New Season Preparations
One of the problems of being a wildfowler is that one, quite literally, wishes one's life away. No sooner has 20th February passed than the dreams of both night and day turn to 1st September. There can be little doubt that, compared to other country sports, the opening of each new season bears a special significance for the coastal wildfowler as the countdown is measured first in weeks and later in days and even hours.
Perhaps it is because his sport brings him into such an intense contact with sunrise, sunset, winds, weather and tides that these elements form part of the fowler's very soul and, hence, the approach of 1st September is of almost spiritual portent.
Of course the grouse shooter observes the tradition of tramping up to the heather-clad moors on 12th August but he is following a corporeal, social ritual as opposed to the transcendental pilgrimage which the salt-bitten wildfowler makes to his estuary. Pheasants and partridges give their pursuers no such satisfactions at all as it is, quite correctly, considered to be unsporting to shoot either species in the opening weeks of their respective seasons.
Not surprisingly, therefore, the fowler's preparations for September 1st take on particular importance. Not only is it vital to ensure that everything is ready for the big day but there is also considerable enjoyment to be derived from checking over equipment and clothing during the long, hot summer evenings.
Let's look at the necessary preparations in some sort of logical order. On two scores it is probably already too late! Firstly, if the trusty (rusty?) fowling piece was thrown into the back of a cupboard last February instead of being handed into the loving care of a competent gunsmith, it may already have deteriorated beyond repair.
It never ceases to surprise me how so many negligent wildfowlers (myself shamefully included) fail to take the sage advice contained in every single wildfowling book. Any gun which is subjected to the gritty mud and salt spray of a winter estuary really should be professionally stripped down and cleaned at the end of every season.
The second preparation which should have been attended to some weeks ago is the attention which every faithful gundog needs and deserves in advance of a new season.
In the old days, when the mainstay of my sport - other than fowling - lay in the free pigeon and rabbit shooting which farmers demanded in summer, my dogs never really had a close-season lay-off. I suspect that most sportsmen nowadays give their dogs very little work to do during the spring and summer and, in consequence, a refresher course is necessary from the point of view of fitness as well as discipline.
It really is not fair to expect a spaniel or labrador to swim for half a mile after a wounded mallard on 1st September if it has languished unexercised in a kennel for the previous five months. At least those of us who like entering the gundog tests and scurries at country fairs will have had some incentive to keep Fido in shape during the past few months.
If time is short, the best plan is probably to concentrate upon reinforcing the basic commands, shedding excess weight (only the dog??) by adjusting diet and giving plenty of long retrieves with a dummy launcher as a method of providing some much-needed exercise. In that way we may avoid a premature canine coronary resulting from the first swim across a river.
Clothing and footwear merit special attention before the season begins with thornproofs and rubber boots demanding the closest checks. Now is the final chance to clean off last year's dried mud and examine jackets and overtrousers for tears, faulty zips and general wear. Synthetic fibre garments require little maintenance but traditional waxed cotton clothing will benefit from reproofing before the season commences.
This job is made easier if the garment is placed over some sort of frame to ensure that there are no creases or folds in the material - a kitchen chair to which a couple of sticks have been tied to provide "arms" will do nicely. Before applying the waxproof dressing, it is necessary to warm the fabric in order to make it supple and enable it to readily absorb the waterproofing compound. One of the most convenient methods of achieving this is to play a hair-drier over the jacket before applying the dressing with a soft cloth.
Experience has shown that a second application, a few days later, is normally required to key areas such as the shoulders and elbows of coats and the knees of overtrousers if the maximum weather protection is to be maintained for a full season.
As any wildfowler will confirm, waders and wellies have a nasty habit of perishing during the close season, usually as a consequence of being stored at the bottom of a heap of junk in a corner of the garage. Boots benefit from being packed with crumpled newspaper when they are put away for any length of time while thigh-waders should be hung upside-down using the inexpensive clamps which are marketed for that specific purpose.
It may be that I have strangely-shaped feet (no rude comments please) but I find that rubber boots rarely last more than a couple of years before deteriorating at the bend between leg and foot. In any event, it is certainly wiser to look for those cracks in August than to step into a flooded gully on September 1st and experience that ominous cold trickle before the first shot of the season has been fired.
Finally, it is well worth checking over other items of equipment and ensuring that an adequate stock of cartridges is to hand. Paradoxically, decoys improve with age and, should they have lain in the garden shed throughout the summer, will probably have lost some of the "shine" which is so counter-productive to good decoying. Indeed, if they do still have a glossy showroom finish, take this opportunity to apply some matt paint where required. One other check to make while you have the rubber ducks out is to ensure that their anchor cords have not rotted or frayed. One tip which I hit upon years ago it to attach the anchors with lengths of old fly-line. The modern plastic-coated type virtually lasts for ever.
These points are the main areas of preparation to which attention should be given in the run-up to a new season. Once the chores are completed we can lie back and indulge in a few fantasies before the big day finally arrives. Perhaps this year we will be in the right place at the right time!