Posted By:
Darron Baker
Field Editor
S. Ohio 12-28-2008 20:53
Cloudy, High Winds – 35-40 Degrees
Hunted a flooded CRP field this morning on my buddys godfather’s property. The place flooded was about 200 yards long and about 15 yards wide and knee deep. This spot looked phenominal, but the ducks must not have found it. We seen 10 ducks all morning and they were on a mission for somewhere else. We did manage to pull a flock of geese over and took three geese. Other than a couple flocks of geese nothing else was happening. Taking a break tomorrow and Tuesday to do a little deer hunting down on the farm. Plan on hitting them again Wednesday.
Posted By:
Darron Baker
Field Editor
S. Ohio 12-26-2008 21:24
Cloudy, Light Rain & Drizzle – 35-40 Degrees
Hunted a field that was holding 300+ geese last night. The walk to the “X” was a long one, approx 300 yards. We decided to take no more than two trips since the owner allows no driving in the fields. We were able to get 5 dozen full bodies out. Three man limits of geese came very easy as the first two flocks finished nicely at 10:00am. We packed up and the majority of the geese started coming to the field right when we were done packing. Once the fog and drizzle set in birds were everywhere. The state needs to up the goose limit. All that work for only two geese seems a little ridiculous.
The weather forecast for the next few days won’t help bird movements. With highs in the 60’s and 70’s and sun, birds will be doing a lot of grass eating. Personally, I would like to see less water and colder temps to congregate the birds. This 60 and 70 degree temps isn’t good for much.
Posted By:
bmyers
Guest
N.W. Ohio 12-26-2008 16:21
Arctic Blast – Below Zero
Hunted Monday and Tuesday on Lake Erie.
Many thanks to all the guys at the boat launch…very friendly and helpful with info…very very cool!!!!
The high winds on Monday blew all the water out…and I mean ALL the water out. We walked a few hundred yards accross frozen bay bottom and sat on a log in the mist for a while watching the diver action. Amazing scenery that day. Tried a short hunt near shore shot one buffy.
Went at it more seriously on Tuesday. Shot two limits of ducks, our mallards a black, two blue bills, and a nice goldeneye. Had a great time.
The mojolator was key in grabbing the birds attention.
Again, thanks to everyone for the helpful advice.
[Edited By bmyers on 2008-12-26 16:23]
Posted By:
Al-Faber
Field Editor
Central Ohio 12-26-2008 08:11
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 30-34 Degrees – Ice
Just south of Big Island in a small pond today. Frozen over but broke some ice and drew in a group of mallards from an adjacent field.
Drove by Alum Creek, still mostly frozen but should thaw completely with coming rains.
Geese are everywhere in fields each morning and scouted 7 big groups locally.
We need more water…
Posted By:
Darron Baker
Field Editor
S. Ohio 12-25-2008 18:49
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 25-30 Degrees – Ice
Hunted a flooded field that was holding a couple mallards yesterday evening. Arrived this morning to 1/2″ ice. We made a decent hole and set out a spinner and a few floaters. I couldn’t hunt long this morning, but thought we might be able to whack a few birds and get out by 9am. Shooting time came and we decoyed in a flock of 4 and knocked all 4 out, including one mature drake gadwall. Had a couple more flocks work us, but the hole started to freeze back over and none would finish. Did not see another duck after 8am and we stayed until 9am. My buddy just called and said one of my fields has around 300 geese in it. Hopefully they show up tomorrow.
Posted By:
Darron Baker
Field Editor
S. Ohio 12-25-2008 15:31
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 25-30 Degrees – Ice
Hunted a flooded field that was holding a couple mallards yesterday evening. Arrived this morning to 1/2″ ice. We made a decent hole and set out a spinner and a few floaters. I couldn’t hunt long this morning, but thought we might be able to whack a few birds and get out by 9am. Shooting time came and we decoyed in a flock of 4 and knocked all 4 out, including one mature drake gadwall. Had a couple more flocks work us, but the hole started to freeze back over and none would finish. Did not see another duck after 8am and we stayed until 9am. Got a buddy out scouting right now for tomorrow, hopefully he can find some birds in some of our fields. If not, we might try hunting a drainage ditch directly across the street from a roost holding a couple hundred ducks.
Posted By:
Darron Baker
Field Editor
S. Ohio 12-24-2008 14:22
Cloudy, Occassional Rain Showers – 35-40 Degrees
Set up in the corn today not too far from about 500 geese and about half that many ducks. The ducks flew all morning long, but never set down anywhere. They would just fly around then go back and land on the roost. The geese started flying out about 10am and they had it on their mind to land in the field across the road which permission cannot be obtained (tried and got a firm no). We did manage to decoy a couple smaller flocks of ducks into the corn that came in feet down. Ended up taking a two man limit of mallards. Lots of birds around in this particular area, but most did not want to work or knew where they were going.
Posted By:
Anthony-Santoli
Field Editor
northwest ohio 12-23-2008 13:05
Cloudy, High Winds – 10-20 Degrees – Ice
Hello all,,,,Merry Christmas,Happy Kwanza,Chanukah…etc….etc…
Last weekend went very well all things considering. We got out to our only open hole Friday evening to scout around. Flushed an easy 200-300 ducks off the pool. Set up saturday early morning,,,moved some ice away and cleaned up the area pretty nice. It was a very fun hunt,,,freezing cold. 18 ducks, we shot all our black ducks,,a bunch of mallards and then had a constant flow of black ducks landing 10 feet away for 2 hours straight. It was a pretty sight to see. I shot a banded black to boot. (it came from Northern Quebec). Sunday ws windy as all get out and not much flew (20-40MPH winds all morning), we shot all of our Black ducks and that was it. Everything is frozen in Northwest Ohio,,, Sandusky Bay is locked up pretty tight on the east end and is filled with 10 foot tall icebergs. The water was also blowing out very quickly. We took a drive over to Castalia duck pond and it is loaded with birds. Very nice to see if you have never been over there. I would say it had a couple thousand Geese, a mess of beautiful Mallards, Gadwalls and a whole lot of perfectly colored Hollywoods. Report from the ODNR is that the arctic blast pushed most of the ducks out of that area so those of you in Southwest Ohio should be in for a very good weekend. Saturdays temps are supposed to be 50’s-60 degrees,,open water. I have also seen reports of various Ross,Snows and some Specks around Ohio as well.
Good luck everyone and Merry Freakin Christmas….now get your arses out there and “Getcha Some” for the holidays.
Out
Posted By:
Darron Baker
Field Editor
S, Ohio 12-22-2008 09:48
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – Below Zero
The brutally cold temps and sunny skies ended up making for some fast and furious mallard shooting this morning. I scouted a slough last night we have permission for that had 150-200 mallards in it. Got there this morning in just enough time to throw out a dozen dekes and a spinner. About 5 min before legal we started having ducks work in. We just let them sit until legal. Our first shots were fired into at least 30 ducks. Needless to say we knocked down several as they were within 5 yards. We took our 3 man limit of mallards (10 drakes and 2 hens) by 7:45am. It was flock after flock of ducks for the first 20 min of legal. Once we shot our mallards we stayed until 8:30am to see if we could’t see some different ducks, but all we saw were mallards.
A front is suppose to move in tomorrow bringing a mix bag of precip and rain on X-mas eve. I might have to try for some ducks and geese in the corn. I know where a bunch is at, including neck collars and pentails, just need nasty weather to get them to move.
Posted By:
Shawn-Philbrick
Field Editor
Medina co saturday, Killbuck sunday 12-22-2008 07:03
– – –
the geese are in the corn, as we got a 4 man limit, and a bonus farm goose on saturday
sunday I hit some open water on Killbuck Creek, and shot 4 drake mallards….big fatties too…pics in the grip and grin…
could have shot 40….mallards everywhere, and they’re all concentrated on holes in the ice, or open water stretches of the rivers.
back at them tonight til wednesday….
