We went down on Monday the 13th with Scott Arnette....went to the nearest area where I thought there might be some birds. We jumped up 400- 500 ducks of several different varieties. Sat right back down on the mudflat where they had been sitting and they started to come back. Ended the day with 2 gadwall, 1 blackduck, and 1 widgeon.
Next morning went back to same spot and killed 11 ducks...mallards, blacks, and one greenwing. Had 150 mallards sit down right outside the spread.
Afternoon of the 14th we tried a different area on the Dan River (we had been hunting the Staunton thus far)...and found my spot with hunters already blasting away. We improvised, went to a small channel of the river and was able to kill one mallard, but should have come home with 5-6.
Carrington comes into town to join us that night. We went back to our favorite spot on the Staunton only to find the "back bay" area had frozen solid over night. We improvised and went to the main channel of the river and found a small island near where we wanted to be. We killed 11 ducks, mallards, blacks, and one woodie. Then we pulled up, went to the sand bar area where the river dumps into the lake and found a large concentration of ducks sitting on the ice on the side of the channel. We popped the blind up, two mojos, and a few dekes....and they started to come back. We killed 5 greenheads in 5 minutes!...great way to end the trip.
-Stu
buggs island is my new favorite place...we literally saw thousands of ducks in only a small part of the lake..blacks, mallards, gadwall, widgeon, greenwing, ringnecks, buffleheads, oldsquaw, woodies....it was unreal....we cut some serious ice this am and were rewarded with a stellar duck show...the picture is actually missing several ducks....some for mounting....and some that the neighbors dog got....well worth the drive!
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