Assateague Island Waterfowl Hunting

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  • joma352

    Active Member
    Jan 4, 2018
    159
    Lower Eastern Shore
    Hunted assateague island the other week for birds. Only saw a few and nothing came in but it was a blast. My wife and I frequent the OSV beach during the summer but never thought about hunting there. I definitely want to go back and recently picked up some black duck decoys. I was just curious if anyone here had any experience hunting there and had any tips they'd share!

    Thanks,
    JOMA
     

    Occam

    Not Even ONE Indictment
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 24, 2018
    20,239
    Montgomery County
    My only hunting experience on Assateague has been the mosquitos hunting me. Glad to hear there's a use for the place when it's too cold for those little sumbitches to come after you!
     

    joma352

    Active Member
    Jan 4, 2018
    159
    Lower Eastern Shore
    My only hunting experience on Assateague has been the mosquitos hunting me. Glad to hear there's a use for the place when it's too cold for those little sumbitches to come after you!

    When it comes to the mosquitoes out there it's all about the wind. No wind or a west wind there's no reason to even try, the flies and skeeters will tear you up!
     

    pbharvey

    Habitual Testifier
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 27, 2012
    30,158
    Hunted assateague island the other week for birds. Only saw a few and nothing came in but it was a blast. My wife and I frequent the OSV beach during the summer but never thought about hunting there. I definitely want to go back and recently picked up some black duck decoys. I was just curious if anyone here had any experience hunting there and had any tips they'd share!

    Thanks,
    JOMA

    That's all federal property right? How many hoops do you have to jump through rule wise?
     

    Derwood

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 2, 2011
    1,075
    DC area
    This is very intriguing. Do you have to register for a blind site or something? I know there is some state land in addition to the federal land. Do you have to have a Maryland resident with you?
     

    lazarus

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 23, 2015
    13,678
    That's what I was thinking as well.

    Ditto. Yesterday I had realized “wait, you can HUNT Assateague?”

    I was thinking more WT and Sika, but I am certainly intrigued about waterfowl. I am also curious what the hoops are. All I can find on their website for the park is you need a MD Hunting permit and the appropriate Maryland and federal stamps if waterfowl hunting. Blinds I think are by reservation. But for general waterfowl or deer hunting there isn’t much more info other than check in and out with the rangers. Not sure if you have to reserve entry, if there are limits on the number of hunters, etc?

    Sadly I don’t have an OSV capable vehicle at the moment or I’d be super excited. But I could still hike in the North or South areas a distance. And it sounds like you could camp and hunt there (obviously not hunt at the camp ground). They do say on the website in the park when not hunting any weapons must be unloaded and inaccessible. I assume unloaded, cased and in a trunk or with a lock on the case would be suitable.
     

    Cochise

    Ultimate Member
    Sep 5, 2008
    1,383
    Rockville
    Assateague

    We used to hunt it about 20ish years ago. We would camp Thanksgiving week and striper fish in the surf afternoons and hunt in the O dark 30 till around 11.
    There are Blacks, Widgeon, GW Teal, Bluebills and the mighty Bufflehead and his buddy the Merganser as well.
    No warm or hot showers if you're camping in the off season so after a week you get kind of ripe. The ponies are thief's and stole dog food and pop tarts from me, we had Sitka and quail walk through the camp site as well.
    If you don't have a boat, you need a dog.
    Its fun but I am getting older and lazy, I want to be able to turn on the heat when I am done now.
     

    Clark W. Griswold

    Active Member
    Oct 5, 2009
    929
    Ditto. Yesterday I had realized “wait, you can HUNT Assateague?”

    I was thinking more WT and Sika, but I am certainly intrigued about waterfowl. I am also curious what the hoops are. All I can find on their website for the park is you need a MD Hunting permit and the appropriate Maryland and federal stamps if waterfowl hunting. Blinds I think are by reservation. But for general waterfowl or deer hunting there isn’t much more info other than check in and out with the rangers. Not sure if you have to reserve entry, if there are limits on the number of hunters, etc?

    Sadly I don’t have an OSV capable vehicle at the moment or I’d be super excited. But I could still hike in the North or South areas a distance. And it sounds like you could camp and hunt there (obviously not hunt at the camp ground). They do say on the website in the park when not hunting any weapons must be unloaded and inaccessible. I assume unloaded, cased and in a trunk or with a lock on the case would be suitable.

    I have hunted sika and ducks there for the past 3-4 years. There are no hoops to jump through. All you need is your md license and stamps. You also need an osv permit to drive on the beach and a paid pass. (Your federal duck stamp plus a $20 parking pass gets you in all year and is the same cost as a yearly pass)

    There are some blinds, but most are areas and you will need your own temporary blind. There are waterfowl hunting blinds/areas out on the osv as well as in the area that’s accessible without the osv permit. There are also areas that are only accessible by boat.

    The duck hunting is not great. Plenty of buffleheads and the occasional black duck, teal or pintail.

    There is a sign in sheet where u pick your blind in the morning. Pre-COVID there was a lottery on busy days at 5am. Now people show up as early as 3 to grab the spot they want even though the rules say you can’t be there before 4:30.

    Deer hunting is run in much the same way. They allow 140 deer hunters per day. Most of the deer hunting is south in the osv, but there is a walk in / boat in archery only area to the north of the state park.

    The state park also allows archery deer hunting after the campground closes, but I’ve never hunted there and don’t know the requirements. The state park is actually in federal land that is under long term lease to the state.

    As for firearms laws, the national seashore along with all other national parks follow state firearms laws. So there is no requirement to have firearms inoperable or inaccessible. No loded guns in the truck and no hunting on the actual beach is the only real restrictions.
     

    joma352

    Active Member
    Jan 4, 2018
    159
    Lower Eastern Shore
    There is a sign in sheet where u pick your blind in the morning. Pre-COVID there was a lottery on busy days at 5am. Now people show up as early as 3 to grab the spot they want even though the rules say you can’t be there before 4:30.
    .

    The lottery part is what scares me. They haven't done it all season?

    We didn't see much while hunting but saw a load of black ducks on the way out
     

    Clark W. Griswold

    Active Member
    Oct 5, 2009
    929
    The lottery part is what scares me. They haven't done it all season?

    We didn't see much while hunting but saw a load of black ducks on the way out

    I don’t hunt there enough to know if they haven’t done it at all. Considering they used to do it inside and the building is closed to the public I’m betting a lottery hasn’t been held since January of 2020. I never saw a time where every available spot was taken either in the lottery or by the sign in. At least with the lottery you stand an even chance since people can’t sign in early.

    It’s a different hunting experience for certain. That island can be a brutal place when it’s 23° with a 15 knot wind off of either the ocean or the bay…
     

    Cochise

    Ultimate Member
    Sep 5, 2008
    1,383
    Rockville
    If you are going to camp and have a boat, also check out E.A. Vaughn, we had some good hunts there as well, its almost on the Virginia border on the mainland side of Chincoteague
     

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