Berkley Outdoors
Hunting and Fishing excursions located on the Outer Bank's Ocracoke Island and based out of the historic Berkley Manor
Thats A Wrap!
What a fantastic duck season 2018/19 turned out to be! The hunting started out very good, with an above average number of birds on the sound before Thanksgiving. It remained consistent through Christmas, before we went through a bit of a warm spell as we entered the new year. January featured its normal spectacular days, as well as a few slower periods when the tide/moon/weather combined to provide tough conditions on the sound. We harvested more blackheads this year than in many year in recent memory, while our redhead numbers were down a bit. There wasn’t much to our brant hunting until this last big cold front when a ton of new birds showed up. Many of our clients here at the end were treated to some spectacular brant hunts.
As I pack the last of the decoys away for another season, and somehow try to explain to my curly haired hunting companion “Deep” (Chesapeake bay retriever) that we have to wait 210 days before beginning the chase anew, I reminisce about the great memories and friendships forged this season. After all, that IS what it is all about. Sure, we work incredibly hard scouting, building blinds, setting decoys, maintaining equipment, etc… to insure successful hunts and lots of empty shotshells. But the most rewarding times always come from the stories told in the aftermath; the memories. The group of 50 redheads that did it right, the single pintail that interrupted a slow morning by gliding from the heavens into the spread, or some days just the spectacular glow of an Eastern NC sunrise over Ocracoke… How could we forget, the Oysters (oysters and more oysters), food, and more food consumed in front of the fireplace….
What a season it was.
Above all I would like to thank our many loyal clients for choosing Berkley Outdoors as their memory making headquarters this season, and thank God for another safe season in his magnificent creation.
Now…. Lets. Go. Fishing! Give us a call to line up your 2019 fishing charter today.
Berkley Outdoors 