All She Wrote

Well it's been quite a while since the last post. It been crazy at the Ditch and have been getting home just in time to eat and go to bed and wake for the next mornings hunt. Had non-stop action the last week and it's been just crazy. Been shooting dozens of ducks everyday, finally! It all started last Saturday, the birds were coming from everywhere and we couldn't load fast enough. Every time we looked up there were ducks. It's been a long season and the time spent finally paid off. If you're reading this and believing it, you need to stay off the eggnog. Our last real hunt was a short 5 hour sit last Sunday. Didn't see a single bird in the air. The day ended with flipping the switch, winding up the cords and neatly stacking the deeks for a later pick-up. Was a long disappointing season this year. The ducks still haven't come through and we're pretty sure it's gonna be a while before they do. From day one this season has been unusual. We had that opening weekend snow and from that point on, nothing was predictable.

Got an update from the South Ditch on this seasons success down there. A ditch that is accustomed to shooting 150-200 ducks and 50-75 Can's in a season, they've managed just 12 ducks and 15 geese. Heard a story from a Mississippi River backwater boat hunter and his take this year was 4 ducks, and they are completely mobile. Last year they shot over 100.

Throughout the season, it seems that there were plenty of geese migrating, but nothing that showed a lot of interest and a lot that were flying at heights that are deemed un-workable. Our bird numbers this year were 1/2 of 2008. The reason is still unknown. We made some changes this year and I'd like to say that they were the wrong. Unfortunately I can't. No one has been shooting ducks, and the "where are the ducks" emails continue daily. We are all locked up and only have a few hours of picking up until this years season is officially in the bag.

If you're reading this, send us an update on your season's success. Just a simple terrible, great, or 'bout normal, would suffice for now. Good news is that it's time to start thinking, once again, about the Great Snow Goose Chase. We were non-committal when this years season started, but due to the lack of action, we'll probably give it another GO. Oughta be exciting. That's all for now. Check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for all the hits. We're gonna keep updating until the CHASE starts. We'll come up with something to say, something to talk about, or some insightful(yeah right) story or tactic. So don't give up on us, hoping we can come up with enough stuff to keep everyone interested.

Clearing Her Throat

The slightly over-weight, long haired, large bosom'd gal is tuning up. Spent about 5 hours this AM at the Ditch baggin' deeks, beating ice, and looking at empty skies. The sunshine was welcomed and was hoping for birds locked up sailing in. Didn't happen, only saw 4 Canada Geese. That's it, nothing else. Can't believe it's December 10th and we're all still wishing and hoping. Wishing the ducks would come, and hoping we are there when they do. This weeks efforts fell nothing short of miraculous with the incumbent weather. Don't really know of any Ditch that's been man'd the last 3 days. If we haven't been there we've tried to get there. When we did get there we shot Zero times. I heard a horrible story today from the Duk Whisperer, formerly known as SR, he told me he's fired his gun only 8 times this season, and 4 of those were at Teal early on. Now that's a sad, sad story. He's hunted the Ditch, the South Ditch, the Leshara Ditch and the Hay Ditch...man he gets around almost as much as Tiger...and really has nothing but camaraderie to talk about. We are gonna give it at least one more go this Sunday and see what happens. All of the changes we've made this year have done everything we had hoped for. We've had open water this whole week! Unfortunately there hasn't been any waterfowl to enjoy it. That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for over 20,000 Hits. Email us whatever you know. (Check out the 2009 Sites at the Bottom of the Page.)

Doe Rae Me Fa So La Ti Doe

Hello again all my technologically advanced and well connected waterfowl enthusiast friends. Welcome to Muck Bottom Outfitters Waterfowl Report. Headed our way to the Ditch this morning thinking today just might be the day. The sky was clear, the winds were movin' and the snow was finally over. Could it be now that the 1 million ducks in South Dakota would radio the tower and request a fly by? The drive was as good as expected with the snow packed roads. The trek East on the county road wasn't quite as pleasing. Made it only about 100 yds in before it was time to turn around. The E to W county roads are just no fun with drifts. So was today the day? Can't really tell you. I heard a report from the Hay Ditch that a lot of birds got off the lake this AM, headed in sort of a Southerly direction and never returned. Not good! Was searching the net today in hopes of something interesting and I found it. It's the graph on the right hand side. Explains where all the ducks are. The Mallard Migration has apparently moved to the Mississippi. You can follow the ducks, see the current concentration in South Dakota and see how the masses have shifted East. Explains a whole lot! Heading out tomorrow to either hunt or breaks deeks out of the ice and pick some up, never to return to the waters of 2009. That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for all the hits! PS - someone had mentioned a slightly overweight, long haired, large bosom'd female warming up the wind pipes, hence the title.

When it Looks this GOOD...

...they're gonna come in. Aren't they. Well the spread looked amazing today as well as the amount of open water. Can't believe that nothing happened. First light was great, as the snow was barely comin' down. You could look up and almost see the Mallards locked-up on the spread. Almost! The snow proved to be entirely too thick and it was time 'bout 10AM. That's all she wrote. Goin' out tomorrow hopin' the winds blow 'em down. The snow is supposed to be done by about 5AM, and last I looked, mostly cloudy and a bit breezy. South Dakota has snow, not quite as much as is coming down here, but with the big winds tomorrow, they're gonna move at some point. Are we gonna see 'em? Who knows? Can only guarantee that you won't see 'em from the couch.

Got a report from the Boyer Boys, D. Oz wrote: Sunday - we couldn't get the geese to work. The snow started and the geese quit flying. We were just about to call it around 2PM when we heard a goose. Looked out and four were on a string coming in. They circled two times and two left and two came. We got those two. A lone mallard pulled the other two away. Monday - we saw everything but ducks, no shots fired. We had six trumpeter swans come 20 feet over the pond, saw five sand hill cranes and some S&B's. Not hunting Tuesday and will wait out the weather.

That's all for now. Gonna be hunting hard the next 2 days, should pay off. Check back for the latest and greatest, and thanks for over 20,000 hits. Email us your report.

Winter IS HERE

Well first I must start off with a couple "clean up" reports from Saturday. Kohler West, MC Wrote: 0 shots fired. We did see 1 lone Mallard drake, 2 bunches of S&B's and of course 2 bunches of Canadas when we were leaving the parking lot! Tomorrow is going to be the day! Boyer Boys, D. Oz wrote: Well lots of bird watching today. The S&B's were wall to wall coming down river. Saw fewer Can's today and just a few bunches of ducks. No shots fired. Maybe tomorrow, God I hope so! Leshara Ditch, DucksNBrownDogs wrote: Saturday - one goose at first light. Saw some geese flying south and not as many ducks around.

All around the world, the same luck was had...NONE!

Now on to Sunday. I'm gonna make a guess here and say that we've had a big jump in hits cause you're all wondering if we had the "day", cause you didn't. Well the weather was movin' in and we decided not to venture out in the AM and planned to roll out just after dinner. Partially due to wind/weather and partial due to some minor over hangs. Got settled about 1PM and the snow followed shortly thereafter. Was hoping for some good action but the snow and wind made it almost impossible to see anything. Saw only 3 bunches of Can's, 1 bunch of ducks, a pair of drake mallards, a hen mallard and 1 small group of snow geese. We managed to fire 9 shots today on the pair and the hen and we hit absolutely nothing. Well I take that back...we hit one but it sailed about 1/2 mile into the unknown, impossible to find. Coyotes will be happy tonight! Also, if you've never seen a hen get shot at and then land in the deeks and then escape untouched after two more, you just haven't spent enough time in the ditch. Hunted snow up to sundown and nothing in the bag.

On to reports for today.

Leshara Ditch, DucksNBrown Dogs wrote: Was hoping, with the wind picking up this evening, things would start happening. Only shot one Mallard. Seen a couple flocks of ducks and geese headed South. Getting depressed, where are all the ducks? Kohler West, MC Wrote: It is very sad to say that today was not the day...we managed to shoot 1 Chicken (Cackler) and 6 Ducks. Stuck it out to the bitter end and found more winter conditions closer to home than at the farm. This snow could be trouble! South Ditch, Duk Master Wrote: Forgot to call after we left. Day started out fun. We were setting up with more dekes then usual due to the perfect ice hole. Had a lonie Canada LAND in the floaters 5 feet away from one of the guys standing on the ice. Sent the dog on a scare away instead of a retrieve( though she almost caught the goose). Of course this was 5 minutes before legal go time and no one had a cannon loaded. Anyway had another lonie lock and look but wouldn’t finish. Then had another lock, look and die. Had 2 more get close enough to kill but the “Litigator” and “Ole One Eye” couldn’t get the job done. Waterfowl Wizard showed up late( something about bad ice in the Scotch). Had another pair come REAL close and got dead in a hurry. The Swim Suit Model aka Professor Benelli showed up even later than the Wizard, same bad ice, but brought no luck with him. So for the day 3 Cans and 2 clean misses. Did see lots of migrating Cans. Also saw something from years past, DUCKS!! Had a few hundred come out of the South East and feed in the corn behind us. They wanted nothing to do with water. Had 5 guys at the start and Myself, Wizard and the Professor left 2 newbies in the Ditch when we left at 3:30. Once the snow started the show stopped. That was it. The Legends haven't posted since Friday, so their Ditch must be the same sad song.

I must agree with MC, this snow is nothing but trouble. We're going to be covered up by morning and no temps above 20's for this whole week. There is a doozy building up right now supposed to dump at least 6 inches on us Tuesday into Wednesday. This could be it for the migration. They should be movin' this next week ahead of, during, and after the snow. Better make some time to get out before it's over. That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for over 20,000 HITS!

Just One Report Today

Kohler West, MC Wrote: 0 shots fired. We did see1 lone Mallard drake, 2 bunches of S&B's and of course 2 bunches of Canadas when we were leaving the parking lot! Tomorrow is going to be the day.

By afternoon its supposed to be goin' tomorrow. Will be updating as we hear. Check for the latest and greatest and thanks for all the hits.

Phone Didn't make any Noise Today...

...so you know we had bad winds. However, if a guy tried to look outside when he could today you could see birds moving again. Received a couple reports after the day was done. One got sent to me and the other I had to play "bird dog" and hunt up.

Leshara Ditch, DucksNBrownDogs wrote: Today we had a few flocks of ducks circling but could not get them to commit. Not as many birds flying today as there was yesterday.

South Ditch, early hunt by Duk Master yielded and early morning exit. Nothing flying until on the drive home. Professor Binelli was at it again and made the trek just before lunch. Again, a great afternoon for bird watching and honing in on your calling skills. The Professor reported that it was another afternoon of non stop birds but nothing committing to the Northwind layout with Southerly winds. The snow geese were moving again in such fashion that one string took almost 10 minutes to complete the flyover. While spending 6 hours watching the skies, only 2 ducks observed. That's right, not 2000, not 200, not 20 groups, not 2 groups, just 2 ducks.

Seems as if all of us on this side of the state are seeing very few ducks. South Dakota says they have big numbers, but if they're leavin' they're not coming this way. Thanks to all the hard work of the WRP, the flyway is shifting West. All of us sitting on the Missouri River Corridor thank you so very much. One thing that has been promising is the number of Can's. There is definitely no shortage there. If you're set up for 'em and focused on 'em you'll get into them. The weather is calming down just a bit tomorrow before the Big Kahuna. Or, at least what they're saying will be scoop-able snow. The first of the year hitting us Sunday with North Winds could be the beginning of some crazy shooting, or quite possibly the end of the birds. Only time will tell. This next week looks to be the week to consult your Duck Doctor. Could have as much as 4 inches on the ground from an in coming Monday Night into Tuesday storm. Oh could it be true?

That's all for now, check back for the latest and greatest and thanks for all the hits. Email us your report.