Greetings and report.

[ahartung]

Hello All!

Been reading on here for a little bit now and enjoyed hearing what everyone has to say. Name is Andrew and I live in Wasilla. Fairly new to waterfowling and am 1.5 years new to Alaska. I've been hunting the Goose Bay refuge the last few weeks (sometimes weekends, sometimes weekdays) and have had some decent luck. Went out again this morning and got two mallards, a green and a hen. Saw a couple groups of ducks flying around and 2 canadian geese (first I have seen of the season at the refuge).

Overall the ducks there seem pretty shy and groups veered off of my spread (23 mallard decoys with a jerk rig). The two I got were singles that I actually got to land and then flushed and shot them. I just used simple quack calls and got both of the singles to circle back around and land. That was pretty fun. Anyone else here been going the GB refuge? I would like to try the Hay Flats but have no idea how or where the setup spots are. Mainly since any day I have off I spend hunting and not scouting.

Anyway, just wanted to say hello to everyone and start getting connected with some other waterfowlers.

[tons0fun]

Never hunted goose bay refuge always wanted to its beautiful

[Jr hunter]

From what iv seen most people that don't have a boat use cottonwood creek access point just park walk across the bridge most people go to the right towards the inlet just follow the atv trail and you will see where other people hunt. It's been hunted hard this season so good luck.

[skybust]

Ahartung welcome sounds like your doing the write things I think the biggest mistake people make is call to much. If you want to hunt cottonwood and you dont have a boat then take fairbveiw to cottonwood creek and walk in. You should also join AWA it is a wealth of knowlege

[ahartung]

Sounds good. I will have to try and scout cottonwood. How long is the effective season around here? Obviously regs go till December, but when do the birds start to get scarce out there? I have already mailed my app into AWA as well.

[Duckhunter01]

Normally we are iced up by this time in the marshes and most die hards have pushed to the rivers. Seems unusally warm air this year has provided an extended season for us. It wont be long..any day the marshes will lock up and birds will push to the rivers. Give it another week or two and then even they will push south and to creeks in the salt.

Then most hunters head to the salt in chase of sea ducks and ride that out til Dec.

Good luck and thanks for joining AWA!