Whoa. I didn’t think I could top some of my phenomenal woodcock hunts from last year. It didn’t take long. I topped then on opening day!
My daughter, my dog Gus, and I hunted woodcocks on opening day of woodcock season in New Jersey today. It was great. There was frost and heavy dew on the saplings, which made for a wet hunt, but birds were everywhere.
Gus pointed a woodcock within five minutes, but it flushed before I could get close to it. I fired two shot to no avail. The saplings we hunted were so thick that Gus pointed multiple birds, but we just couldn’t make our ways through the brush to get good shots. I changed tactics and just walked around the perimeter of the sapling thickets. Within 35 minutes, I had a limit of 3 woodcocks. In all, Gus pointed and/or flushed 12 woodcocks. Beautiful! At one point, 4 woodcocks were grouped together and they flushed in pairs. It was a sight to behold.
I may head back out this afternoon to try for some pheasants.