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!

Evening Hunt - SW Wisconsin

After a 4 hour drive south we have made it to Onalaska WI. Stopped along the way to drop off some gear for one of our members and now we sit and wait for some ducks.
There is a lot less grass than 4 weeks ago and because of that we beached the boat in the wrong channel. 2 spots we wanted to be there was already people but our third choice looks pretty good here in mallard bay. Hope the GPS works when we leave tonight because its going to be hard to find our way out. Maybe we will just sleep out here! Hahaha
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry