HUNTING REPORTS 2005 - 2006
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1/6/2006
I hunted today with Jim Conte and Pete Johnston. We set up the "layout" rig and added a string of oldsquaw decoys to the broadbill. The oldsquaw came real good and we had a good shoot. This is Pete and me with a few nice drake birds. It was a fun day on the water.
Captain Al Lorenzetti
This is a good shot of Bridie patiently waiting for us to take down a bird so she could fetch it. She made a couple of tremendous retrieves swimming almost a hundred yards out from the beach and bringing the bird right to our feet. She is a really good dog and Bill takes good care of her and has trained her well. She really loves to hunt and is good company.
Captain Al Lorenzetti
12/23/2005
I hunted today with Pete Nowinski, Bill MacDougal and his dog Bridie. We had a great day of hunting under pleasant conditions. We bagged our limit of broadbill, bufflehead, mergansers and also a nice drake pintail. We hunted both from the shore and from a layout "scooter" on the open bay. The birds were really flying in the morning and all had a good time. This is a shot of us heading home towing the "scooter" with a beautiful sunset in the late afternoon. Another great day of outdoor adventure.
Sometimes the ducks win. Here is a shot of a bunch of mallards coming into our decoys. We really had it wrong. We should have waited just a second or two more. The ducks were dropping into the rig and we tried to take them on the way down. It could have worked but I know I missed by shooting above and behind the birds (if you look closely you can actually see the shot pattern behind and above the birds) on thinking about it afterwards. We should have waited until they landed and then took off or tried to take them when they headed out and would be on the rise and moving more slowly. Also, here is another excuse, they were very close and the pattern out of a modified choke at 15 yards is about 6 inches across. In any event, regardless of the excuses it was still fun. We did bag a couple of ducks on that day and you can't be perfect all the time. I hope you get a laugh out of it.
Captain Al Lorenzetti
11/23/2005
Jim Conte, Pete Johnston and I had a great opening day of the new duck season at the Peconic River Sportsman's Club. It was cold and windy with snow flurries and the ducks were flying. Here is Jim and Pete with our bag for the morning. 3 black ducks, 3 wood ducks and 4 mallards.
We had some great shooting by the group and of course we missed a few also. We could not retrieve two birds that made it into the impenetrable swamp across from our blind. We tried but could not find them. I hate it when that happens but we did our best. Pete and I also posed for a photo that Jim took. As you can see, Jim cut off the bottom of the birds. He can't see the viewfinder. Pete is breasting the birds out and we will have a duck feast when we hunt from our camp on one of the islands in the Great South Bay. A memorable day of hunting and a lot of laughs.
Captain Al Lorenzetti
1/29-30/2005
On the last weekend of duck season with the bay totally iced up, we decided it was right to do a jetty shoot by Oak Beach. We had a real good time. Bill McDougal, Scott and Dillon Mearns, Tony, Kevin, Matt, John and I hooked up and had some fun with the broadbill. Here is Bill with his great dog Bridie. Bill is a licensed guide and organizes hunts all around Long Island. He is really good at what he does.
This is a great shot of Dillon Mearns in the morning sun on a real cold day. It was 8 degrees in the morning with lots of ice to contend with. The dog is Jake and belongs to Kevin. Both dogs, Bridie and Jake were incredible at retrieving the ducks.
Here is part of the hunting group. Dillon, Bill, John, Tony and Scott.
This is Bill and Scott setting the decoys in the early morning after clearing some shooting space out of the ice. It was worth the trouble as the birds flew real well and all had a good time. Overall, this past season was not the best. It started too warm and then got too cold. There were not many ducks down this way until it got real cold but then the bay froze solid which cut down on the hunting spots that were available. I look forward to 2005-06 and hopefully it will be better.
1-16-2005 A day of layout scooter shooting for broadbill on the Great South Bay. This is me with Pete Nowinski, Mike Dugluinski, Jim Conte and John Dall taking a break for soup in Tim Smiths Cape Dory. It was a cold windy day and a little lunch in a warm cabin sure felt good. We even bagged a few ducks.
1/9/2005 Today I did a layout duck shoot with Jim Conte and his friend John Nicolleti. We had a pretty good day bagging a few broadbill and brant. It was a beautiful day on the water. This is Tim Smith's Labrador, "Diesel" who we took to a nearby island and did some work on his retrieving skills. He is an excellent dog and really likes to work the water. He did a great job in getting this hen broadbill on a long swim.
1/9/2005 John and I were playing with Diesel while we were hanging out on the mother boats. Jim Conte was in the hunting scooter and as you can see from the photos the wind totally died and Jim didn't get any shots during his half-hour stay. Late in the day the wind came up a little and we got some cloud cover and did take down a few birds.
1/9/2005 There was a great number of brant flying around but they wouldn't tend the rig. They flew as one big bunch and didn't want to come in to the decoys. We did drop one on a passing shot. What you see here is a flock of brant, about 300 flying by our scooter rig. We had one good bunch of broadbill come to the rig and a few singles that didn't tend very well but we did bag a few and had a good time. We all got some sun and relaxed on a beautiful day on the waters of the Great South Bay. Captain Al Lorenzetti
This is a shot of how it looks sitting in the "Scooter" waiting for broadbill ducks to tend the rig. Notice the absence of ducks flying. It was so nice that I almost fell asleep. Also notice that the gun barrel of my Benelli Super Black Eagle is always above the gunwale. This is a helpful technique to keep from blowing your toes off lick some other hunter I know but will not mention any names.
12/30/2004 Today I did a day of "Scooter" shooting on the Great South Bay with a bunch of hunting pals. Jim Conte, Pete Nowinski and John Toronto and I had a lot of fun on a beautiful day. It was gorgeous weather for playing on the water but not very good for duck hunting. We saw a lot of birds but they were not flying. This is Pete running the pick up boat to take me out of the scooter hunting boat after my uneventful half-hour.
Here is the rest of the crew back on the mother boats, telling stories and passing the time while waiting their turn in the hunting "Scooter". Lots of tall tales get told in the course of a day of hunting. It was a great day on the water with good friends. The lack of ducks was secondary to the companionship and memories. Captain Al Lorenzetti
