Hunting in the Comacchio valleys

Hunting in the Comacchio valleys: Beautiful and full of attractions.

Living the Comacchio valleys has never been a simple undertaking, especially for the many hunters who, conditioned by the environment that surrounds them, humid and hard, had to file and modify the hunting technique so as to make it perfect for the location, leaving it unchanged for centuries. 'is that not infrequently the hunting carried out in the Comacchio valleys is called the hunting art of the past.

Normally, a day of hunting typically takes place like this: you reach the traditional rowing boats and go to the stalking offshore or on the bumps, that is islets that vary in shape and size.

Naturally, the first one who arrives, and the most experienced, able to circumvent the difficulties caused by the fog, ice and wind, will be able to grab the best place. The waters are not always so deep as to allow the use of oars: in that case the paradel is used, a sort of forked pole, about 3 meters long and particularly solid, which allows precise movements.

Those who opt for a place offshore certainly do not have the problem of shallow waters and are about a kilometer away from fellow hunters, so that during the hunt there is no disturbance. The unusual feature is that the boat is usually nearly sunk, so that the ducks cannot spot it.

Having said this, it is sincerely important to know the nature of the lagoons and valleys of Comacchio for the good fisherman: the former are nothing more than coastal basins to which nature allows free circulation of sea water, thanks to a fascinating movement of high and low tides. The valleys, on the other hand, are areas of salt water delimited by man thanks to the use of embankments, canals, locks from which, when needed, salt water coming directly from the Adriatic Sea, or fresh water, is let in. of the river Rhine.

The bottom of these immense expanses of water reaches a maximum of two meters, interspersed with ancient service houses. Once extended for over 40 thousand hectares, after the reclamation that was completed in 1966, today the valleys do not occupy more than 11 thousand hectares. To date they consist mainly of 4 areas: Fattibello, Campo, Fossa di Porto and Vacca. Next to these fabulous environments, home to numerous ducks, there are also the salt pans of Comacchio, where it is not uncommon to meet fabulous Royal Germans and other more or less wide environments and valleys that have resisted the intent of reclamation.

As previously announced, in the Comacchio valleys people hunt on bumps or offshore.

In general, there are about fifty positions on free bumps and to reach the hunting place it takes from 15 minutes to an hour. Normally we leave before dawn, around four in the morning and the rule is that of "who comes first, best accommodation". During all hunting days you can watch a real regatta, complicated also by the atmospheric conditions, which are not always excellent.

There are no absolute best hunting spots, but the quality of the location varies with the wind and the seasons, so only the experienced hunter can find the right location before the others.

Once you reach the workstation, the work does not end here: you have to build the temporary shed if it is not there or rearrange the one already present to better camouflage it. Once the first problem has been solved, the molds will have to be lowered, which must be removed at the end of each hunting day and finally the live decoys will be placed in the water and the flyers in the shed.

Slightly different is the way the hunt takes place offshore. The main difficulty of this kind of hunting is the total absence of reference points given that the body of water on which it takes place is very extensive. Moreover, given the variety of species to which it is possible to hunt, the hunter must know different techniques and be prepared for the most different situations. If the difficulties increase, of course, the rewards also increase.

Needless to say, to hunt offshore, experience and knowledge of the area is essential, which is acquired very slowly, but in some cases it is possible to return home with a varied and respectable game bag: also spend a day of hunting in contact with nature and in the company of your friends is really priceless.