Back from a DRY and DUSTY Nodak

[Dook]

Sitting in ATL waiting on a flight.....whatta a tough week, what a dry week....about 3000 miles later, and a broke rental truck. We hit the lull between the local ducks, and we were a week or so early for the migration, timing is everything, as they say. The area is dry as a bone and the few ducks that were in the area were feeding in the fields over night with the moon. I had a great time, we killed a few ducks, and I learned alot while I was gone. #1 thing is having gear and a house for a good price is great, but being tied down to a location SUCKS.

Everything is clearer in hindsight.

Crawla stuck with me 100% , ducks or no ducks, he and I jumped at the chance when the rest of our group wanted to sleep in and not hunt the fields with us. Our reward was the 6 or 7 groups of 150-300 mallards dropping in the decoys crossing, and committed, made the trip so worth while, the last 30 minutes of the trip, i called a single drake over to the decoys, and for being such a trooper, I told crawla to shoot across me and cut that mutha, he did, and when he went to retrieve it, he started jumping up and down - because he collected his first band ever, on a beautiful drake mallard.

Between that and my nodak drake double on the first group all week, me and him were able to overlook the bad and focus on the good.

[img]http://render-2.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-WtofRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQonxn0GxoPJxv8uOc5xQQQJaGnleJGloqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQQe%7CRup6lQQ%7C/of=50,590,442[/img]

[img]http://render-2.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-WtofRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQonxn0GxoPJxv8uOc5xQQQJaGnla0onJqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQQG%7CRup6lQQ%7C/of=50,590,442[/img]

[img]http://render-2.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-WtofRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQonxn0GxoPJxv8uOc5xQQQJaGnlell00qpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQQG%7CRup6lQQ%7C/of=50,590,442[/img]

Congrats Crawla!

[Greenwing]

Great job on the band! We weren't that lucky, even though we had good action the first four days we were there. We left on the 22nd and it seemed like some of the birds that were there, were statring to leave. We started seeing a few migrating birds the last couple of days, but nothing to get excited about.

[HuntinCosta]

Congrats on the band. Sorry it didn't turn out that great. Apparently no one in your group took phone chargers.

[Chessbay]

Congrats on the band fellas.


Sounds like you made the best of a not so great hunting situation.


Side Note:

Dookster, check your work email on Monday and give me a shout.

[KRT]

Well it was my 1st trip to the pot hole region. It was truely an amazing experience. We flew into Minot, got a suburban Friday and took off. We arrived at blackducks house, unloaded and started putting the miles on the car. Friday afternoon we didn't hardly see a duck. We all got up before daylight Saturday and took off. We put 400 miles on the car that day and only saw about 150 mallards in a field which was posted. The whole place was dry and the ONLY water was on the refuge. So we started driving, after 1100 miles we still did not find any birds or water. After talking to several locals, they all told us the theory I had....... The local ducks had done got shot up in early OCT and it was the warmest winter they had seen. They told us that there was usually 4 to 6 inches of snow by Halloween. There were no birds from Canada yet.
We finally got permission to hunt the posted field. It was picture perfect, a group of 150 started setting down and the 1st dog broke then a 2nd and well we only got 3 out of it!! That was the only group all morning!!! No matter what anyone says that went there before us, it was dry and nothing but a few local birds on the fuge. No migration at all. I believe we were a week early. I met some people in St Paul at the airport that was coming home from Alberta and they said the weather had just started turning there and it was going to get nasty!!! Whoever has blackducks house next week will probably get a few.

Had a good time, learned a lot for a return trip as this was my first time out. I wish the groups before of us would have told us there was no water and we would have spent less time huntin for some. All the brown ducks got shot up the 1st two weeks of Oct atleast where we were at.

Pic's to follow

[DRDUCK]

Glad you made it back in one piece and had a good time.

[KRT]

Just got off the phone with Freeliner, told him to go South where there was still some corn unharvested and H2O until the migratory birds showed up. It appears as if Canada may get some weather.

[img]http://render1.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-WtofRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQP0x0lPxlQaxv8uOc5xQQQJeP0PPlnGoqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQQa%7CRup6G00%7C/of=50,590,393[/img]

High test was the same price or cheaper than regular unleaded


[img]http://render1.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-Wt0fRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQP0x0lPxlQaxv8uOc5xQQQJeP0PPlnPlqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQPo%7CRup6G00%7C/of=50,590,393[/img]

[img]http://render1.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-WtofRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQP0x0lPxlQaxv8uOc5xQQQJeP0PPQaGeqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQQG%7CRup6G00%7C/of=50,590,393[/img]

[img]http://render1.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-WtofRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQP0x0lPxlQaxv8uOc5xQQQJeP0PPlnGlqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQQG%7CRup6G00%7C/of=50,590,393[/img]

[HuntinCosta]

Originally posted by KRT:
I wish the groups before us would have told us there was no water and we would have spent less time huntin for some.

Private message to Dookie before ya'll went.
Hey,

When you're scouting google earth dont pay to much attention to potholes that look like they have water . 99% of the ones that look like they have water are dry.

[KRT]

I tried to get everyone in the crowd to pitch in and get up enough money to fly you up there so you could show us what we were doing wrong.

[KRT]

[Dook]

And the 1% of water that were there sure did have alot of shell hulls around them and in them - ever notice how the place is litter free till some OOS's show up?

9.98 times out of 10 if you are shooting a water hole in North Dakota - you are shooting a roost hole and blastin the ducks out of the county.

Some of the locals we met the first day told us that a bunch of late shooting had been gone on the weeks past - to watch out for the game warden as he was on the prowl.

Alas - maybe we should have taken a real duck hunter with us to show us how it was done.

[Duckman#1]

Originally posted by KRT:
I tried to get everyone in the crowd to pitch in and get up enough money to fly you up there so you could show us what we were doing wrong.

[img]graemlins/morning.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/lamoo.gif[/img]

[Dook]

[img]http://render-2.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-WtofRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQonxn0GxoPJxv8uOc5xQQQJalQ0aPl0lqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQQl%7CRup6G0Q%7C/of=50,590,390[/img]


[img]http://render-2.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-Wt0fRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQonxn0GxoPJxv8uOc5xQQQJalQ0eePePqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQQn%7CRup6G0Q%7C/of=50,590,390[/img]

[Dook]

Roosta!
[img]http://render-2.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-WtofRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQonxn0GxoPJxv8uOc5xQQQJalQ0nJJQaqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQQa%7CRup6lQQ%7C/of=50,590,442[/img]

Hooks? [img]http://render-2.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-WtlfRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQonxn0GxoPJxv8uOc5xQQQJalQ0nJ0PJqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQP0%7CRup6lQQ%7C/of=50,590,442[/img]

Grouse and Roosta!
[img]http://render-2.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-Wt0fRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQonxn0GxoPJxv8uOc5xQQQJalQ0ne0nPqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQPo%7CRup6lQQ%7C/of=50,590,442[/img]

Cool Feet!
[img]http://render-2.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6aQQ%7C%3Dup6RKKt%3Axxr%3D0-qpDP-Wt0fRt7Pf7mrPfrj7t%3DzrRfDUX%3AeQaQxg%3Dr%3F87KR6x qpxQQonxn0GxoPJxv8uOc5xQQQJalQ0aeGloqpfVtB%3F*KUp7 BHSHqqy7XH6gX0QQPo%7CRup6lQQ%7C/of=50,590,442[/img]

[Chap]

Good goin'. I want to go out there freelanced one day.

[Tater]

Originally posted by KRT:

Awesome!!!

[BOGSTER]

Originally posted by KRT:
I tried to get everyone in the crowd to pitch in and get up enough money to fly you up there so you could show us what we were doing wrong.

[img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

[FreeLiner]

Just got back in from ND. We left yesterday at 6 am and got home 29 hrs later. First, I'd like to thank blackduck for the use of the house and equipment. Also, thanks KRT for the info. We found the ducks after three days of scouting. Set up in a cut corn field the morning the refuge froze. 1 damn day late. Most birds left for SD Monday night. We put over 1400 miles on our trucks scouting from the Canada border to just west of Devils Lake. Every farmer we spoke with granted us access to their land as long as we were not deer hunting, muzzleloader started yesterday. Am glad to be home and finally stretch out. All in all, 2 ducks, 5 geese, 5 pheasants, a grouse and h. partridge. One farmer we spoke with had a pothole for his cattle and said it was the driest he had seen in 30 years.



At least I have this waiting on me

[KRT]

Glad yall made it home safely FreeLiner [img]graemlins/thumb2.gif[/img]