Posted By:
flyfish37129
Guest
Woods Reservoir 01-19-2007 14:17
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I’ve pulled the decoys up and don’t plan on returning. What a joke of a lake!
Posted By:
davehunter03
Web Member
N.E. Illinois 01-19-2007 07:58
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Martin: Our duck season has been closed for weeks…My son and I are still hunting geese and yesterday while scouting, he saw ‘thousands’ of ducks. I while I was in a totally different area, I too saw one hell of mess of Mallards. Don’t pay too much attention to the Snow cover report, as we have zero, zilch on the ground. My son plows snow in the winter and hasnt started any of the ‘trucks’ yet. Wish I had better news, it is supposed to get down to ‘zero next week. With open water, plenty of feed..well I just don’t know when or if they will be moving.Sr.
Posted By:
Martin-Hall
Field Editor
Woods Reservoir/AEDC 01-18-2007 19:15
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
Drove by the refuge this afternoon to see what the duck numbers looked like. I hope I went by when all the ducks were out feeding. I saw a total of two blacks, a dozen mallards, 20-30 mixed divers mostly hooded mergansers and buffleheads. The only high point of the scouting trip was a bald eagle setting on a snag off the dam road. Prospects look bleak for the rest of this bleak season. I’m not sure this “resting lake” idea is working all that good for Woods. Maybe TWRA should rethink putting in some crops for us and the ducks.
I’m really surprised that the snow and ice up north hasn’t pushed some ducks down to us. The south east is the only place that’s not covered with snow right now. Take a look at the snow cover sight at: http://www.intellicast.com/IcastPage/LoadPage.aspx?loc=usa&seg=Ski&prodgrp=CurrentWeather&product=SnowCover&prodnav=none It looks like we should have the lions share of the ducks.
I hunted last weekend at our club in Arkansas which borders the legendary Claypool and about the only thing we got was wet. Looking into Claypool this time of year I normally expect to see tens-of-thousands of ducks but when I checked it this past weekend I probably saw only a couple of hundred. I did talk to one of the members who is out there hunting and he said two of them killed limits of big ducks this afternoon in a couple of hours so maybe they followed the front in and things are getting better. We duck hunters are the eternal optimist. Things will always be better tomorrow. Even when we know there aren’t any ducks, we have to be in the blind the next morning, just in case.
Ten days left in the season. We can’t kill them sitting on the couch and it’s a long time till next season. Maybe when I checked the refuge this afternoon the 50,000 ducks had just left to go out and feed in the fields in Hillsboro. Ya Think?
Wind at your back and good friends in your blind. MuddyDucker
Posted By:
DKA
Web Member
Reelfoot 01-18-2007 14:00
Cloudy, High Winds – 25-30 Degrees – Open Water
Tues. cloudy and windy took down 34, Wed. cloudy early very little action, then the sun popped out around 11 and the birds started flying, got 4 early then ended up with 20.
Posted By:
Ross-Malone
Guest
Reelfoot Lake 01-16-2007 19:52
Cloudy, Occassional Rain Showers – 35-40 Degrees
OK, we had a fun trip to Reelfoot Lake on Sunday and Monday. Bagged 3 GWT’s and one scaup on Sunday in the warm rain. Monday was better. As soon as the rain stopped had some nice mallard action. 5 shooters in the blind of Ducks Deluxe, Steve Worley. 6 ring neck, 2 shovelers, 5 mallards. Had to leave out 1pm to head home in Chattanooga.
The lake is so beautiful. Had several Bald Eagles to hang around in the area.
We stayed at the Acorn Lodge and it’s was the best. Just like Grandmothers. Mrs. Denton was great, prepared our coffee each morning, made brownies, cookies each day it was a delight.
My duck hunting partner Richard Simms arranged the event and it was a fun trip.
Birds seem to be scattered, but they are in the area working so don’t give up.
Hang in there.
RAM
Posted By:
McWatson
Guest
Obion River Bottom, Weakley Co. 01-16-2007 15:03
Cloudy, High Winds – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
Not much action this morning.Saw a few early groups trading West to East on the Obion flying towards Paris. One Green head, breakfast then to work…..
Posted By:
DKA
Web Member
Reelfoot 01-15-2007 14:23
Cloudy, Occassional Rain Showers – 50-60 Degrees
Hunted Tues. the 9th through Sun. the 14th. Tues. had a great shoot. Wed.-Sat. very slow. Rained Sat. and Sun. Sun was another excellent day. New birds from the south headed back to the lake from the fields full of corn and rice.5 of us hunted all day and limited out. If we had more men we could have had another triple digit day. Headed back Wed. the 16th sunny and cold should be prime time. We had big wads of mallards, pintails, blackjacks and gwt. Anywhere from 50 to 200 in a flock. Nice!
Posted By:
steve68
Guest
bogata wma 01-12-2007 18:49
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has anyone hunted any of the bogata hunts this year. If so how was it? My son and I are heading up there 19,20,21. Scouted it Wed and saw quite a few mallards. any info pls post or pm me thanks Steve Sellers
A BAD DAY OF HUNTING BEATS WORK ANYDAY
Posted By:
brandon Bean
Guest
01-09-2007 12:34
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Okay, we shot 3 limits of mallards this morning. All were new ducks because they dropped from the stratosphere in a little tight wad and never made a pass. I assume that the 20mph wind was blowing them off Reelfoot.
Aceman, did you ever hunt the “bottom” before the refuges started leaving corn? If you think you’ve got a little honey-hole now you would have been well impressed 7 or 8 years ago. I’m not against the refuges or even the leaving of a few acres of food. I am against the practice of leaving enough food on the refuge to hold a concentration of waterfowl for the entire season. A refuge should be a place for birds to actually seek “refuge” and rest. Why don’t they just call it a feed trough instead of a refuge. I may sound a little selfish and as though I haven’t killed enough birds. I assure you that I have shot my share and if never another bird fell to my gun I would have to say that God has been good to me and graced me with friends, dogs, and memories from the sport. I’m actually more concerned that by hording the vast amount of waterfowl (probably 85-90%) in the state we are alienating the other waterfowling population that stretches all the way to east Tennessee. The ducks that start here are the same ones that wind-up over there. Granted they may get a few from the Atlantic Flyway but not nearly as many as make the west to east migration in following the Tennessee River and its tributaries.
You guys remember when geese used to be here in January by the thousands? I’m talking about real geese, not our residents that we have to shoot in september to keep them from tearing-up lawns and golf greens. Know where they went? Well the Illinois and Missouri DNR got smart and decided that if they would feed them on refuges in the northern part of their states then they could realize that resource all the way through their hunting season. Greed. I’ll admit that the weather has not been as favorable in years past for geese, but we would see more than at present were they not all held up north. I know all the arguments to this, no-till farming practice, warm water discharge from power plants leaving acres of open water even in bitter cold, and the migrating geese mixing with residents in the north.
We keep manipulating the natural cycle of waterfowl and one day it’s going to bite us in the butt. We’ve already seen the goose migration altered to a point that a goose sighting is somewhat rare in west Tennessee or at least we talk about seeing a flock as though it were a special occassion. We keep giving ducks places to go eat and you will see duck hunting go the same way.
Posted By:
DKA
Web Member
Reelfoot 01-09-2007 10:49
Cloudy, Rain & Thunderstorms – 40-45 Degrees
Had a good daysat. with 14 in the boat. Sun. 8 and mon 4. Same story, old ducks that have ben educated for the last month and a half. Where is the Alberta Clipper when you need it?
