Posted By:
wtrfwlr44
Guest
Muskingham River across the Ohio by Williamstown 11-17-2002 11:17
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Sorry, not a hunting report. I live in Virginia, am from Marietta Ohio. My mom called me this a.m., from Marietta. Said the Muskingham River, in the city, was black with Canada Geese. Figured they are migrators as the city doesn’t hold this many resident geese. This is close to where the Muskingham meets the Ohio. Thought someone down in that neck of the woods might want to know. Good luck too all, with your season. Be safe.
Posted By:
Eric-Gerencir
WFC Sponsor
Southern WV 11-05-2002 14:47
Mostly Cloudy, No Precipitation – 50-60 Degrees
Hunted from a canoe(the woodduck stalker) on a lake. Many hardwoods surrounding the lake, so you guessed it…Woodducks! I hate to say it but I shot better left handed than right handed. My buddy would hate to admit it too because he watched me smoke two drakes left handed after he wiffed on the 3 birds that passed on the left side of the boat. But, we bagged 5 canadas that happened to wander in on us around noon. We saw approx. 30 woodducks and 6 geese. We bagged the geese by flushing them out of a cove…Riles bagged two geese with one shot (not bad for someone who had shot a whole box of shells and had nothing to show before that. … LOL!) Total count: 3 Woodducks, 5 Geese, and 1 spouse complaining about cleaning birds in the basement. Have another beer and start planning on the cold weather hunting coming up late November.
Posted By:
vicsands
Guest
Jackson County, WV 10-14-2002 20:01
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 60-65 Degrees
10/12/02. We hunted a freshly cut corn field. We probably saw 300 Canada geese. Our initial set was bad so we rearranged and enough decoyed so that had our limit by 10:30. We also decoyed several ducks at daybreak. We got a drake wood duck along with the geese. Later we saw lots of geese in hay fields as well, but they wanted in cornfield primarily.
Posted By:
Don-Molter
Guest
North Central WV 10-08-2002 21:11
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 50-60 Degrees
It was great to get out into the field again. Missed the entire first part of the three part split season in WV. Last Saturday was back to basics guiding two friends. Resident Geese had a superb breeding season this past summer. Numbers of birds in the air the past two weeks has climbed considerably. We limited out before 9am. Hope this season get back to normal temps. so that the birds will “show-up”. Be safe. DM
Posted By:
08-31-2002 11:43
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OOOOPPPP!!
That should have been www.callwva.com for WV Info.
Posted By:
Greenbrier County 08-31-2002 11:42
Cloudy, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
Just wanted to touch base now that the seasons are out. If you do not have the 2002-2003 seasons yet check them out at www.call.com and navigate to the DNR site. Hip and online lisences are also available.
The season looks Great and keep after them.
If anyone needs DU Dinner dates from around the state please e-mail me at tsenn@ducks.org and I will be happy to get you the right info.
Good Luck and Keep’em Flying!!!!
Posted By:
Dale-Hainer
Guest
Great Lakes Region 08-06-2002 04:30
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
Hey guys, I am adding my Ontario Canada report here for you from the Canada section.
Here’s my rundown for the 2002 Southern Ontario Fall Waterfowl Flight. based on CWS, USFWS, Personal observation.
Reports from every monitoring agency depict a sour situation in the west. Some say pond numbers were the second worst ever recorded. Water tables were low across Canada but late winter/spring rains helped to recharge the northeast. The west remained dry and in particular, Alberta is very hard hit.
Some surveys suggest that Prairie birds flew past the typical ponds of the prairies and nested in the northern Boreal forests where water conditions tend to be more stable. But further to the north cold spring temps can affect and did so in 2002, the production of nests and clutches. Spring break ups and ice conditions were reported to be several weeks late in some areas. The only region that improved its production capabilities over 2001 was Alaska.
Duck counts remain unchanged in Alberta but still down nearly 50%, Birds were down in southern Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Dakotas but ranged high in the north. Estimates of up to 70% increases in northern Sask, Man, and Ontario give theory to the overflight of the mid prairies to the Boreal forests. Mallard numbers in Wisconsin were cited as being up nearly 130%, but no reason given.
Around the great lakes and into Ontario. Topography consists of rolling farmland, small woodlots, beaver ponds and small streams where water levels can fluctuate with winter snows and spring rains. In my area, around Lake St Clair, marshlands and drainage ditches are prominent and plenty of marsh has been lost in the last few decades due to diking and farming. The loss continues with some smaller projects aimed at reinvesting into wetlands. More on that in another article.
Across the Great Lakes survey area, waterfowl populations were greater than in 2001 but still below long term averages. Mallard estimates increased 20% and may be partly attributable to the “overflight of the Prairies” theory . Ontario is not heralding the higher numbers of mallards as they are likely at the expense of the west. Black ducks continue to slide and did so another 15%. Divers are up almost 60% and are 30% above long term averages. Personal observation that the great lakes never froze over and many divers held tight here all winter. Ring Necked ducks are booming in at 140% increase over last year and buffleheads came up another 20%. Canada Geese (likely giant resident geese) are down 72%. The drop is likely due to the added seasons aimed at reducing the flocks. The geese still remain at 20% above goals.
My prognosis for Southern Ontario this fall…….
Good numbers of waterfowl when the season opens in late September. Mallards and RingNecks to be largest part of the daily bag. After a couple weeks of good hunting, weather will decide if Southern Ontarians continue with quality shooting . Cold weather will move the lake birds around and accessible to near shore hunters. Buffleheads and lesser Bluebills will make the daily bag. As the weather will continue to dominate the fall flight, colder temps and northwest winds in November will be needed to bring down those abundant Mallards et al, that are in northern Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario that overflew the typical nesting grounds.
Giant Canada Geese are still abundant and resident populations appear to be stable around Lake St Clair. They certainly bred more offspring than I culled last fall! Special seasons will be great shooting if hunters do their homework and get access.
Ref: Canadian Wildlife Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service,
http://basshavencanada.com/cgi-bin/basshaven.pl
DH
Posted By:
Don-Molter
Guest
Field 01-23-2002 15:34
Cloudy, Winds Calm – 35-40 Degrees
This past weekend brought a nice number of migrating Geese into the area. Most flocks were high and fairly large in number. We did get some shooting on local and migrating birds, however. My group bagged 8 on Sat., 6 on Sunday, 4 on Monday. While it has been nice seeing birds, the count is WAY down from previous history. The earlier warm weather has changed feeding patterns in our area. This week, the weather is going back up into the mid-50’s. Crazy for this time of year. DM
Posted By:
Tetondog
Guest
Poca 01-18-2002 11:11
Mostly Cloudy, No Precipitation – 35-40 Degrees
Saw about 2 dozen green heads at the mouth of the Poca Yesterday. I was on my way to do a little Grouse hunting but if would of had a boat I would of been after the ducks.
Posted By:
Eric-Gerencir
WFC Sponsor
New River 01-13-2002 19:54
Sunny & Clear, Morning Fog – 30-34 Degrees – Open Water
YUCK! What a difference a year makes! This year has been s…l..o…w. Had some woodducks work over the decoys around 7:30and then nothing else. The birds were flying high and far…far away from the guns. At around 8:45 we decided to go scount around for loafing birds. Jumped a group of buffleheads but, nothing close enough to shoot. There were many groups of Canadas and we managed to bag one. There haven’t been as many mallards circling our blind this year in comparison to years past. Too spread out because of thawing creeks and backwater. Probably saw about 100 ducks althogether and NONE worked the decs. Maybe alittle call shy and decoy shy.?
