Annual Eastern Shore Hunt 2010 by Jeff Riebling

• By: ScottieP
• On: 03/15/2010 11:23:57
• In: In The Field
• Comments: 0

The annual Eastern Shore waterfowl hunt ushered in all the feelings of hunts past.  The anticipation of what is to come always brings along with it feelings of excitement.  This year’s version was to be primarily a diver duck hunt with the possibility of a combo hunt including geese later in the day.  Our Sunday afternoon drive to Chestertown did nothing to diminish our spirits.

Friends Mark Hoecke and Fred Scharadin accompanied me on this 2010 version of the hunt.  As we traveled to our destination turning onto route 40 heading toward Elkton skies began to be littered with ducks and geese, both Canadas and Snows.  The numbers and sizes of the flocks grew as we crossed over the C&D canal at Chesapeake City and continued south toward the Chestertown area.  Fields were full of geese on both sides of the road.  Literally hundreds of birds were in these flocks, a sight that never grows old to me.  To say the least we were even more stoked about our hunt now, the birds were definitely here!  We would be hunting with Tom Marvel of Chesapeake guide service.  All that was required once we arrived at our hotel was a 6:00PM call from Tom to confirm the early Monday meeting time and place.  Things started to look a little bleak with the weather report for Monday showing 40 plus mile an hour winds accompanied by very heavy rains, but we were not to be deterred.

Monday morning found us at the local McDonalds.  We were to meet Tom’s father, Bill and he would escort us to our hunting destination.  It was unseasonably warm for a late January day.  Temperatures were in the high 50s.  As it was Bill took us to a farm not far from town.  As we turned down the farm lane and rounded the bend in the gravel road I recognized it to be the farm, where in 2009, the group I was with hunted from a field blind for Canada geese.  When the trucks pulled in Tom and our guide, KC were returning from setting the decoy rig on the Chester River.  The fact that Tom had fallen in the river was a precursor of things to come.