Illinios duck hunting

[MudCat05]

I'm going to visit family in Monmouth,Illinios during the begging of December for about a week and a half. Was thinking about duck hunting while I was out there but have never been there and was wondering if would be worth carying the dog all the way. Also, what kind of hunting would I be looking at. (Ex. Rivers,fields, pot holes, or what?) Thx. for the help.

[HuntinCosta]

You should look into goose hunting in that area. I believe that will be your best bet.

[Ghostminnow12]

nuthin to it, geese wil be there in the corn and bean fields. not many pot holes, lots of flooded areas near the river, im not familier with that exact area but ive got land in pittsfield and anything flooded usually has ducks. stubble Cornfields will have geese if the weather is right

[cetiger99]

Not sure where your going. The ducks are hit and miss in Illinois. We hunted in SE corner in December and January near Marion. I was pretty disappointed because there were thousands of ducks in the stratosphere but the weather was warm so they had nothing to do with the flooded corn fields we were hunting. Thousands of geese and ducks would fly over in/out of the wildlife refuge in the morning and afternoon. Hope for cold weather but you should do well with the geese regardless.

[BOGSTER]

PM SCH20FOWLER.
i think he goes up there every year, he can probably help you out.

[SCH2Ofowler]

Il. hunting can be good and and it can be slow, but never really bad. If your planning to hunt public water there are a good many lakes and wma hunting areas but they get pounded pretty hard. The rivers hold alot of birds but can be tricky on the legal aspects of where to hunt. Find some private land if possible. Also make some contacts as to where the ducks might be, north, mid, or south in the state. The SE tip near missouri has alot of farming, alot of refuges and generally alot of birds. Last year wasnt that great but it was about 70-75 degrees in december.

[zepman]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MudCat05:
I'm going to visit family in Monmouth,Illinios during the begging of December for about a week and a half. Was thinking about duck hunting while I was out there but have never been there and was wondering if would be worth carying the dog all the way. Also, what kind of hunting would I be looking at. (Ex. Rivers,fields, pot holes, or what?) Thx. for the help.

The Monmouth area isnt a hot bed for waterfowling. If your willing to drive a little bit I can point you in the right direction, but if your wanting to stay close to Monmouth then you are gonna have to hunt the Mighty Mississippi. There is Snakeden Hollow but not sure what they have for public hunting. The floods back in August has taken its toll on the feed in the general Illinois River Valley region, I was up there last week and there are very very very few ducks. I was born and raised in Illinois and hunted that area for the last 12 or so years and I never imagined that it could get that bad.

[MudCat05]

Thanks to all who replied. I'm willing to travel and have been trying to talk to a few people up there. Just having a hard time to find people because I've never been up there and my family out there doesnt really know any duck hunters in the area. We'll try it and hopefully do good but it will be fun no matter what.