Anyone Been Out?

[marine_man]

So.. has anyone been out yet? With Archery open; Duck Hunting Open and Pheasants opening this weekend does anyone have a report?

I'll be living vicariously through other people this fall... my wife and I had twins about a month and a half ago and have our hands full for a while...

marine_man

[Tom7227]

Mott area mid-day hunt was tough due to the temp - high 70's by 2 pm. Guys's I've talked to did well early in the day but at least in my place where I'm staying it was tough after lunch.

[TylerS]

With the unbelievable amount of mosquitoes still around and the unseasonably hot weather, I'd say hunting is less than enjoyable. Only thing making it fun for me, personally, is hunting with my first pup.

Other than that, ducks have been few and far between. They were thick as flies during the early goose season, but seemed to have really spread out since then. Having to put on a lot of miles and a lot of hours glassing to find huntable numbers. Very frustrating.

Geese are abundant and a lot easier to come by, though finding unposted fields or gaining permission to posted ones is getting tougher, for some reason (odd, especially considering farmers seem to have personal vendettas against geese).

Pheasants were decent for opener, but all the standing crop made it a little less than stellar. Next couple weeks should be much, much better.

Same goes for waterfowl. I'm praying we get a week of good frost to kill the bugs and keep the temps low. We could use some weather, too (at least after the farmers harvest their fields). On that note, people using a little foot power are finding birds that the road hunters are passing by. Don't be afraid to get out of the truck once and awhile. I walked to tracks of unposted land that were just dried up cattails sloughs in the middle of harvested fields. Found pheasants in both spots. Just depends how much work you're willing to put into it.

Sharptail numbers are good to excellent. Have not had a problem finding numbers of birds.

Jury's still out on whitetail. People bow hunting are either not doing well or keeping their traps shut. I'm guessing they'll be out in force once the weather cools and the aforementioned mosquitoes die off. Hopefully that's before gun opener, otherwise I'm going to say screw it and wait for snow.

[KEN W]

We had a good pheasant opener.Had to get them before they got into the Flowers and Corn.Afte 3 days.I'm tired and my GWP is wore out.Few days rest and we can get after them again.

[riverview]

Had a good opening weekend on pheasants and the ruff grouse seem to plentiful. I have been flushing alot and getting a few.

[TylerS]

Had a good opening weekend on pheasants and the ruff grouse seem to plentiful. I have been flushing alot and getting a few.

Ruffs? In Nodak?! You must be hunting way north I assume?

[harvey lee]

I was up last weekend for a few days. Man are the bugs bad. I set up my stands and cameras and left. Back after the first hard frost.

[huntnfish]

Got out last weekend and chased some Pheasants. Like others have said, the skeeters were absolutely horrible. Made walking in the grass no fun at all. Hunting will get better when the crops come off and if the sloughs dry up some it will be even better. Most of the sloughs are wet to the edges of the cattails leaving the birds spread in the grass. It was a beautiful weekend to be out, maybe even a little too nice. I don't plan to go again until we get a good frost to kill off some of the bugs.

[riverview]

Ruffs? In Nodak?! You must be hunting way north I assume?

[BoxMN]

I had my Grandson out NE of Devils area, and my buddy had his son of about the same age (12-13) and each shot their first goose! They were pretty excited.

All in all we saw lots of ducks and geese, shot redheads, bluebills, teal, some mallards, a few spoonies, and a few geese, but no gadwall this year for some reason. We were letting the kids do most of the shooting, so we could have shot more ducks, but the kids had a blast.

Heading back up this weekend and hoping the birds stay around. We have a game plan now we know their times for leaving sloughs and heading to fields, and back, so if only they keep that schedule, haha!

Geese were kinds scattered in small flocks but in lots of fields. Saw lots of sharptail too, but we don't hunt them, but could have shot them flying over us no problem!

[AF-1984]

BoxMN, if you dont mind, send me an email:

vokal19@hotmail

[BoxMN]

Voka, email sent.

Got back yesterday from a Thursday-Monday hunt. Didn't see as many geese, and they weren't as scattered. Only shot one goose. We did get some nice greenheads (I even am keeping one 3 curler to mount) and shot a decent amount of ducks. Good variety too, I think only ducks we didn't shoot were cans, pintail (though we saw a few) and widgeon.

We even had enough ducks to take turns when they came in, so we could "critique" each others shooting, ha! Weather was great for being comfortable, and head a great time with our farmer friends, outside of seeing the vikes lose, but we ate great prime rib with the farmers family during the game!

Thanks again North Dakota, we didn't shoot limits, but had another great trip.

[harvey lee]

I was back up last week for 3 days. The crops around our area where we hunt are about all out.

There were still a few bugs out archery hunting yet.

Many new scrapes from day to day and the bucks are starting to show up and are moving better.

The bugs should now be gone with the weather in the recent days and hopefully with this cool weather the bucks are moving even better.

[marine_man]

Lot's of rain and attempt at snow accumulation (not much around here yet) in the past couple of days... Corn harvest is on hold a bit

marine_man