This is the first year since moving to Oregon that I really made an effort to go out. Deer + elk hunting was a bit of a bust, and the steelhead are still undefeated, but I've had some luck with the ducks at least. I don't have access to a dog or boat or private land so we've been fighting the crowds on public (one of the WMAs provides "roaming" access, which one of my friends has decided to call the "Dick Cheney Unit").
Here's a breakdown of how it has gone (sorry, this is a bit long and picture-heavy):
Started off with an off-day scouting trip to check out to wildlife management area. We saw no ducks this day.
The next morning, my buddy drug us out on a 6-mile round trip hike to a giant mud puddle. We each went home with a bird, but I'm still not convinced that I actually hit the one I took home. I'm a bit rusty at shooting (this will be a recurring theme) and we passed on some good shots for no apparent reason.
We plucked this one, and my girlfriend made a point of rendering as much fat from it as she could (we got about 1.5 ounces - this old jam jar is 10 oz total).
A week or two later, we're back in the mud puddle. This time, it had rained a lot and the mud puddle more closely resembled a lake. Our blind was actually submerged in 6 inches of standing water. I go home with one bird (again) even though I shot about 8 times. Sadly my one duck is a hen. Still tasty. By this time my girlfriend is getting really into eating the ducks and spending days out in the marsh.
A few days later we try again. No pictures this time, but we go to the pond that we scouted before the first trip. Nothing really came close except one ring-necked duck that landed behind us. I enjoyed the short hike and the fact that there was an established blind, could have used some more birds though.
Skip forward another week or so, and I managed to draw a reservation for one of the managed blinds on the WMA. The check in process requires an even earlier wake-up than hiking in 3 miles. The spot I got drawn for is on the edge of a managed pond with a handful of other blinds scattered around. As we're setting up, we hear a bunch of ducks hanging around. Right before shooting light, someone on the other side of the pond starts throwing decoys out and their dog barks, scaring off many of those ducks on the water.
After that disturbance, things shaped up. Lots of birds were flying around, though they were picky on where they wanted to land. Largely by happenstance, I wound up with three ducks on this trip, a limit of canvasbacks (a first for me) and a teal. For whatever reason the mallards weren't interested in getting very close.
We had a close fly-by of some snow geese. In this area you have to pass a goose subspecies identification test in order to get a goose permit, and I hadn't done so yet. Two of the other blinds each got 1-2. As we were picking up decoys, a small group of Sandhill Cranes really wanted our spot. They flew in low and more or less hovered over and squawked at us for a few minutes until finally flying off to a different area. I checked in on that lake's harvest stats for the day, and our haul of 2 birds/person beat the pond average of 0.9 birds/person.
Season here closes at the end of the month. I'll probably get out one or two more times before the end. I've really enjoyed the system that ODFW has set up to provide public access to habitat.
Here's a breakdown of how it has gone (sorry, this is a bit long and picture-heavy):
Started off with an off-day scouting trip to check out to wildlife management area. We saw no ducks this day.
The next morning, my buddy drug us out on a 6-mile round trip hike to a giant mud puddle. We each went home with a bird, but I'm still not convinced that I actually hit the one I took home. I'm a bit rusty at shooting (this will be a recurring theme) and we passed on some good shots for no apparent reason.
We plucked this one, and my girlfriend made a point of rendering as much fat from it as she could (we got about 1.5 ounces - this old jam jar is 10 oz total).
A week or two later, we're back in the mud puddle. This time, it had rained a lot and the mud puddle more closely resembled a lake. Our blind was actually submerged in 6 inches of standing water. I go home with one bird (again) even though I shot about 8 times. Sadly my one duck is a hen. Still tasty. By this time my girlfriend is getting really into eating the ducks and spending days out in the marsh.
A few days later we try again. No pictures this time, but we go to the pond that we scouted before the first trip. Nothing really came close except one ring-necked duck that landed behind us. I enjoyed the short hike and the fact that there was an established blind, could have used some more birds though.
Skip forward another week or so, and I managed to draw a reservation for one of the managed blinds on the WMA. The check in process requires an even earlier wake-up than hiking in 3 miles. The spot I got drawn for is on the edge of a managed pond with a handful of other blinds scattered around. As we're setting up, we hear a bunch of ducks hanging around. Right before shooting light, someone on the other side of the pond starts throwing decoys out and their dog barks, scaring off many of those ducks on the water.
After that disturbance, things shaped up. Lots of birds were flying around, though they were picky on where they wanted to land. Largely by happenstance, I wound up with three ducks on this trip, a limit of canvasbacks (a first for me) and a teal. For whatever reason the mallards weren't interested in getting very close.
We had a close fly-by of some snow geese. In this area you have to pass a goose subspecies identification test in order to get a goose permit, and I hadn't done so yet. Two of the other blinds each got 1-2. As we were picking up decoys, a small group of Sandhill Cranes really wanted our spot. They flew in low and more or less hovered over and squawked at us for a few minutes until finally flying off to a different area. I checked in on that lake's harvest stats for the day, and our haul of 2 birds/person beat the pond average of 0.9 birds/person.
Season here closes at the end of the month. I'll probably get out one or two more times before the end. I've really enjoyed the system that ODFW has set up to provide public access to habitat.
