Duck Hunting Forum banner

Duck Hunting Wildfowl Bay

3K views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  BootsUpDucks2121 
#1 ·
The waterfowl season is coming up on us all quickly and I am so ready to hear wing beats and see orange feet straight up in the water. I'm a young guy who uses a 14' john boat with a 20 HP outboard to get around out on wildfowl bay. I am just wondering if anyone has been up there recently and looked at the water level/marsh conditions. Is it looking like there will be enough water to get around out there, say off of Geiger Rd ? I'm planning on taking a trip up there to scout around and hopefully cut the gap through Dynamite Cut but I am not sure if there will be enough water to get out to the Middle Grounds area. If you have any info on this it would be really appreciated

Drew
 
#3 ·
Two weeks ago it was good enough but the water level changes alot out there i have slammed into rocks on my way back in just after a 5 hour hunt following the same way in as i went out with my gps you got the right idea tho get out there and get fimialair with it in the day light so when ur doing it at o dark thirty all your doing is grabbin a hand full of throttle and motoring to your spot. usaully once u get out of the channel and boyes ur good "most of the time" i recked alot of lower units now i got a short shaft mud buddy and will never go back to a regular out board or a a jet i suck in to much gunk with a jet. good luck sure i will be up there again before season. and check back in.
 
#4 ·
Thanks, I am going up there tomorrow to check out some options. I'm a bit apprehensive to head out with my outboard, I have had some bad experiences in the past nailing rocks off of Geiger there , I know what you mean about changing levels buddy, got stuck out there once on an East wind, needless to say I learned my lesson about going out on those days unless I've got an airboat on call ha. I will let you know what I see if you want an update on water levels and anyhting else cool I see.

Thanks,

Drew
 
#5 ·
Looks like the bay is reclaiming some of the dry land that is sitting out there, water levels seem up and the cut at geiger rd was relatively deep. These are goods signs since it is August and typically the lakes have their highest water levels in late october ( as the trend maps show). I didn't try to get out this time with the boat but I did converse with some locals up at the Booze Bar and they were telling me that they have been seeing people out on the bay with small outboards, heading out behind the islands to go fish. I am pretty optimistic, now I jsut need to go buy some weasel balls and make a few motion decoys for the spread. I've got the itch already..
 
#6 ·
DNR says water is down 4" from last year???? I heard this at the waterfowl lecture at the festival last weekend. The ngood news is duck numbers are up! Just got done with an $800 repair bill on a 25 hp Merc. it's going up for sale and I'm getting a mud buddy.
We launch out of geiger, rose island, and seebewaing river. You can get up the dynamite?
Darrell
 
#7 ·
I haven't had a chance to hunt up to Wildofowl in about 5 years. I couldn't get through dynamite then and as it seems I wouldn't be able to now seeing as the water levels are not looking much different. When I was up there the wind was blowing out of the West, which means there was more water than usual out there, the cut at Geiger was relatively deep, just needed to clear a bit of vegetation at the end. I didn't have a chance to get my boat out, but like I said I had talked to a few people in Bayport who said they have been running small outboards out of that area to go fishing. I'm hoping that 4" statistic is not correct, we were bomabarded with wet weather during the spring and have had a normally wet Summer. I cannot for sure say that things look better out there, but they definitely do not look worse. Do you have access to any of these numbers brought up at the meeting ? I would like to go over them so that I can make a better decision about putting out in these areas. I have never put out at Sebewaing River just because it adds a lot of open water to get across, looking like I need to invest in an airboat..
 
#8 ·
DNR had a powerpoint presentation. I don't know if this is available for viewing anywhere on the web. I try to go every year mainly to hear when opening day is so that I may apply for vacation time . Off the top of my head I can tell you, Mallards are up 9%, Redheads up 27%, Pintail up 26%, Gadwall up but can't recall figure. On the down side Bluebills down 47%, Widgeon down 14%, Cans Steady. Duck season will be Oct 8th till Dec 4th and Dec 10th and 11th for the 2 day. Limits will be the same as last year 6 total, 4 Mallard two of which may be hens, 3 Woodies, 2 Redhead, 2 Bluebill, 1 Pintail, 1 Black, 1 Can. Why didn't limits change? They said they look at overall 10 year trends and not yearly populations.
 
#9 ·
I was looking up Lake Level readings by GLERL and you are correct, levels are down by a few inches but fluctuating almost on par with the levels from last year, so that is encouraging. Besides Huron and Superior the other Lakes are all up by a few inches here and there. Time to try and get the boat out, hoping for the best..
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top