If you want to get good at something, talk to the experts" -- Lefty Kreh

Thanks for visiting 52 Week Season!

52 Week Season is a project to explore a hunting or fishing opportunity each week of the year in the mid-Atlantic. When I started, my intention was to interview various hunting and fishing guides on their approaches throughout the seasons, but I increasingly became more interested in the seasonal patterns of the species themselves and the yearly rituals we build around them. 

Some of these traditions are based on seasonal cues such as migrations or reproduction, while others are purely institutionalized by the DNR. 

For example, we don’t know exactly when the conditions will be perfect for the green drake hatch, whitetail rut, or canvasback migrations, but we have a pretty good idea from years of trial and error and perhaps some data (Memorial Day, mid-November, and “Canuary,” respectively). We itch for a warming trend for yellow perch in the spring and a northwest cold front for Canada geese at the fall but are at the mercy of mother nature. 

Yet we do know that the best opportunity for dove is high noon on September 1, that White Marlin Open is the first full week of August, and that schools are closed the Monday after Thanksgiving for whitetail opener in Pennsylvania. 

Many of these yearly traditions revolve around food -- springtime means shad plankings and fall means oyster roasts -- while others are strictly for sport. Some rituals aren’t based on science or calendar at all but just feel right. Mid-summer is the not the best time for largemouth bass, but there’s something about throwing poppers on a glassy lake before a July thunderstorm.

 Could you possibly hit each of these experiences in 52 weeks? Of course not. It’s absurd to you think you would have the time, but it’s also crazy to assume that a shark fisherman cares to throw flies at brook trout or that a duck hunter has any interest in coyotes. Plus, a jack of all trades is usually a master of none. 

But if you’re lucky, you can start to make connections. A hunter of diving ducks will know to return to the “hard bottom” during rockfish season, and a pheasant hunter can always use those tail feathers for a steelhead fly. And what is more satisfying than a cast-and-blast day targeting speckled trout and blue-wing teal in a September marsh? 

Some of the critters on this list are native and some are non-native, and many times it’s not clear. Largemouth bass are a familiar non-native species while snakehead are a non-native monster in many people’s eyes. Brown trout are non-native but long-established; sika deer are imported but at the same time unique to Maryland; and elk are native but reestablished. Tarpon and coyotes seem way out of place but are adapting to changing environments. 

So what is the "Mid-Atlantic"?  

One of my favorite descriptions is the boundaries of the Chesapeake Bay watershed featured in William Warner's Beautiful Swimmers: 

"The Bay’s entire watershed extends north through Pennsylvania to the Finger Lakes and Mohawk Valley country of New York, by virtue of the Susquehanna, the mother river that created the Bay. To the west it traces far back into the furrowed heartland of Appalachia, but one mountain ridge short of the Ohio-Mississippi drainage, by agency of the Potomac. To the east the flatland rivers of the Eastern Shore rise from gum and oak thickets almost within hearing distance of the pounding surf of the Atlantic barrier islands. To the south, Bay waters seep through wooded swamps to the North Carolina sounds, where palmettos, alligators and great stands of bald cypress first appear." 

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-- Patrick Ottenhoff, Washington, DC

 

Jeff Coats: Pitboss Waterfowl

Jeff Coats: Pitboss Waterfowl

Patrick Ottenhoff
Hunting, Saltwater, Wingshooting

Sea ducks are bucket list kind of hunt. You’re a mile or more out in the Atlantic, straining against a winter saltwater spray to keep an eye on your decoys bobbing on the swells. And then, out of nowhere, a line of surf scoters comes in fast and low. You think you got one lined up, but the outgoing tide and an incoming swell converge on your boat just as you’re about to shoot. Good luck!

“It’s rocking and rolling in the boat, and they come in low and fast.”

“It does make shooting challenging for sure!” says Capt. Jeff Coats, but “if you miss, it’s OK because there’s more coming along. They keep coming and coming!” 

Jeff runs Pitboss Waterfowl out of Berlin, Maryland, and guides for sea ducks, diving ducks, and brant off the coastal islands of the Eastern Shore. Jeff also runs Pitboss Fishing in the off-season, but is perhaps best known as a saltwater waterfowler. In addition to guiding, his videos are widely watched online and he’s a regional host of Drake Waterfowl Migration Nation. 

The Maryland trifecta: surf, black, and white-wing scoter (photo cred: Capt. Jeff Coats)

The Maryland trifecta: surf, black, and white-wing scoter (photo cred: Capt. Jeff Coats)

Scoter, diver, and brant are a bucket list hunt not only because of the adventure of the big water, but also because of the waterfowling legacy of the Eastern Shore coast. This is the land of characters like Delbert “Cigar” Daisey, an outlaw gunner-turned-conservationist whose decoys were featured in the Smithsonian and National Geographic. Jeff carries on Daisey's appreciation for coastal waterfowl today.

Jeff can get your scoter, canvasback, or brant in the winter, and he spends most of the summer working his way along the coast and back bays too look for mahi, rock, and blues. I caught up with him on a recent sweltering June afternoon when I was thinking of that first fall migration. He told me more about the three types of scoter, the differences between brant and Canadas, and of course his own personal 52 week season. 

My questions are in bold below, followed by his answers. 

What are  your “home waters”?

The lower Eastern Shore of Maryland and the back bays of the Chesapeake for sea ducks and brant. For fishing, it’s the bay backs and coastal bays behind Ocean City. 

What species do you target, and what are "peak" conditions for each?

For guiding, it’s sea ducks, so white-wing scoter, surf scoter, and black scoter. For a lot of people that haven’t shot scoter, it’s a bucket list type of hunt. Some clients are trying to hunt the North American Waterfowl Slam, and come here to get their scoter.

We also target brant, which is probably a bucket list type of hunt too.

Divers are not as consistent as seas ducks and brants, and are more weather-dependent. Sometimes when canvasbacks are good, cans are all you see. But cans are also going to pretty much going to sit there all day long, and then a barge might get them up.

Morning on the Atlantic (photo cred: Capt. Jeff Coats)

Morning on the Atlantic (photo cred: Capt. Jeff Coats)

Some guys say all they want is one canvasback drake, and that’s fine, but if it’s limits that matter, you can see more of scoters.  Diving ducks are on the bottom on the tier on action we get. 

I’d say it’s sea ducks, brant, and divers, in that order. We also get the occasional eider that do sometimes show up.

Can you describe a sea duck hunt for someone that’s never been on one and how it’s different? 

We’ll anchor out and set up a long line of decoys. It’s rocking and rolling in the boat, and they come in low and fast. It does make for shooting challenging for sure!  I’ll put it this way -- I never see people shooting ahead of them!

As the season goes on, they’re not mating but they are forming pairing bonds. A hen will lead 2-3 drakes, and if the hen doesn’t decoy, the drake won’t decoy. That becomes more challenging too. 

It’s generally a very social hunt too. You don’t have to shoot your limit on every fly-by because you’re going to see a lot of them. When they’re flying well, you’ll have multiple opportunities, so you can take your time shooting. They tend to fly on the later side in the morning. There’s something about watching then come over the horizon, and they keep coming and coming. If you miss, it’s OK because there’s more coming along. 

Do all three scoter species behave the same? 

National Geographic article about Cigar Daisey decoys

National Geographic article about Cigar Daisey decoys

White wing, we don’t see as much -- they stay to the north of us. On a morning hunt, it’s usually about 50/50 surf and black scoter, with a white wing mixed in here and there. 

How about brant -- do they behave more like Canadas? 

They have some of the characteristics of Canadas. They decoy very well and respond to the call very well. The like to see decoys in that sense similar to Canadas.  But brant are shallow salt-water feeders. They’re roosting on the saltwater and flying inland to feast. You might see them in hard land and green grass but mostly on the saltwater eating tip-up vegetation. 

When’s the migration peak for scoter, and what are some of the season cues for you watch for? 

Scoters fly on the calendar. We see bigger bunches the last week of October, and peak migration is probably around Halloween. Cape May Bird Observatory has a Sea Watch and the last week of October, the scoter numbers start ramping up real fast. Scoters get here on the calendar -- it could be 80 degrees, but they’re flying by the calendar. 

Of all of the other ducks we hunt, the oldsquaw is the most weather dependent. We’re also at the southern range of eider, and they’re only down here in certain weather. Last year, for whatever reason, we shot more eider than white wing scoter. 

Atlantic brant: the sea goose (photo cred: Capt. Jeff Coats)

Atlantic brant: the sea goose (photo cred: Capt. Jeff Coats)

You're well known for scoter hunting, but it looks like you catch a ton of fish too. What are the four season of hunting and fishing for Pitboss? 

Winter

Waterfowl season starts in late October and early November. Sea ducks open on November 4. For waterfowl, it’s really about getting geared up toward guiding, and I’m guiding through the whole 60-day season. We’re now in the third year of a 60-year season, down from 107, and we lost of a few days on the back end. 

I don’t really “fun hunt” a whole lot. For sea ducks, I have shot a lot of scoter, and these days I really enjoy shooting footage and video photography. I’ve shot enough, and really enjoy shooting them with my camera now.

I’ve been a regional host on Drake Waterfowl Migration Nation the last few years, and last year got to go up to Massachusetts and shoot eider. 

We’ll get some fishing in there too, in December and early January, as big stripers as are heading south. My wife Karen and I love to fish. We get out there and troll for ocean fish, and try to get our rockfish. Rockfish that time of year has to be 28-38 inches on the coastal, or over 44". 

February’s kind of a dead month, though right around the end of February, we had a nice little schoolie bite this year. 

Spring

In April, we fish as much as we can for rocks. Last year, we had a really good year of bluefish too. Flounder were biting really well this year off Assateague in late April and early May right over the Virginia state line. 

In May in Ocean City, the flounder start to show up, and we’ll continue to cast for rockfish and bluefish.  

Summer

Pitboss with a band

Pitboss with a band

In June, the bluefin bite picks up. There are not as many sharks this year, but the tuna are here. We’ll fish for small sharks on light tackle about a miles off the beach. Nice small sharks that are a lot of fun for kids to catch. We’ll take kids and families out for flounder and croaker too. 

Ultimately, the fish we love to catch is mahi. In August, you don’t have to go very far off the beach for mahi.  

How do you catch mahi? 

Chunking. Always if you throw protein in the ocean, something is going to come up and eat it. We’ll get some sea bass and flounder too, and sometimes you’ll even get a tuna. We had a couple of cobia last year. 

Fall

In September and October, we also get some sheepshead in there. Tautog and black drum too. 

In October and November, I don’t really like to turkey hunt and I don’t like deer hunting. I shot a turkey with a bow and checked that off the list. Deer hunting? It conflicts with the best time of the year for fishing.   

October is my favorite month. The sun is still warm and the leaves are starting to turn. You can still fish, and you can waterfowl hunt. The sky is blue as can be. October 15, you used on have sea ducks. I used to be really into September teal season, and back in the 107 days when you could hunt scoter in October, you’d see teal migrating with them. It really is my favorite month all around. 

 
John Odenkirk: VDGIF Snakehead Expert

John Odenkirk: VDGIF Snakehead Expert
Chris Dollar: Chesapeake Four-Season Sportsman

Chris Dollar: Chesapeake Four-Season Sportsman