Selfie in the marsh
This morning I drove from Annapolis to Dorchester County, Maryland, to scout out duck hunting spots at Fishing Bay Wildlife Management Area (WMA). As you will see from the second map below, Fishing Bay WMA is a sprawling area reserved for hunting and fishing in lower Dorchester County. It is 30,016 acres of vast marshland peppered with woodland, and even the woodland is marshy in many parts. There are five other WMAs and other locations for hunting in the county. Maryland has a very large collection of public lands across the state for hunting and fishing.
This season my goal is to get in a large amount of duck hunting. I mapped out my course of exploration a few days before leaving, using the Maryland Department of Natural Resources maps, Google Maps and my copy of the large print map book for Maryland which details outdoor recreation. Dorchester County marshland is true wilderness. If you don’t plan ahead and carefully stick to your plan, it is very likely that you will become lost in thousands of acres of landscape. There is spotty cell phone reception – if you are lucky. I rely on my printed maps and map books when down in this “slower lower” area of Dorchester.
Featured in the photos below are a large swimming snake (you can only see the head in the photo), a Blue Heron, an old duck blind and a Sika deer stand. I wore my Muck Boots today, but next time I will wear waders so I can get out of my kayak and walk about.
Based on what I saw today, I am hopeful there were at least a dozen decent spots to tuck in along the waterway and set up for my hunts. There are a few other WMAs I want to visit as well, so my scouting has just begun. If I am lucky, I will also find a few places to hunt Sika deer, but I normally do my (white tail) deer hunting in Prince George’s County. Wish me luck!
Maryland Outdoor Life 