Beginning of 2023 Season Update

171 fowl in 40 trips, 18 days. Mostly made up of nice puddle ducks typical November hunting. Very little gunning pressure. Almost none other than my marsh area at the inlet. Currituck had light to moderate gunning. Nothing compared to typical January pressure.

Most days people came away with 4 to 8 fowl. Only one, out and out “skunk” hunt (zero). 6 to 8 what I would call fun shoots of 8 to 12 birds mainly the same number of 1 or 2 to 4 or 5 slower days. Few, if any filler ducks this early in the season. Which means almost all fowl taken were what I’ll call “tasty eaters”. (Pintail Widgeon, Gadwall, Teal, and Mallards). Only a handful of diver harvested Buffleheads, Ring Necks, lesser and greater Scaup, Surf and Black Scaup Scoter.

102 puddlers versus 69 diver/ merganser, 20 were pintail. Remember, the Pin are limited to one per person per day. Most of those captured were out of flocks of 10 to 15 birds. Then you have to stop shooting and watch.

One day, after limiting out on our pintail, my group and I landed 3 flocks of around 75 Pins each flock, had 2 flocks bigger than those hovering over the decoys driving the next two hours! Oh, and for a bonus we had almost 250 swarm the whole little bay between my blind and the Bodie Island Lighthouse! That was ONE MORNING!

I had a few days I could’ve filled a boat with pins! After we tagged out on ‘em! Currituck had their days too. 5 Teal, a Gadwall , 3 Blue Bills, 2 Ring Neck, and a Woodduck, by two gunners by 9:30am. Or 4 Teal, 2 Widgeon, 4 Blue Bill, and a Hoodie. Or; 2 Pintail, 2 Widgeon, 3 Teal, and 3 Blue Bill.

Fun was had! -First ever and -best ever; (even by me!): and most of the world passed on the November season! We still have open dates, Call (252) 261-7842 Vic or Ellen.

Also at the end of last season I added it all up. Since our inception in 1977, the original Outer Banks Waterfowl had harvested 37,644 fowl. Add another 171 in the 3 weeks of November ’23. That’s that many reasons to call us first. Talk to your buds, make plans and give us a call. Thanks, Vic