Sea Ducks

[M_Mayes]

I'm from KY and have never hunted sea ducks. Was wanting to try it and am thinking about bringing the boat down sometime in January to give it a shot. I'm not looking for anybody's spots but some general info would help me a bunch. Would I be better off starting in the sounds or open ocean? If you hunt the open ocean how far off land are you normally hunting? From what I have read on decoys it looks like it will be passable if I bring divers and paint some mallards black? Any info would be appreciated. I know around here asking for locations to peoples duck holes does not go over well and I'm not asking for that...just some general info would be helpful. In my boat I would be comfortable hunting ocean or sound. Its a stable boat made for big water, we normally hunt the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and have had it on the Great Lakes a few times. If it worked out and its the right person I wouldn't be opposed to taking another along with us with some experience at this type of hunting. Thanks for any help I can get.

Mark

[trigger22]

Where at in KY Mark? I'm originally from Paducah. I'll get you some info soon. Can likely hook you up with someone with experience as well.

[M_Mayes]

I'm in Nicholasville, its just outside Lexington. We are not in the heart of the flyway here in central KY, but it can still be pretty good duck hunting at times and lots of geese. You wont see the numbers here in central KY that you would in Paducah, but not near the hunting pressure either. What part of NC you in?

[trigger22]

Yeah Central KY isn't exactly a duck Mecca, but you're right about the geese.

I've hunted the coast around Havelock since 2003. Hunting Pamlico and Core Sound. What you're asking about painting mallards black will work just fine. Add some white to their heads and make some surf scoters too. Sea ducks in general aren't the smartest ducks on earth... there's no reason to worry about hunting the ocean. Pick an area around the mouth of the Neuse or Pamlico rivers and head out right around daylight and find some birds and setup on them. The norm is long lines and you'll be looking at 15-20 feet of water in most cases unless you find them feeding on a shoal. We use long lines for the decoys. 3 dozen decoys will work. More would be better, but isn't a deal breaker if you don't have them.