Hunting Reports 2009 - 2010
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I had an opportunity on two white wing scoters coming in from the west. I decided to take them coming around the boat and not wait to let them tend the decoys. I didn't think they would tend but that was my mistake. I did drop one bird but not a clean kill. If I had waited maybe they would have circled and landed by the decoys but that is another story and might have not happened. Such is the fun and mystery of the sporting life.
Other days to come and maybe different strategies.
Another great day on the water.
Captain Al Lorenzetti
Jim is a great shot and makes a long shot look easy.
These Common Scoters tended real well and Jim made a great shot on one and missed his second shot and realized he only had two shells in the gun therefore another duck escaped to have fun for another day.
12/3/2010
I hunted today with Jim Conte and we did a sea duck hunt in the ocean.
Conditions were great and the ducks were flying.
We had a good morning hunt and bagged our limit.
3/13/2010
Today I attended a Ducks Unlimited dinner at Balckbirds Restaurant in Sayville with a bunch of my hunting buddies.
From left to right are Jim Conte, Pete Johnston, PJ Johnston, George Yurcak, Glen, and Jeff Butta.
We all had a great time with excellent game cooked by Peter Fozio.
The event through raffles and live auction of fabulous art work, guns and other fine wildlife artifacts raises money for DU projects throughout the United States and Canada. These programs are used to improve waterfowl habitat and conservation programs.
The big winner of the entire event ended up being Jeff Butta. Here he is being given his Browning Silver Camo Shotgun by the two women that handled all ticket sales and prize transactions. They were great and really worked hard.
Great gun Jeff and congratulations!
Jeff got into the moment and had some fun. Jeff being Jeff, what else could you expect?
Craig Kessler who is the heart and soul of DU in our region works very hard at heading up these events. He has done this for many years and I don't know where he gets his energy. He is truly dedicated to DU.
This is a little video showing him doing a live auction. This is really fun as we bid on items with a lot of yelling and good fun.
Craig is a master of it all and we all appreciate it much.
After the raffle prizes are drawn anyone not liking their prize can run around and swap with others who won stuff they would like to trade off.
Here is George kidding around with a vest that was just too small and he was trying to off load it. Good stuff.
I won a live auction bid at a good price on a great DU watch. Paying up and getting my rewards.
Glen also was a gun winner with a nice .22 rifle to take home. Good going Glen.
It was a great time with great food and fun for all.
Another excellent day at a Ducks Unlimited dinner.
Captain Al Lorenzetti
1/31/2010
Pete Johnston, Jim Conte and I spent the last four days of the duck season on West Island.
We had a great time even though there were very few ducks. We bagged a few birds but really enjoyed the cooking and nature. It was really cold and we all kept a keen eye on the wood pile.
Here we are on our way home at the end of the trip.
Thank you Leslie for the use of your home.
Jim set up on a goose rig waiting for some birds.
They didn't cooperate very well and sat out on the open bay for all the time we were hunting.
Another view of Jimmy.
Two bufflehead landed near our black duck decoys which were keeled over in the mud at low tide. These little ducks didn't seem to care that the decoys were not like them.
They walked on the mud and preened their feathers for 15 minutes. They paid no attention to us. It was fun to watch them.
buffleheads in action.
An ice sheet moving with the tide and wind pushes ashore.
The last morning hunt right from the house. Without much happening and having to make a quick get away on Sunday we opted to just hunt from the house. Not much happened so we ate breakfast and took off.
Pete's hunting boat. We use this with a small outboard engine to get around the island and to carry all our gear comfortably. It is a great boat.
Pete putting the finishing touches on potato leek soup. It was great for lunch and dinner.
Jim catching up on his reading
Pete Cooking up something good
1/28/2009
Jim pete and al having cocktails and fun going down to 18 degrees tonight lot of wiskey to keep warm
1/2/-9/2009
Jimmy Conte Pete Johnston and Capt Al tending our goose rig 9 am 1/29 and 18 degrees.
1/10/2010
Frankie and I hunted the afternoon flight. It was very slow and then just before sundown the birds started to fly.
We bagged out limit of black duck and broadbill.
It was the most beautiful afternoon and sunset you could ever believe.
Frankie with a nice fat black duck which he is going to prepare with the broadbill for a great duck dinner.
As I said it was the most beautiful afternoon. The colors were incredible and the hunting was great.
Another excellent day on the water.
Captain Al Lorenzetti
1/3/2010
I have been hunting in between working on the boat.
This was a nice morning hunt with cold temperatures and some birds flying.
Here is Frankie with a nice drake broadbill. We had a good shoot with broadbill, brant and golden eye.
Captain Al Lorenzetti
A little video of out set up on Friday afternoon. It was just right but no birds were flying.
It was a great weekend and very interesting. On Saturday the wind whipped up into a gale and drove all the water out of the bay. We had to leave on Sunday at high tide and then we were lucky to just be able to push pole our boats out into the channel.
Another great adventure on the water with great guys.
Captain Al Lorenzetti
11/27-29/2009
Pete Johnston, Jimmy Conte and I did a weekend trip to West Fire Island for the opening weekend of duck season 2009-2010.
We had a great time hunting and eating great meals cooked by Pete.
The hunting was not too good as it is early in the season and not cold enough for the birds to travel south from Canada. We did bag a few including a very unusual hen Eider duck.
The eating was great. Here you can see a great venison tenderloin dish cooked by Pete. We ate hearty and had a great time.
The cooking was all caught on video and will be posted on Youtube. I will add the link as soon as it is up. The link to the video is http://skimmer.smugmug.com/Hunting-Reports/West-Island-Duck-Camp-Cooking/10505207_k5XFw#729281233_f5RcP-A-LB but not yet up on youtube.
The water blown out of the bay. It was some fun trying to get the boats out to deep water.
This was my first drake eider duck. They are really big birds and very tough to take down.
It was an exceptional sporting day and a lot of fun. The weather was also just perfect.
An excellent day on the water.
Captain Al Lorenzetti
Here Frankie takes a couple of shots at a scoter and actually killed the bird. It didn't drop immediately but a long glide to a stop.
11/21/2009
Today I fished and hunted with Frankie on his boat.
We had a blast in the morning with sea ducks. Bagged a limit of surf scoter, white wing scoter, common scoter and a beautiful drake eider.
We then went jigging for striped bass and bluefish and had a ball catching a couple of nice keeper fish and a bunch of bluefish.
11/25/2009
Jim Conte and I did cast and blast trip today. We started by jigging some nice bass way east of the inlet around Cherry Grove.
We then set up for sea duck hunting close to the beach and had a ball. The ducks were really flying.
We bagged our limit of sea ducks including scoter and oldsquaw and believe it or not a green wing teal which was flying with the scoter in the ocean.
Another great day on the water.
Captain Al Lorenzetti