Author: Webmaster

Posted By:
Casey-Huxoll
Field Editor

Boardman Area 12-11-2006 13:11
– – –
Hunted geese this weekend around Boardman. Lots of birds in the area. But they all knew right where they wanted to go. They would come off the river , get high and head toward there field.
i did talk to a buddy who said they did pretty good down at McCormick slough. He said he hadnt seen that many ducks all season.
Hopefully we keep gettin wheather and keep shootin them with there feet down.

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Siltcoos Lake 12-09-2006 21:13
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
I hunted Siltcoos twice this week. Wednesday was a bright sunny, blue sky day. No wind and little bird movement. New birds were on the lake, few thousand I would say but we had the lake to ourselves and they rafted up on us in the middle. We squeaked out a 7 bird limit and headed to lunch. Saturday it was rainy and started out somewhat windy but that died down. With more hunters on the lake and the occasional boat running around we had slow but consistent bird action. My rig must not have been right today because the birds weren’t coming in to land. We had some good pass shooting. About half way through the morning my buddy pulled up on a Canvasback, our only one of the day, and on his second shot his Remington literally broke in two. He’s using a Remington 1100 autoloader and the stock came apart from the action and pieces went everywhere. Never scene anything like it. Guess my insistence on using an O/U prevails again. What a classic look of shock on his fact though when that thing came apart. Guess he’s lucky he didn’t cycle that third shell and pull the trigger when it happened. Been a little slow on the home front for ducks, but I did knock down a nice honker Thursday in the back pasture. Haven’t had that flock of Geese come back around yet. Looks like I have goose for dinner tomorrow. Get out there and have fun…

/Paul

Posted By:
Casey-Huxoll
Field Editor

Boardman Area 12-07-2006 20:09
– – –
I have been seeing a lot of geese in the area. They are starting to use just about any field. i have seen them in alfalfa, Winter wheat, Corn, And on of our Garlic circles that has a little wheat as cover.

I talked to a fellow goose hunter that said he was in othello today and everything up there is all froze up and he didnt see many birds. So they must have moved down here and now the wheather is going to be nice the next couple of days and this will let them just hang out here and feed.
Should be a good weekend , good luck.

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Mohawk / Siltcoos Lake 12-04-2006 23:13
Sunny & Clear, Morning Fog – 35-40 Degrees
So the cold must have pushed the birds south of Siltcoos this weekend. There were hardly any birds on the lake and although we had some oppertunities for a few birds, it was pretty slow. Here’s to hoping that a new bunch come in. This morning I had a bunch of big geese on the river, most of the standing water was frozen this morning. Here’s to hoping their back in the morning.

/Paul

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Mohawk 12-02-2006 21:38
Cloudy, Heavy Fog – 40-45 Degrees
Cold and foggy this morning but some nice groups of birds flying. Guess I slept through the first bunch cuz they were in and out in a flash and I didn’t even get the gun up. Managed to get my act together and bring down a couple of mallards an hour later. Geese stayed to high today and turned me into a bird watcher.

/Paul

Posted By:
greenhead hitman
Web Member

mid columbia river 12-02-2006 17:10
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 35-40 Degrees
Not as many birds moving in the high winds , but still enough to get 10 mallards . Flocks are smaller than they were during the cold snap , but alot more geese on the move but nothing would come in , did call a pair in for the guys down wind of us . What the heck it is xmas time I guess

Posted By:
Casey-Huxoll
Field Editor

Corn Near Hermiston 12-01-2006 20:56
Cloudy, Heavy Fog – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
This morning found a corn field loaded with mallards. shot a few nice greenheads, really fat healthy looking migrators. There are a lot of new birds that have moved in the last couple of days. this cold weather has really started pushing them around and making them hungry. It should just keep getting better from here on out as long as we keep getting the cold weather that is forcasted. Good Luck

Posted By:
greenhead hitman
Web Member

mid columbia river 12-01-2006 14:12
Arctic Blast – 30-34 Degrees – Ice
Two good hunts on the river , first one was 11/29/06 for 14 mallards , 2 pintail , 3 widgeon , one mallard/pintail drake cross , and 2 honkers .
The next hunt 11/30/06 water was to high to get to the honey hole but still pulled 4 mallards and 2 honkers .

Posted By:
greenhead hitman
Web Member

mid columbia river 11-28-2006 18:49
Cloudy, Snow Flurries – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
good day on the river, lots of mallards coming through in the morning . shot bad but we walked out with 10 mallards 2 widgeon and one honker .

Posted By:
greenhead hitman
Web Member

columbia river 11-27-2006 20:04
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
hunted for a few hours in the morning on the river . The birds were acting leary but still walked out with 5 mallards and 2 honkers . Only seeing mallards , no more pintails or baldplates . ( which is great but diffrent .)

Posted By:
Casey-Huxoll
Field Editor

Pasture Near Boardman 11-27-2006 09:22
Cloudy, Snow & Rain Mix – 35-40 Degrees
Hunted for Geese on Sunday. I thought the weather wass going to be perfect. we had a light wind and snow with rain mixed in. But for some reason either the birds never got up off the river or they just didnt come my way. Because i saw the least amount of birds that i have seen all season. But i guess that is why they call it hunting. At least my dog and i got our first taste of a little weather this year. nothing like laying in a lay out blind for 4 hours getting snow piled up on your head.
Well lets keep hunting them hard and shootem with there feet down.

Posted By:
Casey-Huxoll
Field Editor

new seeded wheat near Boardman 11-25-2006 18:14
Cloudy, High Winds – 35-40 Degrees
Hunted for geese the last 2 days in a wheat field that the wheat is just barly poping up. We saw a few birds and got some shooting in on friday. we shot 5 mostly small geese. then today we only got 2. the wind was blowing 15-25mph the last 2 morings with a little rain. the birds just battled the wind and when we got lucky the battled it right over our heads. otherwise the just hung outside the decoys. i guess we will just keep hoping for some cold weather with now wind. And lets all pray to the Goose Gods for a little snow.

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Mohawk Valley 11-24-2006 20:13
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 45-50 Degrees
Well, I didn’t get to hunt this morning but the birds were flying pretty well. I called and checked in with the boys at the club and they filled 2 limits, course there were 4 of them but I can’t only report what they saw, not what they shot. 🙂 Mostly widgeon.

/Paul

Posted By:
Casey-Huxoll
Field Editor

Flooded Corn outside Irrigon 11-23-2006 18:32
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 35-40 Degrees
This morning the wind was really blowing 15-25mph. I had a couple differnet groups of ducks work in but they kept hanging just outside the decoys. I did have one group of about 400 mallards come to the decs and i shot one banded green head. As soon as i did some shooting the ducks were gone. i think that they went back to the river. I did see a couple hundred gees flying around looking for a good field. I think if we keep getting good wheather up north the hunting is just going to keep getting better. Get out there and shootem with there feet down.

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Mohawk Valley and Fern Ridge 11-20-2006 22:51
Mostly Cloudy, No Precipitation – 40-45 Degrees
So this morning brought some clearing and fairly decent weather. I sat up on the river for an hour and had some nice groups of mallards buzz through. I managed to drop a couple for Scoop to retrieve. In checking with the boys at Fern ridge this evening they mentioned a good day of mixed bag action. They could have had two limits if they could shoot. Had good action though and nothing beats that.

/Paul

Posted By:
Richard-Roy
Web Member

se Oregon 11-20-2006 17:08
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
The mild weather kept water from freezing this week. Lots of mallards, scaup, shovelers, Canadas are common. A few white geese left.

Posted By:
Casey-Huxoll
Field Editor

Whear field Near Umatilla 11-19-2006 18:41
Cloudy, Heavy Fog – 35-40 Degrees
Hunted geese this morning. Was very foggy till about 9:00 then it lifted enough for the geese to start seeing the decoys. we had a few work the decs and got some shooting in. We had a friend along that was able to shoot his first canadian goose. That is always a good time to take someone that has never hunted before. There were a couple hundred birds moving around but not the numbers that i had hoped for in that area.

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Albany 11-19-2006 16:52
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 40-45 Degrees
We hunted a farm field along the river in Albany this morning and did pretty well. Lots of mallards and widgeon flying this morning and they decoyed very well. 3 of us ended up taking 10. Plenty of geese flying but like always pretty hard to bring in. Now that deer season is over its time to get serious. The ducks on the Mohawk are flying pretty well as well.

/Paul

Posted By:
Casey-Huxoll
Field Editor

Corn Field Near Boardman 11-18-2006 20:17
Cloudy, Heavy Fog – 35-40 Degrees
Hunted geese this morning on a disked corn field. It was very foggy, it didnt clear till about noon. We had about 10 mallards come breacking through the fog at about 9:00. Heard geese flying all morning they just wouldnt come down through that fog.
I went out scouting about 3:00 and saw a few fields with gees in them around boardman. The most was about 350 in one field the rest of the birds were just spread out in small groups around the area.
I heard a little bit of shooting this morning at first daylight comeing from McCormick Slough. sounded like there might have been a few ducks moving around down there.
Well i guess we will give it a try again in the morning. I am headed to a new seeded wheat field near Hermiston that had a couple hundred gees in it.
Good Luck to everybody.

Posted By:
salton sea man
Web Member

wood river refuge 11-15-2006 18:14
Cloudy, Occassional Rain Showers – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
Lots and lots of new widgeon arriving to this area from the north….probably klamath marsh is freezing?…..lots of high snow geese to the east going to tule lake refuge and sacramento valley…lots of mallards on the northwest part of upper klamath lake refuge; but few honkers to be seen anywhere????

Posted By:
Casey-Huxoll
Field Editor

McCormick Slough 11-15-2006 17:23
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 40-45 Degrees
Hunted this morning for geese at McCormick. Lots of geese in the air had a couple flocks work the decoys. also had some ducks working the field. I heard that they didnt do very well hunting the river or the slough blinds. But there are more birds in the area everyday.

Posted By:
Casey-Huxoll
Field Editor

McCormick Slough 11-13-2006 18:39
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 45-50 Degrees
Hunted McCormick slough on sat. shot 1 greenhead and 3 widgeon. not a bad hunt, windy. there were a lot of mallards working the main slough. i think that the numbers are really starting to come up.

[Edited By huxollc on 2006-11-13 18:39]

Posted By:
Richard-Roy
Web Member

se Oregon 11-13-2006 16:10
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 45-50 Degrees
The most common species of duck I saw on Friday was pintail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saw some nice flocks of mallards, some lesser scaup, GWTs. A few white geese around, tons of tundra swans, and Canadas were abundant. Got two nice roosters.

In about an hour and a half I got two roosters and a young pinnie drake. Not a bad outing.

Got weather out here predicted for the week. So, I imagine that we will see birds moving all week

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Mohawk Valley 11-11-2006 16:08
Cloudy, Occassional Rain Showers – 40-45 Degrees
Well the birds are in the valley. I have some large flocks of Mallards flying up and down the river pretty much all day. This morning was 3 greenheads and a hen.

/Paul

Posted By:
mudmonkey
Guest

Siltcoos lake 11-06-2006 21:17
Cloudy, Rain & Thunderstorms – 45-50 Degrees
Ive been slamming them here at siltcoos…the mallards are starting to thin up though it seems. So much wind and rain.

Posted By:
salton sea man
Web Member

northeast of klamath 11-06-2006 18:00
Cloudy, Occassional Rain Showers – 35-40 Degrees
hunted two areas northeast of klamath falls and had outstanding success on geese…..looks like there’s new honkers coming into the valleys…saw lots of new ducks in the air; very high and heading south……some small flocks of snows…either low and shootable or on oxygen heading southeast..????anyone hunting agency lake area or hank’s marsh????

Posted By:
greenhead hitman
Web Member

sauvie island 11-05-2006 20:33
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 50-60 Degrees
Hunted west side for a handful of birds , a good number of teal on the island along with mallards .

Posted By:
Richard-Roy
Web Member

se Oregon (NOT Summer Lake) 11-03-2006 18:54
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 45-50 Degrees
Things were freezing up earlier in the week, but now the temps have warmed up and water has re-opened. Snows are in along with lots of shovelers. Seeing more scaup too.

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Willamette Valley 10-27-2006 13:43
Sunny & Clear, Morning Fog – 35-40 Degrees
Sorry crsjhawk, been focused on deer hunting. I have been shooting some ducks in the river behind the house but for the most part I don’t get serious until Nov. Some of my friends picked up a few birds on Siltcoos this past weekend and we downed a goose or two but those were mostly residents.

/Paul

Posted By:
crsjhawk
Guest

Summer Lake 10-26-2006 21:57
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 45-50 Degrees
Where are all of the reports from Oregon. I don’t even live in that state and I am the only one writing anything. Anyway I hunted two days at Summer Lake and limited on snow geese both days. The other guys that I joined down there hunted Saturday through Wed and had great success also. There were five us total that hunted all or some of the five day period. All in we had close to 50 snows and 2 canadians. Not many ducks. There are a lot there but not many in range. We were more focused on the snows anyway. The area south of the link dike that was drained and disced last year now has water and the birds are pooring in there. With large concentrations only a few hundred yards south of the dike, good things are bound to happen. Good luck.

Posted By:
Richard-Roy
Web Member

se oregon 10-17-2006 16:12
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 45-50 Degrees
snow geese have started trickling in, other birds have moved out over the weekend after the cold front.

Posted By:
crsjhawk
Guest

Sauvies Island Private Land 10-16-2006 22:05
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 60-65 Degrees
I missed Saturday so went to the club on Sunday. Very slow both days it turns out. Three members got 9 on Saturday. On Sunday I shot one Mallard by 10:30 and that was all we had when I left. We saw birds around but none are using our place yet. Some nearby shooting at other clubs but nothing spectacular.

Posted By:
Richard-Roy
Web Member

SE Oregon 10-13-2006 10:00
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 60-65 Degrees
Bluebird weather in eastern Oregon.

Lots of birds moving through. Many wetland basins that were filled this past spring are still holding good amounts of water.

Been seeing good numbers of canvasbacks, redheads, pintails, gwt, wigeon, mallards, shovelers, etc. Good numbers of Canadas and a few whitefronts around.

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Mohawk Valley 10-03-2006 17:00
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 45-50 Degrees
Ok, so a whole flock of geese landed hours ago in the river and now thier up walking around the field 50 yards from my kitchen window. They won’t shut up and at this point they mocking me. I’ve had about 100 geese over the house today. The countdown to opening day is on…

/Paul

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Mohawk Valley 10-01-2006 23:08
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
Ok, so this morning I get up and let the dogs out of the kennel for our morning romp. When we hit the river mallards exploded into the air. Man, nothing gets your blood pumping like greenheads taking off. Got me so inspired I cleaned the boat out, checked my decoys and tuned up the motor. The seasons coming…

/Paul

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Willamette Valley 09-23-2006 23:32
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 50-60 Degrees
Well the season is about here. I’ve moved since last year out into the country, off the Mohawk River so I’m very curious to see how many birds land in my backyard. The geese have been teasing me for weeks now. They’re everywhere. Time to start the pre-season checks, get that gear in shape. Can’t wait to start telling what a great season I’m having…:)

/Paul

Posted By:
sprigkiller55
Web Member

LOWER KLAMATH 09-11-2006 22:44
– – –
HOW MUCH FURTHER EAST?? WE’RE RACKING OUR BRAINS AS TO WHERE THAT COULD BE–OF COURSE NOT MUCH LEFT TO RACK–HA-HA!! THANKS

[Edited By sprigkiller55 on 2006-09-12 00:20]

Posted By:
Richard-Roy
Web Member

08-31-2006 22:05
– – –
further east

Posted By:
sprigkiller55
Web Member

08-31-2006 15:33
– – –
HEY RICHARD–THANKS FOR THE REPORT!! WE’RE HOPING TO DRAW THE OPENER FOR LOWER KLAMATH!! WE USUALLY PUT IN FOR THE FIELDS AT TULE–BUT WE THOUGHT WE’D TRY FOR LK MARSH!!! SO WHERE DO YOU WORK–AT UPPER KLAMATH??
THANKS AGAIN

Posted By:
Richard-Roy
Web Member

SE Oregon 08-30-2006 11:16
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 45-50 Degrees
They’re heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere,

Wigeon and white-fronts are on the move and have started dropping into SE Oregon marshes.

I even saw two snow geese this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted By:
sprigkiller55
Web Member

07-25-2006 10:12
– – –
HAS ANYONE HEARD IF OREGON IS GOING TO HAVE A SPECIAL FEB-MAR WHITE FRONT HUNT?? I HEARD IT MAY BE ONLY ON PRIVATE PROPERTY!! I HAVEN’T HEARD ON WHAT THE LIMIT MAY BE!!!

Posted By:
Richard-Roy
Web Member

SE Oregon 07-21-2006 15:51
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – Over 70 Degrees
It is H-O-T, hot out here. But, wetland conditions are pretty good and there are lots of goose, teal, mallard, gadwall, pintail, canvasback and redhead broods.

Been seeing numerous large broods of 6-10 of all species.

Should be a good early season with lots of local birds.

Posted By:
Richard-Roy
Web Member

SE Oregon 04-16-2006 09:24
Cloudy, Occassional Rain Showers – 45-50 Degrees
Holy cow, wetland conditions are and will be awesome this year!! Lots of desert wetland basins are filled and still filling along with most reservoirs.

Snow is still accumulating at higher elevations. What we dont want to see is a huge runoff event occur right in the middle of nesting and then no water to carry us through during late summer and early fall. What would be great is for a looooong and slow runoff from the higher elevations.

Posted By:
Richard-Roy
Web Member

SE Oregon 04-04-2006 23:00
Cloudy, Occassional Rain Showers – 45-50 Degrees
Bird flu is expected to hit next fall.

Remember, the influenza pandemics of 1917/18, 1940’s, Swine flu are/were also “bird flus”.

Im not worrying too much about it, the media is the ABSOLUTELY WORST source for info.

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Willamette Valley 04-04-2006 13:08
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 50-60 Degrees
Thanks Richards, you’re absolutely right. The bird numbers around the Eugene/Springfield area quite high. Nesting seems to be ramping up nicely. Hoping things go well with the threat of the bird flu affecting waterfowl.

/Paul

Posted By:
Richard-Roy
Web Member

SE Oregon 04-01-2006 08:47
Cloudy, Occassional Rain Showers – 45-50 Degrees
The drought is over!!! We have very good snow pack (up to 180% of normal) in the mountains of SE Oregon. Add to that winter rains and we have desert basins, reservoirs, and tanks filling up or already full!!!

Nesting birds should expect to find excellent wetland canditions for breeding. The wetland basins should be holding their own and be in great shape for fall migrants.

Upland birds should also have a good year as long as we do not get alot of cold rains come late May and into June.

Posted By:
acereno
Guest

LCNWR 02-12-2006 10:35
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 50-60 Degrees
Went out for the northwest permit zone for geese yesterday and scared tons of geese off the water at sunrise. Very few returned. In the first half hour three groups skirted our spread just out of range. Then we waited until 1:30 before we even saw another goose but thankfully it liked my calling and kept us from getting skunked.
We decided to leave at 2:00 when my two labs who normally are pals got into a huge fight in the blind and I couldn’t get them separated for ten minutes. The younger one had a grip on the scruff of the older one’s neck and wouldn’t let go until I finally shoved his head underwater. I felt like making them swim back to the boat ramp.
Anyway, saw more ducks than I’ve seen all year and it was fun watching them flying around in their full spring plumage. I’m not positive but I think they were sticking their tongues out at us, just 8 more months…

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Willamette Valley 01-28-2006 14:10
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
We had high expectations for this morning hunt with the big storm predicted. Looks like the storm blew itself out by 5am and we ended up in a dead calm with blue sky for opening up the day. Pretty slow the first hour until the clouds moved in and we got some wind. About 9am we had some birds finally start moving around and we got some shooting in. Ended up with an extremely nice drake mallard to mount, one hen and one ringneck. We had some long shots but didn’t take them thinking we could call them back in. Not today apparently. Very sad thinking this was the last day. Looking back over the course of the season I missed too much hunting due to work and illness. Goal for next year is to refocus my priorities. Work will always be there, and I can be sick in the summertime….

/Paul

Posted By:
acereno
Guest

LCNWR 01-26-2006 18:44
Cloudy, Occassional Rain Showers – 40-45 Degrees
I must say I’m disappointed with the lack of posts in here this season. Not sure if its a lack of birds, effort or what. Maybe everyone is doing so well they are keeping it hush-hush? Anyway, my weekend is full so I got a case of duck fever today and skipped work to chase birds. After blasting bluebills for the last month I wanted one more trip for puddle ducks before I put the shotgun away. Fortunately the sunny weather the last few days dried out the local fields and pastures enough to send a good number of birds back to the refuge. Even though I left the boat ramp before anyone else arrived I was passed on the way to my spot by a boat with a bigger motor. 14 miles of grassy islands and two guys competing for the same spot…figures. Of course he also got more shooting than I did. I did get a nice pintail first thing and then had to watch countless pintails fly into my spread all morning wondering why the USFWS only allows 1 here. I finally got a mallard to commit and left mid morning with two birds. Anybody with info on landowners needing goose extermination for the late nw zone hunt please email me at

Posted By:
Paul-Cantrell
Field Editor

Comments sought on Oregon duck hunting zones 01-24-2006 14:42
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
Please see the request for feedback from ODFW in the Oregon forum.

/Paul