Come and enjoy a day of  Maryland diver duck hunting on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay in Rock Hall, MD. Our farm is located  less than one mile  up the Bay from Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge.

Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge ia a 2885 acre major feeding and resting place for migratory and wintering waterfowl at the mouth of the Chester River on the Chesapeake Bay. Over 40,000 waterfowl have been documented  on the refuge.

All of our  hunting is from shore blinds. Being on the east side of the bay, any type of west wind can kick up rough water quick. Our farms are on natural points for ducks flying up the bay shore from the refuge.

Scouting

Real easy here- pull right up to bay shore and watch what flies by with a good pair of binoculars. Ducks are either in the area or not.

Decoys

We generally run about five or six dozen diver decoys and a dozen Canada goose floaters. This is generally all we need to decoys small bunches of divers flying the shoreline. We also take plenty of Canadas that are in the area also. Our bag mostly bluebills, buffleheads, goldeneye and Canada geese.

Summary 

This is true gentleman’s hunt. You pull your car within 50 ft of your blind and walk down a sand beach to the blind. No hip boots or waders necessary.When the ducks are using the bay off our farms, the gunning can be spectacular. We’ve shot eight man limits in under an hour. But when they’re not there- well….. Season goes mid December – late January.

Come and enjoy a day of Brant and diver duck hunting on the back bays along the South Jersey coast. With The Atlantic City skyline as a backdrop, these small bays hosts Brant and ducks by the tens of thousands.

These dozen or so back bays that separate the barrier islands from the mainland run about 95 miles from Cape May to Point Pleasant.Most are shallow and are loaded with sea lettuce – a favorite food of the Atlantic Brant.

Absecon – Brigatine Bay Marsh  Complex

The Brigatine Bay and marsh complex includes the open water and tidal wetlands of: Little Bay, Reed Bay, Somers Bay, Absecon Bay, Lakes Bay and Scull Bay. This area covers about 24,000 acres with many of it shallow bay and salt marsh islands.

Mid-winter waterfowl counts in this area average about 70,000 birds including 27,000 brant and 21,000 black ducks.

Barnegat Bay

This legendary bay encompasses about 19,000 acres. It is a shallow bay that runs 30 miles long and 1-4 miles wide. It consists of open waters and wetlands as well as major rivers and coastal streams that feed fresh water into it. Extensive areas of the bay are covered with submerged aquatic vegetation. Eelgrass is the most dominant seagrass in Barnegat Bay.

Mid-winter waterfowl counts average about 50,000 birds which consists mainly of greater and lesser broadbill, brant, blacks and bufflehead.

Scouting

Plenty of roads surrounding these small bays and a good pair of binoculars help us to find birds that are already plentiful to begin with. Tides and winds also help us to know in advance where the birds will be feeding and resting.
Decoys

New Jersey Brant hunting generally requires just a couple dozen decoys to attract the bird’s attention. Brant decoy very easily and sometimes will come back even after being shot at. Brant fly low to the water and will decoy in large bunches. New Jersey’s Brant population numbers about 75, 000- far more than any other state in the Atlantic Flyway.

New  Jersey diver hunting is setting a few string of bluebills or clusters of buffleheads  with the Brant decoys which usually makes a nice mixed bag of Brant and ducks. These birds generally come in low and fast with shots usually 15-35 yards. We usually have a few blacks to drop in to our oversize black corkers also when hunting New Jersey Brant and divers.

Summary

If your party’s main interest is plenty of shooting, New Jersey Brant and diver  hunting is for you. It is not unusual to shoot 1-2 boxes of shells at these fast, low-flying birds. The scenery is beautiful and there are always birds moving on the these bays. The number of birds seen on these hunts can be staggering.