2014 NoDak Waterfowl Reports

[fishuhalik]

Just left Jourdanton, TX! Only about 26 hours of driving left I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

[bemidjibasser]

Any reports from the Napolean area? I'll be headed out there next week...

[PFUNK]

Heading back home right now from the devils lake area. Took off a day earlier than planned because we had our limit and were getting tired of eating duck. Hunting was pretty good and there were definitely more birds than when I was there for the nonres opener. Mallards were tough to fool into the decoys so that made it tougher for us. If you arent picky about what you want to shoot, a limit is easy to come by right now. There were also quite a few snow geese flying around. There are getting to be some good sized flocks of mallards but they are definitely moving around so you gotta be mobile to stay with them. Corn was starting to come down while we were there. Wish i was going back in a couple weeks.

[Mr.Seaguar]

Awesome pictures Bryce.

[Gordie]

We were in the Devils lake area and found the birds on the Big water shot our limit each day for 3-4 guys. found a field with close to 12,000 mallards and went to get permission and the farmer said that his insurance adjuster set over 300 field decoys for them last Friday and those picky mallards NEVER came back and they never fired a shot... the on Saturday evening we found a couple of spots with around 2000 mallards so we set up in a couple of sloughs that we 300 hundred yards apart and once again the green heads decided to not come back but a few did manage to fall buy our guns.

We also had a great say on Saturday with a great blast and cast or as I like to call it slimmer's and divers day...

[CANOPY SAM]

Thanks for the report, Gordie! Sounds like the mallards are pretty cagey this year.

[Gordie]

Thanks for the report, Gordie! Sounds like the mallards are pretty cagey this year.

Nope just being mallards,

[CANOPY SAM]

Man, what a nice day. Can't imagine there's much coming down from Canada, or anything moving much at all in weather like this.

Headed to NoDak on Thurs morning, and to think I was worried we'd see cold temps, and frozen sloughs before we got there!?!?

Now I'm wondering if I need to pack some shorts and sandals?

[fishuhalik]

Here's my report. Man, hunting was TOUGH, to say the least. Just like everyone else has said, scouting is key. We had 3 rigs scouting/pheasant hunting every day. By myself, I covered a little over 800 miles in 5 days & didn't scout at all today cuz we're leaving tomorrow am. I bet as a group we put over 1500 miles on looking for birds. But it paid off. We weren't able to find any good field hunts & goose numbers were close to non-existant, which was a big bummer. Pheasants were WAY down from last year. We put on a lot of boot miles & never came close to filling all our limits, which is extremely unusual. Here's the day-to-day breakdown.

Weds:

Left the San Antonio area around 3am. Drove straight through, alternating drivers every fill up.

Thurs:

Arrived in our hunting area right at daybreak. First spot we stopped at, a refuge, was absolutely loaded with divers & gray ducks but very few malls. Started driving. Every once in a while if we found a pair of malls we'd stop & jump em. Also pushed a few good-looking pheasant sloughs with limited success. Ended with 5 malls, a bunch of gray ducks & 4 roosters. Couldn't find a concentration of malls or honkers

Fri:

FeathersRainin & his bro showed up, as did my dad & his hunting partner Pat. Drove drove & drove some more. Found a few small groups of malls but nothing more than 30-40 birds. Didn't jump shoot any malls Friday. Ended up with only 3 gads that we jumped cuz we were tired of sitting in the car & had to shoot something!! Got around 10 roosters. FeathersRainin found a nice concentration of malls using a series of 4-5 potholes, right next to each other. Plan was to set me & 2 others on a pond, 2 guys on another, & FR & his brother on another pond. My dad also found another pothole with around 1000 malls using it. However, 5 other guys also found it. Thankfully they were decent guys & were willing to let my dad & his partner hunt it too

Sat:

Had a great shoot. Shot around 20 malls, a couple pins, a couple redheads & a dumb shoveler in our area & my dad & his bud shot their limit with a big banded drake. Sadly, 2 of the guys set up on the wrong pond (they're rookies, friends of mine that just joined us for today) & only shot 3 geese, 3 buffs & 2 drake ringers. Ended up with I think 12 roosters too. I've never had malls respond to a call like they did this day. All the birds wanted to be in the south end of our pothole & we were on the north side, around 4-500 yards away. As we all know that usually ends in a real frustrating day. They'd be cupped up, dumping in the far side of the slough, I'd get on the call, give em a few high-balls & they'd make a 90 right for us. A few quacks & a little chuckling & it was feet down, committed. After we shot em they'd fly to FR & his bro, they'd shoot em, then they'd go to the pond my other buds were supposed to be at. After the hunt there was around 1000 birds piled up right where we told em to set. Oops. After that it was more driving & pheasant hunting

Sun:

I wanted to hunt with my dad so we went back to the pond they shot at on Sat. Only had 30-40 malls come in but they decoyed great & we were able to just pick drakes. Shot my first band too, a gorgeous greenhead. FR, his bro & my bud went back to the pond we shot Sat & jumped em when they went in. Sadly they never returned & they zeroed, only 1 shot fired. A few roosters were shot but not much.

All in all, it was hands-down the toughest nodak trip I've ever had, both for waterfowl & rooster. It had some great highs & pretty rough lows (esp waking up a few mornings after having a little too much fun the night before with buds I haven't seen since I left nodak) but being able to talk all those malls into our dekes & getting my first band definitely made the trip worthwhile. Until next year North Dakota!! I'm already looking forward to it

[leechlake]

great thorough report.

We were north of Devils Lake near Alsen from Tuesday-Friday. We didn't drive as much because we had the scouting or attempted scouting done for us by a buddy in the area. There were enough ducks to keep it interesting our final tally was we averaged 4 ducks a day for each of us. The first two days it was mostly mallards with a few gads. My nephew had five go over him in am and shot once and three died stone dead. He was walking to retrieve a duck in a picked bean field and he was lucky to have the other five of us witness it, pretty cool.

Talked to a game warden and he said we were lucky and doing better than most. He said a lot of crops still in in Canada and the weather hasn't been cooperative for ND yet.

[fishersofmen]

Nice report fish thanks for sharing!

[Stringerless!]

Great report,great pics fish.

[fishuhalik]

Corrections:

I missed a day. Left Tues, got there weds. Left out thurs. scouted, saw nothing worth hunting, shot around 12 roosters & 2 gads.

Also, we didn't shoot the pin on the last day. We found it. Guessing the other group hunting the opposite side of the pond the day prior couldn't find it. Cleaned it up & it looked & smelled fine

[BoxMN]

Hunted NE ND Friday afternoon to sunday morn, two old guys, no dog. In a nutshell, where we saw birds there were a lot of birds, but just in general there were not as many around the smaller potholes.

Friday evening hunted a decent sized slough (but still pothole size, not lake) where we often hunt, on farmer friends land. Shot a couple mallards, a few gadwalls, and a few redheads. But we could have shot more, but wind was so bad that two birds hit the grass behind us (wind in our face, on purpose) and we couldn't find them, so we only shot over the water after that. Total nine ducks found and 2 lost. Saw geese circling nearby field so I went to check it out and talk to our farmer friend.

Field next to our friends house and it was relatives so we could hunt it. But they told us to hit the slough across the road from them (where we often hunt) because mallards and geese have been coming back to to it like clock work at 10-noon. So we hunted same spot Sat morn as Friday evening (left decoys out, so easy morning), and shot 3 ducks and left by 8:30. Got on the other spot by 9:30, dragged a little puddler boat in, and scared a bunch of ducks off.

We saw lots of geese flying around, LOTS, and we ended up shooting 3 nice greenheads, 3 redheads, and that was it, no cripples. I left my spot on a point at 11:30 to meet buddy, and while we got ready to leave, we watched hundreds of geese land on my point, ha! Oh well Lots of geese and mallards piled in and we just let them sit.

Went to field (all these spots in the same basic section) and set up by about 2 pm. Had a nice nap in layout and woke up three geese coming in about 3:30 or 4 and buddy dropped one and I had a misfire. Real big goose, weighed 10.5# gutted. We had several flocks come almost perfect but not quite, and we didn't shoot, but maybe should have, oh well. Another couple came and I shot one. Then had threesome mallards drop in and we got two, one banded greenhead (ended up it was banded in Roseau in Sept 2014 of a spring hatched, this thing had great looking big greenhead but not as big as the others, but at only 5 months it figures. We were surprised it looked as mature as it did). Then I was peeing and a lone honker came in and landed in the decoys with me standing and layout wide open. Buddy shot it as it was taking off. Ended Sat with three geese, 4 mallards, 4 redheads, 3 gadwalls I think, something like that, one duck short of limit. Could have killed lots of teal or spoonies at the second spot.

Sunday morn back to first spot, as it was easy for us old guys. SE wind instead of W wind, and didn't see as many ducks in our slough but lots flying around the area. We got three greenwings, two spoonies , 3 redheads and 3 gadwall. We left one shy of limit. The were flying fast this am with the wind.

Great time, real low key for us old guys (did't even go to bar at all, got to bed early) and had a great time with great weather. I hunted all Friday into sundown in t shirt. Didn't set any records, but got some real nice birds and didn't have to leave one square mile around our friends farm to do it. I bet the big mallards are still a ways out, the water was not even cold on my hands yet.

Good luck to you all, my two trips are over for the year. And thanks again to the fine people of North Dakota. Met a couple nice new people, and of course our long time friends there.

[certified jumbo]

Boxmn. Great report. That sounds like good hunting to me!

[Proskier2038]

Boxmn- sounds like a fun time! And good hunting for not traveling much. I head out tmrw morning and really have no idea where we will end up. will be hunting untill Sunday so hopefully I can find service to give a couple reports!

[TylerS]

Awesome reports guys! I think things are turning. Snow is falling in Canada. Not enough for a huge push, but birds are going to come through. Looks like wind this weekend and cold. Can't wait!

[BoxMN]

Forgot to mention that we did see quite a few big flocks of snows flying over, most were high flyers but we did see some in a field, but not a big group. We only saw one flock three weeks ago, but probably about a dozen flocks flying over last weekend.

[fishuhalik]

Sounds like pretty legit push happened on Monday. We left Monday am. Typical...

[CANOPY SAM]

I talked with Jeb over at the ND Game and Fish office in Harvey, ND., and he said they were seeing a fairly decent influx of new birds moving with this last weather front.

This light snow and cold was pretty far up into Canada, and the far northern offices, and guide services, in the Canadian provinces are saying that a LOT of their birds have pulled out.

I'm optimistic for this weekend!

[fishuhalik]

Forgot to share this pic. Reset the trip when I left the driveway, took the pic when I pulled back in. If that ain't dedication...I dunno what is I gotta say, I'm pretty proud of the ol' Cruze. We had 3 guys over 6" tall & fit all our stuff in no problem. Leg room in back was better than most 4-door pickups. Ratchet-strapped a duffle bag to the trunk on the way home which gave us enough room to lay down in the back but killed our mileage. We averaged 37.6mpg on the way there, dropped down to 32.5 after scouting & stayed right around 33 with our duffle bag "spoiler" on the back. Not too shabby ol' girl

[Proskier2038]

Just got back from a few days in Nodak. We hunted near lehr and had to work for the birds. As stated previously it's still mostly locals without much pushing down yet. We put in a lot of time scouting without much luck finding large numbers early in the week. We also didn't see much for birds feeding in the fields . Friday morning everything small froze up and things started grouping up on large water. We hunted mostly small potholes and would bang out a few gadwalls but nothing to write home about

- birds were Extrememly decoy shy and spinner shy and we did our best using 5 magnum floaters and a flapper. We found a soybean field where mallards were feeding Friday afternoon so we finally got a field hunt Saturday afternoon and banged out a 5 man limit of mallards filling with pintails and widgeon in a couple hrs . Our best hunting was from 2pm - 5 pm all week long. Not a lot for honkers in the area but the snows started to show up Wednesday.

All in all it was a fun trip- looking forward to next year!

[CANOPY SAM]

Our hunt sounds an awful lot like Pro's above.

We arrived at our destination (between Harvey and Carrington) on Thursday early afternoon, and I was pretty optimistic about the number of birds I was seeing. Good numbers of ducks in virtually every pothole, and lots of big groups of snows, and honkers in the fields. But things can sure change in a hurry!

As stated above, that cold front that rolled out of Canada on Thurs evening had everything small to medium sized frozen over on Friday morning. It was 14 degrees when we hit the fields on Friday morning.

My boys still managed plenty of shooting, and connected on a handful of puddlers and a few geese, but it wasn't one of those hunts you'll never forget. Both geese and ducks were extremely decoy shy, even with good calling and a very good looking spread. For two days I was almost pulling my hair out trying to figure why I just couldn't put birds on top of my boys.

On the way home I spoke with another group in Carrington that confirmed my suspicions. The majority of birds in the state are still primarily locals, or just the first push of lower Canadian birds that have moved a little south. They've been shot at for 3-4 weeks now, and have seen every tactic we have thrown at them, and they're not buying it.

Add in another tangent....the majority of fields in our area that were previously planted in small grains were this year planted in beans. The corn is just starting to come off, and the birds are beginning to transition into the cut corn fields.

If I could put one word on the whole situation right now I'd have to say "transition". Seems the primary ag crops this year are beans (likely due to the short growing season) which doesn't seem to hold a lot of birds in the area for very long, and the corn harvest is just beginning, so finding really good feeding areas is a little tough right now. Also, the vast majority of birds in the area have been hunted pretty hard, and there doesn't appear to be many new birds down from Canada yet.

On our way back home yesterday the vast majority of sloughs we saw speckled with birds on Thursday were now completely void of any birds. I think it's a fair guess that many of the local birds (ducks at least) have moved south now.

All in all I'd rate our hunt as very good, but after 30+ years of waterfowl hunting I don't keep my score card with numbers of birds in the bag anymore. We saw a TON of birds...something my boys have never seen before, and we had a few great shoots for divers, and puddlers, but nothing truly stellar. The experience/adventure itself was priceless! If you're disappointed in your NoDak hunt at this time of year it would prolly be a good idea to re-evaluate why you are actually going out there. It is truly an epic place to hunt waterfowl, but it can be tough, for even the most experienced hunters, to get on the X and really get into the birds.

On another note, I was pretty stunned to see how tough the last few winters have been on the upland birds, and deer! The hard winters and no doubt the loss of millions of acres of CRP land. The country has changed dramatically since I was last out there, and we really struggled to even find good numbers of sharp-tailed grouse! Pheasants are there, but they too are in pretty low numbers. Since I first started hunting this country in the late 80's it was always relatively easy to find great numbers of upland game. What's out there now is dramatically lower then I've ever seen before.

Overall I suspect we'll see another extremely late migration thru the state. By the time the true big push of birds out of Canada makes their move the majority of the water in NoDak will be frozen solid, and most of the birds will simply fly over the state. I've said it for years, but this always makes me wonder if these small brained critters are actually a LOT smarter then what we give them credit for!

Still, I absolutely love hunting North Dakota! If all the stars align I may make another run out there in a couple weeks, but the weather holds all the cards for that decision. Thanks for all the reports. I look forward to hearing how everyone does out there as the season progresses!

[2thepointsetters]

We hunted the central part of NODAK over the weekend and found very few birds moving. We put on about 200 miles a day hunting/scouting but it was worth the time. We did well in the fields and the water hunting also produced well.

[mulefarm]

For some reason this year it seems a lot more land is posted and when contacting the owner, permission was denied on a regular basis. Not sure if it has to do with the measure 5 amendment? They sure spend a lot of time and a lot oney on posted signs!