NoDak reports

[smnduck]

Was hunting s.e. of devils lake and there was very few ducks. Shot limits of green wing teal and a few mallards over three days. Fewest ducks seen since I have been going there. Have not missed a year since 1989 if that says anything.Water levels were around average.Lodge that we stayed at even apologized for the few ducks (we told them that it was not nessasary). Very friendly landowners as usual. Had a great time, thanks to all the locals for the hospitality.

[fish4cats]

Well, I sure hope things change by this weekend. We are heading up early Thursday morning to Devils Lake. Did you happen to hear any reports from N or NW of Devils Lake?

[deadfeathers]

Just got back from NoDak. Hunted the SE part of the state around the Kulm/Edgely area. Shot 150+ ducks in seven days between five guys. Alot of Gadwalls, Mallards and Teal. Hunted in fog for four days, so scouting was hard. Could hear the geese put couldn't see them. All in all had a good trip

[Lip'em]

Hunted near Minot for three days about a week ago. Lots of good diver action; cans, bills, ringers, redheads, and a few mallards.

[jimlovestrout]

I too was just out there, and it was the slowest i have ever seen (15+ years). I hunted the north side of the big lake (DL), seen mostly bills, wish i could go back. That 2-7 day lic. S**ks. that was my 2nd trip :-((

[fishhawk1750]

I also just returned from SE corner very slow on Thur., Tons of rain. Tough to hunt on friday, 50 mph wind. Lots of ducks Sat. and Sun.

[oilguy]

Out there over MEA break with boys. Had to look a little harder to find the birds this year and still a lot of early ducks in area. BWT usually are gone by now but were common in 2 different areas we hunted. Hunter numbers appear to be down substantially . Our Motel (old comfort Inn) in DL was only half full.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

there was an awesome push of birds friday night and saturday morning were we were hunting. we got on a cornfield saturday; saw specks and sandhill cranes flying overhead, as well as many flocks of mallards and small geese. ended up with 18 mallards and 4 geese (1 banded) on saturday. se part of the state.

[BeerHunter]

A buddy just got back from where we will be going in the SE part of state and they hammered the Mallards in the fields. Hope they stay around and a little cold brings in some more for me this weekend.

We were there the week before and did very well but it was just the start of the northern birds moving in

[guppie]

I'm going up on saturday the 27. I cant wait, I'll post up when I get back.

[jimbo80]

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[dolsmi]

Hunted in So Dak last weekend and there was definately a push of ducks and geese saturday and sunday.

Our group of 8, Limited out on Mallard's both days in the cornfields.

Will be heading back out there this wednesday-sunday to finish off the last my 10 day non-res license

[iffwalleyes]

The geese were moving today when I was out working. It looks like they might be starting to move through now at a better pace. Although the weather has still been pretty mild. They are pushing on corn now they have been getting back in the fields after last weeks rain.

[Greg K (aka:CRAPPIEBAIT)]

My folks are both from Devils, I have been hunting ND since I was 12 (now 34). One thing I can say is you need to get further west. Dry Lake area is usually good as well. Trust me, Devils Lake is awesome when the migration is full throttle but, mt buddy in Velva is just going a little east and north of town and doing great. I try waiting to burn my 14 days a little later in the season too. Get a lot more canadian ducks and snows.

[fishinalot]

We were in the SE part last week and very slow. We did fill out with teal and a few gadwalls. It was fun, but not very fast. After one hour in the morning... the ducks were done flying. No migratiion yet.

[jiggin' fool]

As many of you stated.., it was SLOW!!!! We went to Horsehead Lake.., specifically Robinson, ND, on Saturday. The plan was to stay 8-days. We left for home on Tuesday morning, at 5:30 a.m.

It was that bad boys!!! Horsehead is typically a great staging/resting area for migrating birds, but they were not there!!!! Goose numbers in particular were absolutely horrible. The ducks mostly appeared to be locals, (you know, the ones that you see setting on a pond a 1/4-mile away, and when you slow down, to glass them, they flush, never to be seen again).

One thing I noticed about the Horsehead area, (near Steele), was the crops had changed from small-grain/corn to forage. Lots of "hay" grown in that area now. On the south side of I-94, there are more crops and more geese, but having found 3 fields with geese in them on Monday night, only to be denied permission by all 3 landowners, it was time to leave.

If someone wanted to buy an "upland" license, they could get dizzy with all the roosters, sharpies and huns in the area.

Sadly, the waterfowl hunting was horrible. The ONLY bright spot was Cranes.., there were a boatload of those around.

[RAJ]

We returned yesterday from the jamestown area. Worst year by far. The divers are starting to move in, but very few In the 6 years i've been going to ND, this was the the first year I shot a teal. We bought upland licenses and shot rosters instead.

[fish4cats]

I have to agree with most reports here, numbers were way down. We were in Devils Lake Oct 24th -28th and hunted west of town. We have 5 guys and never limited out any of the 4 days we hunted. We had a great mixed bag though of divers and puddlers. Saw thousands upon thousands of snows and canadians. We ended up with 7 honkers and 2 snows, and we were not targeting them at all. I believe our final duck count for the 4 days was 60 birds. Worst we have done in 10 trips. Water levels seemed to be way down also, very few ponds with water in them.

[kobear]

Just back from South East of Devils and Stump. Fewer ducks than two weeks ago with most mallards gone and just a few divers replacing them. Scouted the Carrington, McHenry, Sheyenne, Lakota, Larimore, Sharon loop. Quite a few geese in the area. The ducks were very shy and our best luck came by hiding around the sloughs they were using without decoys, only a few birds came into the dekes. One morning there was our group and two others in a 80 acre slough, the mallards would land right in the middle and not work any of the decoy sets, even working over empty bays but flaring 150 yards from the dekes. We moved down the slough and shot birds at 30 yards crossing. Even divers would shy away. From one spot on East Devils I could see three decoy setups with spinners and two without, two sets even had double spinners going steady it seemed to educate most birds. Every one at the Lodge thought it was the toughest it had ever been to get birds. BUT it sure was better than work! Good Luck they'll come down sometime.

[Central Bassman]

I just got back from a hunting trip in the south part of North Dakota. The duck hunting was the best it has been in years. There were so many big mallards around that we had the shooting of a life time. We were hunting in a corn field right next to big water. If you are heading to North Dakota anytime soon there are a lot of ducks in the area. I don’t think a lot of the northern birds are down yet but they will be soon. The lasted day of our hunt we starting seeing a lot of teal, so the ducks are on the move.

5 day 80+ birds and 65+ Green Heads... Priceless

Good Luck to anyone going there. We are heading back in Mid November and will report back then

CB

[jeepguy]

I am leaving tonight for the weekend, good to hear there are some ducks around. I have been hearing alot of negative reports, it is good to hear a good one, lets me be optomistic about the weekend, hopefully where I am going there are going to be some big red footed northern mallards coming in. I am stocking up on heavy shot for the possibility of having to make some long shots. Can't wait to shoot some black cloud this weekend.

[thaJman]

I just returned from nodak yesterday and we did very well on both ducks and pheasants. We started in the central part of the state for ducks and then moved south central to get in on some combo duck and pheasant days. There were tons of mallards in both locations. We hunted fields and that seemed to be the way to go. The other hunting parties we talked to were hunting water and they did not fair as well. It seems like the ducks are very decoy/spinner shy on the water and then they completely lose their brains in the fields. They would always dump right in on us. The only problem we had was we were at our possession limits so we had to quit hunting..and that was after eating a bunch and giving a bunch to a group that had struggled and were on their way home. We ended up shooting 70 ducks..64 greenheads..2 pintails...1 widgeon...and 3 ooops's (hen mallards).

The pheasants were plentiful as well. Everyone brought home their 12 birds.

There were decent numbers of snows around but few Canada's....especially south central. We put on a ton of miles but never found a field worth hitting. We would see a few here and there but no "X" type spots.

All in all it was an incredible trip! Watching those large flocks of ducks come pouring in and start working the dekes is an awesome sight.