain here.
 
Started getting my gear ready this past weekend. Doves on September 1st and the Goose opener on the 6th. Not sure where the summer went, but at least it is followed by hunting season. ;)
 
Andrew829 said:
I’m in Petawaw, ON and I’m slightly confused by the lack of regulations that I can find... the municipal by-law states I only have to be 150m from any building and can’t discharge from municipal property, which is pretty straight forward, but that seems almost to easy to go park my duck boat 150m of the shore (or 150m up or down stream from the nearest building)and shoot waterfowl this close to a populated area... anyone in the Ottawa valley area know of any other restrictions that I’m not tracking for hunting in the Ottawa river? I know back home in NB the stand off distances for shotgun is several hundred meters, hence why the 150m is a bit odd for me.
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i've heard of guys setting up lawn chairs in the water in front of the base golf course, since the base is not in the Petawawa municipality and apparently does not extend into that part of the river. Just make sure you're all cased and trigger locked on the way in/out to keep the MPs happy.
 
Still recovering from shoulder surgery. However i am gonna try shooting left hand. Cant see #### outta my left eye but maybe a bit of point and pull will do the trick. I am looking forward to getting out there for sure.
 
Got two shoots lined up for the opener, only about 200-250 birds each but when watching the other evening they were coming in smaller groups of about 6-10 so if that continues it will still be a good shoot.
No new gear this year except a camo sheet for the willow blind.
 
Early goose opens here on Saturday. My son has plans for the morning.
Some grass fields are at just the right stage of growth. I have to work the morning so I will just get to help with the cleaning if they are successful.
 
How do you conceal yourself and your dog hunting on open water?? I was checking out boundary bay this morning and all the ducks were 300+ yards off shore in the surf.
 
enabler said:
How do you conceal yourself and your dog hunting on open water?? I was checking out boundary bay this morning and all the ducks were 300+ yards off shore in the surf.
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Open water hunting for divers is actually quite easy....lots of decoys and some brush on the boat to give it the illusion that its a small island. The alternative would be a boat blind, but those can be a little expensive. A simple boat blind can be made using conduit tubing.

If you are hunting goose or dabbling ducks on open water, you may have a tough time getting birds to come in. For that type of waterfowl hunting, your best bet is to hide your boat near land, preferably near the entrance of a river mouth or swamp. In order to kill birds, you need to be where the birds want to be. Dabbling ducks and geese prefer shallow calm waters as opposed to diver ducks who like deeper waters out in the open
 
1963beretta said:
Open water hunting for divers is actually quite easy....lots of decoys and some brush on the boat to give it the illusion that its a small island. The alternative would be a boat blind, but those can be a little expensive. A simple boat blind can be made using conduit tubing.

If you are hunting goose or dabbling ducks on open water, you may have a tough time getting birds to come in. For that type of waterfowl hunting, your best bet is to hide your boat near land, preferably near the entrance of a river mouth or swamp. In order to kill birds, you need to be where the birds want to be. Dabbling ducks and geese prefer shallow calm waters as opposed to diver ducks who like deeper waters out in the open
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I was seeing brants or wigeons today. I'll bring my binoculars out for my next walk. I don't have a boat (mostly I don't have the space) so I'd have to errect something in the surf with my dummies and hope the wind is right.
 
I am pumped for waterfowl season. Calls ammo Dec's all ready to go. Once I am back from BC for my elk hunt I'll start on early goose they are buzzing my house right now and have feilds near by and lake to hunt them. Looking forward to another great season last year was amazing sure this year will be as epic.
 
Nice to see a thread on this website about waterfowl!
We're getting ready as well and surprised to see the season starts earlier in the Western part as opposed to us (Quebec area).
My team and I have approximately 180 snow geese, 40 full body canada goose, plenty of ducks, the new stuff this year are 24 silhouettes (anyone has experience with those?)
A new Altan blind and fox pro snow crow call, can't wait to try out those new goodies.
Anyone popcorn their spots?
We put maybe 40-80 kg of corn in rivers where we hunt and have 40-60 ducks flying away each time we come feeding them.
Good luck to all!
Grendeb
 
Ahhhh I suspect I'll be lucky to get out twice a month this year. Used to be twice a week, until kids came along ...

Hoping it's better than last year, anyway. I used to hunt a bit in October for early river birds, then hunt deer until November when the redlegs (Northern black ducks) and sea ducks started to show up in numbers. Once the redlegs were in, I'd hunt every day I could spare even a half hour, as my drive home from work was full of honeyholes. It was rare to come home from the boat without at least one black.

But last year I wasn't working on the boat, and we had a bad early freeze that drove all the blacks away before I could get out shooting much. Mud flats were frozen rock solid in early December, and that was the end of that.
 
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