Opening day

[Joe T]

Opening day on Long Island tomorrow!

[ATbuckhunter]

Best of luck! Cold front may have blown in some birds for you

[virgil]

Joe, did you get out today?  We decided not to because of the wind. I checked the local harbor at sunrise and didn’t see any signs of hunters. 

[Joe T]

@ATbuckhunter and @virgil my buddy and I went out at dawn in a hole in the marsh and we had a couple of blacks come into our spread and a flock of geese fly overhead. Unfortunately the birds won! But it was great getting out.
Yes, it was a little windy, especially as the morning progressed and we had some slight rain, but it was a good showing of ducks for opening day. Enzo was happy to be out again.

[virgil]

Hi Joe. We hunted out of Captree around Gilgo yesterday and Friday. Saw a good few black ducks- mostly from us flushing them out on our way in. But, not a lot of birds flying. Did you get out- any luck?

[Joe T]

@virgil I did not get out yesterday as I was committed to my divorce prevention program (honey do list)!  My hunting buddy got out to fire island and got a green winged teal which came into his spread and saw a lot of black ducks darting in and out of the mosquito trenches but none in range.  He and I went to Otis today for pheasants and hunted three spots and no birds!  Guys at the check in station were saying that the property was hit hard yesterday.  They also said with the cold weather the birds were not easily flushed.  The only place I am getting Enzo some consistent bird action is the preserve out in Jersey.  It’s frustrating.

@DKsWorld was hunting his afternoon near where you were and got two blacks.

Edited December 2, 2024 by Joe T

[virgil]

We saw a group of guys hunting to the West of us on Friday- two of them wearing blaze orange hats.  Never saw duck hunters wearing blaze orange before.

[Joe T]

@virgil that is very funny! Even last year in my first season of hunting I knew not to do that! LOL

[Larry]

Opening day of the Western zone is this Saturday. Most of the zone will be frozen out. If you don't hunt the big lakes you probably won't be hunting unless you can find open water somewhere. The head of the DEC waterfowl unit has basically disbanded the waterfowl taskforce except in name. I know the Western zone taskforce wants more days in November instead of just 3. Right now there are thousands of bluebills on lake Ontario but the limit is one till later in December then it goes to two. The ponds in Greece are already getting skim ice by Saturday they will be covered unless we get wind. Some of the creek mouths may be open. But we are going to get more snow. The Niagara River will probably be good but the rest of the Western part of the zone the skiing should be good. The of the waterfowl unit needs to listen to the taskforce and the waterfowl clubs more than a survey. They are waterfowl hunters.

[ATbuckhunter]

4 minutes ago, Larry said:

Opening day of the Western zone is this Saturday. Most of the zone will be frozen out. If you don't hunt the big lakes you probably won't be hunting unless you can find open water somewhere. The head of the DEC waterfowl unit has basically disbanded the waterfowl taskforce except in name. I know the Western zone taskforce wants more days in November instead of just 3. Right now there are thousands of bluebills on lake Ontario but the limit is one till later in December then it goes to two. The ponds in Greece are already getting skim ice by Saturday they will be covered unless we get wind. Some of the creek mouths may be open. But we are going to get more snow. The Niagara River will probably be good but the rest of the Western part of the zone the skiing should be good. The of the waterfowl unit needs to listen to the taskforce and the waterfowl clubs more than a survey. They are waterfowl hunters.

Find spots along a river. Then you'll have all those ducks pouring into those open holes

[Larry]

3 hours ago, ATbuckhunter said:

Find spots along a river. Then you'll have all those ducks pouring into those open holes

I see you live down state. So you have no idea how much snow there's on the ground in some places we have where I live one river we do have streams but access is hard. Use to have a 30/30 or 40/20 split opening the third or fourth weekend in October then opening back up around Christmas. Just to let you know I know how to find birds I've been hunting this zone and the northeast zone since the mid 70's.

Edited December 3, 2024 by Larry

[Robhuntandfish]

3 hours ago, Larry said:

Opening day of the Western zone is this Saturday. Most of the zone will be frozen out. If you don't hunt the big lakes you probably won't be hunting unless you can find open water somewhere. The head of the DEC waterfowl unit has basically disbanded the waterfowl taskforce except in name. I know the Western zone taskforce wants more days in November instead of just 3. Right now there are thousands of bluebills on lake Ontario but the limit is one till later in December then it goes to two. The ponds in Greece are already getting skim ice by Saturday they will be covered unless we get wind. Some of the creek mouths may be open. But we are going to get more snow. The Niagara River will probably be good but the rest of the Western part of the zone the skiing should be good. The of the waterfowl unit needs to listen to the taskforce and the waterfowl clubs more than a survey. They are waterfowl hunters.

All our ponds were mostly iced over last weekend .  Def will be iced up now.    Guess I'm going rabbit hunting and muzzleloader Monday.  

[ATbuckhunter]

59 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

All our ponds were mostly iced over last weekend .  Def will be iced up now.    Guess I'm going rabbit hunting and muzzleloader Monday.  

You can always go in and break the ice up. Annoying, but ducks will see it and come in to investigate. I've done it with success before

[ATbuckhunter]

1 hour ago, Larry said:

I see you live down state. So you have no idea how much snow there's on the ground in some places we have where I live one river we do have streams but access is hard. Use to have a 30/30 or 40/20 split opening the third or fourth weekend in October then opening back up around Christmas. Just to let you know I know how to find birds I've been hunting this zone and the northeast zone since the mid 70's.

We have the opposite problem of it not being cold enough sometimes. I understand access is hard, its not much easier down here either. I drive 2+ hours to some of my duck spots.

[Robhuntandfish]

1 hour ago, ATbuckhunter said:

You can always go in and break the ice up. Annoying, but ducks will see it and come in to investigate. I've done it with success before

i have heard of that but dunno if worth the effort at this point.  It was open on Friday last week and we never got any action.  If it opens up again we might get out one more time.  Hoping so cause it is fun for sure.