Outdoors writer Mel Toponce joined me for a day-after-Christmas Delaware woodcock hunt. Mel, author of many hunting articles for various outdoors magazines and owner of Toponce Ranches (California), has hunted woodcocks from Canada to Louisiana, but today was his first time pursuing timberdoodles in the First State.
Mel is visiting family on the East Coast for the holidays, so he drove up from Virginia to meet me in Smyrna, Delaware. I picked him up around 7:30 AM, and we were in woodcock fields by 8:00 AM.
Mel, my vizsla Gus, and I walked my trusted woodcock spots with little success. Gus found no birds in the first two sapling fields we visited, but the third field proved to be the charm. Several flooded areas surrounded the third field, and I could tell after my first boggy step that there were woodcocks among the saplings. With woodcock splash (droppings) marking the ground, it was only a matter of minutes before Gus locked up on the first doodle.
Mel walked to Gus, and the first bird flushed. Mel dropped him with his second shot. I marked where the bird fell and made my way toward it. Gus and Mel also headed toward the downed bird. As they walked toward the fields edge, I saw another woodcock flush. Astoundingly, he landed mere feet from the location of the downed bird.
I called Gus and Mel over. As Gus approached the live bird, the doodle flushed. Mel swung on him and missed with two shots. As woodcock typically do, it only flew about 40 yards and pitched back into the sapling thicket. After retrieving the downed bird, we made our way toward the second bird.
Gus located and pointed the doodle, and Mel went in for the shot. Gus held the point for at least 3 minutes before Mel was able to flush it. The woodcock flew up, and Mel dropped him with one perfectly placed shot.
Gus pointed another timberdoodle, and I walked in to the flush him. Standing right behind Gus with my eyes into the sun, I stomped the brush and flushed the bird. The bird flew straight up, and I dropped him while the bird was no more than 6 feet from my gun barrel.
Mel, Gus, and I tried another field but found no other woodcocks and called it a day around 1:00 PM. We were both satisfied with the late-season Delaware woodcock hunt, and we may try to reconnect later this week.
If you are interested in hunting Columbian black tail deer, black bear, rio grande wild turkeys in California’s Solano and Siskiyou Counties, give Mel Toponce a call.