Duck hunters celebrate annual 'holiday' at Presque Isle State Park

Presque Isle State Park attracts tens of thousands of visitors each week from Memorial Day through Labor Day, but the park doesn't close when summer ends. This is the second in a monthly series about activities and events at Presque Isle in the fall, winter and spring.

Two lines of cars and trucks stretched in the early morning darkness from Presque Isle State Park's closed front gates to Waldameer Park & Water World's main entrance.

Inside the vehicles, hunters dressed in camouflage waited for 5 a.m., when the park officially opened for duck hunting Nov. 6.

"The first day of duck season is like a holiday," said Shawn Feiock, president of the Northwest Pennsylvania Duck Hunters Association. "You get there before dawn and spend all day in your blind, even though the hunting is usually better later in the season."

Duck hunters can be found this time of year around lakes and other waterways across Pennsylvania, but Presque Isle is the top spot for many of them.

More than 600 hunters applied for a drawing to secure one of the park's 73 duck blind spots. The small wooden structures, which the hunters have to build and transport themselves each season, can be found scattered along the peninsula's southern and eastern coastlines.

"The peninsula is great because it's on the Great Lakes, so you see migrating waterfowl that you just don't see in the swamps and other places inland," said Feiock, who has been hunting at Presque Isle for 33 years.

Feiock, 52, and his friends were fortunate enough to win two blind spots in the drawing. They spent opening day in a blind near Beach 11.

Weather conditions were nearly perfect at Presque Isle, if you were going on a fall walk. But a slight wind out of the south, no rain and temperatures in the mid-50s kept the ducks and other waterfowl away from Feiock's stand.

"We've been out here during snowstorms, that's the best," said Eric Kraus, 52. "You can't see that well, but neither can the ducks. They go right for the decoys."

Poor hunting weather at Presque Isle spurs storytelling

Kraus, his 14-year-old son, Konnor, and Kraus' 71-year-old father-in-law, Gary Nuber, spent the day in the blind with Feiock and their friend, 35-year-old Corey Wolbert.

The pleasant weather gave the men more time to share stories about previous duck hunting trips as their 72 decoys bobbed in the water, attracting little attention.

"We were out one year around Christmas and we had to use sledgehammers to break holes in the ice for the ducks to land," Wolbert said.

"I've seen Shawn come out of the water and his beard is just full of ice," Kraus said.

More: Erie birder McWilliams flocks to Presque Isle State Park for nearly 50 years of tracking birds

As the men talked, they scanned Lake Erie, looking for migrating ducks or geese, which were also in season. Mostly they spotted gulls and one group of coots, a waterbird that is sometimes confused with ducks.

Coots are also in season, but they didn't get within the 30 to 40 yards needed for a decent shot. A highlight of the morning was when a solitary ring-necked duck landed in the water about 200 yards from the blind.

"Keep coming this way," Konnor Kraus said, looking at the duck through his binoculars.

"He's a stud," Eric Kraus said.

But the duck never got any closer and no shots were fired.

A fishing boat ventured within a few hundred yards of the blind, which reminded the men about how hunting at Presque Isle is a unique experience.

Once they had a kayaker paddle right past the decoys, well within range and oblivious to the potential danger.

"We've had people walk past the blind and try to scare the decoys, thinking they were alive," Feiock said.

All the duck blinds face the water, so the chances of park visitor getting shot accidentally are remote.

The season, which runs through Jan. 13 on Lake Erie waters, usually goes smoothly, said Matt Greene, the park's operations manager.

"Once in a while we get a call from someone using the multipurpose trail, asking if we knew there was shooting going on," Greene said with a smile. "But we have signs posted on the park, letting folks know there's hunting. As for the hunters and the hunting association, they are a good group."

Duck blinds are also available to the public

Though each duck blind has an owner and co-owner, they are available to the public when the owners aren't using them. The Hunter's Association has a blind list with owners' names and phone numbers, so people can call them to see if a blind will be open on a particular day.

Each blind must be taken down shortly after duck hunting season ends.

But January seemed a long way away to Feiock and his friends as they sat together in the blind, scanning for ducks and swapping stories.

"One of the things I like about it is that you can sit with each other and talk about hunting while you wait," Konnor Kraus said.

"It's an addiction," Eric Kraus added.

Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ETNBruce.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Duck hunters flock to Presque Isle State Park each November