Gone are the Days

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We are well into the season and it is now right after Thanksgiving.  When I was a mere boy and hunted with my Dad, when Thanksgiving came, it was over.  Everything was frozen and the birds had mostly left the area.  

I can remember the two of us going down to a state hunting preserve southeast of Council Bluffs called Riverton.  It was along the Nishnabotna river near the small town of Riverton. We put sacks of decoys on sleds and walked in on the ice.  We found a spot where we could put up a blind and placed the decoys right out on the ice.  

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I tell this to some of my friends today and they can hardly believe it, but it happened.  There seemed to be a few ducks that hung out at the reserve and probably got their water from the river.  They came into the decoys and we had excellent shooting.  We would be the only people hunting on the preserve.  Those days are long gone.  Also we shot with lead and it was so much better than the shot today.  We also shot with two and three quarter inch shells.  Now today, I shoot a gun that fires three and half inch shells with a mixture of hevi-shot and steel.  Gone are the days.

It was nothing to have a limit of mallards by noon.  Compare it to today when a group of people will sit in the blinds waiting for a shot almost all day.  There was not the competition from other hunters like there is today.  Where I hunt there are six blinds within a mile and that brings competition.  The birds will go where they are less likely to be bothered.  We have an advantage of 40 acres of water with a bubbler that is right in the middle.  We always have open water.  Still, gone are the days.

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There was only a handful of hunters when I arrived at the Big Chicken restaurant in Tekamah before heading to the blinds.  Everyone was optimistic as there was an excellent weather shift all the way to the Dakotas.  Freezing temperatures with heavy snows was covering the ground north of us.  This should be it, and everyone was in agreement.  Good northerly flow the past few days should drive the birds out and send them our way.

Beautiful sunrise over the lake in the morning.

Two days ago there was a north wind and the hunters that went witnessed huge flocks of migrating snow geese.  What we had seen in the past was when the snows came the mallards came too, so everyone was hopeful.  My wife and I have not had the pleasure of mallard duck breast for over six months.  It was now or never. 

As I approached the blind, there was just a light breeze and a small ripple on the water.  It was out of the north so that was fine, as long as it was out of the north.  There were no birds on the lake when we came in.  Not a good sign.  We settled in and waited for shooting time.  None of the other blinds in the area were shooting when the time to start came.  We waited.

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Some pairs and small groups came to the decoys as the morning wore on.  Each time they locked and came into the decoys there was opportunity.  I was in the northern most blind and the better shots were at the blind to the south.  Finally, we had an opportunity and I got off a shot.  Three other guys shot too so I have no idea if I scored, but at least for this season, I fired off one shot.  

The rest of the morning it went dead calm and finished off the day for me.  It was time to hang it up.  I grabbed a couple of birds as I left as I had not taken any all season.

My good friend and I leave with our birds for the season.

There is always another year.  Gone are the days.

It really was not that bad.  It was bad for me because I did not go early and the club basically harvested a good quantity of small ducks.  There was good shooting early on Teal, Gadwall, and Widgeon,

Good hunting, good fishing and good luck. Hank

 
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Disaster Strikes

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My wife and I arrived back from our vacation to Japan mid November.  It took me just 24 hours to get my clock turned around and I was ready to hit the blinds and pound the ducks.  I found what was going on hard to believe.  The corn was out and the weather all the way up to North Dakota was mild with predominantly southerly flow.  What a disappointment.

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Anyway, after keeping in close contact with my friends in the club, we learned that a day of northerly winds was forecast with cooler temperatures.  This would only last a couple of days then switch to the west, and back to the south.  A hunter has to do what he has to do.  What was interesting was generally in the early part of the season a north wind would fill all three blinds.  This time, there was a lot of discouragement and only a blind and a half showed up.

Temperatures were still above freezing, but the north wind was strong and gusty and the birds would be hanging over the decoys as they would turn into the wind.  This would be excellent shooting.  

Shooting time came and went and there was no migration to speak of.  This was a major disappointment.  It seems I am using this word over and over again.

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Just for a little history about this outstanding duck hole.  I joined the club 16 years ago, and usually this time of the year when I walked to the blinds, there would be 40 acres of quacking ducks.  They would all jump at once.  We would all get into the blinds and wait for their return.  Some came back, and at shooting time there was a really nice harvest.  Others went out to feed.  The ones coming back from feeding would have corn stalks and mud hanging off their feet.  Well fed birds are thirsty birds and here they came for a drink.  This was a duck hunters dream.

Part of this, some believe, was the fact that the farmers in the Dakotas were now growing corn and a friend of mine who farms in our area called the seed they planted 90 day corn.  They have a shorter growing season up north than we do in our area and the hybrid developed was for the northern states.  When corn had worked it's way to $7.00 per bushel the farmers went into the corn business.  Unless there was an early snow covering the ground after harvest, the birds hung around.

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Second, some believe that the reserve at De Soto bend had changed the type of game it attracted.  Many years ago the managers would cater to waterfowl at the museum and there was a viewing area built where visitors could come and watch the birds.  Besides snow geese, the reserve would hold a couple of hundred thousand mallards.  What would the birds do but feed in the surrounding fields and our pits are only 20 miles straight north as the crow flies.  The farmers that farmed the fields on the reserve owned by the government were required to leave one third of the harvest on the ground. This would keep a lot of birds around.   Corn is cocaine to a mallard duck.

The new manager several years ago began managing the reserve for deer.  Waterfowl was not a primary goal and the birds kept going without the banquet on the ground waiting for them.  Recently, that has changed again and in checking reports at De Soto it was holding at one time up to fifty thousand mallards.  However, with the nice weather up to the Dakotas, nothing came down.  I called several times and asked the people at the reserve where the mallards were.  They said they were in the Dakotas.  I told them we were waiting for the migration, and they said they were too.

Anyway, one can always hope. 

 

Good Hunting Good Fishing and Good Luck,  Hank.

Bad Reports From the Boys in the Blinds

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My wife and I left for Japan on October 29th for a fifteen day tour of the country with our favorite tour company Odesseys Unlimited.  You can look on line and see what the trip was all about at their website to see the fantastic experience we had with Odesseys.

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This should have been right at the start of the migration and I would probably be missing some of the best duck shooting that takes place.  My good friend John kept me well posted as to what was taking place and as it turned out Japan was a good place to be during the first two weeks of November.  My cell phone carrier has a free service world wide if you enroll in it and it is texting.  You can text and receive text messages anywhere in the world providing you are enrolled.

With a 14 hour time difference from Tekamah, Nebraska needless to say, I got messages sometimes at 2 AM in the morning Japan time.  What are friends for, and the word was for John to text me anytime, and he did frequently. My wife and I both enjoyed his messages, because it was more than what was going on at the blinds, but what was taking place in the Omaha area and especially with the weather. We were never out of touch with home.

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My son was more aware of the time time difference and kept the text messages to when we both were awake.  

What was starting to develop in southwest Iowa and eastern Nebraska was a lot of high pressure areas with warm temperatures and southerly flow.  These weather patterns extended north.  With all the nice weather farmers were able to get into the fields and get their work done.  That means harvesting and there would be plenty of leftover corn in the fields for the birds to feed on.  Plus open water and plenty of sand here and there for them. What more can a duck ask for. 

The reports coming to me in Japan showed little activity and no migration.  There was good movement on small ducks, pintail, gadwall, teal, and widgeon.  Very little mallard activity was taking place.  The smaller ducks eat just as well, but when it comes to dinning on wild ducks, we like the big northern mallards.   Still one has to keep an important point in mind; " a bad day hunting is better than a great day at work."  In a weeks time when you add up all the small ducks that were shot, the numbers did not look too bad.

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November 14th was still a long way off and there was plenty of time for me to get into some excellent mallard shooting as the weather turned up north and would begin driving the birds out of the Dakotas.  I have always had my best mallard shooting late in the season and the later the better.  It would be good providing there was not a total freeze over of our lake which was hard to do.  When the weather stays above freezing, we just turn on the bubbler and keep the water moving to maintain an open hole.  We always have some open water.

That freezing cold weather is the reason we invest in all that thermal gear for the outdoors.  Sitting down in a heated blind swathed in thermal underwear and drinking hot coffee is what Gentleman Hunting is all about.   

Good hunting, good fishing, and good luck.  Hank

 




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