Hunting Reports 2008

1/29/2009

Tim Smith and I had the great pleasure of attending the annual Ducks Unlimited Dinner and Auction at the New York Racquet Club.

It was a great evening in an incredible setting. The Racquet Club is a most beautiful place and the whole atmosphere was one of togetherness for a cause and fun with the purpose of raising monies for the Ducks Unlimited organization for conservation and habitat improvement for migratory birds.

Hunters are the most generous supporters of wildlife conservation in terms of real contributions and support with organizations like Ducks Unlimited.

This is not a very good photograph but will give you some idea of the magnificance of the Racquet Club.

This is a shot of the general raffle items including the canoe. All the artwork and special items were donated by individuals and corporations and small businesses in order to raise monies for DU.

This is the exhibitors room where beautiful shotguns, artwork, guides and other supporters of Ducks Unlimited were exhibiting their products and services.

Here is Tim Smith with one of the attendees inspecting our display. I donated a full day of striped bass fishing to Ducks Unlimited and it was auctioned later in the evening and was bid and sold for $5000.00, all of which goes to Ducks Unlimited. I sure hope that the fishing is incredible when I take the group out fishing. I will do my absolute best to make it a successful day.

A no flash photo and not very good but it better captures the warm atmosphere of the rooms in the club.

It was a great evening and I was very pleased to have been invited to be in attendance by Julien Libaire who I hunt with in the winter season.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

1/24-25/2009

The last weekend and end of the duck season for 2009 and it was a great one.

Pete Johnston, his son PJ and his dog "Scout", Jim Conte and I spent two days on an Island in the Great South Bay.

We had a great time and a great shoot.

Here are Pete and PJ setting decoys out of the new double ender punt boat that Pete built. What a great boat!

This was our set up for hiding along the shore. It worked real well with ducks and geese tending like we weren't there.

Here is "Scout" PJ's excellent young female Labrador making a super goose retrieve.

PJ and Scout with another goose.

Scout with another goose.

Scout, PJ and a nice black duck.

Just before sunset and waiting out another go at some birds. It got real cold and the bay began to ice up. On this night the temperature dropped to 11 degrees and the bay iced over.

Packing it in for our first day.

Back at the house on West Island we all sat back, enjoyed a few drinks and a great meal of venison stew cooked by Pete Johnston.

It was an excellent day and great evening together.

Here is Pete enjoying himself waiting for the stew to heat up.

Scout warming up by the wood stove. She really worked hard on this day with some really long retrieves in some bitter cold.

Day two and lots of ice. We worked for about an hour to break ice to make a landing zone for the geese and ducks. It looked pretty good when we were done but the morning was pretty slow. In the afternoon things picked up.

Pete's boat a 20 foot Pointer did the hard work getting to and back from the island. The trip home was tough with lots of ice to break as you can see here.

The house we stayed in belongs to Pete's friend. It was very comfortable and we enjoyed it very much.

Another nice goose.

PJ Scout and goose.

Breaking ice with the pointer.

Pete and PJ running the boat.

Icebergs on the bay. This one about 10 feet high.

I have been side tracked and not updated the hunting reports in a while. This was a glorious sunrise looking out over the decoys on 1/11/09 hunting with Buddy Cipoletti. I just loved the way everything looked and took the shot.

Jim Conte in the photo and I did a couple of shoots and did pretty well with broadbill and brant. The weather has gotten cold but good for hunting.

Captain Al doing his thing on a cold morning hunt.

1/11/09

Buddy Cipoletti took this shot of me with two nice drake scaup. We had a good shoot with our limit of scaug (broadbill) and a few brant. It was a good hunt so we did it again in the afternoon after taking care of some boat fuel line problems. It was a good day.

Here is Buddy taking a photo with his cell camera of the decoy layout maybe saving it for future reference. It worked very well.

Some excellent days on the water.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

1/5/2009

I had the pleasure again to be able to hunt with Dick Orlandi and his son Jimmy.

Dick and Jim belong to a small club out east on the Island and they invite me occasionally to hunt with them.

It is mostly a workout for their great dog "Coal" to keep him in shape and ready to hunt but it is also an excellent upland hunt.

Dick is checking out the results of the first half of the hunt. We bagged 13 out of 15 birds put into the field with about half and half pheasant and chukar partridge.

Here is Jimmy and Coal with a beautiful pheasant that Coal raised and retrieved. Proud guy and happy dog.

It was a great hunt and thank you both.

Another great day outdoors.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

12/31/2008

I did an afternoon hunt today with Frank Ianucci and we had a good time on a nasty cold blowing snowy last day of the year. We bagged four brant, a drake broadbill and a hooded merganser.

The weather kept the birds flying and sometimes it was almost a white out with the snow blowing but it was fun and good hunting.The hunting clothes available today are amazing at keeping you warm and they are very light. Frank and I get all our gear from Cabela's and it is great stuff.

This is the view from my position looking over the barrel of my Benelli Super Black Eagle to the decoys.

Another good day on the water.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

12/20/2008

I hunted with Jim Conte and Bill MacDougal out of Bill's floating blind.

Here is Bill collecting a bird or two.

His great female Labrador "Bridie" made some incredible retrieves at long distances. She sat still in the blind and was fabulous.

Here we have Jim and Bill waiting for some birds.

The weather was perfect with wind, snow and cold so the ducks and brant were flying.

We bagges a good bunch of brant and a couple of buffleheads and black duck.

Another great day on the water.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

12/15/2008

I hunted today with Jim Hahn and his good buddy Phil. Jimmy is the manager of the "Riverview" restaurant and also runs the "Riverview Striped Bass Tournament" in addition to being an avid fisherman and hunter.

We had a good shoot on West Island.
The wind was blowing hard and some ducks were flying.

Jimmy bagged a pair of big mallards and Phil got a huge black duck. I was very lucky to bag a redhead drake which I think I will have mounted.

It was a memorable hunt with two great guys sharing some great stories and some excellent hunting.

Another great day on the water.

The next photo is a link to some video I shot at the end of out hunt, give it a look and please don't mind the wind noise, it was blowing about 30 today.

Captain Al Lorenzetti