Posted By:
mike-schireman
Field Editor
Snohomish County 12-14-2009 16:17
Arctic Blast – 25-30 Degrees – Ice
Well hopefully you have been able to hunt the rivers or bays over the last week. Very cold temps have frozen up standing water in the valleys and forced the birds out. Bird numbers are way up as they have been concentrated in open water areas. Work has limited me to only one hunt over the past week but it was an amazing one!!!. Most of the ice has flushed out but boaters be aware that thin ice can cause major damage and even slice open your smaller boats. I actually turned back on Sat (now that I have a wife and kids :)) and opted to take a larger boat. Live to hunt another day folks. Enjoy the birds…temps due to go back up in the next 48 hours.
Watching a bird dog work is one of life’s greatest gifts…so give’m a job!!!!
Posted By:
Hugh-Carney
Field Editor
Columbia Basin 12-08-2009 11:00
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0 degrees this AM.
Duck numbers growing and with no snow cover they may stay a while. The trick is to find open water. Gonna be harder over the next 3-4 days.
Fri. or Sat there may be a wet system from the Pacific colliding with this cold air mass. Snow? Freezing Rain? Sleet?
Should get above freezing by Sun. or Mon.
-Hugh
Posted By:
Hugh-Carney
Field Editor
Columbia Basin 12-03-2009 11:08
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Gonna get very cold in the Basin. Lows in the teens over the past few nights and that is the trend for the next 10 days. Snow is in the forecast for the weekend but @ only a 20% chance. Mid next week sees a much greater chance of snow.
Small water is freezing already and birds are concentrating on bigger water. In addition it seems that new birds are beginning to show up. Bird activity is more frequent. All the things that help add to a better harvest.
Don’t forget to pack the extra clothes and keep the dog warm too.
-Hugh
Posted By:
mike-schireman
Field Editor
Snohomish and Skagit Counties 12-01-2009 14:37
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 40-45 Degrees
Well December has arrived and finally we are starting to see some overnight lows heading in the right direction. The hunting here over the past two weeks has been up and down depending on your location. I enjoyed a great hunt off the Snohomish River with a mixed bag of Widgeon, Teal, and Mallards…all nice bright birds. However I have gotten poor reports from others hunting the tidelands. We received over 8 inches of rain in November, several inches more than normal. The waterworks are shut off for now…maybe through the weekend. We need new birds and hoping a little chill in the air will help. On a side note…there are still tons of spawned out salmon in the rivers and tidelands…keep an eye on your dogs as ingesting these can be fatal to them…not to mention the rolling on the carcass makes for a very smelly truck ride!!! Call to the wing tips and tails.
Mike Schireman
Watching a bird dog work is one of life’s greatest gifts…so give’m a job!!!!
Posted By:
Hugh-Carney
Field Editor
columbia Basin 11-24-2009 10:28
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F word!
Fog is in the forecast for the long weekend. Huge wind last week now not enough to keep the fog out. If you have a fog spot you might want to consider it.
Bird numbers are building but activity is at first light and well after sunset.
Blue Bills and lesser Canadians are really active in the lower CB lately.
Happy Thanksgiving
Hugh
Posted By:
Hugh-Carney
Field Editor
columbia Basin 11-20-2009 14:00
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With multiple storms pounding the coast you’d think birds would tend to filter into the basin but only over the past week has there been any influx of birds, and that has only been in some regions.
I have seen concentrations of Pintails like I haven’t seen in a few years and the Mallards are tending to be more mature than a month ago. Ran into good groups of Red Heads and scratched out some Cans last weekend in addition to seeing the first of the Goldeneyes.
Not terribly cold in the great white north yet so the big numbers are yet to come. Trickle migration so far. Numbers are building in the Moses area a little faster than the rest of the basin.
Lessers are more apparent this year and even saw a few snows mixed in last week.
All water is open. It’d be nice to have some freeze up to help concentrate birds. Dosen’t look like it in the next 7-10 days.
-Hugh
Posted By:
John-Kruse
Field Editor
North Columbia Basin 11-14-2009 22:44
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
Took an early morning drive over to the North Columbia Basin on Veteran’s Day with my lab, Sage.
First stop was the ridgeline above Stratford. Three of us arrived at shooting time in different rigs. There were not many lessers on the lake below us. Some had likely been feeding under a mostly full moon while others had dispersed from this staging area. No geese flew in our direction at all and the last birds were off the lake by 0740 hrs.
I next went down to the northern end of the Gloyd Seeps Wildlife Area. I saw no other hunters there – and no sign of birds on the water or in the brush (pheasant or duck) driving around and doing a half hearted walk through some brush near the water in one area. I did see a few flocks of geese working some nearby wheat fields though, so that would be an option if you could scout them out and then get permission to hunt them with some dekes and layout blinds.
Back in the Wenatchee area I am noticing a few northern birds arriving. Wigeon, hooded merganser and redhead ducks that have not been here before are now making an appearance but overall, there aren’t too many birds here from Canada yet. Some weather may change that soon!
John Kruse Northwestern Outdoors Radio www.northwesternoutdoors.com
Posted By:
mike-schireman
Field Editor
Othello 11-03-2009 13:40
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
What a week last week! I made another pilgrimage to Eagle Lakes Ranch Lodge in Othello. You may or may not be a fan of guided hunts…but if you are interested in the TOTAL package you have to make the trip. This is a 5 star production from the minute you show up to the beautiful lodge until you pick your birds up at the processor on the way out (it is hard to leave this place). Top notch food, rooms, guides and of course birds. There is truly no other outfit in the state like Eagle…check out their website, you will not be disappointed.
This was the earliest I have ever hunted there, and to echo what others are reporting, the birds were local and pretty smart at this point. None the less we stayed out a little longer (alright by me) and filled out our limits.
I do have to admit that I am looking forward to some new storms brewing off the coast and getting back out there in the salt air. If you have Thursday and Friday off it looks good for hunting.
Watching a bird dog work is one of life’s greatest gifts…so give’m a job!!!!
[Edited By mike-schireman on 2009-11-03 15:38]
[Edited By mike-schireman on 2009-11-04 13:37]
Posted By:
John-Kruse
Field Editor
Colockum W.A. 10-30-2009 21:53
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 40-45 Degrees
Mikal Moore, Waterfowl Biologist at the WDFW out of Ephrata, reports duck hunting was okay in the Basin but good in the Yakima Valley for the opener.
On the pheasant front, if you don’t mind planted birds they are planting them this week in several locations – to include the Colockum Wildlife Area where my nine-year old lab and I managed to scratch a limit in a couple of hours this morning.
I also talked to Pheasant Biologists in Central and Eastern WA. Best bets appear to be in SE WA if you want wild pheasants this year. The Columbia Basin will be okay for planted birds but due to very efficient agricultural practices, not so good for wild birds.
Weather has been cool, cloudy and rainy at times in Central Washington over the last week. I haven’t seen any real influxes of new birds.
Good luck this weekend!
John Kruse Northwestern Outdoors Radio www.northwesternoutdoors.com
Posted By:
Hugh-Carney
Field Editor
Central Wa. 10-29-2009 12:41
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Good soaking rain today and weekend temps expected to warm up could mean considerable fog.
Lots of divers in the basin right now and many in ponds and lakes, not just rivers. Goose influx over the past few days as well in parts of the basin. Not getting any significant cold weather up north to push birds down but the numbers seem to be about about a month ahead.
Teal numbers are good right now too. Had a friend get a nice Cinnamon on the opener and I am still seeing blue wings on occasion.
Most irrigation is shut off by now so water levels in some ponds may change. Not much freeze threat in the next 7-10 days.
-Hugh
