Closing up shop?

Tomorrow we are heading out in front of the approaching north winds and slight chance of snow. We are readying ourselves for the end. We have shot few ducks, only one of which was an actual mallard. Been a tough season and don't know if it is likely to get any better. We have 15 days and 3 or 4 more hunts if we try real hard. The large mallard numbers are not here yet. There are a lot of Can's around but few ducks. The first week of December is usually when they get here and that time is now. There will be a report after tomorrows hunt. Check back for the latest and greatest.

A Sky Full

Rolled in early in anticipation of ice and we were right. Took almost an hour to break ice and set decoys. From the time we sat down until we left at noon the sky was full of migrating waterfowl. I don't believe there has ever been a day when I have seen so many Canada Geese. All the birds posed a bit of a problem as the majority were high flyers. We unloaded on a small group of geese, and two small bunches of ducks so we didn't come home empty handed. There was some shooting around so everyone had success I would guess. The only problem with seeing this many birds is; how many more are left for us to see? The high skies once the sun popped up only made the birds higher and higher so who knows how many we missed? The birds are here, and should be going nowhere. That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest.

Well?

Here it is waterfowl fans, the storm we've been waiting for! The weather is getting ugly over the next 24 hours north of here. All kinds of South Dakota action today and high expectations for many of them tomorrow too! We have been staring to the north for weeks on end and it is now the weekend to get after it. Dumping snow and big winds are going to push the ducks our way. We have not had much action the last couple weeks and with the steady temps and warmer weather one has to hope the birds will get here and rot for awhile. There is plenty of food and no frozen water. Could be a fast and furious migration! That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest.

Nope!

The night ended without a shot fired. Didn't see the birds in the numbers and didn't get any looks. Seen just a few of the specks and not many ducks. It is nice to see the birds around but this is nothing, really, for the middle of November. There are not the numbers of Canada geese around that you would typically see this time of year. The ducks have been around for about 10 days now and are getting a bit stale. There has been zero birds pushing since around the 8th. We are in need of another weather system and there is not one in the near future. Before long it will be thanksgiving. Last year we went out turkey day am and found the ditch completely froze over. I just don't see that being the case this year. Good news is that we have a lot of season left. That's all she wrote! Check back for the latest and greatest.

Just a few Yards Off

We were in the right field just a bit off the mark. The specks, ducks and can's were right on cue. The first bunch of specs sat down about 200 yards away from us. Rather than kick them off we waited. Should not have done that! After about 15 minutes we had 1000+ specks feeding. The ducks and can's followed their lead. We did walkout with 2 big can's. To do it over again; we should have kicked of the first 50 and waited to see what would've happened without all those feeding birds. Going out at sundown to hit the ducks. They have been hitting the field much harder at night, see what happens. Check back for the latest and greatest.

Great 2011 Hope

Well we've scouted for the last 4 days and have found what appears to be the mother-load. By 8am we have ducks, cans and specks all in the same field. We are heading out bright and early to set up hoping to have one of those days. Not sure what is more exciting, setting up for the hunt or knowing that we may get into some feeding specks. Now that oughta be a rush. We weren't able to go out tonight so hopefully no one else blew em up before dark, that could severely damage our hopes for morning. Going to take the new iKam extreme along just in case it is one to remember. That's all for now, check back tomorrow for what should be an action packed update!

Get Ready

Just got inside from letting the hound out for his nightly doo-dah and couldn't believe what I was hearing.  I ran around the neighborhood real quick like just to make sure no one had their snow goose horns playing in their garage.  Nope!  It was real, actual migrating snow geese in the air, in this rain we're getting and the slight north breeze.  Was out there just a couple minutes and heard 2 large flocks making noise.  We had an unexpected late afternoon hunter and his words were, "you name it, it's migrating".  A good sign.  I then jumped on the Legends blog and they reported the same thing.  Our hunter went out late afternoon, 4 ish, and stayed 'til quitting time.  So two reports from the area indicating steady movements of migrating birds all day long.  It appears that it's time to kick it into high gear, or at least a gear higher than the "granny-low" we've been running in.  Looking forward to the next few days and this favorable weather moving in.  That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest.

North Dakota Style

Decided to switch gears this morning and try out our skills pothole hunting.  We got the line on some ducks that have been pond jumping.  Took off bright and early not sure what we were getting ourselves into.  Had decoys, laydowns and robo's and walked in.  MUDDY, MUDDY, MUDDY.  Haulin' in all the gear in what was "soup" wasn't real easy. 
If shootin' time would've been 10 minutes earlier than it was, all 4 guns could have limited out in less than 5 minutes.  As it was, the ducks sitting before shooting time either swam away or flew away when it was time to say "go".  Luckily for us it didn't take long for the birds to start doing their thing.  The first shot of the day we found a cinnamon teal in the bag.  One shot, one duck.  Not a bad start.  Yes it is November 6th and we shot a cinnamon teal.  We hung in there until about 9AM before we called it good.  We rolled out of the mud with 9 ducks, our best day yet.  There was very little movement of migrating birds.
Saturday we had 3 guys in the ditch and they had 3 rounds on decoying birds with the big South winds, looks like our "thinking" was right on.  There was zero aiming oil in the ditch so a bit of rust on the feather dusters interfered with a big bag, but decoying and working birds nonetheless.
There are definitely huntable numbers of birds in the area.  An eager scout this evening found a field with well over 1000 specks feeding in it.  Still not a lot of Can's but huntable numbers of ducks.
The weather is set to turn again Monday night into Wednesday morning, should bring another push of birds into our area.  That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest.

Figured it Out

Yesterday's post I mentioned that I didn't believe there were many Mallards around.  Well was I wrong, they just aren't decoying at the Ditch.  Some reports from yesterday indicated large numbers in the area and good success.  So why do you say we shot ZERO, well here's what we got.  We've decided we're just not in a North Wind spot.  We keep hunting these migration days with big North winds and really never have much to show for.  The birds are always around just not setting up on us.  Some logic; there is about 25-30 acres of water on a 1/4 mile E-W x 1/2 mile N-S stretch, the competition is on South end and we are on the North end.  Makes sense why they always do better than us on North winds and why some of our best shooting days in 3 years have been on non-North wind days, particularly South.  We could've missed multiple great days at the ditch over the last 3 seasons cause we're always spending time on North Winds/Fronts/Push Days.  Changing course!!!!! We will never again have high hopes on big North wind days.  Any other direction and we're equals. 
So there you have it, the latest over thinking!  Whatever we need to do to feel good I guess. And...speaking of feeling good.  Seems as if we have some fans among some local law enforcement.  Running late just north of town this AM and a county mounty was there to get every ones attention with his pretty red and blue lights. Upon pulling over, "License and Registration", "I don't have my license", "why don't you have your license", "well as you can see(fully dressed and wader'd up) I am going duck hunting and I'm late", "where are you going", "Gatekeeper's place", "how do you know the Gatekeeper", "we lease our spot from the Gatekeeper", "you muckbottom?" "yes I'm one of them", "I read the blog all the time, get going and quit speeding, and good luck today".  That's all, no warning, no ticket, no nothing.  What a great guy!  And he reads the blog! Thanks for not ruining the morning! 
That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest.

PS - not much going on today hardly any shooting around the area, we left at 11AM

Rain, Wind, Cool and Ducks

The day started out with a boom boom on a single little teal.  There were ducks flipping around all morning.  We stayed out 'til 1PM and shot just the one teal. We just weren't right today.  The guys just to our south unloaded at least 1/2 dozen times and took at least 25 while we were there.  A lot of ducks have moved into the area, but I don't believe we saw much in the way of Mallards.  Still seeing Cormorants and just one bunch of Specks.  During our stint, we sat for about 2 hours without seeing anything.  The wind gave up just a bit from 30 to 15mph or so and from 1130 to 1230 there were groups of high flying ducks every couple minutes. Couldn't get any to play!  We will be heading out tomorrow again in hopes that the sun and clear skies attract them to us.  Did run past the local Wildlife Refuge about quitting time and there are definitely more birds around than there were 2 days ago.  That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest.

Why Not?

In a matter of hours we are going to have our first real climate change of the season.  Whether we see ducks moving or not is unknown.  Sure seems like we should start seeing something more than Teal and if the big winds and shift in temps don't send them this way, guess there will be another day.  Tell you this much, the Duck Doctor hasn't "officially" called yet with my diagnosis for tomorrow, but I will have to get a note in order to return to work on Friday.  Could be right, could be wrong.  I did read that the Legends Ditch shot a few gaddy's Monday, so we are hoping to have some come sailing in tomorrow.  It was 70 today so tomorrow may be too early but we have Thursday too.  That's all for now, gotta get the breakfast, lunch and snacks around for the all day rot planned for tomorrow.  Check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for all the hits. Don't forget http://muckbottom.mobapp.at