where are they?

Dave McNeill

Dave McNeill

Member
Hi all, I just have to ask, are all the ducks in MN and WI, all my hunting buddies
keep saying the birds are up there on the big open water,we still have 3 weeks left here in TN
and have not had any big pushes thus for. Thanks
 
Dave, we are just now beginning to see ducks down here. This has been a very slow season thus far. Yesterday while I was out, I saw more ducks than any other day since our season began back during the last week of October. They are finally beginning to get pushed down by some of the winter storms that have been going through the Great Salt Lake Basin area where many of our ducks come from.
Al
 
All your buddies are full of it. All the big lakes in MN have been frozen for quite some time. Lake Superior may have some open water and the Miss river may well be open in places but that's it.
 
Last big push of ducks I saw on my portion of the Mississippi river was 2 weeks ago. Still lots of geese around but I'm thinking many our local birds just being frozen out of the many corporate ponds and backwaters.
 
Part of our license fee here in Wisconsin goes to buy corn to feed the ducks all winter. They got helicopters with Moultre feeders hanging under them and bubblers to keep the lakes open. We'll be darned if we are going to let OUR ducks go south and get shot.

Seriously, some lakes are still open up here, not many but some BUT we have a lot of snow on the ground now and it has covered up whatever feed is still on the ground. Not likely we have many ducks left.

Funny, a few years ago I went up to Manitoba to hunt Cans and Red Heads "where they come from". 1000 miles north of here on Lake Manitoba and the ducks weren't there. We asked "where are all the ducks?" All the locals said "they're not here yet, they're still up north." Hmmmm where have I heard that before? LOL.
 
Part of our license fee here in Wisconsin goes to buy corn to feed the ducks all winter. They got helicopters with Moultre feeders hanging under them and bubblers to keep the lakes open. We'll be darned if we are going to let OUR ducks go south and get shot.
Click to expand...
Didn't you sign the pledge when you got your license to not disclose this info outside of WI/MN? Or do you have one of thoese fancy lifetime deals and don't have to annually sign this anymore. Mark W
 
well, Thanks for the report from up north.
bunch of ducks may be to the west of us on the missippi river,
seems we are losing more to the west each season, I used to hunt around the Horicon
area and get pleanty of mallards in the fields as well as the small bag limit of geese,
changing gears where did the canada goose disapear to?
dont see many here anymore either.
Well if we could figure the ducks out every time out, would it be as fun?
Dont work too hard on the feeders guys.
Good hunting
thanks for the report from NM as well, glad you have new birds.
 
Dave,

Some years it's a bunch of head scratching trying to figure out where and why the birds are where they are. This year I believe that we lost many of our early divers during the hurricane week, the first week of Nov. Certainly the effects of the drought have been felt as well with birds moving around for available food sources. I don't hunt on land and rarely target geese so can't help you much there but I have heard that the guys that did were successful. Personally, my numbers this year were about 50% of normal and 70% of the birds I did get were from the last week of our season (we closed Dec 2nd). Good luck with the rest of your season, I can sympathize but don't have any answers for you.
 
Birds are in Missouri right now which is a huge refuge over 2/3 of the state. The photos I have seen from around the Missouri River bottoms have been very impressive. With temps in the 50s this week, ample food and no hunting I cannot see the leaving
 
yea Rick I think this is definitally a head scratching season year.
thanks for the info, I think Tom has a clue to the question, with that many
birds in MO.
Thanks guys
 
This is my 3rd year in a row that the birds have failed to come down. Nothing is down here in numbers except Ruddies and Buffleheads. Both are fun to shoot and good on the grill, but bluebills and mallards are what I want and they have been few and far between. Still have three more weeks left, hoiping for something.

dc
 
We have a bunch still here on Presque Bay on Lake Erie. Lots of Redheads,Cans and Scaup, which you would expect when we have open water this late. But I am seeing a lot of Gadwall and Mallards. The Gadwall are the surprise,not a bird we see in great numbers. Anytime, let alone Jan.
 
Hi all, I just have to ask, are all the ducks in MN and WI, all my hunting buddies
keep saying the birds are up there on the big open water,we still have 3 weeks left here in TN
and have not had any big pushes thus for. Thanks
Click to expand...

Dave,
Up here in Lake St. Clair, we still have 10's of thousands of ducks...Redheads, Cans, Bluebills, GE, Buffy....all over the lake. We're probably over 100,000 but I wanted to be conservative. We typically stage between a million and a million & a half ducks on this lake every season.
Now...the bad news...our season for ducks is done....doh. We had 10 inches of snow at Christmas but the lake was still open. We had cold weather just before our split on the 30th and that froze up all but 2 launches. If you put into the water on the North Channel of Lake St. Clair and had the boat to handle crossing the lake...you were rewarded with limits each of the 4 days. Lotsa birds.
Guess you'll have to move up North. ; )
Lou
 
Yea Lou, it's the same old migration that has been here for the last
3 or so years, we do however get some strong shots throughout the last half
of the season? Not this year, and the weather looks pretty warm for a week or so.
Thanks for the report, at least we now know where some of the ducks are.
I will be enjoying sitting over the blocks until we get a push?
Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top