How is it lookin in ND?

all the sloughs will open back up nodak will be stacked for the next 2 weeks.

 

if anyone is thinking of not going to north dakota reassess. The migration is peaking. Watched birds pour in all morning to Devils Lake. Numbers ive never seen before in my 16 years of coming here. Best of luck to all.

 

This one at this point is to close to call. Most all little stuff is gone and the big stuff is starting to go and we still have the core of this cold snap to go.

 

I'd agree. I was out in perch slough country today and even some of those are starting to show some signs of ice, plus it's going to be 5 to 25 degrees for at least the next 60 hours. So while not everything will freeze up, I have to wonder how much will be left other than the handful of large water bodies and we all know what that does to field competition. That said, Manitoba has been warmer than the western half of ND the last couple days, so I would guess there will be some holdouts still coming. Screwy deal.

 

drove from devils to linton nd today from 3pm til sunset....saw well over 1/2 million snows. plus cranes, canadians etc.....massssssive feeds.

 

Hunting south central. Most water froze last night. Lots of birds migrating out. There are still a lot of birds but it’s a field hunting deal now. Water hunting was an option until today, from what we saw. The birds on water are in roosts and keeping spots in the ice open. Hunting pressure got super bad starting yesterday. Saw trucks all over scouting. We were fortunate and got permission in spots before others but after tomorrow I’m skeptical if we’ll have anything to hunt. Hunted an unposted field a couple days ago that had two other parties set up in the same two sections after we were there. Hopefully the warm up will come before all the birds bounce, for the guys who are coming out here.

 

It’s as if I had just typed this post myself.

 

in2b8or ? Rather extreme set of conflicting posts ?

Everything is froze, wait - most birds ever. Everyone should come to ND despite the fact that I am bailing out of ND to go pheasant hunting in SD after just 24 hours in the state ...

Can we assume that you have some pretty choice land access near the lake, but if that is void, froze, etc... you chose not to compete with the mass of other hunters chasing the same birds ??

Good luck in SoDak.

 

Said it before ... 15 - 30 years ago ND residents screamed don't bust the roosts ... field hunt. That was a time when trailers were rare even for most residents. Decoys used fit in the back of a pickup. Layout blinds just coming out. Well ND hunters got their wish... Trailers in tow now outnumber boats 10:1.

The combination of resident (local) Canada goose hunting and spring snow goose hunting ... plus regular season ... meant that field hunters had a season August - May. The trailer crews are so much more prevalent all over the country and they are well prepared to travel. The use of ATVs have made field hunting easier when fields are too wet for trucks ... again game changer.

Field hunting the northern tier counties were competitive no doubt in the 80s and 90s, but if you field hunted middle NoDak you were on your own. Has changed a lot.

Then again you never know ... couple years ago we hunted a big group of snows and mallards ... not one other group around despite the feeds being right along a main ND state highway.

 

Pretty decent push of snow geese and canadas last night over W SD. More like a mid/late November push than October. 6-10 and 10-14 day predictions are for above average temps so I'm guessing this push will have little impact here. And lots of water may open back up in ND. Each year sure is different!