Jon Yenulonis
Well-known member
Recently, my family and I took our annual East Coast, Chincoteague Island trip between the Holidays this year. While we always have positive expectations, sometimes things just don't work out. This year was extra special as not only did our daughter and son-in-law tag along, but we also took my Wife's 81 year old Mom and Dad with us. They are indeed special people. Great company, always have good stories, and her father has never seen the Ocean. While he hasn't hunted in many years, her father grew up in South Dakota along the Missouri River system, arguably one of the hottest waterfowl destinations in the Central US. He used to walk the banks of the river, and his dog would retrieve birds shot by other hunters. He told stories of guys with dogs of their own, who wouldn't go into the cold water, whereas his would. As I recall, he would even occasionally make a little money while doing so. Good stuff.
Trip started out a little colder than usual with clear skys, but temps in the teens. First issue- stopped about half way for fuel for us and the vehicle. As I was walking around checking on the boat and trailer, I realized the license plate was missing. After further exploration, realized the bracket just broke off. Next issue, to launch on the island you must have a permit. To get a permit, you must have the registration or a plate. I have neither. Not to worry too much, there are other ramps off of the island, I'll just adjust my sales, so to speak.
Since my Mother and Father-in-law are along on this trip, I decided to forgo the first day hunt to spend a little time showing them around with the family. Cold but fun day.
First hunting day, met up with my resident friend of many years. We earlier, via text messaging, decided to hunt off of a creek, off the island. Got out early, set up and went to load our guns. Oh wait, what gun?!?! Seems I left mine back at the truck... to my memory, I've never actually done that before. I know why though. I am a creature of habit. I always put everything in one place, in the back of the truck. On the way out, I put my gun up under the rear truck seat, and in this case- out of site. I left my buddy and trusty canine on shore, fired up the 25 HP Mercury, buttoned up my jacket and flew back the two miles or so back to the truck. Just me in a relatively empty boat, I get around 30 mph. Still, by the time I got back, with the clear, bluebird weather, for all intents and purposes the morning flight was over.
2nd day, we launched at the same ramp but headed North, to a spot we've never hunted before. Seemed like a good spot. Plenty of water to be able to negotiate the falling tide, and we saw a few birds trading back and forth. We had good expectations. To no avail, however. My buddy poked at a lone Black Duck, but about all he accomplished was to confirm his gun functioned normally.
Now, I want to state at this point- we had plenty of chances at Buffleheads, and both Red Breasted and Hooded Mergansers, but chose to refrain. Neither taste very good.
The trip back to the ramp proved quite exciting. As the day progressed, we could see the waves and white caps building. After picking up and batten in everything down, we headed into the teeth of the wind. My boat is a big 17 foot welded V bottom john, and has a removable "deck" all around, similar to a TDB, or the like. I usually feel pretty comfortable even in caps. This day, however, whew! We slipped thru a small area of open water with solid 4 footers. I had to carefully watch and navigate the oncoming waves with caution. Many times, had the bow not been covered over, we would've taken on water. I would like to not have to deal with that again. At the ramp, we were followed by two boats bigger than mine. Both had enough water in them to make things not only scary, but on the verge of being very dangerous.
Next day, after checking the tides, we decided to launch "Bayside", or over on the Chesapeake Bay side. Tides were extremely low this year. High tides this trip were closer to normal low tides. Hard to launch. At low tide the ramps end in about a foot of water. My boat needs at least 2 feet of depth for the hull to float. Because of this, and the fact that neither of us had hunted here before, we launched after daylight. Big mistake. We saw several guys at the ramp, and on the way up the creek. All of them had big bags, and all of them said the birds flew early, but stopped by the time we got out. I managed to harvest, in 15° icy weather, of all things, a hen Bluewing Teal. I couldn't believe a Bluewing would still be around at this time of year, in this weather. We spent some time scouting and picked out our next morning's spot, as well as our toy duck layout. We were all set!
Next morning, we arrived at the ramp bright and early, only to discover the ramp completely iced up. All the while there, the winds,we're howling out of the North to Northwest. While this particular ramp faces East, and is fairly protected, there Some open water to the North. Seems all of the ice was being blown towards the ramp. Some of it was piled close to 2 feet high. No way to launch here, as it was getting pounded. We headed towards the backup ramp, only to discover the sane thing. Back on the home island, we found all of the ramps iced over, with huge sheets of ice floating and building up all around, and fast. We sadly realized we are done for this year. Unfortunately I purchased an annual license, when in reality, a three day tag, at half the cost would've sufficed. No biggie, I consider it a donation to the Department of Game and Fish to one of my favorite places on earth.
Oh well, there's always next year, for which I am already making preperations for...
View attachment 20171229_091129.jpgView attachment 20180101_154442.jpg
View attachment FB_IMG_1514601449656.jpg
Trip started out a little colder than usual with clear skys, but temps in the teens. First issue- stopped about half way for fuel for us and the vehicle. As I was walking around checking on the boat and trailer, I realized the license plate was missing. After further exploration, realized the bracket just broke off. Next issue, to launch on the island you must have a permit. To get a permit, you must have the registration or a plate. I have neither. Not to worry too much, there are other ramps off of the island, I'll just adjust my sales, so to speak.
Since my Mother and Father-in-law are along on this trip, I decided to forgo the first day hunt to spend a little time showing them around with the family. Cold but fun day.
First hunting day, met up with my resident friend of many years. We earlier, via text messaging, decided to hunt off of a creek, off the island. Got out early, set up and went to load our guns. Oh wait, what gun?!?! Seems I left mine back at the truck... to my memory, I've never actually done that before. I know why though. I am a creature of habit. I always put everything in one place, in the back of the truck. On the way out, I put my gun up under the rear truck seat, and in this case- out of site. I left my buddy and trusty canine on shore, fired up the 25 HP Mercury, buttoned up my jacket and flew back the two miles or so back to the truck. Just me in a relatively empty boat, I get around 30 mph. Still, by the time I got back, with the clear, bluebird weather, for all intents and purposes the morning flight was over.
2nd day, we launched at the same ramp but headed North, to a spot we've never hunted before. Seemed like a good spot. Plenty of water to be able to negotiate the falling tide, and we saw a few birds trading back and forth. We had good expectations. To no avail, however. My buddy poked at a lone Black Duck, but about all he accomplished was to confirm his gun functioned normally.
Now, I want to state at this point- we had plenty of chances at Buffleheads, and both Red Breasted and Hooded Mergansers, but chose to refrain. Neither taste very good.
The trip back to the ramp proved quite exciting. As the day progressed, we could see the waves and white caps building. After picking up and batten in everything down, we headed into the teeth of the wind. My boat is a big 17 foot welded V bottom john, and has a removable "deck" all around, similar to a TDB, or the like. I usually feel pretty comfortable even in caps. This day, however, whew! We slipped thru a small area of open water with solid 4 footers. I had to carefully watch and navigate the oncoming waves with caution. Many times, had the bow not been covered over, we would've taken on water. I would like to not have to deal with that again. At the ramp, we were followed by two boats bigger than mine. Both had enough water in them to make things not only scary, but on the verge of being very dangerous.
Next day, after checking the tides, we decided to launch "Bayside", or over on the Chesapeake Bay side. Tides were extremely low this year. High tides this trip were closer to normal low tides. Hard to launch. At low tide the ramps end in about a foot of water. My boat needs at least 2 feet of depth for the hull to float. Because of this, and the fact that neither of us had hunted here before, we launched after daylight. Big mistake. We saw several guys at the ramp, and on the way up the creek. All of them had big bags, and all of them said the birds flew early, but stopped by the time we got out. I managed to harvest, in 15° icy weather, of all things, a hen Bluewing Teal. I couldn't believe a Bluewing would still be around at this time of year, in this weather. We spent some time scouting and picked out our next morning's spot, as well as our toy duck layout. We were all set!
Next morning, we arrived at the ramp bright and early, only to discover the ramp completely iced up. All the while there, the winds,we're howling out of the North to Northwest. While this particular ramp faces East, and is fairly protected, there Some open water to the North. Seems all of the ice was being blown towards the ramp. Some of it was piled close to 2 feet high. No way to launch here, as it was getting pounded. We headed towards the backup ramp, only to discover the sane thing. Back on the home island, we found all of the ramps iced over, with huge sheets of ice floating and building up all around, and fast. We sadly realized we are done for this year. Unfortunately I purchased an annual license, when in reality, a three day tag, at half the cost would've sufficed. No biggie, I consider it a donation to the Department of Game and Fish to one of my favorite places on earth.
Oh well, there's always next year, for which I am already making preperations for...
View attachment 20171229_091129.jpgView attachment 20180101_154442.jpg
View attachment FB_IMG_1514601449656.jpg
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