ND Devils Lake area

Just spent the last few days in the Devils Lake area of ND, the first 3 mornings were okay but Sun morning was similar to hunting in MN…..no birds at all.
Over all the trip was good, we got a fair # approx 60 for 4 of us of birds but nothing like past years. We ate most of the ducks each day…just an FYI…the Bass Pro Shops batter goes really good on duck. Heidi and I ended up bringing home 12 and my sister and her hubby brought home 11.

One of the guys in our party was checked by a local Conservation Officer and in talking to him the CO said all the birds we were seeing were locals. The storm they had a couple weeks ago didn’t bring in any fresh birds and actually just pushed out some of the locals.
It was pretty obvious that he was right because nothing wanted to decoy very well….except for a few flocks of bluebills but even the mojority of the bills we saw acted very decoy shy and the vast majority of the birds I cleaned had very little fat on them.

We saw very few teal, gads, widgeon and mallards compared to past years. Most of the ducks we did get were bluebills and buffleheads with a few cans and golden eyes as well.

Heidi(Walleye-Brat here on IDA) just started duck hunting this year got her first duck….a hen Bluebill…it was really cool to see how excited she was knowing that she got it for sure. She soloed on at least a couple others after that and helped with some of the singles we had come in. AND….no she didn’t sleuse it….none of the birds we got were swatted.

I would say it is going to be a couple weeks yet before they start seeing new birds in that area, the winds were forcasted to swing back around and blow from the south and the temps jump back in to the upper 40s and 50s…no reason for birds to start moving.

One last note….I absolutely LOVE my new Xtrema 2. I had 4 doubles and 1 where I knocked 2 down with 1 shot.

Shoot Straight!!
John

we got back from dl on sunday. same report. very hard to kill a few puddleres. impossible to shoot them in the evening unless you found the right birds. mostly we would just jump the pond, not shoot, throw the dekes out and they all filter back. nope, you would watch all of the dump into a pothole 1/4 mile away. shot a few birds tho. hunted 3 days and got probably 30 ducks and 2 geese, but had to work very hard and put the miles on to find them. kinda dissipointed to say the least.

we got back from dl on sunday. same report. very hard to kill a few puddleres. impossible to shoot them in the evening unless you found the right birds. mostly we would just jump the pond, not shoot, throw the dekes out and they all filter back. nope, you would watch all of the dump into a pothole 1/4 mile away. shot a few birds tho. hunted 3 days and got probably 30 ducks and 2 geese, but had to work very hard and put the miles on to find them. kinda dissipointed to say the least.

We hunted west of Devils Lake Thursday-Saturday…..with a similar duck report….Lots of water this year, but a LOT of duckless pot holes . Our local connections said the 20″ of snow they had recieved the weeks prior had moved a lot of the birds out, with only a few new birds showing yet.

BUT ……we were some how able to scratch out two great decoy hunts Thursday and Friday, and one decent shoot Saturday morning .

Thursday afternoon/evening was one of the most incrediable hunts I’ve ever been on…..after some delibiration, I was able to convince my fellow duckmates to set up on a flooded spot in a corn feild for an evening shoot…….Things were looking pretty grim for the first hour or so, with nothing flying what-so-ever ……but around 5:00pm the wind changed to the NW and a big cloud bank came rolling through…… THE FLOOD GATES WERE OPENED……for the next 1 1/2-2hrs it was NON-STOP MALLARDS!!! ……Flocks of 10-20-50+ birds on a continous string headed in!!! I mean there wasn’t 30sec when birds weren’t on their way…….It was awesome!!!

Unfortunately, we had very little cover to work with in the flooded feild, so the birds were seeing us and flaring at that 35yd range, so we had to take longer shots …….with my incredably poor shooting abilities, I believe we were only able to kill 9 in that hour and a half span……but believe me, it was INCREDIABLE!!!

Here’s a few from that nights shoot

We hunted west of Devils Lake Thursday-Saturday…..with a similar duck report….Lots of water this year, but a LOT of duckless pot holes . Our local connections said the 20″ of snow they had recieved the weeks prior had moved a lot of the birds out, with only a few new birds showing yet.

BUT ……we were some how able to scratch out two great decoy hunts Thursday and Friday, and one decent shoot Saturday morning .

Thursday afternoon/evening was one of the most incrediable hunts I’ve ever been on…..after some delibiration, I was able to convince my fellow duckmates to set up on a flooded spot in a corn feild for an evening shoot…….Things were looking pretty grim for the first hour or so, with nothing flying what-so-ever ……but around 5:00pm the wind changed to the NW and a big cloud bank came rolling through…… THE FLOOD GATES WERE OPENED……for the next 1 1/2-2hrs it was NON-STOP MALLARDS!!! ……Flocks of 10-20-50+ birds on a continous string headed in!!! I mean there wasn’t 30sec when birds weren’t on their way…….It was awesome!!!

Unfortunately, we had very little cover to work with in the flooded feild, so the birds were seeing us and flaring at that 35yd range, so we had to take longer shots …….with my incredably poor shooting abilities, I believe we were only able to kill 9 in that hour and a half span……but believe me, it was INCREDIABLE!!!

Here’s a few from that nights shoot

Friday morning we decided that we probably burnt out our feild spot, so opted to set up on a bigger pot hole near by that was holding a few hundred ducks the day before……. ANOTHER GOOD DECISION!!!

Expect this time it was mostly gaddies……but big flocks completely commiting to our spread …….I love the way those gaddies come in …….we were done by 10 with our 18 ducks

Friday morning we decided that we probably burnt out our feild spot, so opted to set up on a bigger pot hole near by that was holding a few hundred ducks the day before……. ANOTHER GOOD DECISION!!!

Expect this time it was mostly gaddies……but big flocks completely commiting to our spread …….I love the way those gaddies come in …….we were done by 10 with our 18 ducks

Mature drake gaddies are the best lookin bird around in my opinion……it’s all in the feather detail

Saturday we had some darn ducky weather, with clouds, some snow, and winds in the 20-30mph range……but ducks still weren’t around in numbers ……but we still ended up with 8 mallards and two gaddies Saturday morning, all decoyed very well…..There was some migration taking place, but nothing to impressive.

ALL our ducks were shot over decoys.

It was a great trip with GREAT company once again

Now it’s back to river hunting reality

Mature drake gaddies are the best lookin bird around in my opinion……it’s all in the feather detail

Saturday we had some darn ducky weather, with clouds, some snow, and winds in the 20-30mph range……but ducks still weren’t around in numbers ……but we still ended up with 8 mallards and two gaddies Saturday morning, all decoyed very well…..There was some migration taking place, but nothing to impressive.

ALL our ducks were shot over decoys.

It was a great trip with GREAT company once again

Now it’s back to river hunting reality

Our group was 2 hours further west of DL, on the J. Clark Salyer refuge. We hunted three days with one average day, one good day, and one poor.

We pulled in late Thursday night and without any scouting, set up on family land near a small creek, our fallback position. That morning we ended up with 18 ducks but only two mallards. Bluebills, gadwalls, teal, spoonies. Dogs had a blast retrieving in the water and the action was decent. But we wanted mallards and a shot at some snow geese.

Friday afternoon was spent scouting, and scouting, and scouting. We finally ran into some snow geese just north of Hwy 5, east of the refuge. Land was posted by some good friends and I gained permission for Saturday morning.

Saturday morning we set up somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 snow decoys and 2-3 dozen mallard field decoys. Wow! Cloudy day, windy, snowing. Perfect. We had birds around us all day and ended up with a dozen SOB’s and an even dozen mallards. We saw thousands and thousands of snows and an impressive number of ducks migrating.

With the number of birds we saw Saturday, we felt we would do well on mallards back at the honey hole (creek) on Sunday am. No chance! No wind, no clouds, no birds. Saw some snows come off the refuge and managed to scratch out a few on sneaks and pushes.

Snow geese are there in huntable numbers but the peak has not yet arrived. Mallards were not predictable and ended up disappointing overall. I don’t think the main push of ducks is there yet either. We could not find a spot that Canada’s were using consistently either.

Good luck to all.

Our group was 2 hours further west of DL, on the J. Clark Salyer refuge. We hunted three days with one average day, one good day, and one poor.

We pulled in late Thursday night and without any scouting, set up on family land near a small creek, our fallback position. That morning we ended up with 18 ducks but only two mallards. Bluebills, gadwalls, teal, spoonies. Dogs had a blast retrieving in the water and the action was decent. But we wanted mallards and a shot at some snow geese.

Friday afternoon was spent scouting, and scouting, and scouting. We finally ran into some snow geese just north of Hwy 5, east of the refuge. Land was posted by some good friends and I gained permission for Saturday morning.

Saturday morning we set up somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 snow decoys and 2-3 dozen mallard field decoys. Wow! Cloudy day, windy, snowing. Perfect. We had birds around us all day and ended up with a dozen SOB’s and an even dozen mallards. We saw thousands and thousands of snows and an impressive number of ducks migrating.

With the number of birds we saw Saturday, we felt we would do well on mallards back at the honey hole (creek) on Sunday am. No chance! No wind, no clouds, no birds. Saw some snows come off the refuge and managed to scratch out a few on sneaks and pushes.

Snow geese are there in huntable numbers but the peak has not yet arrived. Mallards were not predictable and ended up disappointing overall. I don’t think the main push of ducks is there yet either. We could not find a spot that Canada’s were using consistently either.

Good luck to all.