THREE DAYS WITH OUTER BANKS WATERFOWL GUIDE SERVICE

/THREE DAYS WITH OUTER BANKS WATERFOWL GUIDE SERVICE
THREE DAYS WITH OUTER BANKS WATERFOWL GUIDE SERVICE 2019-02-15T11:27:18+00:00

THREE DAYS WITH OUTER BANKS WATERFOWL GUIDE SERVICE

My father and I made the decision to book a hunt with OBX Waterfowl for a 3-day hunt in mid January 2004, we enjoy going on at least one guided hunt together each year together. Upon booking with Vic Berg he recommended that we stay at the John Yancey Quality Inn in Nags Head on the beach. We contacted Vic’s wife Ellen when we arrived and she gave us instructions for the following morning and a few pointers on the local eateries. We met Vic at a gas station in Nags Head, grabbed some coffee and snacks for the day and struck out for the boat landing at Oregon Inlet. It was some what of a wet boat ride to Vic’s blind on the north end of Herring Shoal Island due to 20 mph winds out of the southwest. After unloading my father and I on the marsh Vic began to set the decoys, we asked if he needed/wanted any help,” I’d have to touch everyone of them” was the reply. The sunrise was breath-taking and legal shooting time came and went with no shots being fired. I guess it was 15 minutes after shooting time that we noticed a knot of 5 ducks headed our way low and fast, seconds later there were 3 dead Bluebills (greaters) in the decoys and Vic’s dog Gabby was hard at work. Vic never fired a shot. We watched hundreds of ducks work back up into the Bodie Island Light House area and killed off that first round of mid morning snacks when I stood up to stretch and noticed a lone duck headed our way, in the time it took me to get down and get my gun Vic gave me a nudge and there was a very nice Black Duck floating among the Mallard decoys. We could have ran out of shells on the mergansers that were flying that day, we killed 3 kind-of in a 2 minute time span but claimed they were for the dog. Right at lunch time a lone Black Duck flew 5 feet by the door to the blind, he went on to Pea Island. Right after lunch the prettiest drake Widgeon I’ve seen flew the same route as the Black Duck, we all vowed to tighten down. After lunch we managed to bump off a nice pair of Widgeon, 2 drake Gadwalls, 1 bufflehead and a hen Mallard – each of us could have taken a Swan.

We had 2 flocks of well educated Pintails come through but they were out about 80 yards. We saw and killed a fine variety of ducks our first day. Vic shot at cripples only, but I think if the Pintails would have given us a second chance he would have burnt powder. 1st day: 1 Black Duck, 3 Greater Scaup, 2 Widgeon, 2 Gadwalls, a mallard, a Bufflehead and 3 Lawn Darts (Mergansers). We already knew that on day 2 we would be hunting with Jonathon, a new guide for OBX Waterfowl. Jonathon had what I would call a big water hotel type blind that you can pull your boat into and shoot from a platform about 8 feet above the water level. In the first 10 minutes of legal shooting time there were 8 dead Scoters and a drake Bufflehead floating off with current. At 9:30am Jonathon announced that it was lunch time and that BBQ pork chop sandwiches were the only thing on the menu, talk about hitting the spot. Various types of Scoters bit the dust throughout the morning but as 3 Bluebills(Lessers) appeared over the decoys out of no where and I killed them all with 1 shot – no cripples and 2 sober witnesses. We finished up the day with my old man pulling off what I say was every bit of a 70 yard shot on a Scoter, gotta love that 3 1/2″ Hevi-shot by Remington. At 3 pm we were at the motel bickering over shower rights. 2nd day: 12 Scoters, 3 Lesser Scaup, 1 Drake Bufflehead and 2 Mergansers. We chose to hunt at Hatteras with Joey on our 3rd and final day out on the Egg Island Shoal. The wind started out at about 25 mph out of the north and about 33 degrees it was another pretty wet boat ride. We got skunked. The wind had robbed Joey of all but about 1 inch of water and the decoys were laying on their side. Being big boys and have hunted forever we understand that some days you’re the bug and some days you’re the windshield. We left Hatteras at 11am and put it in the wind. I would like to thank Ellen and Vic for taking good care of us while we were down for our hunt, whether it was calling the motel to find out how our hunts went to guiding us in the right direction for good food and cold beverages.
Thanks again for a great experience!