Outdoor Column for the week of November 9, 2003

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By Fred Bonner

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Waterfowl Season Extended With Sea Duck Hunt

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Photos:

Photo 1) Houston and Tracy Blake, admire sea ducks taken in Pamlico Sound. There is a liberal limit on these ducks and the hunting season is longer than it is with other waterfowl.

Photo 2) Tracy Blake's decoy set-up for hunting surf scoters in Pamlico Sound. Note the three "flying" decoys on metal tubing set in the stool of decoys. The wings of these decoys move up and down much the same as a real duck's would and attract the surf scoter's attention to the rest of the decoys.

Photos by Fred Bonner

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Most duck hunters specialize in hunting the better known ducks such as wood ducks, mallards, black ducks, scaup ducks or canvasbacks. The only problem with the sportsmen who exclusively hunt these very restricted species of waterfowl is that the hunting season is short and the bag limits somewhat thin.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had a duck hunting season that lasted straight through from October 1 through January 24 with a bag limit of 7 ducks per day. It is nice and we do have such a season on sea ducks here in North Carolina.

Some die-hard waterfowl hunters are taking advantage of the special sea duck season and have extended their waterfowling time tremendously. Moreover, they're having a good time doing it.

The collective term "Sea ducks" refers to several species of big-water ducks that winter along the North Carolina coast. The better known of these ducks are the ones that are called "scoters" (pronounced "sc-O-ters" not "scooters" as in a motor scooter). There are three species that answer to the name of "scoter;" the surf scoter (our most abundant in N.C.), the black (or common) scoter and the white-winged (American velvet) scoter. The other two species of sea ducks found in lesser numbers in our waters are the eider and the oldsquaw.

The special regulations pertaining to sea duck hunting in North Carolina are listed in the Wildlife Resources Commission's Regulations Book and rather than interpret them myself, I'll list a direct quote from the regulation book.

" The taking of sea ducks (scoter, eider, oldsquaw) except during the regular duck season shall be limited to the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and to those coastal waters south of US 64 which is separated by a distance of at least 800 yards of open water from any shore, island or marsh. Special sea duck limits and seasons apply in these areas. During the regular season, this bag limit may be in addition to the limits applying to other ducks. In all other areas, sea ducks may be taken only in the regular open season for ducks and they must be included in the regular duck season daily bag and possession limits."

The daily bag limit on sea ducks from the above designated waters is seven per hunter per day but this limit may not contain more than four of the scoters. If you're lucky enough to bag eiders or oldsquaws in addition to the four scoters, you can keep seven of these "sea ducks" per day.

Old Timers along the coast call the scoters (all three species) "sea coots" or "boobies." They say that they are good to eat as long as you breast them out and remove all the fat and skin before you cook them. Apparently the skin and fatty tissue retain some of the fish oils from the food the ducks eat and can give the meat a fishy taste. Properly prepared the scoter's meat reportedly taste like that of any other duck.

During some of the abnormally warm weather we've been having here in North Carolina most of the duck seasons were closed but the season in the special sea duck areas listed above were open. Die-hard duck hunters did not miss the opportunity to do some hunting and ventured into Pamlico Sound to hunt the "Boobies." Two such hunters were Houston Blake and his father Tracy Blake from Grifton, N.C..

Tracy is noted as having developed the new URE-A DUCK motorized decoy that flaps its wings very much like a real duck does. He's also designed and made floating sea duck decoys that look fabulous when they're set out in long strings of about 20 decoys each.

In order to take advantage of the long and liberal (yes, Republicans can hunt sea ducks too) sea duck season the Blakes set about creating the ultimate sea duck hunting machine.

Taking a 20 foot Winchester fiberglass boat that had seen its better days the Blakes reconfigured the interior, patched up a few problems in the hull and rigged the boat out for big water duck hunting. Using PVC pipe they created a framework on the superstructure of the boat on which to hang woven grass mats for camouflage and painted the exterior and interior of the "new" boat in their own design of camouflage.

Their homemade floating scoter decoys were rigged on long strings of 400 pound-test monofilament fishing line. Each of these strings of about 20 decoys is rigged with the decoys about three feet apart and the anchor attached on the upwind end. These rigs do not easily tangle and are a snap to set out and recover.

The crowning achievement of the Blake's sea duck decoy stool is built on square aluminum tubing. A framework of tubing is welded into a rectangle of about 5 feet by 4 feet. Each corner of this rectangle has one of the floating scoter decoys attached to it to keep the aluminum tubing suspended about three inches under the water's surface.

Welded to this aluminum rectangle are three "mast" of different heights sticking straight out of the water. The dark painted "mast" range from two to four feet in length. Attached to the top of each "mast" is one of the URE-A-Duck flying scoter decoys. When these flying decoys are powered-up they look for the world like three scoters coming in to land among their floating brethren.

Veteran duck hunters know very well that one of the worst things that can happen to a waterfowler is to experience one of those dreaded "blue bird days" when there's no wind and the water's "slick-cam." Under these conditions floating decoys look for the world like just what they are, fake ducks. Only the more stupid ducks are attracted to a decoy set up under blue bird conditions.

With Blake's motorized decoys flapping their wings like a real bird above the floating decoys, just enough motion is transmitted to the submerged H-frame and its floating support decoys to create lifelike ripples on the water's surface, The real ducks see the three flying decoys looking like they're coming in for a landing and decide to join up with their buddies for a free meal. This is just what the hunters want and with good shooting like Houston Blake demonstrates, the hunters bag some waterfowl.

Since most sea duck hunting is on really big, open, water a good, seaworthy boat is highly recommended. Ideally a stand-by boat sits some distance away from the floating blind and is used to retrieve dead or crippled birds. This stand-by boat does tie up one hunter and another boat. The Blakes have solved this problem by rigging out their anchor line attached to a big floating decoy. A stainless steel snap on the top end of the anchor line allows them to quickly cut loose from the anchor and set out in pursuit of the downed ducks. It's a simple matter to return to the floating decoy and anchor line and snap onto the bow ring of the boat.

The URE-A-DUCK company also makes decoys in drake mallard, drake wood duck, drake bufflehead, crow, scaup duck and drake canvasback and the above mentioned scoter decoy. They can be reached at (252) 524-3393 or by writing them at URE-A-DUCK, 5080 Hugo Road, Grifton, N.C., 28530.

www.ureaduck.com

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SIDEBAR To Sea Duck article-

Peter Osenton, Wildlife Biologist with the U.S Geological Survey Sea Duck Investigation Team, needs samples of various ducks to aid the biologists in their feeding habits study of big water ducks. He asks that duck hunters help the team by saving the carcasses of the following species of ducks. Here's how to do it.

1. They need Black, White-winged and Surf Scoter, Bufflehead, Canvasback, Common Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck (Oldsquaw), Redhead & Ruddy Duck.

2. We are interested in either sex and/or different ages of birds. If hunters want to retain the breast meat of the birds then the remaining parts of the carcasses will be used for the study.

3. After shooting, place birds in a plastic bag. Any birds from the SAME location, can be put in the SAME bag.

4. Label the bag with a tag (or some other permanent way) and mark them with the DATE the birds were shot and specific LOCATION. (Such as: Bluff Point, Pamlico Sound; Harvey Point, mouth of Perquimans River, etc.). The most important information needed is the location. GPS or Lat./Long. coordinates are welcomed! If Pamlico Sound is given only, this is inadequate because the area is so vast. Please be as specific as possible.

5. Also hunter's name and phone number on the bag is beneficial, but not necessary!

6. If the birds were shot in different locations, make a separate bag for each location and label. Although date is very important, different dates can be in the same bag, as long as the location is the SAME for ALL birds.

7. Freeze bag of birds as soon as possible. It is best to freeze within 24-36 hours. Please keep them frozen until they can be delivered to federal biologists who will be at the East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival & N.C.Decoy Carving Championships to be held in Washington, N.C. on January 30 through February 1, 2004.

If you have questions please contact Peter C. Osenton,

Wildlife Biologist, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center,

12100 Beech Forest Drive, Laurel, MD 20708

Telephone : 301 497-5644

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Fred Bonner

Fisheries Biologist (retired)

Syndicated Columnist

Active Member- Boating Writers International

International Game Fish Association Representative

7220 Cleveland School Road, Garner, NC, 27529

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