At least 20 ducks materialize from under the rising sun, just off the New Jersey Coast. They knot up, then spread out low over the water. We hear the drakes’ unmistakable calls—long-tailed ducks. Theodore Roosevelt nicknamed them “sou sou southerlies” because of that sound. Many hunters still just call them oldsquaw.
Eric Hauck hollers to shoot, and we let it rip. Three bird splash into the salt, and more ducks—scoters and bluebills—are bearing down on the spread before we can reload.
“How’d you like that?” asks Kevin Addy, an Avery pro staffer, as I climb out of the layout into his tender boat. It’s incredible. We’re limited out by lunchtime.
A good sea duck hunter is part waterfowler, part big-water boat captain. This is a gear-intensive sport that’s downright dangerous compared to a mallard shoot in a cornfield. But a sea duck hunt done right is fast and furious. Eric Hauck and Kevin Addy have been hunting these big-water birds for a decade, and a weekend spent with them was like a master’s-level sea duck school. Here’s what I learned.
