How did everyone's season end?
- Thread starter cjduncan
- Start date
Chris Finch
Well-known member
As my buddy said " this season was poops"
Good opening day and a good woody shoot after first ice up. No birds and the most people i have ever seen hunting (we got a new batch of wicked sky busters no lie shooting at birds 300 yards away)
Good opening day and a good woody shoot after first ice up. No birds and the most people i have ever seen hunting (we got a new batch of wicked sky busters no lie shooting at birds 300 yards away)
Vince Pagliaroli
Well-known member
The season that Wasn't.
Tom Roberts
Well-known member
Too soon of course. This has been a strange year in Oklahoma and of course it's all tied to the weird weather patterns we had. Started out warm, then suddenly very cold, then warm again, then very cold, and finally warm again. Felt like the season was running a couple of weeks behind the whole time. Had some great hunts with several limiting-out days and then had some that were duds. This was the year of the mallard where we shot 85% mallards, 10+% G.W. Teal, and the rest were a mix of Gadwalls, Ring-necks, Spoonies, and a couple of Bluebills. 2 years ago it was the year of the G.W. Teal and last year it was the year of the Gadwall. Now I've heard of others who reported shooting lots of Gadwalls and few Mallards but that seamed to be on area ponds. My biggest disappointment was in not getting a new drake species to put on the wall. I've made a concentrated effort the last 3 years to get a Bufflehead off a nearby lake and had some very good chances but just wasn't lucky enough. Had a great looking drake come in and put shot all around it but it didn't go down. Oh well, maybe next year. I did get my first hybrid,a Gadwall/Mallard hybrid, that's going on the wall. I guess overall it was an OK year.
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A dominance of adult canadas in the flight during the first weeks, coupled with heavy fall rains that kept grain fields from harvest, signaled a very quick goose season for us(the more juveniles in the population, the more birds linger here after crossing Lake Superior) here in the UP of Michigan. Out of 19 birds in my bag, three were juveniles
A handful of teal and two geese for the early Teal/goose season wasn't representative of bird numbers, more a consequence of the three days of steady rain that coincided with the season.
Duck season started well, with a fairly steady stream of birds moving through. A good acorn crop put wood ducks in numbers on most of the beaver ponds and floodings. Unfortunately, as migrating birds were building in the later end of the season, we were hit with a sustained period of near zero temperatures, with a still too large standing grain crop in the fields in the agriculture band up here-everthing froze-up as the diver flights and late mallards were building-in to peak numbers. Nearly all of the last two weeks of the season were unhuntable, due to frozen access sights and ice build-up.
A handful of teal and two geese for the early Teal/goose season wasn't representative of bird numbers, more a consequence of the three days of steady rain that coincided with the season.
Duck season started well, with a fairly steady stream of birds moving through. A good acorn crop put wood ducks in numbers on most of the beaver ponds and floodings. Unfortunately, as migrating birds were building in the later end of the season, we were hit with a sustained period of near zero temperatures, with a still too large standing grain crop in the fields in the agriculture band up here-everthing froze-up as the diver flights and late mallards were building-in to peak numbers. Nearly all of the last two weeks of the season were unhuntable, due to frozen access sights and ice build-up.
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We seem to be in the minority in that Our season was pretty good. The cold cooperated and brought with it a decent number of birds. We shot our Cans each hunt and were able to pick away at the redheads and bills.
We did struggle with high winds. It seemed each hunt we had to battle 20 to 30 mph winds. The ice also got pretty tough to deal with the last few days of the season but it was manageable.
Our season ended Jan 9th. My decoys are still a giant frozen pile on my garage floor. The layout boat still has a 2 inch thick ice shield and my waders can still stand all by themselves but I'm not complaining. It was a good season.
We did struggle with high winds. It seemed each hunt we had to battle 20 to 30 mph winds. The ice also got pretty tough to deal with the last few days of the season but it was manageable.
Our season ended Jan 9th. My decoys are still a giant frozen pile on my garage floor. The layout boat still has a 2 inch thick ice shield and my waders can still stand all by themselves but I'm not complaining. It was a good season.
Cody Williams
Well-known member
We had a very strange season too-too warm, then brutal cold that froze everything in November, then 6 weeks of way-too-warm temps and no new migrators, and finally the last few weeks got back on track with cold, snow and some new birds. Also my local marsh had almost no water in it for most of the season due to a big project on the dam that holds most of the water back. It really drove home to me how important that marsh is for the overall hunting conditions in my valley, the whole valley suffered as the birds lost a ton of roosting and feeding areas and there wasn't much to keep them around for more than a day or two.
On the plus side, the last week of our season was one of the best for geese that I've ever had, we had a huge flight come in from up north and I had 2 of the best field hunts that I've ever been on. When I checked my journal at the end of the season against last year's, I had shot nearly 30 fewer ducks than last year and also hunted 10 days less, the change was all because of the weird weather that we had. Also on the plus side I got to explore lots of new areas and meet some new friends, never a bad thing!
On the plus side, the last week of our season was one of the best for geese that I've ever had, we had a huge flight come in from up north and I had 2 of the best field hunts that I've ever been on. When I checked my journal at the end of the season against last year's, I had shot nearly 30 fewer ducks than last year and also hunted 10 days less, the change was all because of the weird weather that we had. Also on the plus side I got to explore lots of new areas and meet some new friends, never a bad thing!
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