Posted By: John-Cottenham Field Editor Gulf coast matagorda county 12-04-2012 19:52 Sunny & Clear, Morning Fog – Over 70 Degrees Some of you know I am a winter Texan so here is a link to what happens down here regularly jacduck Getting the plans in motion for the 12-13 season. Hope to be able to hunt 130 days + in several states again. You guys in the central flyway keep your powder dry! A serious hunter has to plan ahead! BSEG! Posted By: John-Cottenham Field Editor Gulf coast matagorda county 11-23-2012 17:28 Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees I had a day two days ago, got a couple of ducks for the dog and then picked up the decoys. A few geese were flying over so I sat down in the blind to watch. All of a sudden my first speckled-belly of the year made three circles… Continue reading

Posted By: John-Cottenham Field Editor N Dakota report 06-18-2012 15:56 – – – Spring Duck Index Up, Water Conditions Down The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s annual spring breeding duck survey showed an index of 4.8 million birds, up 16 percent from last year and 112 percent above the long-term average (1948-2011). The 2012 index is the third highest on record. All species were well above the long-term average. Wigeon (+88 percent) and green-winged teal (+221 percent) were at record highs. Mallards, gadwall, blue-winged teal, shovelers, redheads and ruddy ducks exceeded the long-term average by more than 100 percent. Only pintails, shovelers and canvasbacks were down more than 10 percent from last year, and mallards were essentially unchanged. Blue-winged teal were at their highest level since 2001, missing the record high by less than 1 percent. “Excellent production last summer brought many breeding pairs back to the state,” said… Continue reading

Posted By: quacksmaker Web Member Zone 3 – Livingston County 10-09-2011 20:07 Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees Slow 2nd day only shot 2 Woodys. Only saw one Green head hopefully get some weather and turn it around. Has anyone been Hunting aroung Saginaw Bay? (Wigwam Bay)Keep your eyes to the Sky and you will see more Ducks. Shootem in the lips! Posted By: quacksmaker Web Member Zone 3 Livingston County 10-08-2011 18:42 Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees Not a bad opener, little slower than normal ended up with 3 Wooodies, 7 Mallards, 1 Goose. Things can only get better from here. Keep your eyes to the sky and you will see more ducks. Shootem in the lips! Posted By: John-Cottenham Field Editor ND middle of the state 10-05-2011 09:42 – – Over 70 Degrees Great start to the NR season here but… Continue reading

Posted By: John-Cottenham Field Editor 07-01-2011 21:24 – – – Delta waterfowl report in today sure makes it look like we will have plenty of ducks this fall. Now if the weatherman helps out. Guys in MO are crying because of crop failure because of floods and TX folks are doing the same because of worst drought in 50 years or more. Now is the time to start getting the gear ready and the dog in shape. Work on some new drills with your pup. Mine are lining drills in particular. Simple stuff to do but oh so important. jacduck Wow 136 days afield in 10-11 and maybe a few more for snow geese. Over all my season in MI, ND, SD and TX went basically as planned and we sure ate a lot of waterfowl topped with sandhill cranes. My new pup Kate CLF is 2/3s grown and has… Continue reading

Posted By: rick-hungerford Field Editor Saginaw Bay Fish Point Area 11-10-2010 21:00 Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 50-60 Degrees A bit late in posting, but there just hasn’t been much to report this last week. I hunted last Friday in a decent wind from my boat blind off a point, shot green wing teal and redheads. An odd combination to say the least. We lost divers over the past week. Redhead and can numbers have declined and were starting to see more bluebills, goldeneyes and mergansers. A sure sign of later migrants. The Management Unit reports over 20,000 birds using the area. Most fields are flooded and in big wind days, they have been doing well. Birds are leaving the refuge late in the afternoon and morning hunts have been slow. Watch for cold fronts if your are looking to hunt the draw. Corn is 95% in and most… Continue reading

Posted By: John-Cottenham Field Editor middle of the mitten 10-25-2010 21:48 Mostly Cloudy, No Precipitation – 45-50 Degrees Well as you have heard me say many times it must be Oct 25. I say that because that is the date that I use to say wood ducks are gone. I hunted a local lake with about 2 miles of oaks heavy with acorns where last week there were hundreds of woodies. This morning not a wood duck in sight. Must be Oct 25! A few smaller geese around but no real numbers. Locals pretty wise. jacduck Hmmm! MI, ND, SD, NE, TX and anything else I can add. Got a new pup on order too. My youngest YLF is 7 and I promised myself that I would get a pup started so when she is nine she won’t have to work quite as hard. Takes a couple of years to… Continue reading

Posted By: rick-hungerford Field Editor Saginaw Bay Fish Point Area 10-09-2010 16:18 Sunny & Clear, High Winds – 50-60 Degrees The morning started slow,mostly due to people shooting early. In the area that we hunt, guns were going off 15 minutes early. Now really guys, you can’t see color at the legal time, that early you are shooting at shadows and pushing the birds out early. Well once things settled down, the birds flew in mostly small bunches, 3-10 birds. We experienced a mixed bag of mallards, gw teal, pintail, black ducks, redheads and ring necks. Add in one small flock of geese my son called to stool and we had a great morning. Most hunters in our area experienced the same. Typical to most Bay Openers, the birds rarely worked in close, but the pass shooting was excellent. Save for the occasional sky buster that thought that a shotgun… Continue reading