Assateague Explorer Outfitters
December 30, 2009 by Hunting Pursuit Admin
Filed under Virginia
Assateague Island is one of the favorite destinations for waterfowl in the Atlantic Flyway and can produce some of the best wingshooting and waterfowl hunting that can be found! Large concentrations of ducks and geese are common throughout the season. Waterfowl hunting is legendary here because of the refuge, its location, abundant wetlands, open water and readily available food.
Phone: 757-894-2932
email: hunting@assateagueisland.com
webiste: http://www.assateagueisland.com/hunting.htm
Assateague Explorer Outfitters,
I went hunting(01/03/2011)with “Captain” Mark of Assateague Explorer and all I can say is that he is no guide. He takes you out in his boat and drops you off at a blind or in some brush, throws out a few decoys and tells you to call him on his cell phone if you shoot any birds and need him to pick them up with the boat. He does not sit with you. He does not call any birds for you. He does not provide any guidance about what to shoot or not to shoot or if the bird is to far away. His decoys are a mix of different ducks and are beat up and faded from being stored in his boat.
I called him from my hotel once I got down to Chincoteague and he told me to meet him in the morning at the dock and the boat would leave at 0800. He did not show up until 0800 and then he had to collect peoples money and get his waivers signed. After that was completed, he had to get all the ice out of the bottom of his boat. We did not leave the dock until around 0830 or later. It was then a slow boat ride to the first blind where he dropped off the first two hunters and threw out five or six decoys. He then went to the next blind and dropped off two more hunters and threw out five or six more decoys. Then he moved to the next drop off point but it was not a blind. He just told us to jump onto shore and sit in the brush on a couple of buckets after he threw out a few more decoys. By this time it was 0930! He must use that spot often because after he left and I started to look around the place had a lot of trash and could hardly be called pristine. Not exactly the hunting experience I was anticipating.
I called him a couple of hours after being dropped off and he moved us to another spot with what he called a blind. It was just some evergreen trees stacked up around a wire frame and some posts with a bench inside. It was a very small blind and since there were no actual walls to it the branches from the trees protruded into the blind. I had to break off a bunch of branches just to be able to move around and to keep my eyes from getting poked out.
We did not stay in that location very long before he moved us further south to another “blind”. This was a bit larger but poorly covered and left you rather exposed to be spotted by flying waterfowl. We did have a couple of ducks that looked like they might have wanted to land, but no doubt saw us and turned away. As I was trying to call them in with my sons calls he had gotten for Christmas, I could not help but think about what we would have done if he had not brought them along.
“Captain” Mark may call is company “Assateague Explorer” but we did not go close to Assateague Island. He took us from the harbor (at the south end of Chincoteague) to the southwest side of Chincoteague. Nothing like looking at all the cars driving on the causeway all day to make you feel like you are really “out there” hunting. We saw a few big flocks of various waterfowl flying in the distance on the boat ride out, but saw almost nothing after being dropped off. We certainly did not have anything come close enough to shoot. That’s right. No one killed a single bird that day.
The bottom line is that the only service “Captain” Mark provides is a water taxi service. He certainly does not provide any guide services. Even if we had shot a lot of birds that day I would still be very unhappy with the experience. I have used guides before (not in this area) and have always had a positive experience. This was certainly NOT what I expected with using a guide. Stay away from this outfit!!!
The comments above accurately reflect our experience. The guide was late for our 0530 meet up, took us to the wrong blind at least twice. He left us at the third one to go look at the one he promised us. Didn’t come back that morning. The blinds weren’t covered, we were clearly visible to birds–not that any came near. We went to a different blind in the afternoon with similar results. The ‘guide’ dropped us off and left us. No duck calls, no decoy placement etc. You were on your own even though you are paying for a guide.
we never even got a boat ride, just walking around in the marsh lost. Don’t use these guys!
We had the same experience Jan 2012. The guy is a scumbag DO NOT USE THESE GUYS
All negative comments above are true with some exceptions. IT WAS WORSE THAN THEY INDICATED. There is no boat… so there are no options but to sit in a piece of crap blind over decoys that suck and are left out all night so the birds can get more educated than they already are to you sitting in a lousy uncovered blind!!! Asdide from risking our lives climbing into waders on the shoulder of a major highway, the guide leaving you to your own devices and not manning up that there were no birds in the area, THIS TRIP SUCKED. CAPTAIN MARK MISREPRESENTED HIS “Outfitting Service” to the max. If he were a real businessman,WHICH HE CERTAINLY IS NOT, he would have offered some sort of compensation for LYING TO US. When I called him out on it, he blamed me and my party instead of doing the right thing like so many other outfitters I have bird hunted with. The pics on the website are all false. This guy should be turned in to the Attorney General for false advertising. STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!! from this scam artist.
Worst experience ever. Nothing promised was delivered. We got taken to public land and charged $200.00 each. Guide set us up on frozen water and told to stomp holes in the ice and set the decoys in the mud. Afternoon hunt no better. Then he recommended 2 places for lunch to which we were under the impression lunch was provided. They were both closed no surprise. We eat at a local dinner to find fellow hunters who had a full limit by 7:30. Long story short we paid $200 each to hunt free land and set rented decoys out as it would seem. The look on their faces told us all we needed to know about these guys. One even offered to pay for a Sunday hunt if we could because he felt so bad we got hassled. Learning experience all I can say.
Do Not Book Hunts With This Outfitter. Options are severely limited, number 1 bird you see in range are bufflehead heads, no efforts made for brant, no boats, no dogs for retrieval, lousy decoys, I advised the guide (a kid not the owner) I would like my money back for tomorrow I’m not paying 250 to hunt bufflehead heads, take us out in a boat set us up on that point there and we will get limits of brant at least. No ability to go after what the refuge is offering during the hunt. All he’s got is four box blinds on the salt marsh . He said I have to call the owner and ask for the refund answer was no, and I gotta go no refunds. Totally unprofessional by him. We set up in a blind and at shoot time a blind next to us and down wind announced there presence with authority. 4 guns launched a barrage. We did not fire one shot, we did not see one duck come to us the other blind had unloaded on them all ready.
I’ve been hunting for 48 years and in all my life I have never experienced such a dejecting attitude from someone operating a business in the hunting community. This business engaged in waterfowl hunting guide operations owner Capt Mark Coulbourne does not provide service worthy of his $245.00 daily fee and should not be allowed to guide hunters with out a dog and or boat to use for retrieval in a tidal marsh.
At bare bones minimum this should be a requirement for any guide operating on the tidal marsh. The lack of providing excellent decoys and other waterfowl aids such as spinning wings, flags and or kites, in the pursuit of putting birds in front of your clients, leaves the impression you don’t care about providing a quality service to your customers because you won’t spend a few bucks for quality waterfowl enticement.
Provide decoys that reflect native birds in your area, brant, bufflehead, Canada geese,
Nothing good to say about this outfitter, their privileges should be revoked and allow room for some one better prepared to provide a quality service for waterfowlers who visit the area.
Assateague Island.com. Do not book Assateague Explorer Assateague Island waterfowl Hunting. Do not do it, they should have their privileges revoked by dnr va or by fws or both, The guide has no means for retrieval no boat no dog in a tidal salt marsh. Junk decoys, box blinds on a salt marsh, stick out like sore thumbs, the blind next to you which is out board or on the shore of the big open water, some one is in it there like 200 yards away, wow really, I’m paying my fee to be away from that scenario. No birds never fired a shot, I wanted half my money back not an unreasonable request considering the circumstances and was told nope sorry no refunds and had to come back another day for day 2 of nothing but bufflehead I pulled the plug at 830 am and left Chincoteague va with a very bad feeling about this place and the owner of Assateague Explorer waterfowl hunts. DO NOT BOOK A HUNT
Usfws fws dnr va you should watch this guide operation. No means for retrieval. Other than wading.
Really wish we had run across this site before booking with Assateague Outfitters. Same experience s all the above. Owner is a complete scam artist. We to ask for partial reimbursement because of the garbage decoys garbage blinds hunting on the side of the highway with a guide who admittedly told us it wasn’t even a hunter and typically gives tours of wild ponies. This guy stole $1,200 from me and my friends yesterday. Oh, by the way if you want to hunt next door Causeway don’t pay for it because it is public landing first come first serve
Us too!!!! This was such a terrible experience. If you like hunting near the highway, standing over piles of trash, putting out and picking up your guides decoys that are spray painted like a species never seen by man before, as your ”guide” that has never hunted ducks before, talks extremely loud and tells you to shoot illegal birds that are protected because he can’t identify birds. You will also carry the crappy decoys out in a black garbage bag yourself. If you like watching your wounded and dead birds that you called in yourself because the guide doesn’t know how to use a call, float away because his hip boots leak, this is the hunt for you. If you like getting in a sit ontop child’s dingy to get your own birds because the guide won’t do it, you will have an opportunity to get in this dingy with no life jacket and chance drowning as an ethical hunter to retrieve your own birds. If you like a guide who teaches you all day about gratuity and how this is a once in a lifetime experience, Sean is the one for you. Sean brought only a snow goose call that he never blew before and was terrible. I asked him to stop because he was scaring the birds away. The blind is a public blind that stands out like a circus in the middle of a marsh 100 yards off the highway. One of the hunters will have to stand all day because there is not enough space for 5 hunters. That is as long as no one is already there since it’s a public and free spot. Don’t worry there is another crappy blind less the 60 yards away where other public hunters are shooting over your head. Experience and educate yourselves on all the different horn sounds from chevy, ford, GMC, and imports as the cars fly by honking at you to mess with you. We got good at it as we no-looked named that vehicle. Don’t get hit by cars flying by you at 60 miles an hour in the dark. Climb out the passenger side door on the guard rail so you don’t get your door ripped off. And finally… After catching your breath and almost having to bail out of the child dingy as you cramp up contemplating death by drowning, you will get the guide telling you ”now you know how hard my job is.” As you painfully climb out of the dingy and hand the birds that you carefully protected, Sean will throw the birds in the mud caked with trash. Be carful if you pick up trash as an ethical hunter and taking pride in your country that you fought for as a vet, the bottles around you are full of piss, yup piss. This is where the people that love America throw out their excretions. As you look at your buddies smirking listening to the unbelievable knowledge pouring from Sean, rest assured, your guide will ask you to wrap it up one hour before the end of sunset because he sees you are tired from doing his job and it will take time for you to carry his crap gear back to the highway. So now your carrying everything back your self and picked up the decoys yourself. You will carry his dingy and two black garbage bags back for him back to his truck as he guides you to load up in his vehicle first then carry your gear to your own personal vehicle and all of your own gear. If you think things couldn’t get any better and you have hours of driving back to the lodging, Sean will tell you about the breasting party you get to do yourself as his hand is out for tips. And SOOOO much more.
We are suing and looking to class action with the States Attourney General “Captain Mark” to stop more people from getting scammed and wasting your hard earned vacation and money. If you are one of the luck ones please contact me at 4343162484 and email elebeau@mcmtechnology.com. We’ve contacted the police and attorney already and they couldn’t believe what we uncovered. They said this is what is killing tourism which is the areas life blood.
Anyone that would like to join our class action lawsuit with the States Attorneys General and end this scammer once and for all please contact me at4343162484. Also reach out to the attorney general and join the law suit.