Nodak-Questions for the experienced

[Lunker]

I am trying to put together a trip to North Dakota this fall for a few of my friends and myself. All of us would be first timers. Just curious of any suggestions people may have for a first timer out there.

To start I was thinking I would avoid the Devils Lake area as I hear it is over hunted/hard to get access. I was thinking farther south in the pothole region...

Trying to decide between paying for lodging or towing out a camper.

Would be planning to hunt water, but wondering about ease or difficulty of getting on productive fields

Currently I'm thinking a 4 day trip, driving out on a thursday night,scouting friday, hunting friday evening-monday morning and returning.

Any other tips/suggestions would be great. Feel free to message me as well.

Thanks

[2thepointsetters]

Once you start hunting fields out there you will not want to hunt water anymore. It takes a lot of scouting to find a good field that you can get permission to hunt. It is worth the effort to put in the time to find a field. Around the Devils Lake area a lot of the land is tied up by the guides. Even if the land owner gives you access you still have to ask the guide and they almost always say they will be using the fields.

[fishuhalik]

My only suggestion is stay away from DL. Ya, there's a ton of birds, but as stated, you're gonna have to fight everyone else for em! There's alot of water in NoDak & pretty much all of it has birds.

[walleyeking19]

I'd definitely recommend bringing gear to hunt fields up there, cause if you find one it's absolutely incredible. Lots of people rent out old farmhouses for a very reasonable rate, thats what our group does. What part of the season are you looking to go?

[Lunker]

Probably would be looking at late october

[Kettle]

I have been fortunate enough to go to Saskatchewan over a dozen times in the last 15 years. The big misnomer is that you have to have all the right gear and decoys. We field hunt for mallards and Canada geese over 18 shells 24 sihlohets and a mojo and it works great for ducks and take the mojo away for geese. I do however enjoy the water hunting more though (variety of birds) field hunting is great but if you get into a good field for a day or two in a row you can get your limit in less than 15 minutes after 2 shoots like that I enjoy the pass shooting for divers on big water. Only run 2 dozen floaters for that.

In Saskatchewan we look for barley fields since they are becoming less and less with the increase of konola and soy beans, with less barley the birds kinda concentrate there. In fields we lay in barly swath rows and just throw burlap over us. I always try and hunt snows a least once a year but with less than 200 decoys it's tough.

The one thing not a whole lot of people think about is hunting late morning and early afternoon on water for mallards, pins and widgeon. They will go out to feed then come back to water and if you are already set up you can have just as good of a shoot over water as in the fields. Is this hunting the roost yes/no during fall migreation birdsa are migrating through so I don't feel like it is too detramental to hunting.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me, I may not be super familiar with hunting in north dakota but we do drive through there on the way to Canada.

Kettle

[brittman]

Finding lodging can be an issue.

[eskay]

Try to stay away from MEA weekend when you're planning your trip. ND gets flooded with hunters then. And don't go during or close to ND deer hunting, access gets VERY limited then.

I've got a house in Anamoose, about an hour west of Devils. I'm planning on going out and doing some much needed work on it this summer, it might be available this fall for rent. Lots of available fields in the area, with some water hunting for divers. We just hunt from the shorelines. After hauling a boat out for a few years, it just turned into a trailer. Never got it wet.

If the house isn't ready, I know a few people in the area that rent to hunters. Rates I don't know, but usually pretty cheap. The oil boom is creeping into the area, even though it's a couple hours drive, so rents might be a little higher than in the past.

[Todd Caswell]

Stay away from non res opener, MEA, and if possible hunt middle of the week and come home on the weekend.

[FowlSki]

Try to get permission even if land isn't posted. Avoid driving on sloppy roads if possible. Thank farmers if you hunt on their land. Leave the land as you found it. Most times I have been turned down for permission is because another hunter was disrespectful and ruined it for any future hunters. Don't be that guy.

As for hunting tips. If I had the option I'd do a camper because you are more mobile. If you want permanent lodging renting a house is much nicer than a motel and usually priced the same. I would bring field and water stuff if you have it. You really don't need a ton of decoys for water or field. Scout, scout, scout. We scout more than we hunt most trips. If you do work to find the right field, slough or pothole your hunt will be great and you will have no trouble killing your birds. Typically we scout evenings for the morning hunts. Most people who do not do well do not spend enough windshield time IMO. Lastly try not to bust roosts. It is usually pretty obvious what a roost is. If you aren't sure do some searches on forums, there has been plenty of discussion on it.

[Musky Buck]

Be careful some with night scouting, not that you shouldn't do it, we had a mass of birds pegged at dark last spring in ND and hardly saw any the next morning, they roosted and ate all night long in that cornfield and rooted every square inch of it and were long gone in the moonlight the following morning and no new birds took to our decoyed spot since there is sheet water everywhere and now corn stubble everywhere there's mega options and have been blasted at for months on end and their goal adult birds anyway is to get to the breeding grounds asap. Maybe coyotes jumped the roost who knows, but things change daily out there and the roads are awful, expect awfully muddy conditions, the way I see it forget acting like a guide or it's the end of the world if you don't fill the pickup truck box full of birds, go enjoy the migration, have some fun, enjoy spring weather and get what you get, they aint the cats meow of eating although the jerky made is decent. Enjoy the thousands of honkers coming into ur decoys and whitefronted birds as well, mallards and pintails, if the snows and blues come they come.

[FowlSki]

Musky Buck you should really read threads before responding. This had nothing to do with Spring or Snows.

[Musky Buck]

lol sorry lol thought I was in the right topic, see what winter has done to this joker ! This "fall" aha. Yes Scout at night for sure, is the deal goose ends at 1PM or something etc. the way it was the last fall I went out and could hunt till dark on Wednesdays and Sundays ? Anyway yes yes yes, find a water roost or a flightline, they don't fly or didn't fly Minnesota high, west of Devils Lake near Rugby is where we were and we got limits of geese (honkers) just walking around they often in the wind out there would be plenty low enough. Most ND farmers encouraged me to please come out for the August hunt as they're combining grains at least back in those days, probably much more corn out there today. The worst ND waterfowling is still 20X better than any MN hunting I've done in the last 20 years.

[Kettle]

As muskybuck and fowlski have stated, relations with farmers are key! Lots of times once they get to know you they actually want you hunting there. I am very fortunate that my father put in a lot of time in the past 30 years in Sask getting to know the farmers. Besides being acquaintances they have become our friends, we have gone up in summer to see them, and when they come to MN we take them out fishing and boating and for dinner. As much as fiances are tight I know that since my father is not going anymore I have to make it up there every year to continue these relationships, we actually stay in a 5th wheel on a farmers land we know. When we get there we don't even hunt for the first day, we see our old friends and lots of times it's during harvest so they want us to hunt their land and kick the birds out of there! I normally end up running the swather (spelling) for at least a day up there to help them out. Be nice, respect their land and make friends!!

Kettle

[BoxMN]

Amen Kettle, we have made great friends with the farmers as well, and that is as much fun as the hunting. They love when us "city slickers" help out bringing the cattle in, and we love it too! Its work for them, but fun for us

[Musky Buck]

Couldn't agree more Kettle with farmers, my buddy and I pulled up a driveway and now we get to stay at the 2nd farmhouse for free anytime we want but we have to call ahead a month or so, can you believe in 2014 that can happen ? I was floored, the clincher was we didn't say hey can we please hunt your 5 thousand acre farm ? We asked the guy waht's winter like, etc. how's farming ? crp, etc. we were like 3 hours in lol, we told them where we're from what we do, etc. etc. and he was like how much is a motel in Oakes lets say ? We told him he was like you know what, if you promise to eat suppers with us, you can stay at the other house anytime you want, the kicker "for free" ! Of course we bring them jerky,venison polish, etc. a mixture of goodies even some walleye and now the rest is history, unreal !

[brittman]

Even ND has times when birds appear scarce. You are hunting migrating waterfowl and most areas will have boom and bust periods as the season progresses. If your time there coincides with a bust time ... don't dispare there are huntable birds around. Scout and move further from the well traveled roads. If you hit the boom (migration push) you will be pursuing fresh, largely unpressured birds - hard to screw that up.

It was like that long before the large Nonresident rush began in ND too.