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