ND Waterfowl Report

[vman11]

We're spending a few days on a Central ND waterfowl hunt, and I'll try to give a regular update on progress & migration reports.

Today was our first day in the field and we ended with our 3 man limit. 14 mallards, 2 widgeon and 2 wood ducks. Found a harvested soybean field with a flooded low spot that held birds; set up decoys in and around the water with nice decoying success.

I would estimate 90% of the corn and about half of the soybeans are still in the field. Water table is very high - sloughs are deep and untraditional spots have water. Not a lot of geese, and some ducks, as I would estimate the migration hasn't really started. However, there are some nice pods of mallards starting to show up.

Should get better as the crops leave and the weather cools. I'll post our results from tomorrow's hunt.

[PFUNK]

Thanks for posting up your hunt results. Planning to head up to Langdon a week from today. I'm hoping the potholes are locking up with ice with the sub freezing temps at night.

[island guy]

Heading to north central part of the state tomorrow. Forecasts call for cold so i'm figuring most small water will be froze so i'm hoping that bodes well for field hunting which is all we do. Haven't heard any accurate migration reports other than a buddy who hunted across the border in Manitoba near whitewater and reported tons of birds there as of yesterday.

[LMITOUT]

I concur with what Vmann said. I've been in south central ND all week hunting pheasants and there is water everywhere. It has made navigating section lines pretty much impossible with the mud, but the last couple of days have dried things up a bit now that there has been more sun and wind than snow.

All the potholes have water in them so hunting the cattails has been a soggy experience.

Yesterday was the first time all week I heard any geese but it was only one flock. From what I hear they are still up near the Canada border. Today is near 60 degrees so not much reason for them to be motivated south yet. That should change starting this weekend from what the forecast is saying.

Yesterday I finally saw combines back in the fields. There is a ton of corn and sunflowers out there yet and that has made for tough pheasant hunting. Hopefully it stays dry and it will be better on my next trip back in a little over a week.

Good luck.

[vman11]

There has been some skim ice on the small potholes in the mornings, but these are the small, shallow ones.

Today we hunted another hybrid setup - harvested corn stalks with flooded potholes. Makes for easy hiding and numerous birds. However, today success was a bit hampered by some field work!

When we were scouting the evening before the field was being disked, but we figured he'd either finish that night or be far enough away the next morning to not make a difference. Wrong. We set up and about 15 minutes into legal light the machinery started its way down the field, and was within 500 yards of our set up. He ended up seeing us and moved to the other end of the field. Unfortunately, that wasn't much further away. We ended up with 12 nice mallards, but could have had an epic hunt without the distraction. Flocks of 20-40 birds would work but wouldn't commit. No fault of the farmer, just our bad luck.

Found another flooded hybrid field with some remenent soybeans that had a pile of birds in it. Hope to strike it rich. Will send an update tomorrow.

[vman11]

Ended up with a good shoot, but came up 2 short of our mallard limit. We've found a pod of mallards, but they're being hunted hard and seem to have become a bit educated. Unfortunately there isn't many birds in other areas and there is a lot of pressure. Ran into The Fowl Life guys scouting this evening and it sounded like their shoots have been up and down as well.

Heard on the ND outdoors show on AM790 this morning that the DL area guides are finding some birds but have struggled as well, as a majority of the migrators are still in Canada due to warm weather. The guide mentioned he traveled 5400 miles in the past 3 weeks trying to put clients on birds.

Hunting a corn field tomorrow that is being used by geese and mallards. Hope to end on a high note.