For a different type of waterfowling, head out to sea
Chesapeake Bay ranks as one of the most historical waterfowling destinations in the nation. My son, Daniel, and I met Joshua Bourne of Wingman Guide Service of Virginia Beach, Va., in Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore of Virginia one chilly morning.
Well after shooting hours started, we anchored in the open water of Chesapeake Bay more than a mile from shore. We watched ocean-going ships dominating the endless horizon. Growing up hunting waterfowl in South Louisiana marshes, swamps and rice fields, I felt silly crouching behind the gunwales of a 23-foot boat that any bird could see for miles.
“Hunting sea ducks is different from hunting puddle ducks in the marshes,” said Bourne, who also operates a full-service lodge in Somerset County, Md., for waterfowling and fishing. “For sea ducks, I very rarely hunt without first seeing birds that day. Scoters dive for clams, oysters and mussels. They sit over their food sources during the day, so we set up where they’re feeding.”
Bourne placed about two dozen surf scoter decoys, mostly drakes with a few hens, attached to a decoy net for quick deployment. In open, featureless water, sportsmen cannot judge distances as well, so place the decoys about 30 yards from the boat. We set up with the rising sun to our backs so birds couldn’t see us as well in the silhouetted boat.
“The birds naturally swim into the current so I clip a long line to the back of the net,” Bourne said. “With the net, we can put out a cluster of decoys in a tight area. That allows decoys on that line to look like they’re in a perfect line to approach the other birds in the cluster.”
First shot
That silly feeling quickly vanished as one large dark bird rocketed low over a small cluster of black decoys bobbing in the waves. Coming toward my end of the boat, I had the honor to take the first shot that morning. With one blast of No. 2 Hevi-Shot, I bagged our first bird of the day, a drake surf scoter and my first sea duck.
With the wind and bay currents, sportsmen must retrieve their kills quickly. Previously, Bourne attached his anchor line to a buoy. He unhooked from the buoy and motored over to pick up my future wall-hanger. Then, we returned to reattach the boat to the buoy to resume hunting in the same spot just minutes later.
“We’re sitting in about 10 feet of water, but sometimes I’ll hunt in water out to 30 or 40 feet deep,” Bourne said. “Scoters prefer shallower water. They also like to feed where oystermen or clammers are working. When the watermen work the bottom, they expose food for the ducks. The birds absolutely see the boats, but that means food to them, so they are not shy about landing near boats in open water. Probably 99 percent of the time, the boat will be parallel to the decoys with the wind coming from one side or the other.”
Bringing in birds
Sometimes, sportsmen wave black flags at birds flying in the distance. Similar to the concept of spinning wing decoys, birds see the flash from far away. That black flash replicates the wings on scoters preparing to land.
All morning, surf scoters kept coming into our decoys steadily in singles, pairs and small flocks. We used magnum No. 2 or BB loads with tight chokes to down these tough birds to score our limit. Some required multiple shots to kill them.
“Surf scoters are a little bigger than mallards, but 5,000 times tougher,” Bourne said. “They can take a lot of punishment. Surf scoters and black or common scoters are the predominant sea duck species in Chesapeake Bay. A white-winged scoter is a trophy here. We also shoot long-tailed ducks, formerly called oldsquaw. Longtails typically prefer deeper water than scoters.”
Both Virginia and Maryland set different seasons for sea ducks and other waterfowl and designate special sea duck hunting zones so check the regulations before hunting.
While in the area
Probably no other waterbody more richly connects with both the history of the United States and waterfowl hunting than Chesapeake Bay. Just up the James River from Newport News, Va., visit a replica of the Jamestown settlement established in 1607. Also visit the colonial capital of historic Williamsburg (www.visitwilliamsburg.com). A short drive from either, history buffs can tour the Yorktown battlefield (www.nps.gov/york) where George Washington defeated the British in the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.
In Maryland, waterfowlers might want to visit the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (www.cbmm.org) in St. Michaels. The town of Easton holds an annual Waterfowl Festival (waterfowlfestival.org) every November.
To book a trip with Wingman Guide Service, call 910-467-6410 or send an email to wingmanguideservice@gmail.com. Look up Joshua Bourne on social media.
