Waterfowl Season Starts Saturday

[KEN W]

There are no waterfowl reports from our GNF.They used to come from the USFW Service,but the guy retired and was not replaced.

[fritz179]

I just got back from the Mercer area and had success. First off, it's nice to see some birds for a change. I also hunted with my roomate who is from ND. It's nice to see it through the eyes of a resident hunter.

Friday afternoon we got up there. Just pass shot ended up with 1 redhead.

Saturday morning-1 gadwall and 1 mallard. Plenty of ducks around though we just set up in the wrong spot. In the evening we got 1 gadwall, 1 redhead. Once again we were on the wrong side.

This morning we both limited out. Awesome flocks and amounts of ducks. 4 gadwalls, 3 mallards, 2 redheads and 1 hooded merganser. It was extremley windy and also extremely worth it. I had a blast, except for not having my digital camera :hittinghead. I'll be back during the second weekend of November.

[marine_man]

Definitely mixed reports from across the state.

Hopefully the bought of colder weather yesterday and today will help things, but with temps forecasted in the 60's wed-friday the birds might turn around and fly back to canada.

I meandered from Fargo to Lisbon on Saturday late afternoon and didn't see much flying or in the sloughs. I suspect the locals have moved on and the northern flight hasn't started too much yet.

marine_man

[brittman]

Migration ON!

[marine_man]

Hopefully we don't get much more cold weather like we saw this morning... most medium size ponds were skinned over with ice.

marine_man

[nolte]

Not many birds around just east of Devils. Put a lot of miles on and only found two good fields full of ducks. A guide had already locked one up and was hunting the other the following day. Alot of corn still up, too. We couldn't even find a decent number of divers to salvage the trip. Worst trip I've had out there in 6 years. It was also the much tougher to get permission.

On the flip side, a ton of snows around. Most I've ever seen, but we don't hunt them. Also, quite a good number of geese, especially lessers.

[kobear]

Just back from a trip to the Lakota-McHenry area. Birds were average to above just barely. Mallards were tough with the weather but the divers cooperated. Only found three large groups of mallards around. Our birds were almost evenly split mallards and divers.

Biggest problem with getting permission was all the coffee and talking that went along with the process. Landowners would invite us in and talk and talk, we traded winter squash for hunting access. Deer season is this Saturday in ND and this is the toughest time of the year to get permission.

Location was key with lots of live decoys around to compete with and little weather or other hunters to move birds around. Goose numbers were good with lots of dark geese and some snows around. Dark geese and snows were migrating over through out the trip.

[marine_man]

Thanks for the report!

I would suspect with the cold, nasty weather headed here in the next week that the migration will be on full swing, but based on the forecasted lows for next week there won't be open water for too long...

marine_man

[marine_man]

With the cold weather we're had over the weekend and for sure the rest of this week all medium and small sloughs / ponds are froze over...

Lots of waterfowl moving when I was out deer hunting on Friday! Give my success (lack of) on Friday I should have been waterfowl hunting!

marine_man

[rattlem'up]

i was there the beginning of november and we did decent. we shot 91 ducks 6 geese, 1 snow, and 28 roosters. My buddies just got back yesterday from the 2nd trip and they did exceptionaly well the first 2 days they were there but havn't talked to them since. we hunted water first week and then they hunted mostly fields the 2nd weekend.

[tweedlap]

Thanks, rattlem'up.

Would appreciate the update when you get it.

tweed

[rattlem'up]

You looking to go out there yet next couple weekends here tweedlap?

[marine_man]

While I haven't been out since deer hunting started, I can't say that I've seen much for migratory birds in this area of the state. With all the water iced over (with no relief till spring it would appear) most birds are flying straight though the state for someplace warmer.

marine_man

[fishhawk1750]

Rob, thanks for all the updates and reports it is nice to hear and read.