Category: Kansas

Posted By:
John-Donelon
Field Editor

kansas 11-27-2012 14:04
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Everything dried up in Kansas?No reports for some time.Hear that there is low water levels just about everywhere if there even is water.

Posted By:
Bill Puncher
Field Editor

03-06-2012 15:28
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Nothing going on in Kansas?

Posted By:
Art-Marshall
Field Editor

nebraska 01-07-2012 23:11
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Bernie, what new in kansas? Got Geese????

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

Sedg Co 10-18-2011 10:24
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Just about that time to start hitting the water,,,, if you can find any,,,, Looks like the rver is going to be the best chance for any hunting. Got alot of corn stubble to hunt this season tho.

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

sedg co. 02-16-2011 13:27
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Finished out the season with a pretty good hunt. Unbelievable numbers of dark geese in theNorth part of Seg county. Rumor had it somewhere in the realms of 100 thousand in the county. I believe it. They have been tearing our wheat up. Now for a chance to take a few snows as they pass through

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

Ark River 01-25-2011 12:52
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Hunted the river last nite. Lots of green but nothin hitting the river. Thousands of ducks and geese North of Wisugara

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

north of Cheney res 11-10-2010 14:49
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Have been seeing nice groups of pintail, cans and some divers. Havent seen much in the way of mallards yet. hopefully this cool weather moving in will shove some down.

Posted By:
wtrfwlnok
Web Member

sowing millet S.E Kansas 08-07-2010 23:44
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was out at the wetland today and saw lots of woodies 40+, b-wings 15! saw a mallard hen and 30-40honks,

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

sedg county 02-15-2010 07:21
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Did some field huntn Thurs north of Wisugara. Thousands of small gesse, snows specks, cans!!! Didnt take but 2 groups to drop limits on cans and specks. Snows didnt want to work decoys at all.
Went out Sunday and really didnt see squat. WINDY!!! Managed to pull some cacklers in close enough to drop a limit. Not a bad season at all. Now its time to get busy with the taxidermy. Freezers are full!!

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

cheney lake 02-02-2010 07:16
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Hunted the lake a few times this last week with a little success. Saw a few nice groups or mallards and hundreds of common mergansers. A few geesse but no big numbers. Managed to pull out a banded canvasback out of group on Thursday. Banded 2007 in Canada.

Posted By:
Art-Marshall
Field Editor

nebraska 01-23-2010 09:29
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Matt, were those birds cacklers coming back from the south.?

Posted By:
Matt Krekelberg
Web Member

Central KS 01-15-2010 16:40
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
Had some great hunts!!!
Limited out everyday this week!!!

I wish I could stay another week but we would have to buy more coolers and eat tons of geese!!

Posted By:
John-Donelon
Field Editor

KANSAS 12-31-2009 10:56
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My son was driving back to Austin Texas after the Christmas holidays,he went back on I-35,said from Wisugara Kns,down to almost the Oklahoma line, most cut corn fields were holding 1000’s of geese,mostly Canada.He left KC on Sunday on 12-27,hope this helps for those wanting information on geese,he said he saw very few ducks.

Posted By:
wbduckman
Web Member

Arkansas 12-26-2009 08:40
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Can anyone on this Kansas post give us Arkansas Hunters ANY information ?

1. Mallard numbers seen recently. Migration or on the Ground.
2. Weather/Snow updates that could affect a Mallards migration etc, etc, etc

Posted By:
PlatRvrJake
Web Member

12-19-2009 02:10
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Hey guys any ducks show up there lately?

Posted By:
dunut
Guest

flint hills area 11-29-2009 15:43
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
hunted yesterday and today shot three mallard drakkes one of them was my son first duck. also got four canada geese.duck were very jumping.

Posted By:
MUdckman
Web Member

Flint Hills Wildlife Refute 11-03-2009 19:13
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
Hunted the opener and killed three 1 teal, 1 Widgeon and 1 Gadwall. Lots of water has most of the area we like to hunt flooded with no dry areas to stage. Lot’s of hunters for the opener. Anybody posting anymore? Used to be very active?

Posted By:
slassley62
Guest

Stafford County 09-12-2009 20:47
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 60-65 Degrees
Hunted lease in Stafford county. Not much moving. Got soaking wet and managed three blue wings. Lots of standing water now after all the rain. I imagine birds are spread out and there wasn’t much in the way of hunting pressure this am.

Posted By:
mdavis3
Guest

North Central Kansas 02-08-2009 20:35
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Saturday morning saw large flocks of canadas until 11:00 am then the migration seemed to stop when the wind finally decided to shift. We only saw one small flock of snows maybe 20.

On Sunday we shot a 4 man limit of Canadas in 45 minutes and only saw one snow but were unable to harvest him.

Good numbers of geese migrating north this weekend. A friend from central Kansas reported seeing several large flocks of snows this weekend.

Posted By:
tlimoges
Guest

Barnes KS 02-05-2009 16:59
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I have been invited to do some duck hunting near the Barnes KS area along the Blue River next year. Does anyone know anything about this arena?

Posted By:
jluke
Web Member

02-04-2009 21:16
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Thanks for the info. I plan on hunting the end of Feb. some where, Do you think they will hang around long. Please let me know after your weekend hunt. THANKS……

Posted By:
mdavis3
Guest

02-04-2009 19:41
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Yeah, we have had good numbers of snows the past week or so. Killed ten last Saturday 35 miles south of Kansas City.

Between Mcpherson and Quivira has had decent numbers most of the season.

Anthony KS has also got decent numbers right now.

Should be able to tell you more after this weekend.

Posted By:
jluke
Web Member

02-04-2009 19:12
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I am looking for the same info, Is there any Snow Geese been seen in Kanasas… IF so please give some idea where thanks………

Posted By:
snow
Guest

02-04-2009 15:55
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 10-20 Degrees – Ice
UPDATE: snows, anyone seeing them ?
and where?

Posted By:
dlrrk
Web Member

NE Kansas (10 mi North of Fort Leavenworth) 01-16-2009 22:12
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 25-30 Degrees – Ice
Hunting geese about 4 miles west of the Itan Power Plant. We were in a corn field (late afternoon) with ~116 decoys out. A lone Canada goose flew over (caught us outside the blinds). Otherwise, we saw no geese, absolutely no geese flying. We saw one group of about 30/35 Mallards. They seemed to be looking for a field to pitch into.

Posted By:
kerhonk
Guest

cent. kan. 01-16-2009 10:24
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Lots of geese. Havent seen many ducks.

Posted By:
duckdoc8088
Guest

North Central Kansas? 01-15-2009 16:08
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What does anybody think about field hunting mallard and Canada Goose opportunities in north central Kansas for the split opener the 17th. Looks like a few birds on some of the reservoirs. Would like to make the trip with my 14 year old son and would appreciate any info Thanks.

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

N. Sedg county 12-21-2008 15:04
Cloudy, High Winds – 10-20 Degrees – Ice
Man were the winds howling on Sat the 20th. Tons of small geese and alot of the greenheads. We limited out on the 1st group of geese that dropped in and shot some nice mallards. The only open water now is the near-by sand pits. Good luck to all.
And have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Posted By:
John-Donelon
Field Editor

Kansas 12-18-2008 14:20
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Hello,anyone home.No posts since November 30th.This does not help any of your neighbor states on ducks. Want to take a late season hunt to Lake Perry area,anything going on in that area.?Surely there must be more hunters interested in being a VFE for the state other than just one person.

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

Cheney res 11-30-2008 21:04
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
Hunted the Res again. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BIRDS. We saw very few birds. Nothing at all flying. Talked to several others that hunted and same results. NOTHING!!!!

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

Cheney Res. 11-24-2008 18:19
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 40-45 Degrees
Hunted the Res Friday morning with good, but slow success. We did see some good groups of mallards and teal. Some worked the decoys well and other were a chore. Put out about 8 dozen to start and ended up pulling some to change it up. We thought the bigger spread would be like a magnet. NOPE!!

Posted By:
shepdog
Guest

Fort Riley 11-17-2008 11:58
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
Hunted Saturday November 15th. Saw several flocks of geese, no ducks. Came back to this pond on November 17th and saw a pair of Mallards. Was on Milford lake running the cobwebs out of my boat near the Wakefield area and saw around 50-60 divers. They were too far away and could not distinguish the species.

Posted By:
shepdog
Guest

South of Milford Lake 11-13-2008 07:49
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 40-45 Degrees
Hunted on Monday November 10th. Saw a descent amount of birds for this time of year. Had 15 Pintails come in outside out dekes. Had about a total of 6 Mallards, 10 Gadwall, 3 Widgeon, 3 Redheads, 10 common Mergansers, 3 large flocks of Snow Geese and about 1 dozen Canadian Geese. Between 3 guys we bagged 10. Reading the gentlemans previous post prompted me to add that the Mallard Drakes plummage was beautiful. I wanted to mount one that I shot. They look good right now.

[Edited By darenshepherd on 2008-11-13 07:51]

Posted By:
squancha
Guest

Mcpherson Wetlands 11-10-2008 08:37
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Hunted the Mcpherson wetlands this weekend. The birds are starting to show up. Two great hunts. Three guys on Saturday shot 11. Would have shot our limit, but to many pintails kept buzzing the spread. The mallards showed up late that morning and there were way to many Suzzie’s to take a chance on. Sunday brought better results and an even better hunt. 2 guys…2 limits. Pintails, Mallard Drakes and beautiful fully plummed Green Wing Drakes. Shot the prettiest Green Wing Drake I have ever seen. My taxidermy bill went up this weekend. Fantastic conditions this weekend. They decoyed in perfect and birds were every where.

Posted By:
Dabble
Gold Sponsor

ND 11-08-2008 19:27
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Well if theirs no birds down there, they blew over you because ND is empty for the most part. www.waterfowljunkie.com

Posted By:
spirit
Web Member

North Nebraska 11-07-2008 00:19
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They are on their way tons flew over with out even a look. The state of SD is in a stae of emergency and the ducks got out, Enjoy a great year.

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

Wichita area 11-05-2008 21:15
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – Over 70 Degrees
This weather bites!! We need some of that cold stuff to blow in. Waders in 70 heat.. No way that works. The duckies are still pretty thin around here. We have managed to get a few teal but havent got in to any big ducks. We have seen some nice groups but they must be sittn on the Zoo.

Posted By:
mdavis3
Guest

10-13-2008 18:20
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Good post Squancha. Have a buddy who was farming by the wetlands this weekend who was able to talk to 4 different groups of hunters who all limited out. Mostly teal but were able to shoot some mallards and pintails around 10:00am. Thanks for posting

Posted By:
squancha
Guest

Cheyenne Bottoms -McPherson 10-13-2008 09:07
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 60-65 Degrees
We went out to Cheyenne Bottoms for Opening Day. Wind was incredible Friday Night and early Saturday morning. We got out to our spot really early because of all the competition for hunting spots. About 5:00 in the morning the wind just shut off and even switched a little bit. There is a ton of water in every pool. We hundted 4A. Put out about 8 dozen decoys and four Mojo’s. There was lots of shooting the entire time we hunted. Should have done better, but early season shooting skill showed through. Between five of us we shot 17 ducks. 1 Gadwall- 1 Shoveler – 1 Ruddy -1 Pintail – The rest Teal…Mostly Blue but a couple Green Wings. The Pintails showed up really late. There is a ton of Teal at Cheyenne. I don’t care what the KDWP website says…You want teal…Cheyenne’s got it. If you’re going to hunt Cheyenne, get a boat. We had one without a motor to load the gear up in and push out there. It was a life saver, but an motor of sorts would have been nice.

We also hunted McPherson this weekend. If you haven’t been there yet make it a point. It has great cover and fantastic feed. Lot of birds flying there. Even some early Mallards. Got Two Teal. Good Luck

Posted By:
FlywayStalker
Guest

Kansas / Nebr 02-05-2008 09:13
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mdavis3
GREAT Job reporting! I wish some of the other Kansas hunters would join in, alot of us would enjoy there stories and thoughts as well. My son in JC said he went to Topeca the other day and saw huge numbers of dark geese in the river vallys starting about 30 miles east of Junction City. Sounds like your seeing good numbers south of JC.could you let me know when they start to move north.
Thanks

Posted By:
mdavis3
Guest

Central Kansas 02-04-2008 20:33
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Hunted this past weekend in the Mcpherson area we ended the weekend with 24 birds between 5 guys. Most of the birds were coming out to feed around 8:30 and heading to water in very large flocks between 11:30 and 12:30. We saw very little migration activity. Most of the birds were cacklers, with good numbers of snows and white fronts mixed in. Noticed good numbers of birds in the Marion and Emporia areas.

Posted By:
mdavis3
Guest

01-31-2008 20:44
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Art, I wasn’t that far west today. Southern Kansas was in blizzard like conditions today. My mom said she recieved about 5″ inches in the Wichita area with major drifting. My buddy in the McPherson area(about 50 miles north of Wichita) reported only 2-3 inches of snow with a minimal amount of new birds arriving. He didn’t think that they lost too many birds with this front. In northeast Kansas around Lawrence I did see several large flocks of geese feeding in different places from thier normal fields. Which leads me to believe that we did have some birds move into our area. I will be hunting in a couple of different locations this weekend and I will report back on 2-4-08. Good luck to those in the field.

Posted By:
Art-Marshall
Field Editor

central Nebraska 01-31-2008 20:11
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mdavis, yes it helps. Keep us posted of when they are pushing north. Did you see anything happening today along 183 in northern Kansas? (thursday)

Posted By:
mdavis3
Guest

Reply to Flyway 01-29-2008 21:45
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Most of the geese in the state are in the south central part between Wichita, Hutchinson and McPherson areas. These birds showed up a couple of weeks ago and have been steadily increasing with the temperatures jumping around they will move to several different areas in just a matter of a few days. Contacts in the middle part of the state are reporting large numbers of kills on warm sunny days with open water. In the northeast part of the state there is very limited open water but we are seeing more birds with decent numbers beginning to arrive. We did have a good hunt on 1/27/08 with three of us limiting out in 3 hours. Bad shooting. Hope this helps.

Posted By:
FlywayStalker
Guest

Nebraska / Kansas 01-29-2008 15:00
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Is anyone seeing any decent groups of Canada’s. I was down around Milford a few weeks ago and saw a few but my son in Junksion City seems to think alot of them left with the last cold spell.

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

Southern reno county 01-03-2008 18:26
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We hunted the whole week up to the 30th. We hammered the ducks. We saw hundreds after hundreds of mallards. We got limits for 5 days in a row and bagged several nice pintails with a few reds and canvasbacks. Geese are swarming the fields north of Wichita and south of Wichita. Sorryn for the late report.

Posted By:
Art-Marshall
Field Editor

south central Nebraska 01-02-2008 20:40
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I’ve been reading your Kansas reports. We all have the same thoughts. Where are the ducks? I don’t have the answer, but I can tell you that central NEBRASKA never saw them.The western quarter of Nebraska had a great season as far bird numbers. Central NEBRASKA had a disaster. The eastern third had a good push of birds about the 2nd week of December, then slowly lost them to the long cold spell and snow. My friend at Pierre S.D. tells me their season is just like central NEBRASKA’S, poor, and they are still waiting for birds to arrive. They have backed their season up thinking that the birds will eventually show up, just like Nebraska.
It comes down to two things.
1. the birds changed their migration route starting in North Dakota or Canada and shifted to the east or west
2. the birds don’t exist.
I don’t understand why the Fish and Wildlife folks haven’t offered an explanation for this. I think the bird band program would shed some light on this .

[Edited By Art-Marshall on 2008-01-02 20:42]

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

Ninnescah River – Sylvia 12-31-2007 15:12
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 10-20 Degrees – Open Water
Well fella’s, we hunted 2 more days since my last report (Thurs & Sun) and nothing has changed a bit. Still heavy snow cover and frozen flat water due to the temps remaining below 32 most of the day. There are simply no ducks in our Central part of the state other than a few straglers here and there. Probably saw 30-40 total ducks each morning and they were patterned quite well. Had 1 lonely gadwall drake drop in on Thurs and 1 lonely greenhead drop in on Sun……….that was it!!

Sorry to say this was by far the worst season we have had at our places since I’ve lived here. Optimism was high going into the season with all the good brood reports from the Praire Region, but didn’t pan out for us at all. Every year is a new year and the eternal optimizm will return I’m sure after a long lay off this spring & summer, it always does.

Not sure how much I will hunt during 2nd split (Jan 19-27), will all depend on my scouting results prior too. If I do hunt, I’ll report our results.

Happy New Year and remember, there’s always “next year”……….

Take care all.

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

Ninnescah River – Sylvia 12-26-2007 15:48
Cloudy, High Winds – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Hunted the Ninnescah River again this morning given all our marshes are frozen. The river was wide open as always and still a fair amount of snow still on the ground. Trying to learn from the success of some other hunters north of us, we only put out about 18 magnum dekes (floaters and full body motion shells) NO mojo’s. Tucked the dekes tight against the north bank (north wind at 20mph today)……….. In short, no interest at all by the few birds that we did see. Tried no calling, light calling and aggressive calling, nothing would work. One very stupid drake gadwall dropped from no where into the blocks, our only bird of the day!! Don’t really know waht to say at this point, we always smoke ’em when conditions are like this, but not this year.

Season closes on Sunday for the 1st long split, reopens on Jan 19th for 9 more days. Can’t wait, yeah right……

Art, we hunt private marshes on the East and South sides of Quivera Wildlife Refuge, which is in Central KS. As noted in previous reports, we hunt the North Fork of the Ninnescah River when all the flat water locks up. On a map, we are 28 miles west of Hutchinson, KS (NW of Wichita and SW of Salina) I enjoy reading your reports and do so often, keep up the good work as I’m sure it helps your fellow NE hunters.

Posted By:
Art-Marshall
Field Editor

nebraska 12-25-2007 08:35
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GREG,,,,,,What part of Kansas are you in ?

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

Ninnescah River – Sylvia 12-24-2007 15:26
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 25-30 Degrees – Ice
Christmas Eve morning hunt- most all slack water is frozen solid and snow cover on the ground making it tough for the ducks to feed. Bad combination!!!!! We saw several large groups of ducks working an area west of us, but few passed our way and even fewer were interested in what we had to offer. Tried every thing, multiple mojo’s, no mojo’s, nothing seemed to work for us today. Ended the morning with 2 mallards and 1 canada goose. We plan to hunt some more after Christmas Day, I’ll report shortly thereafter. 1st split ends on Sunday and re-opens on the 19th of January for 9 days.

Merry Christmas…..

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

Ninnescah River – Sylvia 12-16-2007 22:09
Cloudy, Accumulating Snow – 10-20 Degrees – Open Water
Friday- Lots of ice remaining from ice storm earlier in the week, all the elec power to this area is still out. Few more ducks in the area, but NO HUNTERS around us and they were piling into some of the bigger duck club marshes around us that are being kept open by rotating waterfowl. Saw a ton of ducks falling just to our west. If the guys in that club would have hunted, they would have had a BIG TIME!! In summary, more ducks in the area and we only got a couple into our spread and onto the stringer.

Saturday- Same place, same time, next day, driving snow in our face, still NO HUNTERS around us, BUT very different day for our river spot. Tons more ducks than Friday and a few dropped in to take a look at our small spread (3 dozen floater, 1 dozen full body motion dekes and mojo’s). We selectivly shot our 3 man limits with all big ‘ole Greenheads except for 1 drake gadwall. Topped it off with a bonus speck that flew a little to low down the river. Conditions were tough (north wind/snow and north facing blind) but the reward was worth it.

Can’t belive no one in the various duck clubs around got out to take advantage of the new influx of birds this weather system as pushed down. Guess the season has been a real dissapointment for most everyone (including us) and many may have thrown in the towel. There are ducks and geese here for now and I hope everyone that can find open water will get out and enjoy this time. I did see a huge number of geese v’d up and heading south on Saturday when we had 12″ of snow on the ground by lunch time. The 1st big pushes of Snows and Blues moved over us all morning. Didn’t see any big groups of ducks heading south, just moving around in the wind and snow.

Things are looking up for the last part of our season. Get out and enjoy it.

[Edited By Greg-Haygood on 2007-12-16 22:10]

Posted By:
cdbryan 2007
Web Member

nebraska 12-09-2007 20:06
Cloudy, Accumulating Snow – 0-10 Degrees – Open Water
hold on to your a–. boys yesterday we where holding a few geese and several thousand ducks. Today went out and they where gone. I seen several flocks of geese heading south this afternoon. We are either getting a good push of birds in or they are going to blow buy and keep heading south. Good luck hunting has sucked up here so far and I wish better luck for you guys down there.

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

E. Quivera & Sylvia 12-09-2007 13:11
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Friday – E. Quivera – virtually no ducks or geese in the air. Oddly enough, other than the couple of straglers, the one group that we saw was a group of 40-50 mallards and they worked and dropped in perfectly. We dropped 3 mallards…….that was it for the day.

Saturday – Sylvia – a few small groups in the area, only a couple showed interest, 3 mallards and 2 golden eye were bagged.

Summary, no ducks to speak of in this central part of the state. Hype and optimism were really high for us given the summer duck statistics, however, we seemed to have missed out for one reason or another. Either the birds didn’t stop and passed us by or they traveled a different migration path thus far in the season. Cheyenne Bottoms reporting this morning that the harvest to date is 5% of last seasons numbers……5%!!! Unbelievable fact, but certianly consistent with our kill count. I realize there is still some season left and hope like crazy that we will get some of the decent duck numbers still north of us to stop in Kansas on their way south.

I hear “underwater basket weaving” is catching on with waterfowlers across the mid-central flyway. May have to give it a try in a few weeks!!!!!

Posted By:
squancha
Guest

Cedar Bluff Wildlife Area 12-05-2007 13:43
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I spent all of last week Deer Hunting but saw large numbers of ducks. Heard lots of shots from Duck Hunters while I was in the field. While walking one draw I saw my first Albino Duck. He was with a group of mallards…Mostly White with a little tan and yellowish color. Very pretty. Saw lots of mallards and wigeons flying above me while I was hunting for a wallhanger.

Posted By:
Royo
WFC Sponsor

Perry Lake 12-03-2007 21:16
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 10-20 Degrees – Ice
Was out at the Lassiter marsh at Perry Lake. Myself and a friend shot three Gadwalls and three Mallards. All were in full plumage and were big and fat birds. If we both had not had to work today at our real jobs we probabl;y would have gotten two full limits. We saw lots of High Flyers and lots of High Flying geese.

[Edited By Royo on 2007-12-03 21:17]

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

Northern Reno County 12-03-2007 13:56
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Sat in the deerstand Sat and Sun. Saw tons of geese fightin the wind. Everything goin north toward highway 50. Mostly lesser cans and specks. Didnt see many ducks using the river.

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

East Quivera 12-02-2007 22:49
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
Saturday morning was not that cold (34), but the wind was ripping out of the south sustained at 30mph, but gusting to 35-40. Rain was relatively light, but hard driving with the wind.

Crazy morning to watch mainly geese trying to fly in that wind. Everything sat tight for the 1st hour of LST, but then a FEW ducks and some geese started battling the wind and rain. We hunted till 1:30pm and managed to scratch out 10 ducks and 3 geese (3 mallards, 3 wigeon, 3 gadwall, 1 GW teal and 3 specks). Still very, very few ducks in our area.

Sunday, again strong winds, but this day out of the north. The guys (I didn’t go) went to the River blind and had a much different morning, FINALLY some decent duck numbers in the air. They didn’t hunt too long, but said there was a significant change in the waterfowl numbers in the sky. 1st decent day since teal season, ducks started early and worked until they left with 9 mallards, 1 gadwall and 1 speck. It would seem the 1st migrating groups from the far north are starting to hit our region as the mallards they shot were big, fat and well insulated flight birds.

Hope this is a sign that our State of Kansas is getting ready to produce some really good hunts for those deserving hunters that have been putting in the time and effort to create those great hunt spots that to date, have been “mildly” productive this season. Planning to test the theory several times this week and will report our results.

Keep a close eye out for those LONG shooting rifles thru Sunday!!! Deer hunters are still afield and their scopes may be blurry.

[Edited By Greg-Haygood on 2007-12-02 22:50]

Posted By:
Art-Marshall
Field Editor

12-02-2007 07:00
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Up here in Nebraska we have some birds in the western third of our state , but from there east,,, very little. We are waiting. Most of us haven’t pulled the trigger yet. We have been told the birds are really piled up at Pierre, S.D. . We are watching the weather at Pierre.

Posted By:
Blind retrieve
WFC Sponsor

12-01-2007 20:15
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Check Iowa, they have been consistently tearing em up. If you follow the Arkansas DNR satellite mallard migration, it lends credence to the Iowa reports as true.

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

E. Quivera and Sylvia 11-27-2007 13:29
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 25-30 Degrees – Ice
Poor, poor, poor, pretty much sums up our Holiday Hunts. Day by day results:

Wednesday- E. Quivera – 11 degrees upon arrival, only one hole in center of marsh open, broke ice for dekes and jo’s. Very few ducks in area, shot 2 mallards, 1 gadwall, 3 wigeon.

Thursday – E. Quivera – 14 degrees upon arrival, same hole open, few ducks, shot 3 mallards, 2 redheads. Sylvia river blind yeilded a few more ducks, shot 3 mallards, 2 gadwall, 1 wigeon.

Friday – E. Quivera – 24 degrees, no ducks, shot 1 canada. Sylvia river blind a little better, shot 5 mallards, 1 pintail.

Saturday – Sylvia river blind, very few ducks, shot 3 mallards.

Sunday – couldn’t take it any more, stayed home.

Summary, where are the ducks? Seems most of the region summer ducks have pushed way south, my bro-in-law and his buddies in N. Louisiana (Miss flyway) have been shooting 24 bird limits everyday of their 1st week open except for 1 day when they only managed 18. His new young 1st season pup has retreived over 100 ducks in his introductory week, not bad. Says he’s working like a champ, never know he was a 1st season dog. Makes me proud, as pup came from my male and my buddies female British Lab breeding in January 2007. Anyway, hope there is migration to come and they haven’t just passed us bye or flown E or W of us. Judging by reports north of us, no one in NE, SD or ND are reporting good bird numbers. Hopefully this means the best is still yet to come. Last season our best period was during the last 9 days of the 2nd split.

Take care all and keep getting after those rascals as it’s tough to shot ’em laying in the bed!!!!!

Posted By:
MrMallard88
Guest

Eestern KS 11-24-2007 13:05
– – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Hunted all around Eastern KS the last 3 days, and wasnt impressed with what I saw. I dont think this was the push everyone was expecting, which makes sense. The last reports I had read about up north is that a majority of the mallards and honkers were still in Canada, and a cold front like this probably got them moving, but probably not all the way down here. On a brighter note, I did notice a huge increase in GW Teal numbers around the area, and was able to harvest quite a few fully plumed drakes this week! Beautiful birds! Did kill a few malllards, just didnt see them in the kind of numbers I was hoping for. Oh well, its still early, and things can only get better from here, I hope…

Posted By:
kerhonk
Guest

N. of Hutchinson 11-19-2007 22:05
– – 50-60 Degrees
Saw a lot of geese moving Sun. morning as I was out chasing ditch chickens. Mostly whitefronts. Some big strings.

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

E. Quivera 11-19-2007 14:11
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
A few ducks on the marsh when we got there, quickly scampered off. At LST a few ducks started moving and banged out 7 ducks (4 mallards, 2 gaddies, 1 ring-neck) by 7:15, then it all went dead as far as the ducks go. Geese on the other hand poured out of the refuge all morning long in huge groups v’d up and heading to the fields.

Temps and wind speed we’re very mild early, but started to pick a little after we called it quits. Ducks that we did see, worked really well (very light calling, over aggressive calling flared them off big time). Expect some new birds by mid week with temps dropping into the teens Wed night and North wind for 2 straight days. Pretty excited as I get to hunt 5 days straight. Kids out of school and we’ll start in on ’em Wed morning and won’t let up till Sunday comes around.

Hope all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday and get the chance to hunt on your time off.

Posted By:
Bernie-Jones
Field Editor

North of Cheney Res 11-19-2007 12:58
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 40-45 Degrees
Dad and I hunted the lease Sat morning. We saw some nice groups of Mallards with the oxygen masks on. Quite a few ducks on the Res. We managed to pull in our limits by 8:30. We lso saw some big groups of snows heading south.

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

E. Quivera 11-16-2007 10:26
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
It was 23 degrees when I stepped out of the truck yesterday near Quivera. Small shallow water marsh was covered completely with thin layer of ice, deeper large marsh didn’t have a speck of ice. Big ducks in the water before LST and the geese started moving early as well. I was expecting a pretty solid morning with the change in condition.

Summary of the day, I shot 4 mallards by 7:15 and waited another 2 hours for an odd species duck to show interest in my blocks. Came close on 4 gadwall, but drifted on me and lost interst, should have dropped 1 more mallard and been done with it.

I was surprised by three things yesterday, …..1st is how darn fast the thin water froze up, figured the ground temps would have keep water open for several days under freezing conditions……..2nd how many geese were coming out of the refuge, thousands upon thousands poured out all morning heading to the grain field east of me, mainly speck, but a few groups of S&B and Canadas……..3rd how few ducks I saw, I track the migration like the plague and knew the first big push has yet to happen, but just felt like more birds would be here by this time. Everyone that has asked me about the hunt, I’ve told we could have achieved about 3 limits of mallards if I had 2 more shooters in the blind with me, but not much more than that.

The best is yet to come and next weeks front may push some birds down to us. My buddies in Louisiana are just now opening and they’re telling me they only have a bunch of teal and specks to shoot at present.

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

E. Quivera 11-12-2007 15:56
Mostly Cloudy, No Precipitation – 50-60 Degrees
The consistent theme continues, shot 2 ducks probably should have killed 4, but not much to shoot at. Very few ducks passed our way and huge drop in the number of geese we’ve seen v’d up and heading south. Most guys I have spoken with are reporting much of the same.

The best is still yet to come as Nebraska and S Dakota still shooting craps as well. Buddy hunted Pheasant last week in SD and the locals reporting no major migration thru their area yet. Gonna try ’em again mid week and the weekend, will report back following those efforts. Cold weather can’t get here fast enough.

Posted By:
Tim-Carrigan
Guest

NE KS 11-12-2007 15:21
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 60-65 Degrees
Scouted much of Saturday at marshes surrounding Hillsdale as well as some private locations. Covered a couple hundred miles and saw very few ducks (seems to agree with the Hillsdale report on KDWP site). A friend of mine in South-Central Nebraska is reporting very few birds as well. He hunted this morning on a large lake and didnt see much at all.

I guess we’re in the post-opener doldrums for a bit — colder weather predicted at the end of the week might mean a change.

Posted By:
Tim-Carrigan
Guest

Central and W. KS 11-06-2007 13:52
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 45-50 Degrees
Scouted Cheyenne Bottoms – water is still pretty high and over the roads in a few places. Very little vegetation from what we could see and we observed very few birds (we were there right at dusk). We didnt spend much time there so other portions might be better, but I was disappointed and a little discouraged in the parts I saw. If anyone has a better report, please provide.

We hunted a shallow farm pond/drainage area further west and got a very mixed bag: gadwalls, widgeons, mallards, GW teal, BW teal, redheads, scaup, ringneck, pintail among the seven of us. Lots of birds there and in a couple of other places we scouted Friday. Focused on longtail ditch parrots the rest of the weekend…no updates since then.

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

E. Quivera 11-05-2007 11:18
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 45-50 Degrees
Friday- E. Quivera had ducks on the marsh when we got there, pushed off and didn’t come back…….shot 2 wigeon. Not much flying at all.

Sat- Sylvia another slow day, had a few groups moving around, but deadset on thier destination, shot 1 mall, 1 gadwall and 1 GW teal.

Sun- E. Quivera huge explosion of ducks pushed off the marsh upon arrival, none returned.

Way to nice of weather and no concentration of ducks in the areas we hunted. Little cold snap mid week may brings some new ducks to us. We’ll see, for sure can’t shoot ’em in the bed……..

No need to discuss our set-ups as couldn’t really test our efforts/ideas without ducks.

Posted By:
crsjhawk
Guest

Cheyenne Bottoms 11-01-2007 22:53
– – –
Has anyone been hunting the bottoms? I heard the water was back to normal but most of the habitat is gone. I will be out over Thanksgiving and would like to get a report. Thanks

Posted By:
MrMallard88
Guest

NE KS 10-29-2007 18:29
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
Made it out again this morning and managed a 4 man limit by 10. A little slower than Saturday morning, but today it seemed most every bird we saw ended up cupped up at 15 yards. It was another hunt to remember, shared with great friends. Todays bag consisted of mostly gadwall, with a couple greenheads, a wigeon, a couple teal, and two real nice pintail drakes. I have early classes the rest of the week, but will be back at it this weekend and will report what I see.

Also was considering going out for an afternoon of pheasant hunting sometime this weekend…

Posted By:
Tim-Carrigan
Guest

NE KS – private – MI Co 10-29-2007 14:28
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
NO WIND!
Saw a fair number of birds but none wanted to work, just circle and circle and eventually bug out. Managed mixed bags on both days of wood ducks, gadwall, teal with a bonus pintail and a goose thrown in for fun. Saw a few groups of mallards and pintails, but they didnt want to play nice.

Sunday, we saw more gadwall and uncooperative mallards than Saturday, which was mostly teal and woodies…I think the cool front helped with them a bit. There were definitely more high-flying geese on Sunday.

Tactics: After enjoying Saturday’s great golfing weather from the duck blind, we confronted the calm on Sunday with as many shaker butts and quiver disks as we could find in our collective basements and sheds and it seemed to help a bit…did not deploy a jerk cord, but should have. Hope everyone had a good, Late Zone opener.

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

E of Quivera 10-29-2007 12:44
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 45-50 Degrees
Promised to report the good, the bad and the ugly…….i could see it setting up in the days prior to Saturday, but hoped it would defy my gut feeling. However, it didn’t. We only had a pair of mallards, one single mallard, pair of teal, single wigeon, and single pintail………7 total ducks come to our spread, of which we dropped the 3 mallards. 3 guns in the blinds, 3 ducks on the stringer, not a memeorable opener…and didn’t hunt Sunday.

We only had a couple of 10-12 pack groups pass by in the distance, however, the geese were v’d up all morning and moving south the entire time we were in the blind (10:00am).

Reports seem spotty at best, but quite a few still have great limits to report. Think we were really impacted by the lack of hunting pressure on Quivera as many of the 20,000 reported ducks failed to leave the refuge. Guess if I were a duck, I wouldn’t either. Hopefully we’ll get the Whoopers off the refuge and hunters back in there, should improve conditions around the area significantly. We’ll be back at ’em in short order.

Posted By:
kerhonk
Guest

central KS 10-29-2007 08:59
– – 45-50 Degrees
Sat. a.m. 3 kids and 2 adults shot 13 teal. Saw very few big ducks but lots of teal. Saw a few groups of geese. Dog got some good work but should have had more if we could have hit the little guys.

Posted By:
MrMallard88
Guest

NE KS 10-28-2007 17:24
– – –
Went out for opening morning and ended up killing a 3 man limit in about an hour and a half … consisted of mallards, pintails, wigeon, gadwall, and teal! We were able to be very selective and choose which flocks we wanted to shoot, and litterally had ducks in the decoys all morning! Also saw thousands of snows and specs high and headed south … probably my best opening day Ive ever had … going out again in the morning and will post what I see!

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

Quivera Wildlife Refuge 10-26-2007 14:25
– – –
NOTICE:

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT QUIVERA HAS CLOSED THE ENTIRE REFUGE DUE TO WHOOPING CRANES ON THE PROPERTY. IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO HUNT QUIVERA, CALL BEFORE YOU GO AND SEE IF THEY HAVE REOPENED TO HUNTING 1ST!!

Penaties are significant to violators.

Posted By:
goose316
Guest

WYCO/LEAVCO 10-26-2007 11:43
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 45-50 Degrees
Anyone looking for someone to hunting with opening weekend? (Late Zone) I have deeks, waders, etc… just need a place to hunt. Wasn’t expecting to be in town, plans fell through so I didn’t do any permission asking for this weekend.

I do have fields for geese could possibly trade or something… let me know if anyone’s interested… Eastern KS..please

Posted By:
Tim-Carrigan
Guest

E KS 10-24-2007 11:24
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 50-60 Degrees
Well, with a few days to go, my phone scouting (at work all week) has yielded few reports of birds. Still a lot of teal hanging around and few woodies here and there, but not the numbers we’ll see later this year for sure.

All the reports are for good numbers, so even if they aren’t here for the opener, its sure to be a good season…good luck!

Posted By:
Greg-Haygood
Web Member

East Quivera 10-24-2007 00:17
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 60-65 Degrees
We had 6 youth hunters in the blinds on Saturday morning (4 shooters, 2 non-shooters). We had a decent number of birds dropping into the dekes prior to shooting time, which created some excitement for all of us. Once legal shooting time kicked in we had some pretty good oppotunities to spank a fair number of ducks. One blind had a group of 20 BW Teal drop in range, while the other had 25 big, beautiful local mallards drop right in front of us…….with guns a blazin’ in both blinds, we managed to knock down ZERO!!! Couldn’t believe it, shots don’t get any better than that, but 1st morning jetters prevailed. Think the boys just shot into the crowd thinking surely they would knock some of them out. But, as we all know, you gotta pick out a bird and drill it, then move on the next one. I’ve seen this repeated countless times where the ducks are so bunched up together and slowly dropping into the spread that you think you don’t have to aim, just spray steel in the general directions and your sure to hit something. Anyway, that was best opportunity of the morning, as activity was limited to a couple of other good shots on singles and doubles and then watching a numerous small groups (6-8 birds) transit a well known route to and from the refuge. Ended the day skunked, but still big fun for the whole crew.

Observations: A greatly reduced number of birds transiting our flight path versus our Teal season experience just a few short weeks ago. We couldn’t keep the big ducks out of the marsh during Teal season, but they seemed to have changed feeding locations at present. Judging by the reports of some buddies that have been hunting in Canada the last week or two, bird numbers are off the chart in Sask. and Manatoba Provinces with few crossing the northern boarders. This recent front has started pushing some early migrants into N. and S. Dakota, but not in real numbers.

Big kids season opens this weekend and we will be there to take part. Hope the temps continue to cool off and we get our 1st flights of migrating waterfowl pretty quickly. Optimistic as ever (or always as some of my buds say), I’m hoping for an action packed season that adds to the many stories and memories we’re building with our freinds and family. Good luck to all that put in the time and effort to do it right!! And remember, “durky” beats store bought beef jerky any day…..24 hr soak in the special brew and 8 hrs in the hydrator = bona petite.