Posted By:
DU870
Web Member
12-03-2012 09:04
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Hunted Saturday morning and ended the season on a good note. Shot my 4 green heads and left the river with ducks still flying. Didn’t see a ton of birds but enough to keep us interested. My lab had some great retrieves and reminded me that she has the nose and I need to remember when she takes off and is looking in other places, that is probaly where the bird is. She is starting to really get the game figured out.
Overall the season was a bit slower but did have enough birds for several meals and even some jerky was made(geese). If we get rain next year could be really good. These dried up marshes and small ponds are full of weeds and habitat, fill those with water and we will hold birds.
Posted By:
MallardKingWI
Web Member
The last weekend 12-03-2012 05:58
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On Saturday we hunted a river. This is ussually our go to place at the end of the season. It turns out it was the go to place for 2 other groups. We were the 2nd one there so we got the second best place to hunt. It didn’t matter because we only saw two groups of ducks all the time we were out there. However the first group had 2 ducks working that were swinging so wide that they could have gone into their decoys or ours until they decided that they could hit them at 70 yards. the amazing part was after the first shot and the duck didn’t even flinch they emptied their guns anyway. This was worse than the skybusting you see at Horicon. We talked to both groups and they both complained about the lousy year. No shots fired.
On Sunday I went solo to Horicon because my buddy had tickets to the Packer game. I saw 2 ducks when I was going up the main ditch. I set up in Stoney Bay. As I was finishing getting the boat into the reeds I saw 6 more ducks to the east. Now I’m thinking this could be a good day. Nope, those were the last ducks I saw all day. As I was picking up I thought this is errie out here. I wasn’t hearing any background noise at all. No motors running, no shooting, no city noise, no rustling of the reeds. Oh yeah, the marsh had about 5% ice.
So the season is done. This is for anyone that hunted Horicon. You won’t be giving up your spot so here’s some questions. Did anyone get back to Cotton Island? I tired on Sunday and got about 50 yards into the path and had to turn back. There was a path in the reeds next to the waterway that looked like someone tried to ski back there but that would be a hell of a ski. Speaking of skiing, did anyone find anywhere to ski. I tried my usual places and a few more and never could find a place. I really don’t remember any of the boats having skis in them.
I took a trip around the marsh and the only person I saw was a trapper. When I got back to the dock there were no more trailers at either launch. I may have been the last knucklehead in the marsh.
Finally congrats to Rearney on their great season. He mave have been the only one on this forum that didn’t have their worst season ever. If he shot 100 of the 400 ducks that’s 4 boxes of shells and that doesn’t count the misses. I didn’t even go through 1 box!
Posted By:
REARNEY
Web Member
Lake Pepin 12-02-2012 16:19
Cloudy, High Winds – 35-40 Degrees
Well finished the season yesterday on a very good hunt. My nephew and I end should have filled up but bad shooting hurt us. We set up wrong in wind and birds were swinging wide and outside our decoys. Saw a lot of mallards early and shot 3 which all birds hit water and dove right away and we never saw them come up. Alot of bluebills and goldeneys along with thousands of Mergansers. Blue bills decoyed nice and we each filled with them and finished with some beautiful drake goldeneyes. This was the best season in the last 15 years as our group of 4 shot over 400 birds. I believe the low water conditions played a big part in it as alot of small water dried up and the river attracted more birds. I also noticed the low water helped with new vegetation which held birds. What seems crazy is that there is alot of mallards and divers still around and there still is alot of open water. Hope everyone has a great holiday season.
Posted By:
lliska
Web Member
horicon 11-27-2012 16:32
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To the Mallardking. You are right. With a dam at Horicon and at Hustiford there is no reason why they couldn’t keep the water levels at both areas at a decent depth. Thanks.
Posted By:
DU870
Web Member
11-27-2012 15:29
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I hunted lake sinnissippii 3 or 4 times this year, the water level was a good foot lower on that lake than normal years. And like normal years, not that many ducks on the lake!
We were checked by the DNR on the opener and the warden said duck numbers were very low and the water level was also a challenge in some places and they were even using a go devil and jon boat to get around.
Posted By:
MallardKingWI
Web Member
Horicon 11-26-2012 19:17
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lliska,
Not defending the DNR but their explanation is that a certain amount of water must flow downstream so that Lake Sinnissippi maintains a certain level. It’s some law, regulation or contract. I know someone that has a cottage on the lake and he verified that they are guaranteed a certain water level. That doesn’t answer the question why they couldn’t have raised the dam in Hustiford so that Horicon could keep its dam up. I wonder if when Horicon put the last dam up in the 20’s or 30’s, Hustiford already had their dam up and in order to get the one in Horicon they had to agree to a certain level of water flowage.
Posted By:
lliska
Web Member
horicon 11-26-2012 16:36
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This is for the Mallardking. I’ve hunted Horicon since I was a teenager. I’m 54 now. This by far was my worst season ever there. Got six ducks this year. Three gadwalls, two shovelers and one hen mallard. I really think the DNR mismanaged the water level. Even though there was a drought this summer the water level is contoled by the dam. They should just keep the level at a good depth and stop varing it. That’s why it was a poor year there! The cold weather this week will form alot of ice and I don’t think it will help with the warm up this weekend. Good luck and good luck next year!
Posted By:
MallardKingWI
Web Member
Horicon 11-26-2012 16:10
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Hunted on Friday and Sunday afternoons. Friday was almost “normal”. Big winds, cloudy skies, the decoys were moving in the water. Nothing really happened until around 3 and then we got a flock to come into the decoys. I went for the first duck and dropped that one and then the gun did not cycle correctly and the shell was hanging out of the chamber. My buddy missed on the first shot and then his gun jammed. It’s been that kind of year.
On Sunday the marsh was about half frozen, which typically makes for great conditions because when your decoys are in the open water they come right in. Not this day. There was no wind for the last hour and a half and that was when the ducks we saw started flying they were real high. No shots were taken.
It will be interesting this week because I’m sure more of the marsh froze last night and today without any wind and below freezing. So will the ducks be back later in the week when it warms up?
Talked to another hunter at the dock and I mentioned that we had only taken 2 ducks in the marsh this year and his reply was, you are one ahead of me. I’ve seen his car around quite a lot. Did anyone do anything in the marsh this year?
Posted By:
Kris-Bertelsen
Field Editor
Chippewa Valley 11-26-2012 12:35
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The mallards and geese started to show up. Fall Creek pond doubled in number over the week, but it is starting to freeze up and may be frozen by the weekend. Eau Claire had an sizable increase in mallards both on Dell’s Pond and by the mall. Too bad season closed yesterday for them. I heard Wissota had some birds show up too.
Posted By:
DU870
Web Member
11-24-2012 20:26
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I think the winds brought in some new birds. While sitting in the tree stand this evening saw 3-4 groups of mallards working the river. Giving the deer a break(more like me) and chasing some ducks.
