Waterfowl Reports/Success Thread 09/10

[Patrick Olson]

Originally Posted by fowlfoolr1979

P Harvest is progressing along quickly now with the warm/dry weather and the ducks have been hitting the corn hard!

Maybe outside of the basins, but I about guarantee that 95% of ducks are going to be feeding where the best food is, and that is moist soil if they can find it. Ducks only feed in corn when they must, and that is usually late in the year when water is froze & other food is out. Makes a big misnomer as corn being king in the waterfowl world. If areas were still full of moist soil plants and healthy marshes, you wouldn't see a single duck in corn, flooded or not.

Hunting the basins is USUALLY like picking out a cornfield to hunt geese. The best basins are those that the birds are flying to feed, much like the one you hunted on the opener. Now, it all gets switched around when you are suddenly hunting backwards ducks. Makes you think twice when they are piling into a marsh that normally is a roost right at sunrise.

PO

[CobisCaller]

What do you mean by "backwards ducks"?

[TMFLDEM]

Originally Posted by Waterfowler84

Personally I would rather take all morning and could care less if I get a limit. A successful hunt in my book is not getting skunked and having a good time with friends...END OF STORY!

I will agree with that, but if the Bid Red are playin at 11:00 a quik limit is of upmost importance!!

[Patrick Olson]

Originally Posted by CobisCaller

What do you mean by "backwards ducks"?

They are entirely active at night right now. Patterned like crazy and completely nocturnal, feeding in the hours before and after legal. Roosting all day. There are a lot of ducks around, they are just patterned and patterned so that they can avoid (almost ) all hunting opportunities.

Shot 5/6 ducks yesterday in the first half hour of light. Every single one had their crop absolutely STUFFED full of seeds. Every species. My 6th had just a few seeds in its crop, but it was 3 hours after legal. This is just a few I could squeeze out.



That is about 100% smartweed seeds right there. Ducks won't sleep all night with a full crop. One way they got this full.

We need no moon, ice, bad weather, and cold & clear nights to keep them off of the open feeding basins, force them into thicker roosting areas, and put them into a standard huntable pattern.

Also, let me add that this is about the best evidence on why the feds and state manage the basin wetlands the way they do. Healthy basins with good moist soil plants attract more ducks, keep birds around, make ducks more healthy, and provide more habitat. In the end, it is all about food. Under normal circumstances, you can see first hand why (and how) preseason scouting is so important. Before there are ducks around, I can narrow down the list of which basins are going to be the most loaded & provide the best hunting opportunities throughout the year on feeding ducks simply by the plants and seed bank. Water amount is a distant second in importance. You can learn a lot by staring at a plant. In turn, this makes in-season scouting much easier when I only have to check a few basins to figure out where I am headed next.

PO

[fowlfoolr1979]

You are right Pat as your pic shows, but the birds I am talking about are in the basin area right now and the flooded corn field is absolutely loaded with greenheads and other various ducks and has been for the past 5 days. Same thing is happening in NE South Dakota right now as well..... Not at all cold up there but those ducks and geese both lights and darks are absolutely devouring the flooded corn up there right now as well....(even going as far as eating it right off the unharvested stalks) and have been doing so for several weeks and most likely will keep doing so until they decide it is time to move south with weather.


Layne

[south of 41]

Just back from the sand hills .. Very few birds in the area.

[Outdoor_Joe_26]

So given the current pattern would it be better to spend the afternoon/evening trying to jump shoot the daylight "roosting" areas instead of trying to hunt over decoys?

[WaterPig]

Anyone been up to the refuge lakes lately? Heading up there for a few days. Hopefully this weekend with the front coming in will bring some down.

[CaseAce]

Hunted the Platte river yesterday and was picked up a little after 8, and no, not because I had my limit. Yesterday was actually the first morning in years that I didnt see a duck, one duck! Wow, it still baffles me. Just saturday we shot 8 with 5 being mallards. What a difference a couple days makes... Hopefully these north winds this weekend push some fresh ones in.

[Luv2Decoy]

Originally Posted by Patrick Olson

Maybe outside of the basins, but I about guarantee that 95% of ducks are going to be feeding where the best food is, and that is moist soil if they can find it. Ducks only feed in corn when they must, and that is usually late in the year when water is froze & other food is out. Makes a big misnomer as corn being king in the waterfowl world. If areas were still full of moist soil plants and healthy marshes, you wouldn't see a single duck in corn, flooded or not.



PO

PO I respect your opinion on all things waterfowling but you may be drinking some basin koolaid. IMHO waterfowl will feed where they are most comfortable. If adequate food is available in their roosting areas they will not leave to feed elsewhere. But to say that they prefer weed seed over grain is not always true.

Never hear of someone being convicted of baiting ducks by scattering smartweed(j/k).

[Patrick Olson]

Originally Posted by Luv2Decoy

PO I respect your opinion on all things waterfowling but you may be drinking some basin koolaid. IMHO waterfowl will feed where they are most comfortable. If adequate food is available in their roosting areas they will not leave to feed elsewhere. But to say that they prefer weed seed over grain is not always true.

I completely agree that this doesn't cover all the bases and there are certainly many factors which you alluded to which can govern where and how waterfowl feed. There are things to consider like relative availability, safety, etc. But given the choice, ducks will prefer moist soil over grain all other factors being equal. There was a landmark study about a decade ago that really revolutionized just how important moist soil plants were. Key points were that waterfowl have evolved based on moist soil plants as the main elements in their diet. They have adapted, specifically over the past 100 years, to accomodate the loss of wetland feeding sites by utilizing grain. Moreover the calories/gram of moist soil seeds like smartweed is about 150% that of corn.

The common opinion is based around corn being so predominant in our society, thus making it a common option for waterfowl to feed in. It makes it seem like corn, or whatever the key crop is in the area for waterfowl, is king. In reality, it has emerged as the "best" second option to replace the habitat and food supply that we took away in the first place. And until moist soil plants become a higher cash crop than corn, peas, wheat, etc. (, love to see the day!), that false notion of grain being the best of the best in the waterfowl world will remain.

I will add that this is far different for geese. Specifically snows adapting to utilize grain over roots, tubers, etc. has increased their numbers and altered their migration patterns enormously.

PO

[Scotty]

PO- I seem to recall an article, might have been in DU, that talked about the importance of invertebrates during the migration in the potholes and basins. Do you ever find remains in their crops?

[Gander Lander]

Went out with the fly rod and belly boat at sunrise this morning. Found a decent roost for a mixed bag goose hunt in the near future. My casting wasn't good enough to snag any fowl but did manage two 4-pound LMB's and a couple dozen crappie. Beautiful morning for mid Nov.

Goose

[thumpper]

Originally Posted by Gander Lander

Went out with the fly rod and belly boat at sunrise this morning. Found a decent roost for a mixed bag goose hunt in the near future. My casting wasn't good enough to snag any fowl but did manage two 4-pound LMB's and a couple dozen crappie. Beautiful morning for mid Nov.

Goose

Should figure a way to keep a light weight 20g on the back of the float tube..

[south of 41]

Snows moved pretty much all day south of hwy 41.

Too bad the deer didnt

[flatcoats]

only animal that decoyed today....ridiculous. 50 fullbodies and he basically walked right through em

[ty]

went out today and got one honker, one drake mallard, and 4 greenwings-2 hens 2 drakes. loads of fun.

[Waterfowler84]

Have been hearing snows and specks migrating all night so far outside on my breaks...every time I go out I can hear em. Definitely moving now for sure....lets get on it!

[Willhuntforfood]

I seen miles of snows all afternoon yesterday and was hearing them all night. I'd say they are outta here.

[BPbowhunter]

Lots of geese and ducks headin south this morning.