Waterfowl Hunting

Has anyone started to see ducks or geese using the area yet? I saw a few the other day while on the water, but as per usual not much yet.

Nathan

I guess nobody else have seen any either?

I know they are in Mid MO at this time. I hunted four rivers CA last week with a friend and we bagged 10 of various species.

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"We're burnin' daylight" John Wayne

Good deal. Heading up there the weekend of Thanksgiving. I'm hoping a cold front pushes a few new birds in the area.

Did see a lot of some kind of ducks on a pond not far from the lake today. Also have heard a lot of canada's flying around the lake. Not many snows tho. Hope this helps.

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" Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither."

Still a couple of weeks early for any good numbers of mallards. I have been seeing some gads and woodies. SEK has been overtaken by coots, and not just the old CW kind! Saw two swans today.

Hope we get some new ducks. I have heard of spotty success in the middle zone. Need a good hard cold front....

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"We're burnin' daylight" John Wayne

Yep. Need some hard water in NWMO.

I saw a lot of snows in 4 rivers last weekend. Not a lot of ducks they say there are around 85000 ducks there. I think they are smoking something at that conservation office.

I'm in SW Iowa this weekend and the refugee at Riverton is reporting only 40,000 ducks and most of those aren't mallards.Season up here closes in about a week and the ducks haven't arrived yet! Their still shooting teal.Gregg

Every 5 years the MDC has meetings around the state to set the zone boundaries and season dates. The last two times we have had to get a contingent together to keep the season late in the south zone. There is a group from Spfld that wants the season early and wants the line on the west side set much farther south so that their property is in the middle zone. They have other property to hunt further south. They just don't want both places in the same zone so that they can hunt longer and they always say that their place freezes up.
What's the use of hunting open water if there are no ducks? If there are ducks, you can find a way to hunt them, ice or no ice.

Always our best hunts in the south zone are the last two to three weeks of the season.

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"We're burnin' daylight" John Wayne

lots of geese moving today.

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" Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither."

Got word of a few high flyers the other day.

i have hunted the south zone monday, tuesday, and saturday of this week killing only four birds (teal, mallard, hooded merganser, ringneck) and seeing very little. glad to be in the south zone because we will be the only ones hunting when the ducks do finally arrive.....hopefully......

Agreed. I talked to a young man yesterday that has been killing some ducks here in SWMO. I took a 60 mile jaunt yesterday and saw no ducks of any kind.

Lil Hunter and I hunted Stockton this weekend both days and only killed three birds (Mallard, Hooded Merganser and Gad)That is all that came in. Of course lil Hunter killed those. I missed my opportunities on the same flocks. Didn't see many more..

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"We're burnin' daylight" John Wayne

It can only get better from here!

You're right SWMO, it can't get much worse! I talked to a guy at work today that hunted Bushwacker this weekend and saw nothing but a few decoy-shy local birds that wouldn't even give them a look.
I'm not seeing anything here on the river at home.

With the big storm that is supposed to hit north of us I'd think the birds should be arriving today ahead of the heavy snow..