I will be hunting private sloughs in the Gwinner area. Never hunted ND before (especially on the opener…). Any idea what I should expect concerning bird #’s and variety of birds? Is there much hunting pressure in that area on the openor’? I would expect there would be be and that should be a good thing. Gotta’ keep em’ moving! Thanks and good luck to all…RR
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I have not done the opener in ND before and my area of ND is several hours north of your location.
How will you be hunting? Taking a boat and hunting over water, or taking decoys and field hunting?
If the latter, Ben Brettigen has a good waterfowl scouting report in the magazine portion of this site, lots of good info there.
If you’re hunting water you’re going to see birds, the challenge as you mention is the volume of water in the Dakotas today. You could be on the best looking pothole that held ducks yesterday, but as soon as you shoot at them, they’ll move one pothole over. There’s almost too much water for even the most overhunted of areas.
Put some time in the evenings to scout, you’ll be tempted to hunt, but scouting the late part of the day should put you right into the thick of things for the next morning.
ET
Was out there last weekend goose hunting. Tons of water and tons of ducks this year. You should have ZERO problem having a very productive weekend. Pressure is relative. If you never been to ND before, pressure will probably seem pretty light….although that area does attract a lot of non-residents and the Fargo crowd. Field ducks may be getting harder to get under by that time (residents start a week earlier), but pond/sheet water spots will be plenty.
Expect a lot of brown ducks….mallards, pintails, teal, and gadwall.
That’s a phenomenal area. I hunted it very often when I lived up there. You’ll have no problem getting on birds. A lot of public land and a lot or willing land owners.
Waders, a bag of floaters and a spinning wing would be all you need! Ducks and geese will be hitting wheat fields and maybe beans, especially if we get some rain. Don’t hesitate to bring a half dozen field decoys to set up on the edge of the water. Numbers are really solid.
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