Wingshooter Safaris - Nelson Lagoon

Nelson Lagoon: Pacific Eider Program Documentary 2010

Wingshootersafaris.com 256.495.2596 [email protected]

Day 1

(Documentary by Pete C.)

Here are a few pictures of the first day hunting in Nelson Lagoon. When we arrived and got off the plane, we had a dozen pacific’s fly 25 yards directly over us. 4 nice Drakes were taken. There were three other Eiders shot for a total of 7 on the first day with two hunters. Two Juvenile hens and a partially colored Juvenile drake. The hens were shot intentionally by Mark and me. I shot the immature drake on purpose to show the variations for a mount.

Day 2

Was absolutely fantastic. The sun shined all day, barely any wind at all, Mark finished his 4

bird limit with his nice drake common. Karen & I sat in the boat; Karen shot a beautiful drake

Pacific, Smack in the decoys. I shot a total of 3 Oldsquaw Drakes.



Day 2 had the least amount of eider opportunities and the stellar and old squaws were not as

prevalent. Karen had a half a dozen good opportunities to take drake commons – multiple

opportunities at small groups of Juvenile and younger hens which she passed.

Due to the extreme tidal currents we were extremely conscious about how and where we took the

birds that day because we wanted the retriever work to be part of the hunt. Otter, pictured with

Karen’s pacific was able to retrieve Mark’s pacific and 2 out of the 3 old squaws. The last old

squaw taken had Otter leaping out of the boat and boat ropes had tangled one of his back feet,

drug him under water alongside the boat, approx. 3’ under and was spinning around like a

Salmon flasher. After cutting the dog free he popped up made the retrieve seeming unaffected

but that ended our hunt. Karen was shook up and the tide had whipped up to a scary level.

Here is the bottom line on bringing a retriever, you cannot. It is simply too dangerous for the

animal, the hunters and the guides. Had I understood the severity of the situation, I would not

have exposed myself, my dog or my hunting companions to the dangers that we all seemed to

work with due to the presence of the dog.



Although we had a need for the dog over in Harrington Bay, that is the exception- not the rule.

The sea duck work that was done was done at tidal changes – slack tide which lasted approx 1 –

1 ½ hrs.

Otter pictured with the common took approx 10 minutes to get the dog back in the boat, 5

minutes later and the retrieve could not have been accomplished.

I believe day 2 was sour dough pancakes for breakfast. The food – breakfast, and the few

lunches we had + dinner were fantastic. Salmon, steak, and fresh king crab. If you have never

had sour dough pancakes, than you have yet to experience the most decadent breakfast known to

man.

Summary – fantastic food, wonderful people – Merle, Harold & Jenny are missed. The fantastic

remoteness is unexplainable has to be experience. The opportunities on common eiders seemed

to be limitless.



PS: the picture of the raft of birds is 99% common eiders. Over 200 birds in this raft, that was

small.

Day 3 - real high wind and very strong tide. The biggest numbers of pacific’s, we had so many

pacific’s flying in such large groups flying by the boat, we could not responsibly shoot. Karen

got her 3 pacific’s, 2 real nice drakes and 1 ok hen. The numbers of old squaw that morning

were unbelievable, could not shoot – to many ducks. Stellers and beach geese were everywhere.

We were back at the lodge before 11:00 am and we didn’t start until 8:30 – 9.



Glass ball hunting with Harold, Jenny & Merle netted a grand total I believe 49 balls for the

group. We went over to the school to see the walrus skeleton and also got the grand tour of

Harold’s operation. By end of day 3 we had completely limited out on eiders and 8 full colored

mature drakes 3 hens and 1 partially colored drake that was shot on purpose. We had I believe 7

old squaws. Grand total by the end of day 3 – 12 pacific’s, 7 old squaw and 53 glass balls.



Day 4

Began with breakfast and glass ball hunt until about 1:00.

We then took the boats across the bay and tried to collect Aleutian Teal. The number of puddle ducks was unexpected. The first flight of what seemed to be about 50 -75 teal whipped down the slough, I knocked down a drake and a hen and my wife folded a drake gadwall. Didn’t expect that… I was able to collect a few more teal – the group collected ten mallards and a golden eye and just as things started to heat up, Harold came in and picked us up and we had to leave. We could have easily limited out on puddle ducks through the afternoon, but the jet boat was getting plugged with spaghetti grass so our options were limited. This part of the hunt should not be expected. We were blessed with fantastic weather. It was the only time in the hunt where bringing a dog actually benefited the hunt.

I believe the morning netting us a grand total of 46 glass balls.



Day 5 we decided to travel back to Cold Bay to get in a little duck and Ptarmigan hunting in the

afternoon, but before we left Nelson Lagoon we went glass ball hunting again. 50 glass balls

were found that morning. So the grand total of glass balls was 96 for the trip, I believe Mark

brought back a dozen and Karen and I also brought a dozen back and the rest were donated back

to the cause. This might sound weird but it was just as fun hunting for glass balls as it was for

Pacific’s, maybe due to the fact that we were limited out.

The pictures of the rafts of ducks which were on the Bering Sea, went literally for miles a

hundred yards off the beach. There were thousands of Common Scoters, hundreds of Common

Eiders and White Wings mixed in.



We were given access to the company vehicle and I put some miles on her, which doesn’t get

you far in Nelson Lagoon, but it was fun when the plane came, to drive up and squeeze in for a

spot – don’t be shy!

So with the Nelson Lagoon trip behind us with a 45 minute awesome low altitude flight

down the coast back to Cold Bay meeting up again with Bill & Lillian Sager, a hot meal and it

was off sightseeing and Ptarmigan hunting. Ptarmigan hunting and a little teal shoot ending the

day with fresh king crab, fresh fried butter clams and Ptarmigan stewed in dark brown mushroom

gravy, not to mention strawberry pizza for desert to prepare us for the last day of hunting.

Wingshooter Safaris - Nelson Lagoon

Documents

nelson lagoon

day hunting

eider opportunities

boat karen

beautiful drake pacific

karens pacific

marks pacific

nice drake common