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Waterfowl

That banded mallard in the picture was banded in 2014, NW Territories as an adult - so no tell how old it really was.

We used to have a lot of ducks first of season in mid November - a lot of teal, gadwall, and quite a few mallards. Didn't matter if it was hot, cold, water, or no water - there were always ducks that came down early. Now, a very small fraction still do.
 
John-W-WI said:
Waterfowl dogs always amaze me. Water is cold as heck, and they can't wait to get back in. I've hunted with others that had good dogs, it's a blast. I've never owned a hunting dog because they don't do very well bow hunting deer :emoji_wink:
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We have a whole network of folks in this state who keep dogs just for blood trailing deer. They get more excited when their dog finds a gut shot deer for someone else than if they had killed it themselves. They keep all kinds of records on number of attempts, number of recoveries, how far the deer was tracked, how long after the shot, etc. They publish their number online, you shoot and lose a deer, you look up the closest blood dog and give the owner a call. Most just charge for gas
 
Buddy drove to WI to get a Bavarian mountain scenthound for blood trailing. I love watching good dogs work.

Brother shot a Canada goose in 2015 that had been banded in 1995 in Nunavat and was too young to fly when banded. Imagine the decoy spreads it saw in 20 years.
 
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I have a refuge about five miles from my house, they used to band the geese really hard not so much now. For a few years we were averaging almost a 50/50 on Canada geese, on snows 1/500, ducks 1/200. A buddy and I shot seven banded mallards and a banded pintail in one week in Alberta we had to be hunting close to a banding area, we have also done well on banded birds in Ontario.
Here are some of them;
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I bought alittle 30 acre patch this year that butts up to my farm and it has around 5 acres of swamp so we have started duck hunting it.We aren't seeing many mallards yet but it is loaded with wood ducks we come close to limiting every time on them
 
buckdeer1 said:
I bought alittle 30 acre patch this year that butts up to my farm and it has around 5 acres of swamp so we have started duck hunting it.We aren't seeing many mallards yet but it is loaded with wood ducks we come close to limiting every time on them
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You still seeing woodducks? We had a bunch of mallards on our place the last couple of weeks, but not much the last few days.

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We lacked 1 of a limit last sunday but I could hear alot this morning when I was checking traps before daylight,We will see in morning if weather isn't too bad,I have seen some mallards on fields and river but not to many on swamp yet.They say it doesn't freeze because of a spring and after it gets real cold is when it's best
 
Open water during a freeze is a goldmine! I hope that's what you have. If it is then you should have great hunting until the lakes freeze up and they completely move out.

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Catscratch said:
Open water during a freeze is a goldmine!
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That's pretty much the only way I ever really hunted waterfowl. A wide, shallow stretch of river can gather hundreds of geese and ducks in January when all the ponds are frozen.
 
Been shooting geese and some mallards and woodies last couple of weeks. Wish we'd get some fresh ducks.
 
Telemark said:
That's pretty much the only way I ever really hunted waterfowl. A wide, shallow stretch of river can gather hundreds of geese and ducks in January when all the ponds are frozen.
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River access is tough in this state. Only 3 navigable the rest are private.
 
We didn't see much in the rain this morning,yes and on the 3 rivers that are navigable you have to stay below high water mark unless you have permission,alot of farmers will let people hunt the fields especially for geese
 
buckdeer1 said:
We didn't see much in the rain this morning,yes and on the 3 rivers that are navigable you have to stay below high water mark unless you have permission,alot of farmers will let people hunt the fields especially for geese
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Around here you have to fight the outfitters for fields. Its gotten crazy the last 5 years.
 
ksgobbler said:
River access is tough in this state. Only 3 navigable the rest are private.
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Well that sucks. If you have a pond, you can probably keep it open with a pump. I have seen that trick as well.
 
Telemark said:
Well that sucks. If you have a pond, you can probably keep it open with a pump. I have seen that trick as well.
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I own an ice eater but that is far from a sure thing. Especially since there is a cooling lake 10 miles away and everything goes there
 
It's only gotten down to 44 degrees here in Georgia. My duck population is very confounding. I have to re learn how to hunt my wetland every year. Picked a hole we've never hunted because it is easy access and we are lazy right now. Have a 1 week season. Gotten couple of woodies and mallards, but the geese have decided to go elsewhere. Still need some more water as well
 
My gun broke today. My beother shot his 5 mallards then handed me his gun so I could get my 5. It was a good day.IMG_4792.jpg
 
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