Sea Duck Hunting

A Taste of Salt

Duck hunting usually means the puddle ducks and
dabblers of the inland marshes, lakes, and sloughs.
However, marine birds like oldsquaw, eider, and scoter
provide an exhilarating bonanza---and a very different
style of waterfowling.

JoJo Lowery cleanly dropped a drake oldsquaw, that prettiest of all sea ducks. “Once you get the hang of it, killing sea ducks is easy,” he had told me. And now he said it again. This time with a snide grin.

He was right, though. Once you get the hang of it, shooting sea ducks is easy. Getting the hang of it, however, can take some doing.

We’d motored away from Tilghman Island, that sea duck hunting trip, just as the sky was lightening. A flat sea was running, with only a little wind. As the day reached full light we sighted the remains of Sharps Island. This once was a real island with a standing lighthouse. It even had a three-story, 30 room hotel known for its distinctive six gables. But ice storms and hurricanes prove that the works of man are mere trifles. Little by little the island had been eroded, until the light stood alone on an underwater shoal. In the late 1970s ice undermined the light itself, which then tilted precariously.

Watermen called in the leaning tower of the Chesapeake, and it served as a trysting place for lovers and a landmark for hunters and fisherman until finally toppling into the bay.

But it was still standing, then. We set our decoy spread near the leaning tower. I couldn’t see anything about this part of the bay that was different from any other. In fact, we’d passed rafts of sea ducks on the way, and I’d have set up near any of them. Which is reason enough to hire a guide. JoJo knew the difference, even if I didn’t. Before we had the last of our five strings of decoys overboard, scoters and oldsquaw were tumbling in.

That’s when we found out how difficult “getting the hang of it” could be. I mean, sea duck hunting shouldn’t be hard. You’re taking shots, typically, as close as 20 yards. Forty yards is a long shot.

But you’re shooting downward, or horizontally, unfamiliar angles at best. The boat, even without much chop, is bouncing in three directions simultaneously while swinging on its anchor line. The breeze is clipping along. The birds, flying a scant two feet above the waves, blend with the water. They’re small, fast moving targets, each of which, according to Friend Wife, is wearing a Kevlar vest.

Now add in the possibility---nay, probability---of an overcast sky. And maybe some rain or a bit of spitting snow. Then kick the wind speed up to 15 knots, and you wonder if anybody, anywhere, has enjoyed success while sea duck hunting and actually brought a sea duck to table.

Still and all, after a box or three of shells, you do start getting the hang of sea duck hunting. Maybe, just maybe, you even take your limit. Or maybe not. What’s not open to question is that sea duck hunting offers more gunning opportunities than any other waterfowling today.

Declining populations of some duck species and the resultant tightening of shooting regulations have discouraged many waterfowlers from pursuing their usual hunting activities. One upside, however, is that many are rediscovering alternatives that have been relatively neglected. Sea duck hunting is one of those options.

Sea ducking has its own traditions, going back as long as sport hunting has existed in America. A tremendously popular sport until modern times, it all but fell by the wayside. A handful of enthusiasts in every coastal state kept it alive. But generally, its popularity waned.

All that has changed dramatically in just a few years. Hunters in ever-growing numbers have rediscovered scoters, eiders, and oldsquaw. Most eastern states and provinces even support guides and outfitters once more.

Generally speaking, five varieties of animal are available for sea duck hunting. Eider, both common and king, fairly common in the more northern reaches, are rarely harvested south of New England. Oldsquaw, whitewinged scoter, surf scoter, and common or black scoter, are found abundantly from Atlantic Canada to the Carolinas.

Hunting methods differ geographically, for no particular reason other than tradition---which is reason enough for dyed-in-the-down waterfowlers. In New England, for instance, small, shallow-draft boats holding one or two hunters are common. I hunted off Massachusetts once using a Barnegat sneakboat. We were barely off the surfline, in high winds, sea duck hunting over a spread of 300 blocks, which we’d set in three-foot waves. This is just as dangerous (some would say stupid) as it sounds; but they’ve been sea ducking that way for generations.

The favorite decoy in New England is a plywood silhouette. Three or four of them are rigged on a lathing-strip frame that carries a single anchor. The crossed lathing strips fold flat for storage. This is a convenient way of creating a vast spread with relatively little effort.

Down in the Carolinas they often favor a “mother ship” approach. A large motorized craft is used to tow gunning barges, which also carry the decoys. Once they are set the barges are anchored and the mother ship moves off a quarter to a half mile. As hunters drop birds, the mother ship moves in to pick them up. And the mother is there to provide a bathroom or a warming cup of coffee.

In the Chesapeake they dispense with the barges, finding them unnecessary. Only the larger boats---basically the same shallow-draft, flared-bow workboats common all over the bay---are used. Strings of decoys---totaling as many as 500 dekes---are carried in trash cans or stackable washtubs. The strings are laid in a giant V, with the boat anchored in the narrow end, and gunners shoot right from it. The big boat, along with a landing net to reach over the high gunwale, is used to pick up downed birds.

To my mind this is the perfect compromise. Most guides will take a maximum of four, and prefer only three guns, on a hunt. This keeps it safe, comfortable, and convenient.