Category: Wisconsin

Posted By:
Kris-Bertelsen
Field Editor

05-02-2011 13:02
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Great start to the spring breeding season. I’ve been seeing LOTS of birds this year. I hope that the nesting is successful!

I made it to the conservation congress meeting this year. There was a question about changing the season for duck hunting. Hope you made it there, and are informed about the possible changes. Check into the WI DNR website for details on how the voting went! Have a good summer, join conservation organizations if you aren’t already, and get your gear ready.

Posted By:
MallardKingWI
Web Member

03-13-2011 07:08
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let’s see, in the last 10 days I have seen Sandhill cranes, woodducks, more geese and robins. I would say the migration is on. Even though everything is still covered with snow and the lakes still have 2 ft of ice on them. their body clocks say time to go!

Posted By:
huntnfish19
Web Member

12-14-2010 11:57
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 25-30 Degrees – Ice
found a field with some birds in this past weekend yet and managed 3 specks and 2 banded honkers then somebody busted the birds off the roost (we were less then a mile away) and they all flew in the opposite direction. Just enough to piss a guy off but it was def a hunt of a lifetime shooting those specks in wisco

Posted By:
Kris-Bertelsen
Field Editor

Chippewa Valley 12-06-2010 11:21
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The migration is on the downswing this past weekend. The cold and snow got too much for most of the birds, and it sounds like the southern half of WI got some of our birds. We still have huntable numbers, but no season left is like normal! Good for you boys that got in one more hunt this weekend and might get in one more good one yet down in the southern zone!

Good season for me, except I didn’t get out as much as before. Glad to hear all the positive reports, and I have to second the call for hitting the banquets and voicing your opinions in a positive manner at the conferences.

Posted By:
Stu-Soper
Field Editor

Potosi 12-06-2010 10:23
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Was out on Friday. Had to keep an eye on the decoys with all of the ice. Was my last time out. Overall had a pretty good year. Thanks to everyone who posted this year, and have a happy holiday season!

Posted By:
REARNEY
Web Member

Lake Pepin 12-06-2010 08:43
Arctic Blast – 0-10 Degrees – Open Water
We finished out the season on a good hunt. Me and buddy launched boat in ice cold weather and went up the main channel and back into area with current and no ice. Divers flew constantly mostly mergansers. Ended up seeing alot more mallards than I thought were around. Ended up with (6) Goldeneyes (2) Black mallards and (2) Buffies. Saw the most Goldeneyes I have seen in years. We would pick out those beautiful drakes. For those of you that have Go Devil Surface Drives-make sure to have WD-40 with you when temps are in the single digits. The throttle linkage gets awful sticky and ended up going back in half throttle because it stuck so bad. My year was probably the worst in the last 10 years because we had alot of high water and we struggled to find birds. taking my annual trip to Manitoba sure makes the season. It is still great to be out there whether we shoot anything or not I love being with friends. Have a great off season and make sure to join your Delta Waterfowl, DU and Wisconsin Waterfowl and please attend your local banquet event if possible. Till next year-bye!

Posted By:
huntingcaliber
Guest

Southern Walworth County 12-06-2010 08:10
Cloudy, High Winds – –
Well, the last two days were like DEJA-VU. Thousands of mallards arriving to the corn fields from miles in the air wherever there were geese on the ground. It was a great site to see but one month too late!! Identical to last year’s ending!! We were able to fill six limits of Canada’s for both Saturday and Sunday and a few of those fat Northern Drake Mallards in the bag. The Canada’s are steadily flowing into the lakes area riding this coldfront. The finish down here should be quite productive. My 13 year old son was able to shoot his first Canada’s while layout hunting over the weekend. Congrats to him!! He was very excited. He even wanted to skip school this morning to go at it again!! That didn’t happen!!!
I enjoyed reading all the posts this season and lets pray for some early cold fronts for next season!!

Posted By:
MallardKingWI
Web Member

12-05-2010 18:49
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Floated a river on Saturday but we could never get close enough to the ducks and geese that were in the river. No shots fired.

Only ten more months and we get to do it all over again.

Posted By:
MallardKingWI
Web Member

Horicon 12-01-2010 21:38
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Just had to go back one more time. Launched at Greenhead and made it almost to the main ditch. Patchy ice after Malzohn’s Bay. Saw 4 ducks in the river and two flocks of 75 birds that were high and headed south. Other than that nothing happened and no shots fired.By tomorrow most of the marsh will be frozen and with the forecast of all below freezing weather through the weekend I would have to say Horicon is done for the year. I’ll try a river this weekend for one last chance.

Posted By:
Kris-Bertelsen
Field Editor

Chippewa Valley 11-29-2010 12:16
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Small ponds and rivers froze up, but the birds didn’t leave. Either they grouped up or the migration is finally here. Two spots on Wissota each with over 300 geese and ducks being kept open by their motion. Dells Pond in Eau Claire had big numbers. Birds in the fields between Eau Claire and Augusta. I won’t make it out this weekend, but plenty of geese for one more chance for someone! Good luck to you in the southern zone, just wait, they are coming down.

Posted By:
Stu-Soper
Field Editor

Potosi 11-29-2010 09:53
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Was out yesterday. Open water in most places. The cut off areas were iced up. Warmer temps for the next couple of days should keep things open till the end. Seen lots of migrants going up river. I know the end is near when I see more Wiegon and Merganzers then Mallards. Stay safe.

Posted By:
MallardKingWI
Web Member

11-29-2010 06:51
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Paul, As you probably know Horicon can be very fickle. One guy can have a terrific day and somebody 200 yards away gets nothing. This actually was my best year there in quite a while. But it all happened in the first half of the season. Then it all dried up. I never see anybody with limits up there and nobody at the dock admits to it but on the right day it can sure be fun.
We’ve been to North Dakota three times and it is great out there. I also know another guy who goes to Canada and his opinion is like yours. Jim B

Posted By:
N2DUCKIN
Guest

11-28-2010 21:35
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M-KING, just want to say thanks for your posts this year. I appreciate and enjoy the info you give on Horicon every year. It has just been another lousy season. I think i was lucky to get one meal of birds out of that marsh. The only thing i have going for me is going to Canada every year and doing very well. That is a trip you should look into as i know you are an avid hunter. Again, thanks for the updates….Paul S.

Posted By:
MallardKingWI
Web Member

Horicon 11-26-2010 18:43
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Went to Horicon this morning and found that it was 95% froze over. Talked to a guy that busted ice up to Stoney Bay from the city and he said he ran into ice that was 1.5 inches thick. He also was there yesterday until 2:30 and said the marsh was totally open. This is the fastest freeze out I can remember. I thought with the winds it would have kept it more open today. Two boats launched at Greenhead but even the river was iced over.
Spent the rest of the morning driving around looking for open water and even small rivers were frozen over. Didn’t see any ducks anywhere. The only open water was in Milwaukee county.
So when it gets into the 40’s next week will the marsh open up? If it does open up will the ducks come back or has the fat lady sung?

[Edited By MallardKingWI on 2010-11-26 18:44]

[Edited By MallardKingWI on 2010-11-26 18:45]

Posted By:
Stu-Soper
Field Editor

Potosi 11-26-2010 09:05
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Seen quality numbers of birds working up by McCartney and down below Potosi. Divers mainly working the islands above Potosi. Should be plenty of birds around for the last push of the season. Stay safe.

Posted By:
MallardKingWI
Web Member

Horicon 11-24-2010 19:22
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Hunted on Tuesday with the cold and wind and a little ice but no ducks. With the exception of one flock of ten mallards, I saw more hunters than ducks. Horicon has been terrible the last two weeks. We don’t hear many shots and I’ve only taken one shot during that time period. Tried big water with lots of decoys, big water with few decoys, skied, skied into an area we saw ducks an put out decoys in a pothole and the results have been the same, NOTHING. During that time period hardly anybody has been shooting.
Tuesday we watched another hunter drop a bird from at least 40 if not 50 yards up. Looked like it was dead before it hit the water. With that wind it was an amazing shot. I wish I could pull off shots like that. I’d like to know how it’s done.
This season started off good but is quickly ending on the downside.

Posted By:
REARNEY
Web Member

Pierce County 11-24-2010 19:12
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Had an awesome hunt the last two days. Found mallards using some open water and me and buddy filled out with green beans that were in your face in hour or less. Even got a honker. After filling out we would watch easily 2-300 mallards with a mix of pintails come into this area before dark.These kind of hunts saved my season.

Posted By:
stone
Web Member

Jefferson 11-23-2010 13:21
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Nada time again. Unbelievable. Great conditions, moon, wind, cold for at least some movement. Stick a fork in it!

Saw some high flying sandhills but basically 0

Posted By:
huntingcaliber
Guest

11-22-2010 10:00
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What birds that were here are now gone again!! The report from Arkansas was pretty good over the weekend. 4 guys limited out both Sat. and Sun. with a mixed bag of Teal, Woodies, Spoonies and Gadwall. They also shot 18 Snows both days!

Posted By:
huntingcaliber
Guest

Southern Walworth County 11-20-2010 09:25
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A slight migration came through last night with many new birds in the marsh this morning. 100-125 Shovelers, 200+ Mallards, couple dozen Pintails and lots of Teal, Gads and Widgeon. Bad winds for a morning hunt. Probably will leave it alone and then hit it hard Tuesday or Wednesday. Absolutely no geese working any of our fields so far this season!! Can’t wait for a couple of trips to Arkansas!

Posted By:
DU870
Web Member

South of Madison 11-19-2010 09:51
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Made it out this morning in hopes of doing a little scouting and maybe a bird or 2. Birds were flying early and leaving the water before legal shooting time. Birds were very skiddish and even flared off live birds on the water. Tells me they are old birds and this being public water, smart birds. Hundreds of coots, maybe 50 mallards and some teal. Hoping the wind switchs for next week of vacation. Might get some new birds down.

Posted By:
Kris-Bertelsen
Field Editor

Chippewa Valley 11-18-2010 15:10
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Birds are moving in this week from Eau Claire to Augusta. The migration is picking up; so if you are going out good luck. Even saw a couple small flocks of tundra swans. Small ponds haven’t froze up yet, but I’m sure they will in the next couple days. Big water is definitely open, and probably will stay open for a week at least. Lots of fields are picked so there is plenty of feed. Looks like pieces of the puzzle are coming together.

Posted By:
stumper
Web Member

SE North Dakota 11-17-2010 14:29
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
If any Wisconsin-based waterfowlers are interested in heading to NoDak in the next week send me a PM. The migration is close to peak there with mallard populations near record levels right now. I just returned and we limited out on greenheads hunting the cut corn with three guys in two days. Unreal. Check out my post on the NoDak page for more details…

Enjoy and be safe out there with the guys in orange running around!

Posted By:
Kris-Bertelsen
Field Editor

Chippewa Valley 11-15-2010 12:48
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Trial Lawyer is right on target – Great weekend! The birds we hunted moved on though because another buddy hunted the same spot and picked up 6 greenheads out of 30 birds left. This morning we saw 2 in the water while driving to work.

Stanley had nice numbers of geese. I saw one ross with them. I would estimate at least a thousand if not more. Many fields had 50-300 and one field had at least 500+. Of course the owners of the field with 500+ wouldn’t let anyone hunt!

Geese flying west of Eau Claire. There numbers double this weekend.

The Fall Creek pond has flucuating numbers but definitely huntable.

Menomonie had good numbers of geese east of town.

As the same as the past few years – The migration is just starting and my ex-wife is tuning up. I hate duck hunting during deer season. The crazies in orange scare me.

Posted By:
DU870
Web Member

11-15-2010 12:09
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Hunted a lake south of Horicon on Sunday morning. Saw very very little movement all morning. A few high flocks moving due east and had a few groups on the lake. Overall very dissapointing numbers.

On the way home we did some scouting and did find some birds. Also saw some big flocks high up and moving. So it seems there are some birds, just in small pockets and mainly on private land/marshes.

Posted By:
Stu-Soper
Field Editor

Potosi 11-15-2010 08:26
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Good numbers of every species on the move yesterday. Heard shooting up and down the river. Lots of divers working the islands above Potosi. Get out and hunt now if you can!

Posted By:
stone
Web Member

Jefferson 11-15-2010 08:24
– – 40-45 Degrees
Basically no migration yet. The entire year has been muted with only a few minor spurts and lasting for only a few hours. Today, more of the same. Few birds hanging around that have been lingering and smart. Few very high flocks of mallards which appear to be moving thru. Almost as bad as last year, the worst in 40 years. Not looking good either with no real good strong fronts or wind.

Posted By:
Trial Lawyer
Web Member

Eau Claire area 11-14-2010 11:59
Cloudy, Snow & Rain Mix – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
Kris Bertelsen found 2 honeyholes that 3 of us hunted Saturday morning. The day started off badly with the truck stuck in a chopped corn field at 5:45 am. We tried our best to push it out, but the front left tire was buried up to the axle. We walked to honeyhole #1 where the mallards wanted in to some flooded standing corn. We had fantastic in your face shooting from 6:40 am to 7:00 am with 10-20 yard shots. I was a little overgunned with 3 inch BB’s through a patternmaster but we managed to take 9 nice mallards from that great spot. The farmer was nice enough to pull out the truck and we proceeded to honeyhole #2 which was a slough that held many mallards and geese. We walked in on the slough and scared off 100+ mallards, which came back in groups of 2 to 30. Kris had 2 great shots on big greenheads and Jerry picked up the remaing mallard for our 12 mallard limit after a great morning hunt. We hunted geese in the afternoon, but were only able to knock down 1 huge honker.

Kris, thanks again for a great hunt. I just wish that the northern zone had a couple weeks of no hunting earlier in the season so we could hunt until the first weekend in December. It’s always like this where the northern birds show up a week or two before Thanksgiving and then the season ends. I’m just glad we got out for a great hunt on Saturday. Thanks again.

Posted By:
MallardKingWI
Web Member

Horicon 11-13-2010 13:22
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Hunted Thursday morning. Had one nice flock buzz and one bird landed in our decoys about 10 to 15 minutes before opening, which is always a bad sign. After that nothing came near us. In fact, birds were landing 75 yards to our west in some cattails and totally ignored us. We pushed them later and got one black duck.
Hunted a different spot in Horicon this morning and had the same results. Only a few birds flying and they ignored the decoys again. The ducks were landing in small potholes in the cattails that no one has skied. They have sort of created their own refuge. Once they get there they just about dive in. No swinging around 6 times and then deciding to go in.
Talked to another party at the dock and they had the same results: one shot fired. The only shooting (and not very much)was at Cotton Island and in the West Lake area.
We need some ice and new birds.

Posted By:
lund-ducker2
Web Member

horicon 11-12-2010 19:16
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
hunted the marsh on wed. morning for 2 hours. 3 ‘lards and a shoveler. all single birds, didn’t see any flocks excepton the ride back to the landing.

Posted By:
Kris-Bertelsen
Field Editor

Chippewa Valley 11-08-2010 12:48
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Got out this weekend and did some scouting and actually got a hunt in!

Fall Creek has a pile of geese using the pond in town. Augusta has birds but rather scattered. Eau Claire has flights leaving morning and night west and northwest of town. I got a report that Chippewa Falls has birds flying north, but take that as second hand knowledge. Menomonie had geese east of town, but it took some scouting to find them. I haven’t been to Stanley yet this year, but going this week to scout. Any one been over there, shoot me a PM please! I’d like to get a good couple hunts in before the crazies in orange get loose.

As far as my hunt, I pulled off a double on blue geese. Yes, that was blue geese, and beautiful eagle-heads to boot!

Posted By:
REARNEY
Web Member

Pool 4 Mississipi River 11-08-2010 10:09
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 25-30 Degrees – Ice
Hunted last Saturday and Sunday-Had 15 Wegion and a handful of Gadwalls land in the middle of pond I was hunting and were to far to shoot at-Never fired a shot. Did see a small area in the flooded woods where some mallards were landing. Hunted this spot on Sunday and had two Kids move in at shooting time at 50 yards from me and cut me off. they got all the shooting and even some geese-Oh well, again I never fired a shot. Went bow hunting and will wait for colder weather.

[Edited By REARNEY on 2010-11-08 10:10]

Posted By:
MallardKingWI
Web Member

horicon 11-07-2010 17:24
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Hunting this morning and Thursday morning. Thursday was cloudy windy and cool. We got one duck. Today there was a south wind with bright sunshine and we got 4 ducks. Of course we could have shot better to get a few more birds but today was a lot of fun with 4 birds in the boat. On was a huge Drake Mallard. In some of the smaller porholes there was still some skim ice.
Yesterday we were at Vernon marsh and it had a good layer of ice on it. Half inch where we checked. Guys we still getting out Frog alley but had to bust some ice. Didn’t hear many shots.
Horicon seems to keep holding enough birds to make the day interesting but the birds definitely are getting harder to decoy.

Posted By:
pipewrench
Web Member

Mississippi River (Pool 4) Nelson 11-05-2010 19:28
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Hunting was very slow this morning! Saw a couple of small flocks of mallards and were very wary. Saw a few small flocks of divers also. Packed up at 9:30 and did a little scouting. Found a pothole off the river and walked in and jumped about 75 northern mallards. 3 of us decided to grab a dozen decoys and the mojo from the boat and set up in the trees on the edge of the pothole. We shot 9 greenheads, 2 susies, and a greenwing teal in 2 hours. Not bad, figuring we were skunked for the day! The day was beautiful clear skies and the sun in our face because of the wind direction for our set-up. The ducks liked this spot for some reason. Good luck to all this weekend. By the way there was no hunting pressure today, but tomorrow will probably be different.

Posted By:
stone
Web Member

Jefferson 11-05-2010 13:54
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 40-45 Degrees
Very slow yesterday and especially today. No mallards, no migration. Where are they?

Posted By:
REARNEY
Web Member

Mississipi/ Pool 4 11-01-2010 20:07
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
Hunted with buddy last Saturday on a pond I scouted the prior week. We got our 8 mallards and 4 Gadwalls to limit out. Went back on Sunday morning myself and only shot 2 mallards. Alot of Divers in area-other hunters are getting their cans, bluebills, buffies and redheads. Little to no wind all weekend didnt help. Water is rising again. Mallards are filled with corn and loves the flooded woods.

[Edited By REARNEY on 2010-11-01 20:09]

Posted By:
lund-ducker2
Web Member

horicon 11-01-2010 17:10
Mostly Cloudy, No Precipitation – 35-40 Degrees
hunted sat AM. pothole. limit of malards (3 greenhead, 1 hen).

Posted By:
DU870
Web Member

11-01-2010 09:37
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Hunted saturday morning in a corn field of the Wisconsin River. Set up in a flooded part of the field. The scouting the night before had 2-3 mallards in the area and a couple flocks of geese. Set up early sat with 2 dozen honks and 6 duck decoys and a mojo. Had 4 mallards drop in on a string 2 minutes after legal. I got greedy and went for a double with 1 shot, tickeled one bird and gun jammed. My budy shot 3 times and dropped one. The good news it was banded and his first banded bird!

Rest of the morning was SLOW. Did hear some shooting from the river and an area marsh. Not much came over us. We filled in the slow times with taking out some crows.

Not sure where the birds went from the night before. It seems the wind from last week either pushed out the locals or moved them around a bit. Not seeing any big numbers of birds.

Posted By:
stumper
Web Member

Appleton 10-31-2010 22:47
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Ransom, the Fox Valley has long had a reputation as an excellent area for water fowling. The Wolf River area from Shawano all the way to Lake Poygan has many very good areas including Shiocton, Navarino, Fremont and many back sloughs, bayous and potholes.

The area lakes including Green Bay, Winnebago and Poygan/Winneconne also offer good hunting for divers and mallards.

I prefer to hunt cut corn fields for geese and mallards and the entire area from Horicon north to Green Bay along and within 10 miles either side of Hwy 41offers good field hunting opportunities with decent access to private lands if you take the time to meet with farmers and offer to help control goose numbers.

Of course scouting is key and it’ll take you some time to
figure out the patterns, but with some time and a strong desire, you’ll find lots of good waterfowling opportunities within an hour of Appleton.

I’ve lived here my whole life and would be happy to chat with you more if it would help. PM me. Stumper

Posted By:
Ransom1
Web Member

10-30-2010 10:42
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Tommymac18

Thank you for the information. Our season started today without much a do. Very few ducks around. I appreciate your response. Hopefully the move work out.