How to Hunt Early Season Teal

I settled again into my blind and loaded my shotgun, glancing at my watch and counting the seconds. Quickly sufficient, I might make out clouds of shadowed geese flying low and quick over the water and streaking previous my blind like tiny, feathered bullets shot from a gun. As quickly as authorized mild got here, I noticed a small group of birds heading in my course. I shortly clicked off my security, raised the gun to my shoulder, and took a lead on the primary fowl; because the geese flared, I breathed a silent thanks. The day and duck season had been solely simply starting, and the teal had been already right here.

Also referred to as water doves, peepers, and rockets, teal are the smallest and quickest members of the puddle duck household. They arrive in three completely different varieties—blue wing, inexperienced wing, and cinnamon—and most hunters think about them to be a limit-filling bonus that flies amongst extra well-liked mallards and pintails. Nevertheless, teal are removed from only a windfall duck as they’re among the many best-tasting and most difficult geese in North America.

Teal, particularly blue-winged teal, are normally the primary geese emigrate to hotter climates for the winter, supplying you with an early alternative to get some geese within the freezer. In most locations, flocks of teal start to reach from early to mid-September, a time when most waterfowlers’ minds are preoccupied with fishing and bow season, which means you could have the blind and the water to your self. Which is a bonus: there received’t be anybody round to observe you miss.

Teal are tiny, fast-flying birds that streak over the water at speeds usually round 50 miles an hour. This makes them an important fowl for knocking the rust off after a protracted low season—when you begin hitting teal persistently, a chubby, slow-flying mallard is a chunk of cake. This additionally makes teal simply appear to style higher, as each fowl you eat must be earned. Nevertheless, earlier than you can begin spraying rounds at low-flying teal like an plane provider keeping off a bomber assault, you’ve acquired to know the place to seek out them and easy methods to hunt them.

Early-season teal are type of humorous birds in that they’re by no means the place they’re presupposed to be. You’ll be able to arrange in what appears to be good duck water alongside flooded fields or marshy estuaries, solely to have the birds fly in and begin touchdown within the middle of a close-by golf course pond. That is as a result of teal’s food plan, which, in contrast to different extra well-liked species of geese, is usually combined. Teal will eat absolutely anything from agricultural grains and greens to waterweeds to small crustaceans and bugs. They may eat these diverse objects at completely different instances of the day and 12 months, which means that earlier than you head out onto the water, you’re going to wish to scout out your searching location to seek out some birds.

A pair days earlier than your hunt, head out to your chosen floor with an excellent pair of binoculars and even a recognizing scope and watch the geese. Take note of the place teal are touchdown and feeding within the morning, afternoon, and night, and attempt to pinpoint what they’re feeding on through the completely different elements of the day. If you happen to don’t see a number of teal flying round or are pressured to scout within the tremendous early season, it may be a good suggestion to search for coots. These underappreciated waterfowl will often inhabit the identical areas as teal and the 2 species will usually be noticed swimming across the identical areas collectively.

If you happen to can’t get out early to scout the water you’re searching or just don’t have the time, then your finest guess for bagging a restrict of teal is by searching shallow mud. Teal love mud and can normally collect alongside and within the middle of shallow mud flats in roughly six inches to 2 ft of water. Pay explicit consideration to any small gaps of open, muddy water close to or round tall grass, cattails, and marsh weed, as these places present a number of cowl for each you and the birds. Even in the event you don’t spot a number of geese in areas like this, mark them, as it may be straightforward to attract teal into these zones with the best decoy unfold.

Decoying is usually simpler than calling for teal, the small geese love firm and can usually keep within the air till they see their compatriots land. You don’t should have a ton of decoys at your disposal to get a flock of teal to give attention to them and sometimes having too many decoys will even ship them away, particularly after they’re pressured. So maintain your numbers low, with six to eight decoys being greater than ample to usher in birds.

Teal will land amongst floating and feeding decoys very willingly and are notoriously prone to spinners as nicely. My favourite set-ups normally consist of 4 or 5 floating and feeding decoys, with a pair positioned smack dab within the middle of the realm I’m searching and one other single or pair of decoys unfold 10 to 12 ft out to the left and proper. Then, I’ll hook one other pair of decoys to a jerk string to maintain them transferring, which I’ll place inside a pair yards of my blind. Lastly, I’ll add two spinners to both finish of my unfold to attract consideration from passing birds.

After you have your decoys arrange, focus in your blind. In contrast to with different puddle geese which are available in from on excessive and require elaborate and detailed camouflage to idiot, teal are fast in and fast out. They fly in low over the water at tempo and land shortly, counting on their velocity and talent to alter course to get them out of bother. As such, you don’t want an extravagant blind to get them to strategy, you merely want to interrupt up your define. With some good camo clothes and a bit of ingenuity, you’ll be able to arrange a blind for teal by propping up a pair logs and sticks, protecting them in grass, and hiding behind them. That is additionally a bonus in case you’re arrange a bit too distant from the place the teal are concentrating as you’ll be able to merely arise and transfer over as an alternative of getting to shift or rebuild an enormous blind.

There’s a romance to early-season teal searching. The climate is normally heat after they present up and also you don’t want a number of decoys or different further tools. It’s old-fashioned duck searching at its finest, the place you simply go right down to the water with just a few decoys in a backpack and conceal in some reeds. One of many easiest pleasures within the searching world, chasing early season teal takes you again to the early days of waterfowling the place hunters simply settled in, ready for the solar to rise, and listened for the sound of flapping wings.