A super day of ducks and geese.

George with probably the best looking drake Broadbill of the season.

At the beach house on West Fire Island and the new wood stove Pete Johnston installed. This baby kept us warm as toast.

Captain Al at sunset waiting for a black duck to show but no takers. Lots of ice and tough conditions.

The guys at West Island. Pete and PJ Johnston and Jim Conte and PJ's dog Scout. A great crew.

Tons of ice and rough conditions coming home across the bay. Pete was driving and had to bear the elements to get us home safely. We dodged lots of ice and had to break through miles of thick ice to make it back home. Pete kept his head up and got a lot of ice because of it but he never gave up, thank God.

It took us about an hour to break up this thick pack ice by the house but we made it to safety and a warm home (after about two hours). Thanks Leslie.

George and Jeff had an awesome Eider hunt near Shinnecock inlet. 

And here we have Jeff Butta with his fully mature hen eider taken on the same say with George.

George Yurcak with a nice drake eider taken on a trip to Shinnecock Inlet with Jeff Butta on 1/21/2011

1/18/2011

The view from Schuyler Watts' scooter looking out over the decoys on a good hunting day.

I haven't had the pleasure of a lay-out shoot in a long time and Schuyler was nice enough to invite me for a hunt.

I had a great time taking a limit of broadbill and working the equipment and socializing with the crew which also included Roger McKnight and his buddy Chris.

Another great day on the water.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

Nick Santos with a couple of big geese we bagged this morning. We saw thousands of broadbill but none would tend the rig. We took two geese a brant and two buffleheads. Nick leaves today for Coast Guard boot camp so the rest of the season is out. He had some good days on the hunt that he will remember when he is doing push ups. Good luck Nick!

It was probably the best sunrise of the season. Just perfect looking out over the blind at the decoys and watching the sun come up.

On 1/16 Rich Santos bagged this Widgeon on a nice shot.

On 1/15 Rich bagged this hooded merganser and actually got the hen as well. He is having both birds mounted.

Rich made us some excellent pea soup to fill our belly and keep us warm. It has been cold but some good hunting going on. 

Here is Nick with a beautiful pair of hooded mergansers that he and his dad are going to have mounted. It was a great hunt with a mixed bag of ducks and geese. 3 geese, 2 hooded mergansers, 4 broadbill, 2 ruddy ducks one red breasted merganser and one bufflehead. Another great day on the water. 

The brant video above was taken the day before. the in boat clip was from the day of this hunt.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

1/5/2010

Today I hunted with Nick Santos. We had a pretty good morning bagging two brant and a merganser. Not great but better than sitting at home and it was a beautiful sunrise. Here I am letting go with my Benelli Super Black Eagle II on an elusive duck. I am shooting black cloud and you can see the hull exiting the gun and the pattern hitting the water. Fun stuff.

Here are Nick and Captain Al (right to left) with Buddy Cipoletti taking the photos. Buddy took this photo and the one above.

Jeff Butta and his crew with a nice bunch of eider and old squaw taken on the ocean. They had to fight the fog but had a great day of gunning.

George also got into the act with a couple of ducks and brant. 

George and Frankie did a trip near Fire Island Inlet and had some fun. Here is Frankie with a brant.

Last week I hunted almost every day with Rich Santos. We had some good days and some not so good days. We bagged a mix of brant, broadbill, redheads and buffleheads.

This was a nice afternoon with a beautiful sunset.

Nick Santos and Jim Conte waiting for the ducks to come.