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Mallards in North Dakota

tweedlap
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Lakers Apprentice

Lakers

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Was hunting the weekend of Oct. 23-24-25 in North-Central ND. Saw way more diver ducks in the area than I ever remember seeing. Alot of the big water was covered with them. We got into one good mallard shoot where a friend of mine had a field where about 6000 or so were feeding. They were roosting in his pasture, which we of course left alone. Other than two other potholes with about a handful of mallards in them each, that was the only place within a 40-mile radius that we saw anything other than diver ducks (birds only on big water, not on sloughs any more). I did talk to my friend, and he is not sure where the mallards went to, but they are no longer roosting in his pasture either. He said they just upped and moved a few nights ago. Most are still in Canada!!

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Lakers Apprentice

Lakers

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Maybe the weather can hold out right until the week of Thanksgiving when I head back home!! That would be good since I set up my second set of days for my non-resident license to fall over Thanksgiving weekend. I believe Sunday Nov. 29 is the final day of the season for ducks, and geese, if I'm not mistaken??

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brittman Mentor

brittman

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The ND mallard hunting last weekend as pretty good if you hunted the fields holding both ducks and geese. We had 100s of mallards circling our decoys at a time over two mornings. Saw 1000s. Many that sat down into the decoys escaped without a shot at them because they were working the same time as the geese. Specks were a BIG bonus this fall.

Intererstingly the third morning our new field had nothing return that had fed there the evening before. They apparently feed into the full moon evening and migrated out of the area. We pass shot snows later that day between feeding fields. Enough to make it fun.

Overall the hunting was very good. We always target our late season visit to ND to mallards and geese. Majority of the potholes held few ducks most were staging on the bigger water with the geese.

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Lakers Apprentice

Lakers

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Hi Tweed,

No need to go to Canada this year. I know there are plenty of Snows and Canadas in the area I hunt currently. Hopefully the weather stays warm enough for them to stick around until Thanksgiving. I'm not planning on that happening though. This time of year it can change overnight. It would be sweet if it waits until then though!!

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Lakers Apprentice

Lakers

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I hear that Tweed! What an unusual year it has been. First, we hardly have a summer. Then September was as beautiful as could be, followed by an October that was as crappy as could be. Now we're back into a very mild weather pattern for this time of year again. Last year my friend and I did some ice-fishing over Thanksgiving. Now it is looking like the ice-fishing gear will stay home and the shotgun and decoys will tag along for Thanksgiving weekend. My contacts back home aren't seeing many puddle ducks, but are seeing a lot of divers, snows and Canadas. Over the weekend of Oct. 24 we really got into the snows sneeking one day. Makes it pretty easy when it seems like every quarter section is covered with them. It doesn't sound like any have left the area from reports, so I'm hoping to do some of that over Thanksgiving weekend. If the weather holds up, will let you know how it goes.

Lakers

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TylerS Mentor

TylerS

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Ducks are pretty scarce for what I've seen. Had a buddy come up hunting this weekend around the Oakes area. Said he saw hardly anything. Lots of Canada geese, but ducks were few and far between. The snows are migrating, but not staging.

The weather has been pathetic for November. I'm willing to bet that the first good cold front with snow will kick everything down in one fail swoop. It's going to happen fast...

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Sifty Grand Master

Sifty

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I talked with the farmer we stay with he said the snows are really moving though but he has yet to see the ducks moving.

One lake on his property he said had a couple of thousand out in the middle rafted up but he did'nt know what kind they where.

Sifty

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marine_man Grand Master

marine_man

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A lot of the ponds are freezing over pretty regularly at night now, and with the forecast predicting below freezing highs I suspect they'll all be locked up before too long.

I can't say I've seen much for waterfowl flying lately...

Anyone else seeing anything?

marine_man

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Lakers Apprentice

Lakers

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Was back home for Thanksgiving (near Rolla, ND). Everything north of US Hwy 2 was frozen over. I even had a report from a buddy who farms not far from Lake Metigoshie (sp?) that he actually saw a few people out on foot ice fishing yesterday. Devils Lake was still mostly open though, with ice lining the shoreline out to about 20-30 yards or so. Will be a little while yet before people will be drilling holes on DL. But hopefully this cold front coming in on Wednesday that the weather people are talking about will speed things up in the ice-making department.

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