No Guns, No Ammo, No Surprises

Hello again all my technologically advanced and well connected waterfowl enthusiast friends. Welcome to Muck Bottom Outfitters Waterfowl Report. Today was pretty much as planned. Slept in, made coffee, drank coffee, sent the kids off and then watched TV. Something came over me around 8AM that I just couldn't pass. I looked at the calendar, saw the clouds and just couldn't help but wonder. So...you guessed it, headed to the Ditch about 830. Loaded up the dog, left the gun, the bag and the calls at home. Figured if I was gonna see some ducks it'd be when I was least preparred. Normally that's how it works, today, not so much. The pooch and I headed in and settled down. Figured I'd give him a taste of the season too. So there we sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat some more. After about 2 hours figured he'd had enough. I was just there to pound my thermos of coffee and see for myself the lack of movement. Got some great training in...a good dog needs to be able to handle a slow day. I did grab the dummies and dokens so we got about 30 minutes of retriving in. When you roll down the road a guy usually sees the birds floating around the area. Floating around the unhunted wetland, floating around the competitions layout, and floating around the Ditch after you kick them off riding in. Today...again...not so much. Didn't observe a single duck or goose in 2 hours. Did I somehow wake-up this morning in the spring of 2010? Guess most of us feel like that about now. Here it is November 19th, it's 50+ degrees, there's a ton of corn in the fields and there ain't no sign of waterfowl. You know it's bad when it's been 10 days since the Legends have posted that they were "still waiting." Not even as much as a breath of movement. Just to scratch the itch, drove around the last 30 minutes of light and was not disappointed. Did see some geese feeding and floating into a few fields. So there is still waterfowl on the planet. Just don't really know where they all are. Looked at South Dakota Missouri River fly-overs and they lost a ton of birds from the 2nd to the 12th and haven't yet posted the 19th flight. Squaw creek had 71000 Mallards a week ago and now have 75000. Didn't DU report that there were over 7million Mallards this year? That's an extremely low number for this time of year. The Goose numbers at Squaw Creek are disappointing as it went from 11000 to 300???? Heck maybe they just didn't count at the right time. So there you have it, at least there is something interesting to read, well at least I hope it's interesting. Expecting by morning to get to 18,000 HITS, wow, started the season around 12,000. I'm certain the lack of action is making the numbers climb as we are all clinging on to every available word waiting to hear something good. That's all for now. Check back for the latest and greatest. Email us your report.