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ND reports

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Rick Grand Master

Rick

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I found the hunting awesome. Tons of ducks and plenty of water and potholes. They are drying out a little bit.

Click here for my report on ND Ducks

ND duck hunting is nothing short of awesome. Don't let anyone try to steer you away from the quality level of the hunt. It's easily as good as Manitoba, Arkansas, or Louisiana. ND is a duck hunters mecca. Geese too...Canadians, Whites, and blues.

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WaveWacker Experienced

WaveWacker

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Glad to hear you had a good trip. I will be heading out there the 18th. Usually go that time every year. Getting itchy to go and just wanted to get informed as to what was going on out there. Actually a guy that I go out there with is out there right now for an early hunt (I couldn't make it the first round). I agree. ND has always been a successful place to waterfowl hunt. Some days aren't as productive as far as shooting birds, but it is just nice to be out in the solitude of that country. In my book that is a successful hunt!!

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Rick Grand Master

Rick

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On my Drive to Devils Lake and then SW of Devils lake approximately 45 miles I literally saw tens of 1000's of ducks and geese sitting in roadside potholes. They are thick approximately 50 miles east of Devils lake all the way to 45 mile SW of Devils lake and I suspect even further SW, but I didn't see that for myself beyond 45 miles.

We did talk to some older guys who said the duck hunting was terrible. That is hard for me to fathom with that many ducks in the area and with as many as decoyed into us. It was the absolute best duck hunt I've ever been on.

We didn't even do that great a job of camo-ing ourselves. We even video taped it with the video guy out in the open and even geese decoyed into us. We had a pretty good caller, so maybe that helped.

I did hear from the Devils lake folks that they weren't happy with the hunters from Fargo who voted to put all the goofy restrictions in that hurt their rural economy. Bear in mind that a fair amount of the hunters from Fargo DO NOT want non-resident hunters in ND. So take reports of poor duck hunting with a grain of salt.

I've seen the duck hunting and the ducks with my own eyes. If you have an opportunity, don't pass it up. It's very good, no matter what they say. At least it definitely is in the Devils Lake area.

Check the link I left above if you want more information.

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Flick Collaborator

Flick

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I'm going to school at NDSU so I have the luxury of getting a res. license and going out whenever I want. I've been going about 45 min. west of here and it's been decent, I've gotten quite a few birds with a fair amount of pressure in the area. There are birds around but nothing unbelievable, if I was coming to hunt for a short trip I wouldn't head to this area and I'm not just saying that cause I hunt there. This is just the closest water that I can get to.

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g'eye pilot Enthusiast

g'eye pilot

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Just returned from ND, south of Devils lake. The hunting was as good as it could be, despite very mild temps and little wind to work with. Eight of us limited out on ducks every day, and we picked up quite a few honkers too. Some water levels were down, or completely dried up. Still, some locations actually had more water than the past couple of years. We decoyed all our birds, and hunted from boats almost exclusively. As people have mentioned, if you find some decent water, you will generally find a good concentration of ducks.

Some guys at our lodge were not having a lot of luck. But most of them were looking for easy walk-in spots. That being the case, the pay-off was proportionate to the amount of effort put in. Getting back into some tough to reach spots paid big dividends!!

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Bushwacker Mentor

Bushwacker

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24 hours from now I will be chambering my first shell and hunkering down watching the south central North Dakota sky. I can see it now, the sky black with mallards, with the occassional honker or gadwall or teal mixed in. It will be hard to pull myself from the blind on Saturday to walk for some ringnecks, but we will probably be limited out on ducks by 9:00 anyways. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 boxes of shells and about a dozen coolers to bring back our 108 birds. I am peaked with excitement------ A little optomism goes a long way, doesn't it. We went to the same spot last year and came home with 12 birds for four of us over four days. I don't think me and the boys have shot 100 birds over the last 10 years combined, but I just know that this year will be "the year"! I already have my eye on a spanking new freezer to put my 27 birds into. Do you think 12 ducks, 9 pheasants, and 6 geese will fit into a 20 cubic foot chest freezer?=)

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Flatlander Community Regular

Flatlander

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I got back last night from up north of DL. There are plenty of ducks, and a surprising number of honkers. Finding water was a bit tougher than I've seen in 10 years of hunting out there. We had some really good field shoots, and decent jump shooting on the water-holding sloughs. I would strongly recommend buying a small game license, as I kicked up covey after covey of both sharptails and huns. We even saw 3 roosters getting scratch yesterday morning. I've never seen a pheasant that far north. All in all, a fine week of hunting. If you want to shed a few pounds, wear your neoprenes all day, and do a few suicidal crawls on sloughs half a section out.

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Dr. Bob Collaborator

Dr. Bob

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I've seen Roosters in that area the last 3 years in a row. One guy whose jaw was loosened by fire-water told me there are a lot more of them around there than folks would like us to know about shocked.gif.

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CANOPY SAM Veteran

CANOPY SAM

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Snider,

I have hunted the Hurdesfield area for fifteeen years now. I think you've gotta go through Hurdesfield to get to Goodrich, don't you? I know they're pretty close anyways.

I've found the waterfowl hunting in my area so good these last 15 years it's almost a shame. I usually hunt for geese out in the fields, and the ducks are just the gravy. Seriously, duck hunting in central North Dakota is ridiculously easy - at least for me it has been. Field hunting, over water, or just jumping em' outta little potholes, it's a blast. It's really a shame that the non-resident licences have gone up so much in price, and tightening regulations have closed off so many opportunities there.

I've had many days afield when I wished whole heartedly that I could somehow make a living in the Dakota flyway so I would never have to leave. Deer, grouse, roosters, ducks, partridge, big walleyes and pike - everywhere you look!

I'll be out in Nodak over MEA. I won't be working at it as hard as I did when I was 25 lbs. lighter and 10 years younger. I won't have to!!!!

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Bushwacker Mentor

Bushwacker

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Just got back from the Rutland, ND area. We had good luck, 22 ducks for three of us and 15 pheasants. It is unbelievable the number of ducks out there. We did see a lot of dried up sloughs, but there was still a lot of water. We did have a hard time getting mallards though, tons of teal wizzing by and a fair amount of gadwalls. Did manage a few greenheads though. A lot of fun as usual out their and I think ND residents are some of the nicest people on earth, all more than willing to help out and give directions and good advise.

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Guest

Guest

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Just returned from Pheasant opener in Emmons County area.

We had over a hundered birds up every day, limited-out each day by 2:00 p.m.

Still over 50% crops standing so we didn't see all we could have.

One covey of Huns and lots of Sharptail too grin.gif

Driving on Cty. 11 we saw literally thousands of Ducks and Geese concentrated in the bigger sloughs due to low water.

One note--ND Game and Fish has road blocks set-up to check everyone. The photos that have been circulating of the slob-hunters tossing hundreds of Pheasants and Ducks into the Motel dumpsters and ditches are part of the reason for the tighter restrictions--we all pay the price for the few who can't manage being part of the Human Race...

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Chells

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Guest

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Bushwhacker,

That's the area I hunt--You'll probably need to hunt the River area (Langlier's Bay) or go back East on Cty 11 towards Ashley and hunt the bigger sloughs for Ducks and Geese.

You'll fill-out on Phez, there are so many this year, I can't go back for my second license date and I'm eating my heart-out...

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Chells

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