Maryland's Eastern Shore, January 2011.

The last weekend of Maryland's waterfowl season was tough, and I would say it was a bit short of epic this time around, but why would I even think of saying that?



The first morning on the Chester River was a slow developing hunt. Ice had moved in throughout the night and made it difficult to set up a full spread of decoys until the hard water cleared by mid-morning. Not easy work pushing ice floats out of the slack water in front of the blind. Better than a real job though no doubt.



Once the spread was completed by our guide Joe Bryan, the detail was a limit of Canvasbacks. "And wouldn't that be nice," was the current running throghout the back of everyone's mind I'm sure. A few geese here and there looked enticed by the open water, but none ever did us. Then the Canvasbacks came. In a half hour we had our limit. Almost like a dream come true.





The Bull Canvasback is a prized duck on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Their red head and long neck makes them relatively easy to identify from the ground. But, as guide Joe Bryan informed us they can reach flight speeds of up to seventy miles per hour. So identifying a Canvasback is really only the first and easiest step in chasing the limit of one duck per day. Luckily for us, Joe Bryan is a smooth talker when it comes to getting divers into the spread.



After the river it was off to a field pit blind for the afternoon hunt. The weather was calm and comfortable, and the field we were hunting is notorious for producing big tolls of geese and good amounts of puddle ducks as well. Joe pleaded with the geese to land, and he worked the mojo decoys well enough to give his dog Ruger some mid-day exercise retrieving birds.