Posted By:
Rain
Guest
10-03-2005 15:47
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Went out the opener (sat) killed 5 ducks. 2-were Drake Canvas Backs, that was cool. Others were junk, shoveler, gadwall ets.
Then made the mistake of going againg Sunday and killed one duck, nasty morning to say the least. COME ON COLD FRONTS!!!! I cant wait for the mallards.
Posted By:
phutch30
Guest
SW Montana 10-03-2005 14:11
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 45-50 Degrees
I went out again this morning to a slightly different area of the lake. There were far fewer birds flying than the previous two days. I did managed to bag 3 widgeon, 3 gadwall and the only drake mallard I saw in 1 ½ hours. I passed on a couple of easy 25 yard geese as I don’t think my pup is ready for them yet. I also resisted shooting teal this morning. There were 8-10 flocks of greenwings that worked the decoys quite nicely. However, most of the birds that were flying were heading south in big groups, way up high, and had no interest in my spread. The way they were flying gave me the impression they were heading for greener pastures. Lucky for me there were still a few low flyers that checked my spread. Other than the widgeon, all the other ducks came as singles. The widgeon came in three 10-15 bird flocks.
I got a report of excellent hunting on the Big Hole near wisdom over the weekend. A preseason drive I took during archery season along this stretch of river showed lots of promise with good numbers of birds, mostly mallards. I also received two different reports of excellent hunting in the Centennial Valley near the Red Rock refuge. Both Lower Lake and Lima Reservoir produced bag limits that included mallards, teal, widgeon, gads, bluebills and a couple of canvasbacks. Word is Hebgen Lake over by West Yellowstone was pretty good shooting on Sat and Sun for mallards, teal and widgeon.
I am looking forward to some nasty weather up north to push down some naive flight birds. Till then I will continue shooting what locals are still around.
Shoot straight.
[Edited By phutch30 on 2005-10-03 14:14]
Posted By:
phutch30
Guest
SW MT 10-02-2005 20:11
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 45-50 Degrees
Hart and I went out for another go round this morning. It started out bad, with us getting Marks truck stuck while launching the boat (sorry Mark). We finally managed to get our layouts set up and the dekes out by about 7:45. Turned out being late was no big deal. We had steady flights of widgeon, teal, pintails and gadwalls during the 2 hours or so it took to shoot our limits. We ended up with 12 widgeon, 1 gad, and 1 greenwing teal (I shot it for the dog….honest) by 10. There was a definite lack of mallards today and the geese were noticeably less apparent. There was a lot less wind this morning which likely allowed alot of the birds to flock up out on the lake, where they no doubt were pondering why everyone was shooting at them or something to that effect. It was still fun for the dogs and us even though the drake mallards were missing from the bag.
Good Hunting
Posted By:
K-Town
Guest
Kalispell 10-02-2005 13:35
Cloudy, Occassional Rain Showers – 40-45 Degrees
Went out on my first duck hunt of the year today.With all the recent rain we had the last tow days,the river was running at least 1 foot higher then it was last week when we built our blinds, it was very muddy, and our blind was surrounded by water on all sides. Morning started off very slow, but picked up around 8:00. 3 of us shot 5 mallards, 1 wigeon, 1 pintail,and a goose, could of had more but shooting was a little rusty. Also alot of mature fat greenheads flying around, made picking them out very easy.
Posted By:
Hart
WFC Sponsor
Dillon 10-01-2005 19:07
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 50-60 Degrees
Good start to the season. PHutch and I enjoyed a good shoot this am. We were done with two limits by about 11am. 6 Mallards, 3 Widgeon, 4 Gadwall, a beautiful little Greenwing Teal drake, and 2 Honkers were the first victums of the 2005/2006 season.. Today was a the first day of waterfowl hunting for Pauls new pup Moose. He performed very well as he is only 9 months old. Hart (my dog) had a veryy difficult time watching Moose on a retrieve. Hart’s used to being the only dog in the blind. He wailed like I was torchering him as he watched Moose swim out to retrieve Paul’s birds. He did better by the end of the hunt but sharing is going to take some getting used to. Hope everyone had a great time today. We sure as heck did.
Posted By:
K-Town
Guest
09-30-2005 17:45
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T minus 14 hours,20 minutes.
Posted By:
Rain
Guest
09-29-2005 17:34
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Drove up to the Flathead river this am (dixon to Plains area) and didn’t see but two ducks. Called my guy in Ronan and he said he has about 10 ducks working his pond, guess I know where I’ll be Saturday. I hope this year is better than last because it was not to good. Not excited at all about opener but gotta be there. Good luck to everyone.
Posted By:
ctimmons
Guest
hour east of missoula 09-29-2005 15:36
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Went and did a little scouting about an hour east of missoula yesterday. Looked at a litte slough, and it wasn’t very promising. Lots of coots, but not much else. a few gads and teal. I’ll probably give a try anyway on Sat.
[Edited By ctimmons on 2005-09-29 15:37]
Posted By:
phutch30
Guest
SW Montana 09-28-2005 09:40
Mostly Sunny, No Precipitation – 50-60 Degrees
It’s looking like mostly local birds for opening day with about the same number of birds as last year. We have had very little in the way of recent flight birds. We did get a little push over the weekend with a weather system that came through. Some Gads, teal, redheads and a few decent flocks of cans showed up on some of the area waters. Hebgen Lake has good numbers of birds as it always does. The Centennial Valley has a ton of birds with a wide range of species. Both Lima Reservoir and lower Red Rock Lake are looking good. Clark Canyon reservoir is filling fast and currently is holding around 10,000 coots with 3-500 ducks of various species and some 200 geese. The Ennis area has lots of geese that are traveling from Ennis Lake to areas throughout the valley. There are also decent numbers of ducks on the lake along with a bunch of coots. Harrison Lake north of Ennis is about the same. All in all it’s looking pretty good for the opener. So get out there and enjoy it
Posted By:
Hart
WFC Sponsor
Helena Valley 09-23-2005 16:21
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 45-50 Degrees
Lots of new birds in the valley. Spent my lunch hour checking a few likely spots. The majority of the birds in the valley are Gads, GW Teal, & a few BW Teal. There’s a few reseident Mallards & Canandas around as well. There’s been a couple hundred Canadas working the harvested grain over the last few week. Looks like the kids will have a good time tomorrow. I wish I still had young ones so I could be out there tomorrow. Good hunting to all in the season to come, Mark
