Duck Report 12-15-01

[Dutch Dog]

I was thinking the same thing about losing ducks in a flooded rice field. If they would hunt where I hunt I bet they would have lost about 15 of the 19 if they can't track down a duck in a rice field. anyway I'm not scared to tell people where I hunted cause if they want to go there, more power to them. I hunted on Tunica cutoff saturday morning. 3 of us and we killed 2 ducks a greenhead and a suzie. the greenhead was shot 2 times simultaneously and the suzie was shot 3 times simultaneously both with 3 1/2 12 guages at about 10 yards..needless to say no ducks had to be chased, and oddly enough there is actually some salvageable breast meat which is marinating in by fridge right now. I can tell you that there were a few high ducks, but very few workable ducks. On our return back north from there in fields where we see ducks usually numbering in excess of 5,000 there was not 1 single bird, not even a coot. that tells me that the ducks simply haven't made it here, and the ones that have are having no trouble finding water (big secret there huh?)

[no angel]

we killed 12 sat morning and saw alot of big ducks and too many geese. we do not have a field with ducks in it . they are all over the flood water and it has no food source except 15 ft under. it is very wierd to see all the ducks around wide open water and not in flooded fields. we have alot of places we can hunt and we are having to fight hard to kill them but we are killing ducks. i don't know if we are just outright lucky or the ducks are getting dumb? we are seeing several thousand ducks in the place we are in now and they are not anywhere else. this place is holding ducks for some reason and they are staying here. we rode today after we hunted and saw very few ducks except in two of our other holes. it has a ton of water in everyplace because they going creeks and flood over into the fields. we rode 50 miles and these were the only places we saw birds. not a duck in the fields!!! i've got 20 acres of flooded milo and rice that wasn't cut and is flooded to the tops,but not 1 bird. someone please explain this to me. we are killing ducks but we are hunted about 50 acres of flooded timber and it floods out in to the surrounding fields. you can believe what ever you like but i ain't crying about the ducks not being here but we are having to do alot of work to make this happen. we are not going to a place w/ no birds and setting up,but we are riding 20 - 50 miles until we find them on us somewhere and then we hunt. i would be in the same shape as most of the people on here if we didn't have so many places to go.

[duforester]

No Angel,

You should consider yourself lucky to have so many places to hunt. The majority of people on here would trade places with you any day, especially since you are killing ducks!!! I would gladly drive the 40-50 miles a day to find where the ducks were! Anyway, I hope you continue to harvest ducks and that they will eventually make their way down to the rest of us! GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!

[Meeka]

Anatadae, some of those might just be on the north side of Dummy Line. That is the ONLY place with ducks, other than the refuge.

No, that aint too specific cause nobody has a chance at that huge tract. Folks dumb enough to think they can get some action just cause they spend a lot of money in the general area will discover the folly of thier ways.

Weekend report - Saturday, 3 hunters at one of the top two timber holes on a large public tract = 1 woodie; Sunday, 2 hunters in a field that I gave up on a couple of years back cause of the crowds = 1 greenhead ( at least we got to look at and call some ducks). The ducks we saw were flying from the North. Very few shots fired.

About the lost ducks in the rice field. The Mallard we got was on a long, windy shot and was winged, so he fell a long way out. The retrieve took Meeka about 10-15 minutes. It was fun to watch. That scrappy duck would scoot, then hide. When Meeka would get to it each time, it dove in the 18" water. She finally came back with it and I called myself wringing it when another group came over and I dropped the bird. It had scooted off a short ways so I walked over and it dove at my feet. I could see it so I stood there watching it for about 60 seconds. A few air bubbles were coming up. Proof positive that it was holding on to the weeds under the water. We would have never recovered that bird without a dog.

[ December 17, 2001: Message edited by: Meeka ]

[shiloh]

northeast arkansas on a black river guided hunt. It was horrible hunting, but a good time with friends.

[H2OFowl]

4 people

filled up on greenheads and pintails

Sunday was a bust 2 mals

Not enough ducks and too much water for em to take any pressure. All the damn cotton this year is making me a lil nervous about late season. No food.

[benjamin west]

saturday was a bust so foggy couldnt see the decoys but sunday was much better 2 hunters 11 ducks 8 greenheads 1 suzy {oops} 2 woodies would have limited but cant count [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[BIGKILLA]

2 hunters, killed 4 greenheads, 5 gadwalls, and 4 big canadians. Out by 7:30, flooded the truck in a ditch by 8:00, pulled it out an hour later with a tractor, let the water drain out and drove back to the camp! We had a blast!!!

[BIGKILLA]

I also talked to a couple of friend s of mine that hunted at a place called flag lake just NW of rolling fork and they said 3 blinds killed 70 ducks and I think it was about 15 people hunting, they usually wear 'em out!

[duforester]

bandmagnet,

What is the limit on mallards in Alabama?

[mallardchaser]

torch:
what's up w/ the oops on killing a widgeon?
I think they're one of the prettiest ducks out there..2 widgeon w/ your mallards would be good

[spent21]

think he meant the suzie.

[NOHERE]

GO GET'EM MEEKA, THE ONLY REASON TO DUCK
HUNT IS TO WATCH A DOG RUN'EM DOWN IN THE
FIELDS.
REMEMBER...THE MORE STEEL YOU USE , THE MORE
EXERCISE THE DOG GETS.

[Super-X]

Sat. AM 6 hunters
flooded bean field surrounded by much more
flood water!!!!!
10 mallards
8 green-wings
3 gads
1 pintail
14 smileys

Sun. AM 3 hunters
diferent field
1 mallard
2 smileys [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]