"Island Hopping"
by Bob Gerhart

It’s a proven fact that crows often visit our rivers and streams in search of some easy pickings. You can use this to your advantage with a technique we call “Island Hopping”. This method was developed to give the crow hunter the opportunity to cover and hunt a lot of ground with minimum effort. This style of crow hunting is different from the norm, because a boat is used as your primary mode of transportation. Using this method, a hunter can travel from island to island, hence the name “Island Hopping”.

A half-mile of the river can mean the difference between a good hunt and a great hunt. Another advantage the hunter has is the abundance of natural camouflage. Every year the river floods, bringing in a new stockpile of logs and debris. A natural vine grows on the islands, almost like a camo net, and this material can be rolled up like a carpet. We have dubbed this the name poor mans camouflage. With all this natural camo at the hunter’s disposal, you can put together a blind in a matter of minutes and disappear into the landscape. However, we still have a permanent blind; this blind has been strategically placed in the crows’ flight path for maximum mortality. The shooting time seems to be the best as crows are leaving their city roost looking for something to eat. Evening shoots can also be productive, depending on what time of the day it is. It seems the crows shut down towards late evening, I guess they just want to get back to roost. Between the morning and evening shoot you might as well break for lunch, this seems to be the slow time. A few crows can be picked up during this time, but we usually opt for lunch. We have used every shotgun gauge known to man, anything from a .410 to the mighty 10. The 12 and 16 gauges seem to be the favorites with 1 1/8 ounce load of 6’s or 7 1/2’s. The classic 1 ounce load comes in a close second.

On our last hunt, we had 2 electronic callers blasting, one playing Johnny Stewart Crow and Owl Fight, the other Johnny Stewart Death Cry of a Crow. These 2 calls seem to compliment one another, not to mention that you get the sound in stereo. The crows didn’t seem to mind as they were quickly whipped up into frenzy. Our last day was one to remember. We arrived at the island late and we could hear a flock of crows already raising a ruckus. Phil and I managed to get three decoys up and I couldn’t take it any longer, so I said to Phil “hit it”. That’s the term we use when we want the caller on. This is also said with great enthusiasm at the anticipation of crushing the first black bandit. Phil turned it on and those crows lost their mind. The first 2 that came in were quickly dispatched with the Browning Citori 12. Then 3 then 4, it soon became apparent that this had the potential to be a hunt of epic proportion. We were loading and firing with demoniacal fury. The crows were coming in small groups that gave us time for a rapid reload and steady fire. One crow lit on a branch above us and Phil blew him off his perch with the Remington 1100 in 16 gauge. We ended up with 26 confirmed kills that day, not a record kill, but every crow was a trophy to remember.

So, take a hint from the River Regulators the next time you guys are bass fishing and a crow flies over. Think about giving Island Hopping a try. You’ll be glad you did.