Northwest Wild Country Radio Station

Fly Report SEATTLE, Wash. - It's Friday night and your boss wouldn't let you off work in time to join your hunting buddies for a flame run over the Cascades to the Columbia Basin.

Your decoys, waders and shotgun (and one very anxious Lab) are sitting by the door, just begging to be used. But you live in urban Seattle, where the nearest waterfowl hunting lies 2 1/2 hours away.

Or does it?

While the majority of the best waterfowl hunting in the Evergreen State is indeed east of the mountains, a surprising number of opportunities also exist in the great Puget Sound region, within a 75-mile radius of downtown Seattle.

Where to begin: When planning a duck hunt in Puget Sound, a little pre-shoot research goes a long way. Fire up the internet, hit the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife's website, and follow the link on the hunting page to the wildlife areas in Region 4 and Region 6 - this will give you a basic reference point to some of the easier access points on the Westside.

"Whenever someone asks about waterfowl hunting in Puget Sound, I always direct them to the wildlife areas first," says WDFW waterfowl section manager Don Kraege. "Those areas are the easiest to find and easiest to access, so they're a good place to start."

If the local wildlife areas don't appeal to you, you can certainly find other freelance options, but with two major caveats: 1). Be very, very sensitive to trespass; 2). Know your local shooting ordinances.

The latter can usually be deciphered by making a quick call to the local sheriff's office, or by contacting your regional WDFW office, which will likely forward you to the local game warden.

The former is a little more complex. In a region with 3-plus-million residents, finding a piece of water or marsh that isn't privately owned can be more challenging than hitting a low-flying teal at 50 yards.

"Obviously, there's a lot of private land in this area, so you have to be extremely careful," says Kraege. "There are also options to explore on private lands. That's usually a case of finding flocks of birds, figuring out who owns the land and securing access."

But that's another story for another time. In the meantime, here are some of the North Sound's best public duck options:

Lake Terrell & Tennant Lake Wildlife Areas: The Tennant Lake hunt area is located along the east bank of the Nooksack River and around Tennant Lake proper, just south of Ferndale. Lake Terrell lies roughly 5 miles to the west, roughly equidistant to Ferndale and Birch Bay. Both wildlife areas offer a mix of marshland, grassland and larger bodies of resting water, as well as farmed crops that provide forage for wintering waterfowl.

As is the case further south in the Skagit Valley, bird populations at both Terrell and Tennant have been steady in recent years thanks to an abundance of local food sources and a dearth of harsh winter weather.

"Terrell and Tennant (have been very good recently), with high numbers of birds staying in the area through the season," says Kraege. "Those hunts usually tend to get better later in the season, especially if there's no major weather to move them out."

Padilla Bay: Somewhat lost in the southern shadow of neighboring Skagit Bay, Padilla Bay is one of the Pacific Northwest’s “hidden” gems. Oh, Padilla sees its share of pressure, but it’s relatively undiscovered as one of the best spots in North America to target over a dozen species of sea ducks.

“We’ll see 10 species in a single day in some areas,” says Mike Wolski at Wings and Waves Guide Service. “You have to move around and go after the species that you want, but most guys will leave here with five or six species of divers or sea ducks in a day. We also get a pretty good mix of teal, wigeon and mallards in the bays we hunt – I’ll hunt guys from the Great Lakes who will kill a drake mallard with a full curl, and you’d think they’d just killed a 6-point bull elk. They don’t get those colored-up drakes like we get here. It’s a pretty phenomenal hunt.”

It’s also a phenomenally gear-intensive and potentially dangerous hunt.

As is the case on any massive body of water in the wintertime, Padilla Bay and neighboring sea-duck hot spots (Saratoga Passage, Skagit Bay, etc.) can turn into boat-bashing, life-threatening terrors in the course of a few hours. Wolski – who estimates that he has tens of thousands of dollars invested in the gear necessary to properly hunt sea ducks – recommends nothing smaller than an 18-foot boat that’s capable of taking on big waves.

“I’d avoid a jon boat, and I wouldn’t be so quick to come out here with the big jet sleds, either,” he advises. “You have to have a big-bowed boat to handle the water, because it’ll go from glass calm to 6-foot waves in a day.”

Snoqualmie Valley: Easiest access to public duck hunting is at the Cherry Valley WA, just off State Route 203 a mile north of Duvall, and the Stillwater WA, which covers just over 450 acres between the Snoqualmie River and 203 north of Carnation. Both of these hunts are better late in the season.

-JS