Posted By:
Bert Holtzman
Field Editor
Ohio River Zone 01-11-2011 17:35
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Sunday hunt:
We set up in a creek off of the river but got froze out. We did see a good group of ducks on the river on the way home.
They didn’t stay long. Talked to some boys at the ramp today and they said the past two days haven’t been very good. The past two days I haven’t seen all that much scouting but I’m giving it a go in the morning for a quick hunt on some birds I have been seeing.
Posted By:
Bert Holtzman
Field Editor
Ohio River Zone 01-08-2011 13:27
Arctic Blast – 10-20 Degrees – Open Water
We didn’t see much this morning. Saw around 12 and got two gadwall. It’s been a rough couple of weeks since our best hunt of the season down here on and around the river. After we were done we found some birds that we might get a crack at in the morning. It’s going to be cold!
We seem to have picked up some birds the past few days. Saw one nice group of gadwall and some mallards and also saw some divers scouting mid morning. Things will hopefully be picking up.
Posted By:
Bert Holtzman
Field Editor
Ohio River Zone 01-02-2011 15:14
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Precious few birds around here since last Sunday. We tried to get to a spot I’d scouted out and while it wasn’t holding very many, it was probably our best option today. We arrived to see hunters setting up so we went to plan B. We didn’t see much. I should have killed a couple of gadwall but didn’t have very good shots because of a tree I should have set up on the other side of. We saw about ten ducks after seeing hundreds a week ago. That’s hunting in Indiana. Back at it again next weekend. Things aren’t looking very good right now.
Posted By:
Bert Holtzman
Field Editor
Ohio River Zone 12-27-2010 13:41
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
We set up in the same hold as yesterday and threw out fifty decoys in hopes of getting some ducks in when the sun got up: a wasted effort on our part. Talk about going from high to low: we saw a grand total of FOUR ducks. There was a lot more open water in the marsh today but after the sun popped up and the wind died down the ice began to build. The day wasn’t a total loss. We got five geese jump shooting. Two had bands.
I’m not sure what the deal was this morning. After seeing hundreds of birds yesterday I was excited about this morning’s hunt and thought we’d have some ducks come in early again. I heard no shots on the river and there was only one boat at the ramp this morning. Maybe the ducks weren’t flying, left, or went somewhere else.
The boys are headed north this afternoon. I’m taking a few days off to spend time with my daughter and take her to speech therapy. Hopefully the birds come back or perhaps we’ll find another spot they might be in. With the approaching thaw, it will be tough to tell.
Something else I’ve taken notice of, decoys! I bought my first dozen Dakota duck decoys today and am excited about adding these to our spread. As wary as these birds are I think they can only help us.
[Edited By Bert Holtzman on 2010-12-27 14:16]
Posted By:
callmaster64
Web Member
n. Indiana 12-26-2010 20:10
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Sounds like you had a good hunt Bert good partners are hard to come by sounds like you got a good one and scouting pays off. 2 of us today shot our geese in the northwest part of the state. Good luck and keep wackin em.
Posted By:
Corey-Cordray
Guest
Home 12-26-2010 14:09
Arctic Blast – Froze Out
Haven’t even taken the gun off of safety the last few days. Not sure what’s going on but we’ve hunted the river and didn’t see more than 10 birds. Scouted my goose fields and they’re empty too. What a fun season this is!
Posted By:
Bert Holtzman
Field Editor
Ohio River Zone 12-26-2010 12:52
Cloudy, Accumulating Snow – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
We set up in an open hole off the river this morning, hoping for a great hunt. We got one. We had originally planned to go north this morning but Randy checked out a spot where it appeared yesterday’s ducks were going. He put us on the X yet again by doing excellent scouting. We made a short boat ride in and set up with three decoys a piece in two different areas just a bit apart. When the sun began to provide light group after group of ducks POURED into our spot. Tony, Marty and I sat back and watched for 10 minutes or so. We had a group of 12 right in front of us. Just as we were getting ready to shoot they took off and we decided to wait a bit longer. Another group was sitting 40 yards out and we decided it was time. By the time all three of us had shot, we had about 8 birds down. We had a lull and our other group moved closer to us. For the rest of the morning we had ducks work us and scratched a few here and there. Our morning ended with 12 mallards. We lost about four in the ice. What a hunt! We hope to do it again in the morning. Kudos again to Randy. He has worked his tail end off for our clan for years. You can’t ask for a better hunting partner.
Posted By:
Bert Holtzman
Field Editor
Ohio River 12-25-2010 10:30
Cloudy, Snow Flurries – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
We set up in the same locale as yesterday. Had a bad Christmas hunt! We saw a lot of ducks but they were in big groups and all high. Better luck next Christmas! Have a good one. We’re headed north tomorrow.
Posted By:
Bert Holtzman
Field Editor
Ohio River 12-24-2010 11:17
Mostly Cloudy, No Precipitation – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
We had a fun little hunt this morning. It started off with breakfast at Marty’s. He made a fine breakfast, as did Randy earlier for our opener. Soon after eating we hit the road for a brief car ride to our spot, which is an open hole of water off the river. Ducks flew high early. We had a nice group of mallards fly out to feed, with a nice flock of gadwall shortly after. A trio of ducks also flew lower early but weren’t interested. Finally our first group of ducks gave us a look. By the time we raised up to shoot it was almost too far a shot. To our surprise we flushed about 30 geese up after missing the ducks. We had a long shot at the first group and hit one. Another group was a little closer but not much. One got too close and we shot him and he nearly fell on Randy! After we got our birds we sat for a while. Before long a large flock of mallards began working us. We had about 100 birds all over us! Unfortunately, they landed out behind us in some open water after working our small spread for about 10 minutes. It was quite an experience. We also worked several other large groups all morning. These ducks are decoy-shy, call-shy, ect. We could have used some movement and will have a mallard machine going in the morning to see if that works a little better. Merry Christmas. We still have a month left. Stay safe.
Posted By:
Bert Holtzman
Field Editor
Ohio River Zone 12-22-2010 10:37
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Hunted the same spot we did yesterday. It was pretty much a bust hunt. We saw about half the ducks as yesterday and only one group of five gave us a look. We also had a group of geese work us a little. I’ll be at it again Friday.
Be safe out there. We had a fatality on the river in Louisville about a week ago. Always wear a life jacket.
