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.
