Rain Rain Rain
Birds that is, the report we were getting from a lot of resident groups on Saturday, after the hunt, was that along with the natural precipitation, it was raining ducks as well.
We were able to put together a 2-man limit of ducks Saturday with 5 bonus Honkers. Many other groups reached or came close to reaching limits as well. Our bonus of the day was a majestic drake Woody that capped it all off,
Sunday, well, with the down pour Saturday night into the wee hours of Sunday morning, we cancelled our planned 2nd day to save on sleep, wear and tear on equipment, and keep our powder dry.
We did get out today and though the ducks flew this morning, most were water-to-water. We managed a 4 mallard, solo hunt this morning. The big flocks of Pintails we saw Saturday didn’t materialize today and with the low winds, we could only fool a few singles to come into Shotgun range.
What We Saw In The Field
Lots of Ducks and Honkers. The Crane numbers in our area have multiplied by a factor of 3 and I would say there are 700-900 Sandhill Cranes coming off the Reserve at this time.
Some snow geese have shown up as well. Just the early, scout flocks but that is a sign that there will be a bird push with these North winds.
Seeing really good numbers of local Mallards and Pintails and even saw 3 wigeon today. Some scattered flocks of Wood Ducks are still here. The coots had a good hatch as well. The ditch by Channel A is L Loaded with em.
What The Rain Means For Hunting
We didn’t have a whole lot of precip this summer. Most semi-seasonal and seasonal wetlands are bone dry. The congregations of ducks are going to be found on the bigger sloughs and small lakes that dot the prairie pothole region.
With the back-t0-back rain events of the end of last week, the fields are pretty sloppy. It was not, however, enough to replenish any potholes.
If you are going to try to drive in the field, be sure to proceed with caution. We were in a stubble field this morning and we were just on the edge of sliding a little. If it remains dry the next couple days, we should be back to traveling afield with no problems.
If you are out, make sure you contact the farmer to make sure that travel in his field with wet conditions is acceptable. I know many farmers don’t want big ruts in their fields and farmer-hunter relations are very important.
What The Early Weekends Look Like
If not too many big roosts get busted this weekend by the ‘Duck Boat Parade’ from the east, the early part of our Waterfowl season looks like it could be a good one with pretty good numbers of local ducks. We saw a lot of Mallards and a lot of Pintails Saturday and Today. A little cooler weather might help getting them going to the field on a little more of a regular basis, but with time, that will come.
Good Luck Out There!
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ice tip question: why can’t we use a warm ice pack in the minnow bucket while ice fishing to keep from freezing up as bad as they can when they’re in the back of the pickup. we can lay the packs on the dash to warm up, slip them in the bucket and liven up the minnows. will this work?
I would think that that cold water would zap any warmth from that warmed ice pack pretty quick. We use little Walmart coolers to carry our minnows and this works a lot better than a minnow bucket. That cooler insulates just enough to keep the water from freezing. I have two of them to rotate as sometimes the lid hinge will get iced up and not close all of the way so I am always thawing one while using the other, trust me, once you use this technique you will not go back to a conventional minnow bucket.