ortonville?

[PLfisherman]

how has the duck hunting ben out in the ortonville area this year so far? how are the water levels? I am stopping out there on the 11th for a day to hunt and check things out before i make my big trip in two weeks.

[whitewolf6647]

We've been doing great down there but I've talked to a couple other really realy good waterfowlers from down there and it's been really slow for them. It seems that sloughs that were holding birds last year don't have a thing in them this year and sloughs that have never had anything in them before are plume full of birds. It's going to take some leg work but you should be able to find a few birds. But of course we'll see how the next couple days go with this weather coming in it's either going to get really really good or it's going to be really really bad. All depends on where the birds stop or even if they get down this far cause I'm sure we're going to be losing alot if birds around here but I'll know that for sure in the morning.

[ortonville]

i say the same as whitewolf. it has been a good year so far. but you have to stay mobile.the guys that hunt the same old same old year after year have not done so good.but if you are willing to move and pack so decoys into the little out of the way ponds you should do ok. whitewolf how has it been up in that wheaton area???

[whitewolf6647]

I was out this morning and there were ducks flying everywhere lots and lots of divers are startign to show themsleves a bit more in this area which is GREAT!!!! I've only been hunting this area 3 times 1 one private and 2 on public. The private slough hunt was awesome we had our pick of what we wanted to shoot. The first public hunt I never fired a shot right slough wrong area and this morning I could've been limited out in the first 10-15 minutes if I wanted to but becasue it was so dark I couldn't drakes form hens so my first shot wasn't fired until 0745 after that I shot 2 big greenheads, 1 drake spoonie and 1 very nice drake gad.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

we've done just about all of our slough hunting just west of the bigstone/swift line near artichoke and last weekend was crazy! this has been the best fall for a few years personally for me. ive never had shooting oppertunities on redheads or pintails like we did last weekend. too bad my shooting skills arent up to par with my calling skills; which in turn arent up to par with my ability to fall asleep in the boat. oh well. goin out friday morning for a field hunt south of morris with a friend; last day for this field before it gets plowed under into black dirt. hopefully the birds are active with the cold. will post results late in the morning.