Paul Meisenheimer
Well-known member
We are seeing lots of birds up this way. Unfortunately for the folks south of us a record number have failed to continue their migration. 
Ok, am I being pranked?
- Thread starter Dave Church
- Start date
Jay Anglin
Well-known member
Okay...for the fourth year in a row I will say this: This is the worst duck season I have ever had. It has been absolutely pathetic. I have lost my normally driven desire to even bother with it. In Manitoba in October we saw less than 5K ducks for the entire trip and we covered some ground. In NoDak, Minnesota and Wisconsin on the way home we saw virtually no ducks. It was a horrible teal season here...abnormally so. In Manitoba in mid-October I saw more GWT on the marshes around Lake Manitoba than any other species. Everybody we spoke with that had hunted NoDak and Manitoba and even some that we ran into that were on their way home from SK said there were "no ducks".
A friend that works for the Indiana DNR went up to band with the feds this year as far north as the Quills in SK and they banded a record LOW number of ducks. The biologists were really scratching their heads. The only bright spot that I can possibly allude to in the Great Lakes are the diver numbers around Green Bay and a few other spots. I've heard horrible reports from the Southeast Michigan area though places like Harsen's Island are posted fair numbers.
I hunted yesterday on the private 140 acre lake I manage...Cranberry Lake outside town. It has not been hunted since September when I hunted one morning and killed 3 geese with a friend. There has been ZERO boat traffic for weeks other than me taking a jon boat with an electric motor to go deer hunting. Last week there were a fair number of divers and a few gadwall and mallards on the lake. Since I shot my big buck Friday I decided to hunt yesterday. I set up a large diver spread and a modest mallard/black/gaddy mix. The wind was perfect. I had massive beds of wild celery and sago surrounding me in water 2 to 7 feet deep. This is a buffet for ducks. We saw 5 bluebills that were already on the water and they never flew. Two common mergansers, 7 mute swans and about 40 geese, a few coots and a ruddy or two. Since none of the duck species actually flew we never did see a duck actually fly. Hunted until about 11.
This morning I dragged the boys out of bed at 2:15 am. My buddy Jeff picked us up and we drove about 50 miles to a state property that can be a sleeper and usually a few flight birds visit. We set out like 250 decoys, mostly mallard, a few blacks, gadwall, pintail, ringneck and the GE traveling decoy. We saw a total of 12 mallards and one bufflehead on what is gorgeous habitat. We also saw about 600 sandhills where there is usually 25 to 35K. 60 Canadas. We hunted until 11. The only word I can find to describe it is pathetic. On the way home we checked another state property that is holding a fair number of birds. They are refuge bound and barely make the effort of standing in line for a half hour to draw worth it.
A friend that works for the Indiana DNR went up to band with the feds this year as far north as the Quills in SK and they banded a record LOW number of ducks. The biologists were really scratching their heads. The only bright spot that I can possibly allude to in the Great Lakes are the diver numbers around Green Bay and a few other spots. I've heard horrible reports from the Southeast Michigan area though places like Harsen's Island are posted fair numbers.
I hunted yesterday on the private 140 acre lake I manage...Cranberry Lake outside town. It has not been hunted since September when I hunted one morning and killed 3 geese with a friend. There has been ZERO boat traffic for weeks other than me taking a jon boat with an electric motor to go deer hunting. Last week there were a fair number of divers and a few gadwall and mallards on the lake. Since I shot my big buck Friday I decided to hunt yesterday. I set up a large diver spread and a modest mallard/black/gaddy mix. The wind was perfect. I had massive beds of wild celery and sago surrounding me in water 2 to 7 feet deep. This is a buffet for ducks. We saw 5 bluebills that were already on the water and they never flew. Two common mergansers, 7 mute swans and about 40 geese, a few coots and a ruddy or two. Since none of the duck species actually flew we never did see a duck actually fly. Hunted until about 11.
This morning I dragged the boys out of bed at 2:15 am. My buddy Jeff picked us up and we drove about 50 miles to a state property that can be a sleeper and usually a few flight birds visit. We set out like 250 decoys, mostly mallard, a few blacks, gadwall, pintail, ringneck and the GE traveling decoy. We saw a total of 12 mallards and one bufflehead on what is gorgeous habitat. We also saw about 600 sandhills where there is usually 25 to 35K. 60 Canadas. We hunted until 11. The only word I can find to describe it is pathetic. On the way home we checked another state property that is holding a fair number of birds. They are refuge bound and barely make the effort of standing in line for a half hour to draw worth it.