Snows !!

[WalleyeWeasel]

Hunted north of Huron 16-18th. Lots of birds about 1/4 mi. high Huge clouds of em, way off in the distance. Very, Very tough to decoy !!

[IceHawk]

How far N of Huron were you. I hunt about 20 miles N of there in the Redfield Tulare area. The snows are definately getting harder to decoy! They have become very spooky from all of the jumpshooters. Did you look at lake Byron it's something to see!

Walleye weasel if you wouldn't mind shoot me a email I am leaving the end of this week for 4 days to this area for my first trip and I have some questions for you?

[email protected]

[huntingmaxima]

Hawk, I to will be going out thur. after work. R U hunting with Dave? My scout were out there this weekend and had limited success. Lots of W/F and canadas. We think this will be a good week.

[IceHawk]

Dave- We are leaving Sat morning and yes Dave S is going along. We are also counting on this weekend to be good.If not this weekend the next should be hot!!! The birds are definately anxious to get N so hopefully we are there wating for them when they start going it won't take them long once they start. Dave C does Dave S have your cell# we could keep in contact with you and share info when we are out there?

[huntingmaxima]

Hawk, my uncle was up there this last weekend and talked to the local CO,s and they said that there were not alot of brids around yet. They found a few birds west of webster but not many. they only got 8 birds but they said that they have another place ready for this weekend. keep in touch. tell dave to get my cell# or to give me his let me know if you think it is ok to post it? we will be leaving after wrork on thurs. and going to stay in webster

[IceHawk]

Maxima - I talked to Dave S and he said he would get a hold of you to excahnge cell #. We appreciate any help or info. We will exchange info with you also and possibly help each other out. I don't know how many birds are in our area. The snow was in more of the S part of the state. I hope some of the birds jumped N of the snow instead of pushing back into Neb. I hope some good flocks are in our area, we have permission to a pretty big area and alot of fields. From what I have heard we may have to go south of Watertown. Thanks for the help!!

[duckslayer27]

hey guys

some info for you

we also hunted around huron and lake byron this weekend. All i can say is wow.

I have never seen anything like it. We didnt shoot many birds trying the spot and stalk theory. We seemed to get within about a hundered yards of 30000 birds and always got spoted. The closest we got was 75 yards using a cow decoy. These birds are smart and like to sit in the middle of sections. We are heading back out there in about a week in hope of being able to decoy some juvenile birds because we say guys trying to decoy birds and they seemed to get close and thin go straight up before they got within gun range. look forward to hearing how you all did

[Banger]

I put on alot of miles on friday looking for the birds. We started west of Webster and ended up north of DeSmet. We saw birds the whole way but none in any feilds. Lake Byron was definatly a sight to see on friday. We shot 11 birds from Sat.-Mon Morning. We set up our decoys and the strong winds helped us get shots around fourty to fifty yards. There were four of us in our group and shot many holes in the sky. I forgot just how bad of a shot I was. The worst thing was I shot the most throughout the weekend. It was worth the trip however as we saw alot of birds and had specks and ducks landing in the corn thirty yards away, what a sight. Can't wait to get back out there again.

[IceHawk]

Guys thanks for all the info. It is much appreciated.All the info provided helps everyone narrow there search for birds. Keep it comeing.

[iamgmc]

snows have arrived NE of ortonville.hard to judge numbers large flocks in mant different sections.We only managed to get 2 Sunday morning,went scouting after our hunt only to realize we wer'nt far enough West.ground was frozen in the AM,when we came out it was soup.

[SLP]

We gave it a try for the first time around Lake Byron last week. There were a ton of birds flying around that area and about 1/2 mill sitting on the lake on Tues. Man this is one tough sport but certainly worth going if you enjoy shooting holes in the sky and watching waterfall. I think we got 14 or so but saw waves of them. Darn tough to decoy. We had herds of them circling the decoys many times but to get them to within gun range is a different story. One smart bird.

[huntingmaxima]

I was out in SD last fri., sat, sun. Sunday was by far the best day,we had lots of wind and the birds were flying low. Had a good back shoot on sunday and shot 24 birds but we ran out of shells and hte truck was so far away that i did not feel like carrying the geese to the truck getting more shells and heading back. I HAVE SAID ALL ALONG "NO WIND NO GEESE"

[ChuckN]

Just returned from a 4 day trip in Britton, SD chasing those dang blasted snows. I started my journey in Britton and then to Sand Lake down south and all over the country side. Friday the snows were migrating north hard and with the snow line just into ND, I decided Britton might be a good choice. My friend Ole showed up later that night and we spent the night setting up the spread of shells, silosocks, fliers, northwinds, sillouettes and ecallers.

Saturday was relatively calm and a tough day for decoying. TONS of birds, flying in every direction all day. I would not doubt if the Sand Lake Refuge held over a million birds that day, and the area should have had that many for sure.

Sunday came along and winds greeted us. Better shoot and got some birds. At times we had thousands of geese overhead circling and taking a peek at us but they had difficulty committing.

Monday the #'s of snows really went down and many migrated north Sunday night with some really strong south winds. Tough morning hunt with light winds.

I took more video than pics of the birds. It was something I have never seen before...

Sand Lake on Friday PM

Some of the kills.

From the sounds of it the juvies were migrating north nicely into southern SD and people were having success. We hunted the motherload of smart adults which was a challenge, no juvies where we were.

Now ND should be hosting a lot of birds right now, and it's going to be mighty warm in ND it appears. SD hunting...time is of the essense, get out now or it could be over.

[bigyooper]

has anyone ever tried hunting snows in MN,

I saw a flock of about 100 on Sat on the way to Redwing.

[wyldewal]

Now that's a flock of snows! Nice pics.

[IceHawk]

Well my group made it back after a exciteing and interesting hunt to say the least. Our trip started out from MN with our destination in mind for central SD. When we reached our area we didn't encounter the number of birds we were looking for so off we went to unfamiliar country. After driveing for hours S and SE we located what we were looking for near Lake Preston area. In this area were huge groups roosting on numerous lakes and ponds. We hunted this area hard and had some good success the birds decoyed alright but when the wind hit on Sunday they became suicidal. We ended up getting a fair ammount of birds with mostly juvies and Ross. The birds were definately heading N and we were there to intercept them. Once again thanks goes out to all of the fine SD folks for there hospitality!! All in all the hunt was a success it just was a littlte tougher than years past. It looks like most of the birds have hit ND and they will be on the move fast good luck to all who go after them.

Chuck N thanks for all of the good conversation we traded from the N and S. Mike Walerak nice talking to you we will hook up the next time I am in your area. Leave a few eyes for me

[ChuckN]

IceHawk - Nice chatting with you too. Glad you got into some birds down there. Wish we had some juvies to shoot at, ours were not suicidal in the least.

There should be good opportunities in ND for awhile yet. Still lots of snows, mainly juvies, south of SD yet from what I've read and heard.

[WalleyeWeasel]

3-29-2006 near Lake Preston S.D.

[Ryan Berger]

MO last weekend!