WHEN THE BROADBILL WAS KING
WHEN THE BROADBILL WAS KING ON THE GREAT SOUTH BAY" video to be debuted at upcoming show. Longtime members of the South Shore Waterfowlers Association and Long Island Decoy Collectors Association, Craig Kessler and Steve Sanford have spent the last year creating an historic documentary video about the great era of broadbill gunning on the open expanses of Great South Bay. The full video will be debuted at the upcoming show of the Long Island Decoy Collectors Association on March 7 at the Electricians Hall located on Motor Parkway in Hauppauge. Show hours are from 9-4. A terrific exhibit featuring several of the famous big open water rigs that frequented Great South Bay from roughly 1930 -1970 will be on display. Everyone is encouraged to get a sneak preview of the video by logging on to https://vimeo.com/116558936.
Long Island Decoy Collectors Association Annual Show
Saturday, March 7, 2015 – IBEW Hall, Motor Parkway, Hauppauge, LI
Craig Kessler, ckesslerducks@gmail.com, 516-639-8480
Steve Sanford, sjaysanford@gmail.com, 518-677-5064
BANQUET - The Wildfowlers Association of Central New York will be holding their 53rd Annual Banquet Pheasant Dinner on Wednesday, April 29, 2015, at Traditions at the Links (5900 North Burdick Street, East Syracuse, NY 13057); $45.00 per person. Cocktails will be at 6:00 p.m. and dinner at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are limited.
Please call Ron at 315-633-9567 or e-mail him (ronfalkowski@netscape.net) for tickets or more information.
When the battery was finally banned in the mid-1930s, Great South Bay still held hundreds of thousands of Broadbill each fall and winter. And the many guides - who had first hunted for the market and then later "took out parties" of sportsmen and women – still hunted this grand bird. Their big Broadbill rigs had a large cabin boat to serve as the tender, often an open stool boat to carry and handle just the decoys, and a "scooter" replaced the battery or sinkbox as the open water blind. Gunners stayed warm on the tender - often around a stove with a hot mug of coffee or stew - and watched the rig while awaiting their turn in the scooter. The Show will celebrate this exceptional era in American waterfowling.
