Marsh rite of passage

For the novice fowler, learning about tides and maintaining your kit can be the difference between life and death, warns Barry Lawson

- Barry Lawson

If you are beginning your journey into wildfowling this year, you will no doubt find yourself, in the near future, in a small community hall, listening to wildfowlers who look 70 but are actually only in their early fifties. They will tell you tales of how wet and cold they have been for the love of ducks and geese, and they will tell you that you too must expect to be at least cold and wet this season but quite possibly up to your waist in the sea. It is, I suppose, a perverse rite of passage.

With any field sport there is a degree of risk, but wildfowling, possibly along with hunting, poses the greatest. When taking to the marsh and saltings, you are entering an environment where the wind, tide, floods and currents all bring their own dangers. When these physical forces converge and compete, they can shift sands, move channels and deepen gutters.

Over the years, many fowlers have found themselves in tense situations and some sadly have lost their lives. In 2011, a wildfowler from Cumbria died at Angerton Marsh, despite the best efforts from the coastguard, RNLI and RAF search and rescue. He was an experienced Gun of many years.

As a newcomer, it is important that, when entering tidal grounds, you familiarise yourself with the local geography, walk the channels and study the gutters and understand the relationship between the tides and the weather. When you do check the tides, remember that these are predicted heights only and do not take weather or barometric conditions into account. Areas of low pressure will tend to raise the sea level and vice versa; this is known as the inverse barometer effect.

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