Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl Where are all the waterfowlers?

Where are all the waterfowlers? I live in northeast Kansas and have been hunting ducks and geese for 25 years (I'm 35 and started young, bless my dad and uncle). Unfortunately, a knee injury and surgery have caused me to miss our oct. 28th opener and subsequent days. Hows everybody else doing? I talked to my uncle (who lives in Iowa) and he says his go duck hunting spots suck this season because of the flooding earlier this year. Anyone having luck?I'd especially like to hear from hunters in the central flyway, but welcome news from any waterfowlers.

Im right up the Missouri from you and across it from your Uncle and can say the same. the flooding really messed up everyhting. We actually just drove by our spot last night on the way home from our lease and my son sadi it looked like zombieland out there. All the vegetation is dead, theres trash all over.

Looks like we'll be hunting somewhere else this year

I'm just a bit South of you at Plattsmouth but we have hunted SW Iowa for years.The state reserve at Riverton Ia. is loading up with ducks at present but all the early sheet water hurt us big time spreading the duck populations out up and down the Missouri bottom.Saw a small batch of Snows/Blues the other day and the White Fronts have been coming South for several weeks but up in the Stratosphere probably headed for Mound City or farther points South I'd bet.So far it's been some Blue wings,Gadwalls and Widgeons but not seeing a big concentration of green heads yet.Best I can do for ya at present!!

I just got back from my first waterfowl hunt ever and I have to say I am hooked. I hunt with 3 other guys up in the Northern OK near Billings. We put out a helluva spread of decoys in the morning but I'm told by the veterans that the day was lackluster (funner than heck to me!!). We killed a total of 10 ducks and had 3 Canadian Geese come in but the wind was howling and they drifted after setting wings out of our range. After we decided to call it a day and had all the decoys packed up and breaking down the Hay Bale Blinds, a big flock of Teal came in and landed in the cove next to us (frustrating to say the least).

I was really hooked not only by the hunting itself, but by the camaraderie of the hunters. We had a blast just sitting in the blinds and shooting the $hit. In between birds coming in during slow periods, they tried their best to teach me how to duck call (still trying to sound more ducky but getting there), and gave me hell and laughed at the sounds I was putting out(all in good fun).

I have always been a deer hunter, living for deer season, but after this last weekend, I and bitten with the with waterfowling bug!!! Looking to many more days in the blinds this year.

I have only been able to get out once this year. I was elk hunting in NE MT yesterday and saw hundreds of geese flying south. We had a storm Saturday and it on Sunday the geese just kept going by.

Looks like a good year in the N.C. Piedmont this year. Everyone is reporting good numbers. The early season treated us well and I expect this trend to continue. Hopefully we will have another great year in Arkansas this year. Love to hunt Arkansas!!!!!!!

our opener is Saturday...can't wait. a little front coming through today to drop morning temps into the low 40s and maybe move in a few new birds. supposed to be blue bird and 15 mph SE wind for the opener....pretty good duck populations in our marshes, but we need a couple of real cold fronts to run some more down here. Second split is always much better than first in LA.

First split you're mostly just shooting teal, a few dos gris, and what the Cajuns call "summer French" ducks....mallards that don't migrate.

Quite easily one of my worst years. Not seeing the volume of Birdz I normally do, not sure why...

Going to hunt deer tomorrow and Friday, switching to waterfowl when that season opens Saturday morning; plan to hunt a slough off the Tar River in Edgecombe County.

heading for Pointe a la Hache in a few minutes...will post pics tomorrow on return. a little too clear for my taste, but otherwise beautiful conditions.

Sloowww, ...but RedHedz on Ice, that's Nice...



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3 of us went out this morning and limited out on green wing teal, mallards, and gadwalls. Shot a couple of speckled geese as well. The guy's I hunt with say it's the best duck hunting they have seen in several years. After we had our duck limit, a flock of canvas backs came................dang it was hard not to pull the trigger, but we did not.

7mm08okie welcome to the darkside !!! Water fowling has been my 1st love.. I live breath and eat it... If you do it right it can grow into 24/7/365 passion...

Good for you on not shooting the Cans.. That is a special Bird..
I can remember the much older guys that are long gone telling me that cans would block the sun out during their migrations...For us in the Atlantic they got hammered in 2 ways.. One was killing them by the train car load, literally.. 2nd; the most deadly, was the change/killing their food source.. The Government in their wisdom blew a hole in the Barnaget jetty and all that salt water rushed in and killed the grasses the used to feed millions of waterfowl... Fast forward 50(?) years later in the 1973 Hurricane Agnes destroyed the Flats at the head of the bay... Now in the last few years they are starting to come back... That is a year by year thing..


I wish this site would automatically resize pics...


Do yourself a favor buy *good stuff and pattern your bb gun...
What kind of rigs are you hunting ?? Water/field? Both ?? Dog? No Dog?



*Stay out of the Chinese junk pile..

Last Day Today, for Me.

This is the End, for yet another Lizard King...



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You ended on a lawn dart ....

Nice mutt........

Geese are everywhere up here. It's been an incredible season (except that I can't hit much!!!).

Snows have been heading down through en masse this week. Resident Canadians are all still here; being joined by sporadic high flyers.

Most ducks have gone but yet I still see quite a few floating around.

Sandhill cranes have been working through starting last week.

We are just starting......

Yup, ...one Man's LawnDart, is another Man's Lizard (batted clean-up/ SomeBody's cripple).

Indicative, from Start to Finish...

Where do you hunt ??

I don't take the time to waterfowl hunt as much as I used to. So this year I thought I'd get out and hunt a bit more. I go to Montana every year to upland bird hunt and kill a few ducks.
This year we had the chance to go up to the guides Saskatchewan goose camp for a few days of waterfowling before hunting in MT.

I could have swatted ducks out of the sky with a tennis racket there were so many of them.

I have always heard that sandhill crane is the ribeye of the sky, so I was looking for a chance to shoot one. Well after trying the meat I think I would trade all my ducks for a few more sandhills. I can't tell you how good it was, you'll just have to taste one to believe it. Here's one pic I had on my phone with me holding a sandhill and a speck.
Good luck to everyone this season.