# Sticky  What an eye opener. know what Res mean!!!!



## sethski

Just have to say that I just got back from ND yesterday. I am a NR and have always hunted potholes and larger lakes for ducks. Never knew what or why the Res meant about hunting the roost and why they hated it.....well I field hunted for the first time and what a time we had. shot tons of pintails and mallards early, and got into thousands of snows/blues after that.

We saw a group of guys park and head into the water body where all these ducks and geese came from and scared every bird off the roost. I couldn't believe how many birds got up at one time. I am hooked on the field hunting and will do this from now on. No need to hunt the water when you can have volleys of hundred pintails land in spread every 5 mins. What a fun time!!!

Need trailer for next year though. Need to open pocket book and invest in decoys!!!!!


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## Wacker 44

Thats awesome that you have wondered into the wonderful world of field hunting! And im not souting at all all i need is a north central or south answer as far as where the snows are becuase last year they hung around way to long and ate out a lot of the fields before the mallards migrated and where i hunt it kind of ruined the mirgration of mallards for me so i just want to know if they are moving through the state because i have heard reports of them being on the north border so im just wondering. But there is nothing better then shooting beautiful green head in a field with a amazing looking pintail next to it!

Wacker 44
Finish'em


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## sethski

North central. Never saw this amount of snows and blues. Should have shot more if we could have shot better. Just amazing see the ducks and geese barrel roll into the spread. I shot my first ross's goose. I have a question.......we shot some blues that were mostly grey.....is that a juvy or immature colored goose, or is that even a blue????? I wish i had pics of them right now, but i wanted to mount it but if it isn't a good one......i will save money. The pintails were not full, but some were really close to full.


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## Wacker 44

I'm not really sure I chase ducks mainly so i just know that the blues are awesome when they have that white head! Thanks for the report!


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## sethski

Thats what I thought. These were all grey with little to no white. All diff shades of grey. Anyone else i have clue??? help needed.


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## BB

Sethski
Time to change your location info from in the 'duck blind' to in the field. I hope your future hunts always allow you to hunt fields...there is nothing better if you have the opportunity. Thanks for saving a roost for me too...headed up a week from today.


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## sethski

haha. your right. I changed it to in the layout blind. what a neat hunt!! no need to bust roost and ruin it for others....just hunt the fields where they are going anyway. haha.


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## doubledown

sethski said:


> Thats what I thought. These were all grey with little to no white. All diff shades of grey. Anyone else i have clue??? help needed.


They are juvenile snow geese. Thier feather coloring just hasn't developed yet.


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## sethski

Thanks. saved me on that one. Kind of a buzz kill though. Thought I had something neat for the wall. Never had a chance to shoot snows like that before. Thanks again


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## KEN W

They are young blues. Dark blueish/gray with a white spot under the chin.Young snows are kind of a dirty white.Actually they are all considered snow geese,just a different color phase.There can be blues and snows from the same nest.


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## sethski

KEN W said:


> They are young blues. Dark blueish/gray with a white spot under the chin.Young snows are kind of a dirty white.Actually they are all considered snow geese,just a different color phase.There can be blues and snows from the same nest.


Thats them!! So I guess I will save myself some money this year. haha. thanks for the help guys. :beer:


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## MNwaterfowler15

Heading up early friday morning, hoping to have some of the same luck you had!


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## huntinND

Good to hear you had a great field hunt. It is really amazing how many good hunts you can have off of one good roost of birds if you don't mess with them on the water, They might change fields but they aren't going to leave the area. I understand the mentality of people that come here to hunt for a week, because I was only a visitor to this state at one time. You see a pile of ducks and you go in there and shoot them and move on to the next spot. Think of how much time you spend driving and scouting for birds when you could get a weeks worth of good shooting off of one concentration of birds. For those of you who think you need a big trailer full of fullbodies to have a successful hunt that is not the case, It all comes down to being in the right location. If you want to hunt water that is awesome, but just pick the right spots. If you are going to blow a cloud of birds out with your first shots then what is the point. There is a lot of bickering from residents on this site, but believe it or not it is for a good cause. It really helps the overall hunting opportunities for everyone. I might be beating a dead horse, but I'm just trying to explain things from a logical standpoint. Happy hunting to everyone :beer:


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## TakeThatDrake

Sounds like a great hunt! I'm coming out Friday for 10 days as well, can hardly wait! Great post huntinND, and it's great to hear another hunter realized first hand how frustrating it can be to be field hunting a group of birds for a few days and have another hunter show up and blow them out of the area. They have the right to do it, but from the guy watching from his layout blind as thousands of ducks fly in the opposite direction it's frustrating. Time and money scouting, getting permission, setting up the perfect spread, a couple guys hop out of a truck, empty their guns drop 1... maybe 2 birds, and your hunt is over. I don't consider it beating a dead horse, Res or NonRes doesn't matter, if we post it enough, hopefully soon it will be common sense not to sneak up to a 1000+ birds and start shooting, leave them alone. Scout and figure out what fields their using, or transitional slough's and setup there. It's always something that is gonna happen, but if we keep talking about it more and more, new and young hunters will know how it feels to be the guy in the layout blind watching all those ducks fly away...


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## mshutt

For any Moderator,

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE mark this thread as a sticky, and add to the title 'Know what roost busting means.' I thought this was going to be another joker looking to stir the pot, i read it, and wow 'What an eye opener'!!

Very nice to see this, I hope all NR (and the few residents...) that come on this website read this thread. It gives them a reason to not go bust the roost and ruin it for every hunter within miles of a roost.

The guys who bust roosts have no idea what it does for other hunters until they're the ones that get screwed over!


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## jaultman

Man am I jealous! I came back this Sunday from 4 days of hunting. We spent almost all of our time scouting for a field with mallards. We traveled 100+ miles a day looking for a big bunch of birds to watch, but there were just 50 here, 50 there in cattail sloughs, and there were VERY FEW mallards. We had one excellent field hunt for canadas but only saw four mallards. When we finally caved in and hunted water at sunrise, we shot ducks. Through the four days, we found only two concentrations of mallards, but could not get in contact with the landowner of either. On our last day a very friendly resident told us the region to find the motherload of snows and mallards, but we didn't have the time to make it. I'm guessing that's where you, Sethski, were.

Glad to hear of your success. I hope to make it back for at least a weekend, when hopefully the mallards will have bunched up.


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## labman63

Field hunting ? Whats that? Hunted 5 days and neve hunted water, birds were tough to find but we found them. scouted over 700 miles in 4 days.








blue goose(man was it foggy last sunday)
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o311/labman63/*****-bluegoose.jpg


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## michigandakotan

nice more converted!!


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## cutgrassandwork

I am afraid to say I hunted in ND for the first time this season and only knew how to hunt pot holes. My hunt was BAD, next year I am going to listen to my Buddy and this forum and hunt fields. As soon as we placed decoys the birds never came back, I am sure they went to the guys in the field. After reading this I realize the harmful effect of roost hunting. Thanks for the insight!


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## BB

Yep, it's as easy as that!
Lets just say you find 2 fields and one is posted and leased by an outfitter. The other one is being watched by some other guys who happen to be related to the landowner and already have 8 guys lined up to stack them up the next day. 
There are 6 potholes unposted or public that are just overflowing with gadwall. Would you hunt these considering it might be your only chance to hunt the next day? Are you even going to bother bringing waders or floaters on your trip to ND?


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## FoldEmXtreme

Very good! Save the roosts, get em where they feed, keep em around for another day!


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## jrp267

How many cans did you shoot? How about goldeneye?


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## HugeBurrito2k6

cutgrassandwork said:


> I am afraid to say I hunted in ND for the first time this season and only knew how to hunt pot holes. My hunt was BAD, next year I am going to listen to my Buddy and this forum and hunt fields. As soon as we placed decoys the birds never came back, I am sure they went to the guys in the field. After reading this I realize the harmful effect of roost hunting. Thanks for the insight!


Im glad that you converted as well however as far as field hunting goes...It takes money and more money to field hunt. Be prepared To spend bucko bucks on full-body decoys layout blinds. I started building my spread this year and i had a semi-limited budget due to being a college student, but as of now I have got 2 dozen full-body honkers and 3 dozen fullbody mallards (what i can fit in the back of my truck) and have over a grand and then some into that! And at this point it is a good start but i would ideally like to add another 7 dozen honkers. And of coarse an Enclosed trailer. 
All that being said tho i have had the most insane hunts of my life (all in fields of coarse) :thumb: 
Once you field hunt it is nearly impossible to sit over 3 dozen floaters in a slough.


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## dukegoose

The best thing about field hunting is the number of birds. 
Even if you don't get your limit, it is fun to watch large flocks of birds.


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## Roosterslayer05

HuntingND brought up a good point, if you want to hunt water hunt the right spot. Some guys think that hunting water period is busting a roost and its not. I hunt water in an area that I have access to thousands of acres of fields. I do better on water A. because some puddle ducks dont feed in fields and B. I dident see a single flock of mallards land in a field last season until the end of october. There are water spots I hunt that I can hunt multiple times a week till freeze up and shoot birds. No roost busted at all. There are feeding ponds that can hold a ton of ducks, they have allot of food and the ducks do not roost there. A feeding pond will hold birds during the day but if you set up there in the morning before shooting time there arnt any birds on the water or only a handful. If you get to the spot in the dark and its full of ducks its a roost. There are also loafing spots. I hunt multiple loafing spots and these are the best spots to water hunt. One spot I hunt is 3/4 a mile from a major roost. There might be 50-100 ducks that you spook up in the morning and they fly straight to the roost and sit down. Once shooting time starts birds trickle in to the loafing spot in small groups to feed, or they fly to the fields then head to the loafing spot after they are done feeding in the fields. If you shoot at birds on a loafing spot they fly to the roost and sit down, they dont leave the area. Its the same thing as hunting a field but its water, the birds dont leave. You can hunt a good loafing spot all season. I hate it when someone busts the roost as much as the next guy, it ruins my hunt too. The only difference is im hunting water. I just wanted to clarify that hunting water does not equal busting a roost.


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## trablico

Let me preface my statement with I have only ever hunted water for ducks. With that being said, I would love the opportunity to field hunt some day, but in the meantime I will stick to hunting the water. I have a limited amount of free time to hunt, and I am not able to log hundreds miles in a day to scout. There are a few simple rules I follow when I duck hunt, first, I only shoot when I can positively I.D. the bird I am shooting at. Second, I am not into chasing around criplles so I try to only shoot when the bird(s) is/are well within range. Ducks are pretty easy to kill at 20-25 yds away with their full chest facing you and their tail-feathers just touching the water. To emphasize that point moreover, dead ducks can't be educated. Three, I avoid hunting roosting areas and focus on hunting loafing ponds or corridors between roosting and feeding areas. Finally, I always excercise the same courtesy to other hunters that I would like to be shown.


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## EllendaleND

sethski said:


> North central. Never saw this amount of snows and blues. Should have shot more if we could have shot better. Just amazing see the ducks and geese barrel roll into the spread. I shot my first ross's goose. I have a question.......we shot some blues that were mostly grey.....is that a juvy or immature colored goose, or is that even a blue????? I wish i had pics of them right now, but i wanted to mount it but if it isn't a good one......i will save money. The pintails were not full, but some were really close to full.


Yep! Immature blue. They are the dumbest goose I have ever seen.


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## Br-Okeduckclub

I sure am glad I found this website and forum. I'm getting ready for my first trip to ND and would have been just been another ignorant roost-bustin moron. After reading about the field hunting, I'm bringing my layouts and I'll know better than to spook the birds off the water. Thanks!


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## NaturalcamoFacepaint

We are leaving on the 21st around devils lake area hoping for the same for field hunting although I am still bringing the waders :thumb:


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## MrQuinn

So how do you guys go about scouting for water hunting? Do you go in the evening to find roosts to avoid them? Im from Michigans upper peninsula and we dont have this whole roost taboo. Well we really dont have a lot of ducks eitherin fact a field is pretty rare too, but i find this whole "roost" thing interesting. There are areas that you will bust a few off the water early to get to, but its not a cloud of ducks like you have out there. I was amazed at the ponds and puddles scattered out there. Is there any tips that the water hunters have for identifying a "roost" pond or a "loafing" pond or is it pure scouting?


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## nodakgreen

MrQuinn said:


> So how do you guys go about scouting for water hunting? Do you go in the evening to find roosts to avoid them? Im from Michigans upper peninsula and we dont have this whole roost taboo. Well we really dont have a lot of ducks eitherin fact a field is pretty rare too, but i find this whole "roost" thing interesting. There are areas that you will bust a few off the water early to get to, but its not a cloud of ducks like you have out there. I was amazed at the ponds and puddles scattered out there. Is there any tips that the water hunters have for identifying a "roost" pond or a "loafing" pond or is it pure scouting?


When you are scouting the day before the ducks will generally go from there roost right away in the morning to a field to feed. After feeding in the morning many of the birds will find a staging slough and hang out there during the day before feeding again at sunset. When they are done feeding at sunset they will go back to there roost. Us residents preach field hunting and to stay away from the water but if your minds are dead set on hunting the water you must look for these staging sloughs and not hunt the roost. So when you are scouting look for the SMALLER potholes and sloughs that the ducks are using during the day time and STAY AWAY from the waters where the birds are coming from in the morning and going to at night!!!


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## BB

MrQuinn said:


> Is there any tips that the water hunters have for identifying a "roost" pond or a "loafing" pond or is it pure scouting?


They are loafing areas or transition sloughs when residents hunt them. Roosts if not.


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## fowlfreak

BB said:


> MrQuinn said:
> 
> 
> 
> Is there any tips that the water hunters have for identifying a "roost" pond or a "loafing" pond or is it pure scouting?
> 
> 
> 
> They are loafing areas or transition sloughs when residents hunt them. Roosts if not.
Click to expand...

haha nailed that one right on the head! It is pure scouting. Roosts will hold larger numbers and will hold them over night and in the mornings. Loafing ponds will hold the birds in just the afternoon. But even if you hunt those it will push birds out faster than hunting fields will.


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## Schlaug

Hey everyone, new member and first time poster here. I am from Michigan and am considering coming out this fall with my son for the first time.
I have no idea where to go, and have never hunted potholes. This thread and forum is great, the more non residents can educate themselves on the way the locals hunt, it makes it much easier on everyone. I field hunt for Geese at home, so I will be using those same tactics, scout, scout, and scout a little more. If it wasn't for this forum, I know I would have been one of those roost jumpers! With only a few days max to hunt, I am sure I will be scouting as much or more than I will be hunting. But that is all part of the hunt in my eyes.


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## Charles429

I really don't get the busting a roost thing. They are migrating they weren't there last week and they will me moving next week do they call there friends that haven't crossed the Canada line and say don't land here. Where do they go when they leave that pond they go to the next pond.


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## Charles429

One last word so I'm a NR and the land I hunt is owned by my family which we don't post so others can hunt but if I hunt on water. I'm a bad guy? Just wondering?


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## Plainsman

Charles429 said:


> One last word so I'm a NR and the land I hunt is owned by my family which we don't post so others can hunt but if I hunt on water. I'm a bad guy? Just wondering?


Not in my book. Sound like a better than average landowner to me.

Most roosts are picked out for security, food, or both. If it's divers the chances are it's for food. If it's puddle ducks then I would say security and to a lesser degree food. Since during the fall they feed mostly on plant material. In spring it's mostly aquatic macroinvertebrates. If you push them off that pond they may move five miles, or they may move all the way to South Dakota. It's pressure, weather, and high energy food dependent. Ducks moving down may or may not use the same area. Food sources may or may not still be available, or weather changes may make them stop or move on. It's a crap shoot if ducks return or not.

I would say learn the difference between a security roost, and a feeding site. If it's feeding it's little different than field shooting. If it's security there is a much bigger chance they will move out of the area. Watch the birds and if you see they are loafing all day it's security. An hour in the morning or just before sunset will tell you if it's a feeding site. To many people chew others out for hunting an imaginary (in their mind) roost.

An old waterfowl biologist friend of mine didn't hunt much but divers. He would drive a couple hundred miles for a can. Your not going to do well hunting them in wheat stubble. People need to lighten up a little on water hunting. Water hunting is not automatically roost busting.


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## Charles429

We hunt both water and fields we set up on the smaller ponds in between the larger ponds so we use floaters ducks and geese then our full body's go to water edge then layout blinds then about 200 sillosocks on a sunny hill our landing zone is both water and dry land seems to work well for us.


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