We've done quite well, limits most days on the Champlain opener... since then, we've been putting it to the geese pretty good and finding some early migrating mallards.
Most productive season I've had so far.... can't wait for the late season.
Been hammering the geese. Ducks have been working the fields good too, nice and early before the geese. But I haven't been to any duck holes yet. We've had too many geese around!
Up in my corner of the state, it's been slower than slow. A few geese and almost no ducks at all. It's been so slow I drove down to Hatteras for a week and surf casted for red drum. Thousands of cormorants migrating down there but that's it. Nothing at Asseteague either. Plan to go out this week if I can find any.
I live in Lyndonville in the NEK. I hunt wherever I can find birds usually within a 80 mile radius of Lyndonville. Lots of scouting required...very mobile and flexible. We don't have the corn fields of the Champlain Valley and it often freezes up before the migrating mallards come through.
Also hunt Missouri with good friends and the Eastern Shore of Maryland with kin.
Yeah, I have Canada shells, snows and a layout for field hunting. I've been using a gillie suit lately. It's easier to shoot from and very effecive. For open water and marshes I use a 17' flat bottom duck boat/blind with a mud motor, several dozen goose floaters, diver decoys and more mallard decoys than I can put out by myself. For the tight spots, I use one of two poke boats and for really tight spots a float tube that is camo'd with fast grass. Got lots of stuff but the key is finding the birds. A guy can shoot an old single shot over a couple rough decoys but if he's found the birds, he'll do well. And yes, I hunt the Connecticuit if the birds are there. From White River north past Lancaster.
Been slower than average, but not awful. Sheet water in my area came a little late and short and never produced a good hunt. Woodies were good for the first few weeks. Waiting for first good freeze, which should be in the next week or so.
Been slower than average, but not awful. Sheet water in my area came a little late and short and never produced a good hunt. Woodies were good for the first few weeks. Waiting for first good freeze, which should be in the next week or so.
I don't know about anyone else out there, but the puddle duck hunting has been terrible for us. The only birds I've seen/found have been mostly divers. The weather certainly isn't helping with next weekend being in the 50's. Normally around this time were smashing ice to get the boat in. With only a handful of days left in the season I don't see the hunting getting any better. All the birds will be down after the season is over and when it starts to get consistently cold. Its been a pretty rough season for duck hunting.
Over my way, it has been awful slow. Saw woodies pile through by the hundreds in the early goose season. The geese were about 60% of what they usually are. Once the few local mallards left, we only saw a sporatic trickle of migrating mallards. More blacks and teal than usual. The ringnecks came through and left over a 2 week span. Nothing else to speak of. The marsh froze up hard a couple weeks ago as did the boat ramps. The ramps have since thawed enough to break thru. However, there's no birds and the inland season here closes today. I'll hunt the Conn. river for the next week even though I have not seen birds there either.
This has been one of the more disappointing seasons I've had since the 1960's.
Bummer... I hunted up your way once and we did really well.
I'm always surprised there are not more birds, especially divers, that move through Magog. It's a big enough body of water where you'd think larger rafts would move through.
Champlain has been pretty good, but the lack of ice here has certainly made it slower than usual. However, the early and mid-seasons were excellent.
Geese were very abundant again this year... to the point where we stopped hunting them because it was getting a little too easy.
Your comment about being surprised we don't get more birds caught my attention. I have said the same thing for some time now. We have gorgeous wetlands, with food, water and very low hunting pressure. We just don't get the birds. Up until about 4 years ago, it was not uncommon to see the sky swirling with incoming birds after shooting time. Now, it is almost dead with the exception of a few geese that arrive late. It is almost like something happened.
Danger ranger glad you're putting it to 'em! Haven't hunted since the second day of early goose, my moose tag and bow hunting out of state kept me busy. I planned on trying to hunt the last couple weeks of the season as its usually a good hunt but I dont think the weather is going to make that happen. Good luck finishing up!
I hunt the NEK from White River Junction north to the Canadian border on the eastern half of Vermont....the big lakes, ponds, rivers and cornfields wherever I can find birds. I do lots of scouting.
My old hunting buddy of 27 years ago is pounding them in western Missouri. Limits of mallards and gadwalls every day for the past couple weeks. Wonder what my wife will say if I tell her I'm spending Christmas in Missouri?
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