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 Post subject: Sneakboating for Ducks
PostPosted: May 29th, 2023, 2:38 pm 
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Joined: June 28th, 2001, 7:00 pm
Posts: 2909
Location: Freeland, Maryland USA
Should hunting go under “fishing”? A friend recently mentioned “sneakboating” for waterfowl, which has different meanings in different places.

In Maryland “sneakboating” means hunting ducks while floating downriver and requires a (free) permit. I sneakboated the upper Monocacy on the first day of every duck split for 20 years. At first me and my hunting partner Ron in my old aluminum tub; I didn’t hunt, or even have a license, I just paddled stern while he shot from the bow.

I grew up reloading shotgun shells and trap shooting every weekend, knew I could do better and got my duck stamp. We started taking two boats, I outfitted my green OT Pack with an arched camo cover, gun rest and what I called a “bush bob”, a tee piece of wood affixed to the bow, Swiss cheese drilled for pin oak branches. Floating downriver the canoe looked like a leafy floating branch, but creeping close enough for a shot was still iffey. Wood ducks are too cautious, and damn fast awing.

As our technique improved, we never failed to limit out. We would set the downstream shuttle and depart from the put in before sunrise, one of us leaving first, spaced a half hour or more apart. The first to depart would paddle down a mile or so and set out a spread of decoys, sit and wait. Anything that landed and escaped would invariably fly upriver where the other would be waiting.

We would meet up, sit over the decoys for a spell and hopscotch each other downriver; the late start guy would go down a mile or two and throw out his decoys. First guy would stay put with his spread still set out, waiting for the upriver escapees to land. When you heard BOOM-BOOM from downriver it was time to get ready.

That hopscotching was the most fun I have ever had hunting with a partner. We got to paddle alone in the morning dawn, we got to sit together and chew the fat, and I always had duck breast in the freezer.

Two trips from those days stand out in memory. Ron’s young son Ronnie had passed his hunter safety course and gotten his license. We took my aluminum tub, with Ronnie in the bow. Didn’t see much other than too distant, too fast Wood Ducks until we came upon a shallow, rocky weir with a flock of mallards in the pool just below.

For safety’s sake I told Ronnie “Don’t shoot ‘til we are through the weir. He listened, and the second we cleared the weir the mallards jumped in a tight bunch. Ronnie let go with both barrels from his dad’s over & under. For all I know he had his eyes closed when he pulled the triggers.

Five mallards, including two females. He and his dad nearly limited out in one fell swoop. That was made better because Ron had been bragging to Ronnie that “I hit a double last time out”.

The other most memorable trip did not see a duck, or a shot fired, or even much paddling. January split, we ran the shuttle, noting a little rim ice at the take out, a little rim ice at the put in. No worries.

A mile downstream the river was iced over thickly from bank to bank. For a long way; we walked the bank for a mile downstream before saying “Nope”. The mile back upstream was no fun, but we made short frustrated work of it. We loaded the canoes, re-ran the shuttle and I was back home in bed before my wife woke up.

I still claim she muttered “My husband won’t be home for hours” as I climbed under the covers.


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PostPosted: May 30th, 2023, 6:07 am 
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Joined: August 7th, 2022, 2:38 pm
Posts: 104
Location: North Florida
Best laid plans and all that!


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PostPosted: May 30th, 2023, 8:12 pm 
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Joined: December 29th, 2004, 11:00 pm
Posts: 187
Location: Florida
Nice! I like the blind in the bow.


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PostPosted: June 4th, 2023, 11:10 am 
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Joined: June 28th, 2001, 7:00 pm
Posts: 2909
Location: Freeland, Maryland USA
ericalynne wrote:
Nice! I like the blind in the bow.


Erica, I eventually stopped hunting. I realized I was using it as an excuse go paddling at dawn. Which, even with a prepared truck and gear meant waking up a 3am, having bought a license and stamps, driving there, setting shuttle and etc. And I had mixed feelings about killing things just for some meat on the grill. Still, like fresh fish, duck breast on the grill. . . .Oh. My. God.

The non-hunting trade off was worth it. I would still set the alarm for pre-dawn and hie off to a marsh or swamp, out of season or on Sundays (no hunting on Sundays in Maryland, a restriction of some contention), and paddle in peace, with no Boom-Boom-Boom, and no DNR guys wanting to check my canoe.

The third Boom always bothered me; if you didn’t manage a clean shot with the first two rounds I know you didn’t with the third.

The DNR guys, every time I encountered them, had a regular routine. They always expressed appreciation for the camo-covers, gun rest and brush bob, but that was mostly part of their put-‘em-at ease schtick.

Friendly question, friendly question, pointed question; “So, what time did you put on?”. If the answer was before dawn they wanted to see my lights (had one). “So, did you come back to the launch for lunch?” I never did, but the next question, even with a “No” response, was “Do you mind if we have a look in your truck?”

I didn’t mind that waste of time. No cooler of morning duck limit stashed in the truck, I was always legal as a beagle, but the routine question got old after a while. The most comical was two DNR guys giving me the third degree at a marsh landing. Check my license, permits, shotgun, check my shells, check my cooler, debate the ID of a female Fulvous Tree duck for my day’s bag limit.

While I was showing them a female Fulvous in a bird book a johnboat with three guys and a retriever came flying up the river towards the launch, saw them, turned an instant 180 and sped off.

All I could say was “Uh, I think those are the guys you need to check”


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