ducks in arkansas?

Sorry guys it has been a little while i havent been near a computer for a while. i have been trying to figure out where to go duck hunt or even deer hunt for that matter. I have not been successful at eithor one for anout 2 weeks. It is very sad to say this but i have killed less than 10 ducks in 2 weeks and the only deer i have killed was with a 91 suburban going 75 down a 2 lane road one night coming home. Little Rock Ar got 10" of rain last week causing our bottoms to flood. There is 15 feet of water where there is none in the summer. The woods have 7-8 feet of water in them and the current pushed out all of the acorns so there is no good hunting in our bottoms unles you can get to an edge of a field where the ducks want to be and we cannot because it is not our land... I have almost completely given up deer hunting. I have hunted 8 days and not seen or heard a deer in my stand the deer have gone almost 100% nocturnal so i have almost no chance of killing a deer.... I may end the week by going to my cousins farm in central Arkansas and snow goose hunting.

January Contest

Attention all Duck Junkie Fans and friends! We are having a contest for everyone to be involved in. We are looking for the our fans and members to take part in our mission to define a Duck Junkie. Write a definition, as it would read in a dictionary, and the top 3 definitions will win prizes. First prize will win 50 Junkie dollars or a sweatshirt. Second prize will be 25 Junkie dollars or a long sleeve T-shirt. Third prize will be10 Junkie dollars or your choice of a Junkie T-shirt or a decal. This contest will run between now and February 1st, 2010. The entries should be posted on the Duck Junkies FB discussions page. After February 1st we will pick the top 6 and let you our fans vote to decide the top 3. Be creative as you want but also keep your ideas and language clean. I.E. no profanity or sexually suggestive definitions. You can enter as many ideas as you wish. Good luck to all who enter!

December Junkie of the Month

December 2009 Featured Member:
RANDY DUNCAN

I have been hunting since I was 12.
My favorite thing about waterfowl hunting is the camaraderie with family & friends and introducing a new hunter to the brotherhood.
Well this month my favorite part of the site is the Junkie of the Month. But honestly my favorite part of the site is the forum and blog areas. I love reading and sharing stories and information about bird hunting.

Michigan Waterfowl

December, 29 2009
West Michigan

As of 12/29/09 we are starting to see almost all the lakes freeze over, with exception of the deeper lakes fed by our rivers. Large number of ducks and Geese still holding on what little water is still open. The Fennville Farm Unit in Allegan County is starting to see excellent numbers of Ducks and Geese showing up. Currently the Fennvill Farm Unit has 19,458 Geese and 6008 Ducks.

IL

In the north zone goose is over the 9th. Its been slow. Not a lot of birds the fields. The snow did not help with that. Pheasant is done on the 7th. Time for coyote hunting. I got some pigs and a calf out for bait in one field so time to go check if they been eating the bait. A full moon wood be nice

12/28/2009 Hunting the Burbs

Went out on a layout goose hunt with my nephew and Junkie fan Nate and my friends Joe and Mark within a stones throw of Hartford, CT. We don't do much field hunting around here and this spot in particular proved to be an excellent one. We put out a small spread, 10 full bodies and a dozen shells and since Joe and I were the only ones with layout blinds, we had to improvise to conceal the other two which worked out really well after tweaking it a little.
Basically what we did was lay down a small 4' x 8' brown tarp. I had a couple of folding seats for the deck of my boat (just a pad that folds up and locks in position), covered them up with camo burlap and some vegetation that we scraped up from around the area. Instant poor man's layout blind.
The first couple of groups that came in flared. After covering up more of the blinds, the groups came in without a clue something was up. First a group of about 1o birds that came in with the landing gear down, one quick shot later and Nate dropped his first goose ever. Overall we saw about 200 birds throughout the day. Our calling was spot on but our shooting was a different story (skeet range here I come). Only glitch of the day (besides our shooting) was a couple of crow/goose hunters skybusting.

Terry Mahoney
NW Connecticut
Duck Junkies.com Prostaff

Iowa, IA

Iowa

Well know that duck and goose hunting is over for Iowa, and deer and pheasant is still open. Goose hunting opened back up on december 19th through January 3. I shot a really nice 8 point over 2 season shotgun at 92 yards. It scored about 130 or 132. I seen about 4 or 5 flocks of maybe 35 to 40 geese fly over while i was deer hunting.

Northern East Texas is Picking up!!!

Shane & I went to one of our local honey holes in upper East Texas Saturday after Christmas to get our quack on... We soon found plenty of ducks roosting in the thicket, but to emerge out into to the Big Water's as soon as they could see sky... but too early to shoot. We could see a pretty large number of (Greenies) hitting the big open water for resting throughout the day. Our shooting light had come, but only to discover that someone had obviously been blowing them out of all the coves, slews & thick covered areas..leaving them no where else to rest but the open. We continued to collect some spoonies, teal, pintails, woodies, & plenty of ringnecks!!

-dhshquack-

the injurys never stop

Well once again there's blood shed this year and not just from the birds haha after taking a good size chunk out of my hand on the lathe playing with some call designs earlyer this month I then take a digger face first in a half finished pit atleast I can always say it was my blood on the floor of it first though ha.
Hunting throughout northern colorado has been pretty good to us this season though especially since this cold front has come through. My cousin hooked up with a guy that has a ton of field out east with a decent slew hidden in the back corner of it that's produced good numbers of a little of everything and even though hunter numbers have hit the ceiling we have still found a lot of open playground out there and have been hitting limits and having fun as long as we can stop hurting ourselves ha happy hunting and hope everyone has a good new year let's make 2010 waterfowl year

Rochester MN Goose Hunt

The good news is...

Well with all the rain we had last week we went out to hunt some flooded fields. Man it was slow at first but around 9am the ducks started to fly we decoyed a pair of mallards and my partner and I pull up to take the shot when I drop my duck and his duck is hit hard and I watch it sail off and go down across the field. We set out across the flooded field and start to get close to where I thought the duck fell and noticed my partner was walking way to fast in a flooded field. I thought I should tell him to slow down when all of the sudden he goes completely under. He stepped in a ditch and the worst thing is he dropped his gun. Now his gun is at the bottom of a ditch that is over his head with no way to get it out and he is soaking wet we had to leave and not get anymore ducks. The good news is that the water went back down now and he found his gun today.

Hunting

Well the regular seasons for New York waterfowl is over can't wait for late season. I am headed to New Jersey on Jan 6 for a 3 day goose hunt. Can't wait it should be a blast. Well with the regular season over it is still muzzleloader season so i went out today and got a 6 point buck. It being the second to last day of deer season, needing meat in the freezer, plus it being my first buck with more that 4 points i put him down with the ol' smoke pole. It was also a big bodied deer.

Tough times in Oklahoma

After finally getting some new ducks in just about everything that could go wrong did. Spent the weekend of the split scouting and let me tell ya, man we found the ducks. Found an area holding a couple of thousand teal and several hundred mallards. We were really optimistic about the opener of the second season. A couple of days before though we had a big cold front move in. Most of the water where we had found the ducks was frozen the day before we were set to hunt. After breaking through ice with the boat though, we found the perfect spot. A large area where the water was not frozen with great cover on the bank. Oh yea, and about a thousand ducks. So we get to the boat ramp in plenty of time, motor out to our spot, and wouldn't you know it, someone was already set up where we wanted to hunt. So know we have to change the game plan. We move to the hole we had originally wanted to hunt and started breaking all the ice with the boats. After we are satisfied with our efforts we set up decoys. Once on the bank we realize that cover was sparce. So we started building a blind out of buckbrush. After getting the blind about as good as it was gonna get we set up and hoped for the best. Right off the ducks started flying into the hole. Singles and doubles mostly we started dropping everything that came into the NO FLY ZONE. Thinking everything was going our way, we hit a snag. After the sun got up the ducks were seeing us, and the Mojo had stopped working with the white side of the wings up. The Mojo was in to deep of water to reach, so we decided to relocate to another hole about ten minutes away. Afterall that's what the Duck Commander would do. Get all the decoys loaded up and we're off. As soon as we made it too our other hole we see that someone is set up in it already. Not being the kind to give up we move to a spot where we had jumped some mallards on the way over. After being in there about an hour we had shot one teal and the birds just were not flying, so we called it a day. I guess next time we better get to the hole a little earlier.

Mallard Migration Status

Even though duck season is over for some of us, the season is still open for our fellow hunters to the south! Good luck guys (and gals!).

Every week, over 100 biologists, wildlife managers and other experts rank the progress of mallard migration in their areas.

Check out the link: http://www.mdc.mo.gov/hunt/wtrfowl/migration.php

These rankings do not depict mallard abundance; they indicate the relative progression of the fall migration. Estimated peak numbers of mallards may be lower or higher than average numbers during previous years due to annual variations in local wetland and environmental conditions. As a result, a dark color does not necessarily mean that lots of mallards are present in that region

These maps depict real time estimates of migration without the benefit of waiting until the completion of migration before providing assessments. Some variation in results may also occur depending on the number of experts reporting for a given week.

End of one season, Beginning of another

Well duck hunting is over in my area and it ended on a low note. The last month of duck hunting was very slow and there were very few birds around. On a high note late goose hunting started and i have been seeing a few flocks of honkers flying around. It will be a hard late goose hunt because all the lakes have at least 8 inches of ice on them and full size truck are already driving on some smaller lakes. Hopefully i can tie into a couple this season. Good luck to all with a season still in progress. Thanks

The Last Bang

Had a great opportunity to hunt Rochester MN on Saturday morning. I must preface this by filling you in on what Rochester is. This city was voted, I believe in wildfowl magazine, as the #6 place in the country to live and hunt. The recent, and now 3 time world live goose calling champion, Scott Threinen has hunted geese all over the country and has stated that Rochester geese are the hardest geese to hunt. We found this out on Saturday.
Woke up in a panic on Saturday as I over slept my alarm and hurried out the door to pick up a couple Junkie members in St. Paul on my way down. After a two - two and a half hour drive we met up with Adam H., another Junkie member. He has permission to hunt the 20 acre bean field we were going to set up in .
After introductions and a napkin sketch of the field we were off. Once there we found that the snow had drifted pretty deep and with the truck in 4 wheel drive we plunged through with the trailer and kept the pedal to the floor until we made it in. Once there we started to set up 18 1/2 dozen decoys and the blinds. Once set up we dashed the trucks and hunkered in.
It wasn't long until we herd shooting in the distance, a lot of shooting. The guide services were pounding them hard. After a while we finally had the geese working our way but after 2 big flocks flared off we knew we had to make a move. We moved the layouts and half the spread about 75 yards to better accommodate the way they wanted to fly, and it turned out to be the best move.
Lots of birds were flying during the move and as I hopped one one leg trying to run back and forth we got settled in and had a couple groups come in just like we wanted. It wasn't long before we were 2 birds short of our 4 man limit. We did have a deadline on time so we were anxious to get one more flock. We had a solo come from behind us and as it came in so committed that it almost landed I stood up and said "I have this one!" I pulled the trigger the same time as Matt and feathers flew. I took out the left side and Matt hit the right and the bird almost landed in Scotts lap. Now we need one more and when it comes to that I always seem to struggle, almost like the birds know. It was pretty slow and at about 10:45 we decided to pick up because Adam had a family function and needed to leave at noon. Of course once you start picking up the birds always know. We left the guns loaded but with 2 trucks and a trailer in the middle of the decoys are not welcoming to geese.
The morning was great and we had alot of fun. We learned that theese birds are extremely hard to hunt because they are so educated, but all the calling we ahd to do didin't go to waste. Matt had his camera with and was able to get some great shot that I will be posting up on the picture page when I get the disc from him. The one I am looking forward to, if it turns out the way it looked on the camera screen, is a live action shot where you can actually see the shot pattern right before it hits the bird. All and all it was a great hunt and well worth the drive, and hopefully next season I get to make a few more trips down there to do it again.

SILVER LAB PUPS FORSALE!

Silver lab just gave birth to 13 pups in December (9 females and 4 males)! They have a great pedigree and both parents are AKC certified. $1,200/female or $1,000/male.

Call Andy (651-283-9919) for more details.

Ducks here!

Finally we have lots of ducks in Arkansas, Tennesee, and Mississippi. I have hunted in a few places the last 2 weeks going from public land in tennessee to private land in arkansas so i have had a few good opportunities to shoot ducks. Last saturday I met a few guys in a local spot here in TN and we had a good time shooting a few birds but should have had alot more than what we did. This week my friends who didn't have exams shot some ducks in the same public land so next week i will hit that land hard and try to kill some birds there as well as in Arkansas were i am leaving to in the morning for 2 days. The season in Arkansas, Tennessee and Missisippi are all going to be really good the next week or 2 due to the large amounts of ducks that have moved down for the winter. I have heard this week there will be the largest population of ducks that there have been in the last 15 years. At least in our area.

Ilinois Report

Duck season closed December 15 in Illinois' North Zone. The majority of ducks have moved on, but geese were migrating by the thousands. Though there are still plenty of geese in the northern zone, most of them are now in Central Illinois (aerial survey showed 17,000 plus or minus in Fulton County). Fields are very good. Ponds and lakes are frozen or starting to freeze; river hunting will still be productive for a couple of weeks.

I was out last Friday and Tuesday on the Des Plaines River and ducks were generally slow, with a few good flocks in between. "Blind Jumpers" (trespassers) ruined the hunt, shooting at ducks that were too far or shooting them after they landed on the water. I wish more hunters would stick together and be more sportsmanlike, we already have enough enemies.

All in all, the season has been fair compared to previous years, but it's still good to get out!

[ Aberdeen Dakota]

Here is a bit more information/photo corroborates what I continue to hear…. that they are stacked in northern South Dakota feeding in flooded, unharvested grain fields. Attached are pictures of mallards (mostly) this weekend in South Dakota.

That could be changing as the temperatures drop in Prairie Canada and northern U.S. states. This week will be the first time the temperatures do not exceed freezing. There continues to be a tremendous amount of water and flooded unharvested bean and corn fields in the mid-west/Great Plains. Even when that water freezes there will be open water available on the Missouri River. We will really need some snow to push the bulk of these birds away from the food and south.

Daryn Hanley

Cold in Montana

I didn't have much time to get out this weekend. A lot of our still water is now frozen. Some of our spring creeks and major rivers remain open and they are still holding birds. I had time to scout one of my favorite spots on Saturday afternoon and it was loaded with birds. My holiday honey dos are finished so I'll be back at them next weekend.

Dog tip for cold weather hunting: When hunting in very cold conditions it's very important to provide your dog with a little extra special care.

1) Make sure your dog is wearing a high quality neoprene vest.
2) Make sure your dog is well fed the night before the hunt with high carb dog food.
3) Bring an insulated pad or make a dry grass bed for the dog to stand/sit on during the hunt.
4) Keep your dog as dry as possible.
5) Watch your dog carefully during the hunt for signs of hypothermia. This might be any strange behavior including an unusual lack of attention, excessive shivering, stiffness, and a pronounced kink in the dog's tail.
6) Never hunt your dog in deep moving water when shelf ice is present. This has killed many a good retriever on cold weather hunts.

Good Hunting, Mark

Iowa, IA

Well this weekend was the end for the iowa duck and goose hunting. It stinks but more next year. Now im seeing more ducks and geese then ever, around here. But i think there mostly, northern geese flying south for the winter.
AJ

3rd week

Well I finally got to get out for another hunt after some time with sickness. We hunted yesterday and saw alot more birds than had been around in a while. The cooler temps have pushed quite a few divers in the area. We ended up taking some bluebill and some buffleheads man how humble can a man get. Those divers do make a man think about how he needs to get out in the off season and do alot of shooting.

FREE Ducks Unlimited Membership (for non-DU members)

Anyone out there that is NOT a member of DU?

The first 10 people to contact Duck Junkies will get a FREE 6-month DU membership to get started! The 6-month membership includes 3 issues of the DU magazine, your membership card and DU decals.

All FROZE up in NW Missouri

Last week was the best week in we have saw in NW Mo this season. The mallards were every where and working great. Up until Friday morning when all the marshes holding the big numbers of birds started to freeze by Saturday morning there was a solind 2 inches of ice. Now all the larger lakes are starting to get pretty thick except for where the big honkers are keeping it open and it is time to start getting after them they are pilening in in big numbers now. The worst part about in is that duck season is open in the north part of the state until 12-29 and even the missouri river has enough ic it cant be hunted although it usually doesnt stay that way for long. Goose season will run until 1-31-10

the last week

its cold out. 12 below out and now the birds are here. shot some geese and a northern shoveler it was ok its better then a skunk for the day and its the last week for ducks. im try to breed bear so we should have pups. if you know people looking let me know its going to be his first litter. can't wait to see them. good luck guys seeeeee ya

SEASON'S RECAP

Well, I had the fortunate pleasure of closing out the season hunting with one of the only few other hunters I've hunted with, that has duck hunting boiling in their blood. My Nephew Ry, (and capt'n Junkie). We did not have a fantastic shoot, but enough to keep it interesting! And as always, there were the memorable moments that you can keep looking back on during the off season. Some of them were mentioned in a previous post, so I won't repeat the details, but thought I would make a list:

Drew's first Drake Woodie

Smell of the grilling duck breast out in the marsh

Four shooters-not a goose fell?? what just happened??

Drew… "Its got jewelry"

Setting up the big blue awning out on the line

The sunken pram, hoping our gear all floats

I've never been so wet in all my life

6 duck limit on my B-day

A second blown opportunity on a bull Pintail this year. Could it get any more frustrating?

The Bald Eagle Retriever

Got my groove back on the last day of the season by shooting well, and also getting my first (and only) goose of the year.

Duck season ended on the right day. Monday morning almost everything was iced in. Unfortunately the last big migration did not make it here before the season closed. Hopefully that means more around next year!!

Matt

I'm back and so are the birds

Well i have been a little behind on my blogs (sorry everyone) my computer has been down for a couple weeks and that mixed with goose season has kept me away. haha
The geese are coming through in numbers i haven't seen in a few seasons up here and the 8 degree highs aren't hurtin us too bad either. If you can handle the cold your sure too limit out. Ducks are coming in stong but not in the numbers were used to seeing or im just in the wrong spots (good possibility). Hopefully going to scope out a slew i might get a chance at east of town and see what happens ill keep you guys posted!
RH

A Sad Sad Day

There is no feeling like the one you get on the last day of the season. On Sunday morning Matt and I had a hard time getting out of bed. The night before we watched the video of the new, 2009 world duck calling champion Mike Anderson of Minnesota, had a few drinks and had a great time and a great meal.
We pulled into the boat landing about 5:00 and there was only 1 car in the lot? On the last day? We motored out and found our spot and set up. Unlike Sat. morning the show started right away. Not fast by any means but decent. We had the only shooting on the marsh. Every bird we shot decoyed very well and even circled a few times before shooting. We did however get BURNED by a flock of geese right away.
We were working a pair of mallards way out front when I saw the tails on a flock of geese about 25yds high over the decoys flying away. They made no sound! No honk, not even air from their wings! We did manage 2 drake mallards, one hen, a beautiful ringbill a goose and a drake gadwall. After sitting for almost 2 hours I decided to call it at 11:00. I would have loved to finish the day out but I had a long drive home and with a busted up ankle I wanted to give it some rest before work on Monday. At least I finished the season with some birds but the coolest thing was the final bird we worked in about 5 times and I had a 1 shot clean kill. Something good to build of off of for next season:>)
The bird locations this season has been most challenging. Some people believed they flew early and some said they went back north in NOV because of the warmth. I found a report that on Sat Dec 5th Brainerd MN was hold one of the largest sightings of birds in that area in a while. Due to the season being closed there was no gun pressure so the flocks of birds were aparently a sight to see. Huge rafts of divers and mallards filled the area. So its true we finished a season before the birds even got here!
Now for the decoy. Last season I started to play with the idea of a new decoy design. This season I made a few different versions and each time out we were the only ones having birds decoy in. The mornings I didn't have it with you could almost tell the difference in confidence of the birds. This past weekend we had swans multiple times decoy in and one time they ran it over. The next step is a patent and to figure out true production cost. Hopefully by next season I have something to sell because only 3 people besides me have ever seen it and they all want one so be sure to check back! You never know when it may become available.

Well It was a cold one for TN

Finally we got the cold weather we have all been despiratly waiting for. It was 20 degrees saturday and sunday morning, sure you northerners got alot colder but for us it was colder than a witch's tity! I was ready to go hunt both days with a few good friends of mine and we all had fun although we barely got to shoot anything. Saturday we hunted a beaver slough where there was the only open water we could find. The only problem we had was it was 4 feet of water and another 4 feet of mud! I threw out a bunch of decoys with 2 foot of line on each decoy and they all floated back to us except for one so at the end of the day i tried to walk out and get it and ended up flooding my waders! stupid mistake! The paint on the decoy wasn't very good so in my anger of being cold and wet i told my friends to kill the first duck of the day.... It still took us 4 shots to completly sink a decoy!(all the other times it only takes one pellet from shooting a cripple to sink them) So we ended up going home empty handed. We had a nice fellow tell us about a new WMA in Fayette county TN were noone hunted and it was an old hunting club so we decided to go try that the next day. My friends Caleb, Fallon, Patrick and I all walked in not knowing where we were going but i found the spot the guy told us about. Fallon had to get back to Oxford that afternon so he left early. We had had a bunch of woodies skim over the trees but we eithor werent ready or someone didnt see them so we never got to kill anything there. There were however 2 or 3 guys hunting near us that thought they could kill anything that they could see we had 2 mallards fly over us andthey were way to high to shoot at but soon after they flew over these dumbasses and they were shooting at ducks at least 150 yards above them. That wasnt the only time. There were 2 Canadians that flew about 50 yards directly over our heads well i though TN canada season didnt open till january but i was wrong and once again these guys were shooting at geese Big geese none the less at over 300 yards away!!! I was pissed so i ended up picking up all the decoys and leaving but once again on the way out in 3 feet of water i tripped and fell face first through ice into the water! The decoy bag strapped to my back did nothing more than hold me under for longer but i finally managed not to drown and got up and went straight to the truck and straight home still being able to make it to church! lol we could have shot a few duck sunday but i a, definatly looking forward to going back to Arkansas to kill some ducks! and maybe go on a gooe hunt.

Matt Your Bull !! Your Bull !!!!!

I arrived in SW WI late Friday night with a very sore ankle and lots of excitement for the final 2 days. The weather had changed on my way down and was no longer from the north, it was now from the south. Matt and I unpacked my stuff and loaded up for the morning.
Saturday morning reveled a lot of ice at the launch, but luckily some other boats had alreday made a path. We put our boat in right after a group of 3 that had a much bigger boat and we were hoping to follow them so we wouldn't have to break so much ice. Turns out none of their flood lights worked and they asked us if they could follow us. We made a few jokes but were more than willing because if you do not know the channel, especially this time of year when there is no grass left, you will be stuck in weeds and dead heads.
The morning shoot revealed almost no birds. Almost no shooting anywhere and at 10:00 Matt and I decided to take the boat out to find another spot and see what was frozen. We found a great spot and quickly picked up to move.
Once set up in the new spot way back in the prairie where no one else was, on a spot I'll call the lost bull island, we quickly saw some action. I was eating a snack when Matt yelled out "RY right here"! I crouched down and asked" where" without looking which was followed by a quick gun shot and the response, " In the decoys!" Shortly after that it was my turn. Matt grabbed a snack and out of the corner of my eye I spotted 2 flying at us very fast and about 10ft off the water. I told Matt to stop and explained where the birds would be when he turned around but before I could finish they were on us. I pulled up and vaporized the first one and picked off the second one with a long poke. A Pattermaster choke with HEVI Shot at 10yrds on a shoveler flying full tilt does some damage! The problem was the other birds. We watched as a bald eagle swooped down and picked it up! All I could do is yell at it. It dropped the duck and it came around for another pass> Right then 2 hunters showed up in front of us, almost as if sent by God to help us. They grabbed the bird for us way out in the bay but they had to swat the eagle away! This bird would not give up!
About 5 minutes later we had a huge Drake gadwal drop right in on the decoys. We each fired 1 shot making a clean kill and the race was on between KING and the eagle! Matt and I watched in amazement as this bird swooped down on King as he grabbed the bird. He did a great job bringing it back and it is now in the freezer and heading to the taxidermist. Now with 3 shovelers and a gady in the bag the moment arrived!
Matt and I both have a life long obsession with the big bull pintail. In this part of the country they are not in abundance so to shoot one is huge, but for us its better than any jewlery out there. 3 years ago I shot one that is being mounted, and so when I saw this one dart by I knew this was going to be all Matt.
When it shot by I yelled out Matt your bull Matt your bull!! "I know I know!' he said. I imediately grabbed the dog remote and the call. There was no screwing this one up! I worked the mallard and pintail call both bringing the majestic bird into the decoys. First pass was ok but I knew I could do better. Second pass it came right at us with wings cupped and feet down but flared to my side. "No no no" I called off the shot because I knew I was getting this one all the way in. I looked at Matt and the look on his face was priceless. His eyes were fixated on this bird as it kept circling around. His eyes were that of a 2 year old that you just handed a big bowl of candy and told, "go ahead and eat it all." It brought a smile to my face and determination to my calling. Not too much but not to little. I watched each movement of the bird as I called making sure he was committed. On the 3rd pass it was like something out of a video. Feet down and wings cupped, my blood pumped for Matts sure kill shot on his first pintail. I yelled take'm! 3 shots rang out and he flew away! I reached for my gun but by the time I got a shot off it was too late.
We sat in awe of the recent event. Apparently Matt in not ment to have the bull. Both being frustrated we missed a few birds after that but ended with 7 on sat with a couple of cripples. We should have had our limit, but thats why its a sport. The worst part of the whole story is that Matt had one other chance this year also and came up empty. Its just one of those things that you try so hard you over try. I know the day will come when he gets one. I just hope I can be the one to call it in for him. And if anything else maybe his daughter will shoot one before he does{:>) and I can be there for that too!
Sundays review will come tomorrow with a review of my experimental decoy. It is getting late but the cold temps are definitly here. We are expecting 12" of snow tomorrow and temps well below zero on Thursday and Friday. Alot of geese are moving south with the rest of the birds, I just hope there is some black foots left in a couple of weeks for the official last hunt.

Montana Hunting Report

Well we've been praying for a cold front and we got one. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. -15 with the wind chill on Saturday. The cold temps moved a bunch of birds down from Alberta late last week. I hunted the Missouri river on Saturday morning just south of Great Falls and there were tremendous numbers of ducks and geese. Due to near white out conditions it took me twice as long to drive the 60 miles to the boat launch as it normally does. I jumped about 1000 mallards and 500 honkers on my way into the back water slough I hunt. Once I got set up the shooting was fast and furious for both ducks and geese. See the attached picture for results. I also attached a picture of my waders. You know it's cold when your waders stand up on their own after taking them off. LOL.

The latest forecast has temps well below zero for most of the coming week. Wind chill numbers will be dropping as low as -40 in places. As long as some of our rivers and spring creeks stay open we should be OK. We don't have a lot of snow on the ground so most of the grain fields should stay open to feeding birds moving south. I spoke with a good friend this afternoon and he did well hunting a spring creek in the southern part of the state this weekend. He also reported good numbers of birds available if you could find open water and were willing to bare the cold temps. I have also been hearing about good numbers of ducks holding on the Bighorn river in eastern Montana. In addition tremendous numbers of geese can usually be found anywhere along the Yellowstone river corridor this time of year. The trick is getting permission to hunt one of the many grain fields that border both sides of the river. This is much easier to do now that deer season is over. An afternoon spent scouting and knocking on doors usually pays big dividends.

Good hunting and be safe, Mark

The WI season is now over

Had the great opportunity to squeeze in one more weekend with the southern WI zone closing tonight. I got a 2-3 degree sprain on my left ankle Friday morning but tape and Advil and determination made the weekend bearable. now at home my ankle has blown up like a balloon and is all purple. I need ice and sleep so check back this Mon or Tues for the full report of the hunt and the stories we will never forget. By the way the "black foots" are majorly on the move. Between the morning hunt and the drive home I saw about 5-6 thousand flying south today alone.

12/4/09 Florida

12/4/09

Hello fellow waterfowlers. Chuck Echenique, Florida Prostaffer with Duck Junkies, writing in to give you the low down on birds in my home state. First phase was slow in many areas, although decent numbers of ringers and blue wing teal are here to be found. Opening day had us covered up in ringnecks and a few bluewings. The numbers decreases dramatically over the course of the 9 day season as more shooting meant more birds leaving the area. South Florida in and around Okeechobee and the Glades has plenty of birds if you know where to look, and more are showing up every day. The St. Johns River basin also has a good number of birds in spots and there's decent numbers of widgeon and pinners if you know what and where to look. West coast is void of most birds again as flight patterns seem to have changed permanently from traditional wintering near Chazhowitzka and Tampa Bay. we are seeing some scaup and ringnecks on the west coast, but no big numbers. The panhandle is showing signs of life and woodies are everywhere. With the big cold moving into the midwest this week and next, phase 2 should be smoking hot. We keep seeing great numbers coming in to the central and southern reaches of the peninsula. Still lots of black bellies and teal abundant, and mottleds are a staple all season. Good luck to all. See you guys on the marsh come Dec 12. For now, I'm off to KS, MO & IL to chase some greenheads and honkers. Shoot 'em in the lips boys!

Chuck Echenique
Rebel Yelp Outfitters & Calls
Final Approach Pro Staff
Rig'em Right Pro Staff

Duck Junkies Pro Staff
www.rebelyelpoutfitters.com

Iowa, IA

Well this year was a good one, the mallards and geese flew every morning like normal. We hunted as much as we can to get on the birds. Yesterday was the last day for the season, i didnt have time to go out, i was alil mad, but life goes on. I think this year our group only shot acouple geese and maybe 100 ducks or less. We thought we did alright.

Southern Canandaguia Lake Update (not so good)

Hey guys my name is Jim Grove New York Prostaff. You can read my info on the prosatff page. Well the opening day of NY gun season for deer was not very good for me so i decided to go duck hunting with my cousin. We didn't get our river spot so we had to take on the lake. The ducks were flying but they went into the marshes behind us. We moved up the river but the water was low we couldnt get anywhere good so we called it a day. We went goose hunting a few days later 10 miles south of the lake. We shot eight three banded. We saw 300 geese but the all came at once which was too many eyes and they were a little scared to drop in so we shot the ones that landed. Thanksgiving day was unsuccessful for geese. I felt like an idiot when i saw a flock started to call them in then got the binos on them and saw they were seguls...There is only a couple days for ducks but i like late season more...But it is time to hit the geese hard the cold front is coming.

My Gear:
Remington 1100 12 ga
Blackcloud BBB
Big Foot Goose Decoys
Redhead Goose Shells
Mixed brands of mallards
Foiles Meat Grinder
Primos Honky Tonk
Flextone Double Reed Duck Call
Primos Over and Over Single Reed
Cabelas Interceptor Mobile 1 Layout Blind

Duck Season come and gone!

After a year of major ups and downs in NW WI of duck huntin it has sadly come to an end! The 60 days are always way to short. Especially this year with the heat wave to end the year! The ducks were very few and far between. That is for sure! And to top it all off the deer numbers were way down too. But I can't complain. Any excuse I have to hunt, I am gonna jump on it. Now it is back to goose huntin and bow huntin. Good luck to all those huntin down south. Save a few to migrate North next year!

More mallards showing up in NW Missouri

Had a very good hunt this morning shot a 2 man limit of mallards in an hour from shooting time. All of them were cupped feet down coming on in. It seems that there are more mallards in the area now then last week. The birds all worked very well to the call didnt just circle around 5 or 6 times and head out of the country. Even had a group of about fifty cupped and coming in and couldnt open up on them only needed one more for the limit. The weather is getting cooler here finaly even had a little ice in the shallows. Even had a group of three coming down while i was pulling up in the boat. Right up there on the top of the list of best hunts of the year.

South Texas Deer Hunt

Well I gave up duck hunting for my Thabksgiving Break I had a chance to visit a friend in South Texas who owns a QDMA ranch. I hunted there from Wednesday until Saturday and in that length of time I saw more giant deer than i will ever see in Tennessee. I could only shoot axis deer, old does, or old bucks. I saw many whitetail does and the same number if not more bucks. A few times the deer were close enough i could pet them. I had to have seen at least 20 bucks on the entire trip that would score over 130" and at least 5 deer that would score 150" or better. I was amazed at all of the giant racks on the deer in texas. The only thing that did not add up for me was their body size. I shot a 3 1/2 year old doe that weighed 65 pounds back here in Tennessee I could expect a 3 1/2 year old doe to be anywhere from 100 to 150 pounds depending where i was hunting.
I never got to take a trophy buck in Texas. I never saw a buck that would have been mature enough for me to take and no one be upset. The axis buck i shot was in velvet not very big yet, but there was another axis buck with this one that was close to 36" wide at the top of his rack and his main beams were 40-56" long. He was absolutely massive but he never jumped the fence into the property i was hunting.
Although i did take my break from duck hunting it is the only one for this year. This weekend Arkansas has a juvenile hunt so I am traveling to Tunica, Mississippi to try my luck. The weather is calling for the low temps to be in the high 20s so it ought to be an excellent weekend for hunting.
Hope everyone has alot of luck hunting this week.
Cade Patton

SE Oklahoma

Well we've reached the split here in Oklahoma. The first couple of weeks were amazing with thousands of ducks. Got limits of 30 and 24 on my two first hunts of the year. Since then it's been like someone just turned off the switch. Last couple of weeks have been rough to say the least. I would go out scouting and find 300 ducks one day, hunt em the next morning and see only 50 very uncooperative birds. Last hunt I scouted and jumped 50 mallards. Hunted the same hole the next morning and only saw maybe 15 with only 3 of em working into the decoys. The rest were to far out and not interested at all. It just goes to show when you think you got em figured out maybe they they got you figured out instead. Hopefully we get some cold weather up North moving some new ducks in. Second season is always better around here anyway.

John

East Texas Update 11/29/09

Times have been hard around here the past few weeks. With what has felt like a constant south wind, and 70 degree days. The few big ducks we got early in the season have been long since shot out. Seeing on average only 30- 60 birds per morning outing. We have been killing wood ducks, and a few mallard, and gadwall in backwater river holes,and oxbows. Season closes here today for a 2 week split. Looks like a decent front coming through on Tuesday. I have noticed some wads of canvasbacks on big water the past week. 20-60 sized groups. In talking to friends up north, this front is moving some birds. With no pressure in OK. or TX. for two weeks fresh birds should hold, and have time to localize, which should make the opening weekend better than what we have seen so far. Good luck to all.





Shannon Smith

Flying Aces Duck Calls, and Guide Service

The Last Day For Duck Hunting

Well the story of November has been the freakish weather. Bitter cold October and a extremely warm November has keep the birds well into Canada. Went out Fri and Sat to a lake that was holding birds but sunny sky's kept them in the park basking in the sun. Got to do a little calling but nothing being pressured and nothing working at all.
When down to the river in Stillwater this morning hoping for some honkers and was suprised, and caught off guard by mallards. We only packed a dozen mallards and about 3 dozen geese and before the sun came up the mallards were circling. I would have pulled up a little early on 2 groups but someone showed up 10 minutes before shooting and tried to motor into where we were set up. By the time they made it down the shore there was 4 minutes to go and big drakes in the decoys. I played by the rules and waited until shooting started the whole time keeping the in a circle pattern around us. Right at shooting time a group od 12 set into the decoys and we hit 3 drakes but 2 dove. We had some landing behind us but we weren't paying attention back there because it is wooded. Turns out there was a huge pond back there they were roosting in. By the time we caught on to this and moved some decoys back there it was too late. We let hesitation kill us on a few I thought would "finish" but go away.
We did see alot of honkers flying out of the north. Lots of calling with little effort ( they were very high ) but then success! I pulled 2 of of a huge "V" and they came right over out into the bay and flew in 10ft feet off the water into the decoys. When they came down the shore line I could see that they were 2 of the biggest honkers I have seen in a long time. When they started to land short of the decoys I called out head shot right as they hit the water in their back stroke. All we saw was feathers flying and the spray of the shot on the water all around them, BUT THEY WERE NOT DIEING! All 3 of us unloaded on these 2 birds and they were flying away. I loaded 2 more shells into the gun and shot at the closer on again. It flew down the shoreline twards the 2 late arrivals and they unloaded 6 rounds into them fallowed by a boat chase and 2 more rounds. I thought they went home early but they stopped calling and let me do it for them. Must have realized their flute didn't sound good.
We sat and laughed at the "Iron Bird" and reflected on the season. Quite possibly on of the worst in a long time with the funky weather, but also filled with missed opportunities. The push will happen for sure this weekend as the temp on Thursday drop from 45deg to 10deg over night and day time highs are below freezing. According to the guide in Canada it is going to be a show because they say there are still record numbers of birds holding in their area but expect them to leave by Wed.
My only hope for another duck hunt is the possibilty of making it back to SW Wisconsin because their season ends on Dec 6, but otherwise all I have is a couple weeks of late season goose hunting coming up. Better get some scouting in because I still need to shoot some honkers! I have only 1 in the bag this year.

With the weather being so warm for the last few weeks we did not know how well we would do. Opening day comes with my hunting party in the middle of a freshly sown wheat field with just a hope of some geese coming in. We ended up at the end with a 4 man limit of canada geese and 1 bonus snow to go along with them. What a great day to be out in nature with a sunrise that was hard to believe. Man I love waterfowl hunting!

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Illinois

wow what a change in a week new birds a lot of divers and geese its been nice to shot some new birds the cold and wind helped out a lot wounder lake they are getting birds the fields are good for geese a lot of the fields freeze so they've been hitting the bigger water grass lake is doing ok i here

First Snow in Ohio

Friday November 27 we finally got our first blanket of snow. We were in the wrong spot in the marsh but it was still a good day because the whole area was loaded with fresh birds. Mallards and Black ducks were all over today and that was a sight for sore eyes because we werent getting any birds until this past week. Another sign that the birds are moving is one of my fathers friends baged two bands this past week both of the birds came from Canada. So tomorrow morning were gonna be in the right spot and you will hear from me tomorrow hopefully with a few more birds.. Good Hunting!

Iowa

It has been snowing, just a light snow this week not really acummulationg to anything, but the mallards have come back for round two, acouple of my buddies went out yesterday and the day before, without me and shot there limit, they said that they came back intot he decoys by using a comeback call.

3 Days Left

Today the story was the wind. Got to the lake early and the wind was coming from the wrong direction according to the weather report on my phone. Too late to turn back and the wind was quite strong so we decide that a right to left wind would work. Set out dozen mallards and about 4-5 dozen divers expecting that more came down on the strong overnight north winds. Turns out the wind picked up and if you count how many times we had to move the decoys because they were blowing away we acually put out about 30 dozen this morning and picked up about a dozen in frustration.
Sunrise came and there was not a bird to be seen. Had a few other buddies in the area seeing the same thing we were, nothing. No frozen ponds yet almost every body of water is open north of here and we only have 3 days left.
Debating on hunting in the morning or putting on some miles scouting for the last 2 days. Hard to say but I did stop by a lake on the way home from dinner and saw a good size flock of mallards in the dark . Maybe give it a try at least and then scout. Hard to say but the temp is dropping into the low 20's to upper teens and the wind is going to change direction so maybe a few more stragglers will find their way down.

Almost Time

Well a lot has been going on the last few weeks to lead us up to opening day. I took a week off work and went on a deer hunting trip and took a deer of a life time with my bow. Now I am waiting until Sat. for the season to start and I don't know if there will be many birds or not. Right now there is not much here but a few geese, not many ducks at all. Can't wait just hope the holiday goes great for everyone and then we can really get after the waterfowl hard and hope for great fowl weather.

Greetings from Montana

I just returned from a great hunt in Alaska with my son and things are really starting to happen here in Montana. A good friend called me this morning. When I answered the phone the first two words out of his mouth told me everything I needed to know. "It's on". He had just killed his fourth limit of ducks in the last 7 days. The first big pushes of birds have started south out of Alberta. It's been an unseasonably mild fall in this neck of the woods and reports continue to indicate huge numbers of birds holding just north of us in Canada. Despite a relatively mild Canadian weather forecast, I stood outside tonight and listened to literally thousands of ducks and geese heading south. Alberta temps will be dropping into the teens tonight but usually it takes snow and temps in the single digits to really get things moving.

My truck is packed with decoys and my lab is whimpering by the door. The alarm is set for 4am and my heart is beating just a little faster tonight. My gut tells me tomorrow is going to be one of those special days. From Big Sky Country "It's On"!!!

Arkansas Season Opener

Well Saturday I was not expecting to do very well the weather was not as bad as it could have been though it could have been much warmer. When I woke up at 3a.m. I got everything together and packed ready to get to the blind. When I got to the club they had already put decoys out the night before and had not seen many ducks. All of the ducks they had seen had been woodies flying the river. None the less I was anxious to get out to the blind. We got to the blind and put out a few motion decoys because there was no wind. We had 9 people in our blind and 2 dogs. It started very slow with lots of woodies flying but not around us. We had a few chances early at big ducks but noone could see. Once it was light out we began shooting ducks. All we were seeing were gadwalls no mallards. We ended up shooting 20 gadwalls and about 10 teal that all suprise attacked us. We also had one lone mallard very sad for a club with mallard in the name. Sunday we went out and tryed to shoot a few woodies early in a timber hole but it did not work. They did not want into our timber hole. My friend Caleb and I went with my fathers friend Warren that morning because we did not have anyone else to go with. We went back to the blind and ended up shooting 4 mallards and 8 gadwalls. The other 6 guys had left about the time we go there and had shot 8 gadwalls. We are all hopeing that here in Arkansas, Tennesee, and Mississippi we get cold weather. Tomorrow i leave for texas to go on a Deer hunt for the rest of the week. I hope that I have some luck shooting deer! Once I get back I plan on hunting in Tennessee for ducks and then in 2 weeks going to Tunica MS for some more fun waterfowl hunting.

slow in IL

It's been to slow no birds in long time. Deer opened Friday. It was bad- did not have one come by or see one. I was told 64 deer were shot opening day. It's up from last year. It opens back up on the 2nd so lets see what happens.
We should be good on the birds at the end of the week -snow and in the 20s. Let it come -can't wait! My dog (Bear) hates me. I want to i find some birds but nobody is shooting much here...

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Took The Day Off

After yesterdays frustrating morning and the extreme lack of birds and over abundance of warm weather, I slept in and went to church with the family. Talked with a buddy that hunted a field in Hugo MN down by the cities that had a 3 man limit of birds by 8:00 and was waiting on geese.
Cleaning the shop today and gearing up for the last weekend of hunting in MN and hopefully in 2 weeks the water is still open in SW Wisconsin for their season ending weekend.

Opening Day Bayou Meto WMA (Arkansas)

Everything went as planned for the start. Which is highly unsual. Left the boat ramp and got to our hole. Our buddies already had decoys set out. Thats the way to hunt right there. What are friends for. It was cloudy here, had a bunch of Woodies flying, should have shot more. At one point we were all standing around talking, and what happened. Mallards fly over and of course nobody was ready. We did manage to end the day with 3 ducks. Mallard (Drake), Woodie, and a Blue Wing Teal. Seen alot of high flying ducks. But not near the number that we see near the middle of December. Need alot colder weather up North to push the ducks down.



Jay Scott

Finally Got Info Back On the Jewlery

Earlier this fall I shot my first banded mallard> Hard to believe seeing as I have been hunting for a long time but we are not known in this area for seeing banded birds. I shot it in October on the first trip to SW Wisconsin and just recived the official document. The Drake was banded in Kentucky and hatched sometime before 2007.

Looking forward to tomorrows hunt on the river. There has been a huge influx of geese in the last two days and they are on almost every pond and lake the way they used to be. Also starting to see more mallards but not expecting to see the push until next week starting on Wed. with a cold front coming out of Canada bringing snow and high winds from the North.

Junkie Trip to SW Wisconsin

My brother and I drove 3 1/2 hrs straight to the landing for an evening shoot on Sunday. We arrived around 12:00 and after having a little trouble finding a spot we were set up to miss every bird we shot at. There wasn't many but we missed everything we shot at.
Saturday morning started out wrong for us. Now with my uncle aboard the Junkies cruise ship it meant we had to tow the 10ft boat with the gear. We woke up on time but left a little late and when we arrived at the landing there was 4 trucks there! On a Monday morning? I thought that Obama's stimulus plan was going to put everyone back to work?
We anticipated getting on the line but now the plan was for the horse shoe. As we were puttin out dragging the boat I could see a boat coming up the channel, FAST! about 60yds from the turn to the horse shoe they past us and we watched as they made the turn into our spot! So on to plan c.
My uncle had a spot he's been wanting to hunt all season and hasn't been able to so we gave it a whirl. It wasn't too far from where we were the night before and the birds seemed to like the area. At sun up the slaughter began. Only one other time this season had we had birds work like this. Feet down and wings cupped. A couple times we passed on 25yd shots to bring them around for a 15yd shot. We also picked up a goose and left around 10:00 with having the only shooting on the prairie.
Monday night was a bust and we "twisted" my uncles arm into coming out on Tues morning a as long as I ran him back to the launch to go to work at 8:00. Unfortunately he had parent teacher conferences that night so he had to go to work early. Family before everything! So my brother and I headed back out for one last hunt before driving home. What a joke!
As we pulled into our spot there was ducks flushing from everywhere! I had to turn off the boat lights because King was going nuts. We were very excited and had plenty of time to burry the blinds and boat so well we couldn't even see it.
At sun up we saw nothing like the day before. very few birds, nothing wanting to work, and 3 missed shots left us with no birds and a long ride home.
The excitement came though as we pulled into my driveway. I was backing up my boat and in my mirrors everything looked good bu I was worried about my mail box. I stopped and asked my brother to look out his window and tell me if I was clear. He said yes and I continued to back up. I made it 12inches and backed over my mail box! snapped off the pole and pulled the concrete out and broke the taillight off my trailer. When I asked him what the hell he was looking at he said, "I thought it would clear."
Its going to be a warm weekend again but right in time for thanksgiving the temps take a huge turn. Highs at the freezing mark and strong north winds will surely push the birds through just ion time for the close of the season! Hopefully I get a chance to build one more prototype decoy seeing as how the first test run worked so well on Mon!

We got ducks in Oklahoma!

We've been wearing em out here in SE Oklahoma. Opened the season two weeks ago with a limit, what an awesome hunt. We started off slow cause we got in the hole late. The spot we originally wanted to hunt was dry so we had to find another one. Before we could get the first decoy in the water we had teal lighting on top of us. Once everyone was in place, the sky was full of birds. We had hundreds of birds circling above and groups of 20 and 30 dropping in the spread. It was an incredible sight. Had the great pleasure of hunting with Shannon and Jason from Flying Aces Duck Calls. If you want a better call I highly recommend checkin these guys out. We had five guys in the hole and got our limit by 9:00. Had a mixed bag with Mallards, Gadwalls, Teal, one Woody and a spoon bill. Had another incredible hunt on Saturday, but I'm going to save that story for my next entry.

John

Picking the right spot

I have a tradition of hunting Nov. 13th from sun-up to sun-down. I bow hunt 'til noon and then duck hunt the rest of the day. No matter how busy it is at work, this is always my day to myself. Bow hunting was non-productive, but did see a few does. Busted up a flock of turkeys on my way out, so I exchanged weapons back at the truck to my Benelli. Sat on a ridge above where the birds flew off to but could not get a response. In the afternoon it was out to do what I look forward to the most. An evening hunt on the marsh. Bird numbers are down for this time of the year, so I knew if this was going to work I needed to make a good decision where and how I was going to set-up. Factoring the wind, the dark sky and where I knew other hunters would be I put myself in an area with little pockets of open water and filled a few with decoys and a shaker in each. I figured the ducks would be coming out of the refuge high enough to see the scattered spreads I had. Worked like a charm! FINALLY got these educated ducks to work and commit. Before shooting hour ended I had my 6 and then just watched the show of ducks dumping into my spot.

Matt

SW wisconsin trip

We had a great slaughter this morning of birds. Every duck but one was shot with wings cupped and feet down. Went out tonight with no luck but saw a great bird show after shooting. Heading out in the morning than heading home so look for a full update on wed night of the trip!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Duck Season is Around the Corner. (Arkansas)

Well got me 2 doe on opening morning. Ready for duck season now. Temps got up to 70 over the weekend here. Now it has cooled on down with what rain has moved in here. 4 more days till opening morning. Still not seeing alot of birds, but we are gonna hunt what is here. Still got a little more to do to get my boat ready. Hope everybody up north is not killing them all.




Jay Scott

Iowa

This past couple of weeks have been hard on us. There has been little amounts of ducks around and theres been some, actually acouple hundred geese on this private pond that he wont let us hunt. There have been guys goin out and they shot total of 12 ducks this weekend. Its been rough for us since they all flew south.

Ducks showing up in NW Missouri

Cooler temps combined with rain, snow, and a north wind made for a good shoot this morning in NW, Mo. It seems that the cold front that came through has pushed some new ducks down. A very over cast sky, rain, and snow kept the ducks pretty low this morning. There are currently a lot of pintails in the area right now. 13 total kills this morning with 3 guys we picked up about 9:00 and headed to the house. It was a cold wet snowy mess when we got back to the boat ramp but probably the best hunt of the year so far. Snow and rain in the forcast for the next 2 days should make for some more good hunting.

Sick of Hearing about Warm Weather?

Duck season opens this weekend the 21st but it is going to be too hot. It is supposed to be 70 degrees for the high saturday with the low only at 55. I can't even imagine not shoting a bird opening morning last year and the year before we killed 200 birds opening weekend now what? I hate to say this but we will have to wait out the warm weather and hope for cold. Some people may get lucky and shoot birds but it does not look promising in Tennessee, Arkansas, or Mississippi... Deer hunting sounds good but I am dedicated to waterfowl! Good luck to all, happy and safe hunting...or fishing

Sun Sun Go Away Come Again in 4 Months

The weather in Northeast Ohio has been less than terrible for ducks, sunny with highs of 60-65 has been the forecast the last two weeks. I have seen minimal numbers of mallards and no migrating birds. Although the weather is supposed to turn in the next few days I am hoping for a couple cold fronts to push the birds out of here that have been here all year. Three weekends ago while hunting in a local honey hole, my buddies and I saw three massive flocks of Tundra Swans which we figured meant there was some very cold weather headed our way, however that seemed to slip around us, and I don't even need to wear my wader jacket in the swamp because I start to sweat. Hopefully the weather moves and out we get some cold overcast days, so I can get myself a limit. Good luck to all fellow waterfowlers and hit em in the lips!