snow goose reports

[marine_man]

They're really moving through today - I saw at least 10 big flocks on my way in this morning.

marine_man

[BrianLucky13]

Geese everywhere!!!! I seen maybe 3-4 hundred thousand today in south eastern ND. Most birds were north of Oaks. All migrators that didnt decoy and when they did land there was 3 out of state vehicles shoting them up. They wont stay long getting jumped all day!!! Ended up with 5 and shot like dump and broke my gun!!! O WELL

Goodluck

[fishlakeman]

I have a similar report as Brian. Went scouting on Thursday, drove backroads from Casselton to West of Jamestown. We couldn't go 5 minutes without seeing a flock of a 1,000 or more. I bet I saw 400,000 on Thursday, and about 200,000 on Friday. Set up on friday, and only shot 4. Was a combination of bad shooting and birds just not liking our spread.

[jeff127]

just got back yesterday and hunted north of oaks in the james river valley and there are still huntable numbers there but they are moving north fast. Hunted fri pm to mon am by monday the juvies were really starting to show. Largest concentration was 4 miles north of oaks and another large batch 6 miles north and 5 miles east of lamoure. I also got a first hand report that there are snows in extremely large numbers on the snow line in northern sasakatchewan(sp?)....The big push is through---hopefully some will hang in the devils lake area long enough for another trip in 2 weeks.

jeff

[BrianLucky13]

Going up to Cando this weekend!! Gonna be a muddy mess!!! Cant what!!! Should run into some juvies!!!

[Fish&Fowl]

I got a trip planned for April 5-8. Looking at being around the Devil's Lake area hunting over dekes. Is it looking like the juvies will still be around there? I've talked to some Spring veterans who said sometimes after the big push is gone it's easier to find smaller, workable flocks of birds. I'm more excited about being in my layout blind with a gun in April than I am about killing geese, although I wouldn't mind saving a little tundra either

[BrianLucky13]

There will be plenty of geese around there those days!!! They are still shooting them in SD!!

Goodluck!!!

[BrianLucky13]

Plenty of geese in ND still!!!! I seen maybe about 200,000 thousand around the Devils lake area this weekend. I ended up with 28 only hunted on saterday!! If my goose gun wasnt broken and if I didnt have to use an over and under I know for sure I would have over 100 geese!! I shot 6 boxes of shells and only 28 geese!!! Man thats some bad shooting!!!

Next weekend will be the weekend up in that area if you ask me!!!!

[BrianLucky13]

I forgot to say its a muddy mess and I got sick of pulling people out of the mud!!! If anybody goes out be prepared to go through mud and if you dont have a vehicle or atv thats made for that dont try to go through!!!

I did make some money though!!!!

[Fish&Fowl]

I'm looking at getting out to the Grand Forks area by 10 or 11am on Thur. Unsure if we will try to get to Devil's Lake to hunt that afternoon or wait until Friday. Will a 4x4 with aggressive A/T tires be enough or would you recommend an ATV?

And 200,000 snows!? Now I really won't be able to sleep

[BrianLucky13]

I would bring an atv if you could but it might be a little drier up there by then. We are suppose to get 3-6 inches of snow so who knows!!

I have an older built up chevy with 33 inch mud tires and I almost got stuck a couple of times!!!

When I got up there on Friday everything was froze up so I drove in the fields without sinking and set up decoys. But by sunday everything was a mess and I wasnt gonna carry all my decoys 2 miles to the nearest road so I put it in 4 low and gave her hell!!! I was pushing mud with my front bumper thats how bad it was!!! I know the farmer thats the only reason I did that!!

I might go up next weekend too!!! There wont be as many geese but I think at that time the juvies will show up!!

[ChuckN]

I was in the Devils Lake area hunting snows Friday thru yesterday, and the mud is unbelievable, BUT now there's a big freeze and snow in the dakotas. Yesterday the ground was starting to harden up and that helped us quite a bit picking up the spread.

This cold stretches way into Canada...lows single digits in Canada this week, and Nodak is going to have a stretch of cold too. That is going to freeze all water sources for the geese and I think all those anxious birds are going to flee south. It could be interesting....

We ended up with 63 geese. About 90% adults.

Plenty of rain, wind and the FOG was the savior to doing our part in controlling the overpopulated birds.

[Fish&Fowl]

Thanks BL13!

ChuckN,

Yes it will be very interesting to see what the birds do with this big blast of cold coming down! I'm just worried that because it's doing that it's going to be CLEAR, and we don't need that. Were the birds in smaller flocks or more concentrated? Thanks for the update!

[ChuckN]

Birds were both concentrated and small flocks...several 1-3 birds coming into the spread, mostly flocks were about a dozen. What we noticed a lot of was the juvies in large flocks...the juvies would break off and start to descend, and the adults would literally fly over to the juvie and force them back into the flock. Fun (and upseting, lol) to observe the behavior of these birds.

[Fish&Fowl]

Wow that would be something to see the birds acting like that!

Now I've got to find out ASAP if all these birds that were in Canada and northern ND have all went south?? I just talked to my connection out there and two of his buddies scouted ALL morning east of Devil's Lake, put on about 300 miles and saw 6 snow geese. They also said all the honkers and mallards were gone too. I am still looking for an excuse to go and am keeping my hopes alive still. I've been getting ready to do this since March. Any updates greatly appreciated!

[BrianLucky13]

Any new reports guys??? I hope they went back south for awhile!!! I got a trip planned next weekend for Cando!!

[ChuckN]

It's going to be like 6 degrees for the next 2-3 nights, so if I were a goose I'd be back in Nebraska or Missouri. Sask. Canada is near zero for the next couple nights.

There were ducks everywhere when we were there, so if they are gone (like near my house, all ducks fled too) they bailed with the strong north winds. I know my friend's plans for a hunt are postponed for at least a week, and I was really hoping to get another hunt in...not anymore.

[Fish&Fowl]

Well I'm down to waiting for one more scouting report from tomorrow. If no birds, then no go. I'm praying to the snow goose gods, but it's really not looking good. The one weekend I decide to go the weather turns to it to mid-January. Story of my life

[BrianLucky13]

Got a report from Devils Lake are!! Geese are keeping some open water. Still hundreds of thousands up there. They also didnt get much snow there!!!

Fish and Fowl, you should be good. Just find some open water and it could be deadly!!!!

Brian

[Fish&Fowl]

Is it a reliable source? Are you talking about the west side of Devil's Lake?? My buddy has been religiously scouting near the Stump Lake area and east of there and has seen 20 birds in 7 hours of scouting between yesterday and today.

[BrianLucky13]

Yes it was a farmer north of Irvin Lake. Which is between Cando and Churches Ferry!!! Geese dont need open water so stay around. Are you still going up there????

[Fish&Fowl]

I don't want to talk about it

The guy I knew that I was going to hunt with was the one scouting and saw nada. The kids he knew, that were going to hunt with us and are from ND, scouted as well and saw the same thing. They decided they weren't going to hunt and they're the ones with all the dekes, so everything fell apart. I'm finding it pretty hard to get motivated to do anything else since I had my hopes up for goosing for 3 days, and the fact that it's 15 degrees with a 30mph wind is only adding to my anger.

[ChuckN]

Geez, all larger ponds/lakes were solid ice up there. The huge majority of the open water was sheet water in fields, and very small ponds....and that's got to be frozen.

We had 4 vehicles running that entire area hard, racking the miles and we found the most birds concentrated NE of DL... If there are no birds there I would really start to wonder.

[BrianLucky13]

Everything is froze up from Canada to SD. They gotta be somewhere!! I think they are just more spread out now.

Sorry to hear about your plans. I know how that goes!!! Im the one that always wants to go and everyone else backs down!!!