Question- late 90;s repeat?

[mudman]

With all the water out west this year in the dakotas, will we see a repeat of the late 90's in terms of number in the fly way? or do you think the past 5 years has been enough to divert them some still?

[Eric Wettschreck]

I'm thinking they're still diverted.

I saw a lot of ducks coming through this spring, and yes the ponds and sloughs have more water now than they have in a long time, but I haven't seen too many ducks since the spring migration back up nort.

[FOOT]

I just talked to someone who was in the south eastern 1/4 of ND and he said the water was way way way down. Sloughs that held water last year were dry and no ducks.

Anybody have first hand knowledge, I don't put a lot of faith in this guys stories. I think he gets most of his info at the local watering hole, if you know what I mean.

[Eric Wettschreck]

No clue about ND, but SW MN is wetter than it has been in a long time.

This hot spell may change things, we'll see.

[Sid]

If you want to see water standing EVERYWHERE, go to SE ND. Your buddy had obviously been to the watering hole the day he told you. Ha ha.

[marine_man]

Yep.. definately water in SE ND... I live about 1 hour west of Wahpeton and a little ways north.. and we've got more water then I've seen down here in a while... a lot of the sloughs that were dried up last year have water and a ton of fields have ponds in them that didn't this spring.. and on each of those field ponds there are at least one pair of ducks... sometimes more.

marine_man

[FOOT]

Sid & Marine Man, thanks for the update. 7 of us went together and bought a place in Kulm we use for hunting and a get away during the summer for a couple weekends.

The guy who gave me the update is not one of the 7 and like I said he has a tendancy to get his info from the local establishment. In fact end of season last year he told me he shot 32 ducks and 11 geese in MN. By Christmas it was someting like 43 ducks and 15 geese. New Years it grew a little more. If you were to ask him now you would think he shot every feathered animal shot in MN.

Thanks again