# Trip to ND 11\2 to 11\7



## bill jenkins (Apr 23, 2006)

Fellas I know great spots are not given away but here is my scenerio. I 'm from PA, and hunt waterfowl extensivley up and down the east coast. I have pretty good success for a yankee. However through my travels the recuuring theme of ND field hunting comes up, and how I'm missing out. So I've done some research, which this site is has been great, and have found myself arrivng in the Ashley/Venturia area on 11\2 through 11\7. I have a distant friend in the area who has offered to secure some spots, the plot guide tells me I should find some good water in this area, It seems to be a bit better a few miles east, is this correct, I plan to get there a day early and learn a bit about the land. I know the gentleman rules of hunting the roosts, and keeping my distance from others, trust me I'm not THAT GUY! I plan on bringing 50 full body geese, mojos, 2 doz of the 42 in honker shells, silos, etc. I only have about 1 dozen full body Mallards, but plently of mallard floaters, should i be investing in some of the Mallard shells by G&h, are they worth it. I also have a ATV and a trailer to transport everything. As far as lay out blinds, I'm not sure if I could transport 6 blinds. I have had success with using the big shells to lay under, and some decent camo to aid in concealment. Will this be okay? I can sacrifice a wet rear end. What am I forgetting? This is my first trip to nd and hopefully not the last, I'm trying to get on the right track and all your input is more than appreciated, I'm not here to step on anyones toes but I feel do the work yourself and not hiring an outfitter is much more rewarding. The story behind my friend ND friend is simple, he helped me find my dog a few years ago, and did a hell of a job, I never met him, but he was nice enough to invite myself and my brothers and father to chase the great species of waterfowl, and upland birds. Any suggestion are again appreciated, if you want to bash me for asking these questions go ahead I expect it. If you ever come to the east coast look me up, I will personally take you, I 'm not sure why one would do that with the resources you have, but the invitation is there. Thank you for your consideration and advice. I'm extrmely excited -


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## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

I hope you do not get bashed for asking a simple question or two.

Your gear sounds like it is adequate. The top of this forum has some questions and information on hunting ND and the general area you are looking at is a good bet if spring and summer rains bless us with their presents. Depending on the type of year we have you could have anything between tee shirt weather to frozen over conditions that time of year. Chances are it will be somewhere in between.

Mr. Hustad has written one of the best hunting articles about ND hunting around. Do a site search on waterfowl hunting tactics in ND.

Not many if any will give you exact locations of their hunting spots on the open web. Stick around this site and follow the information, if you have questions that you do not want to ask openly give us a PM, many will help more than you think.

Welcome, Good Luck!

Bob


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## gundogguru (Oct 7, 2003)

Snake is that you???


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## g/o (Jul 13, 2004)

Bill, Welcome and come and enjoy our state, remember to bring lots of $$$ and spend it here we like it. :lol: Only problem I can for see is that you may have trouble finding ducks due to freeze up. If that be the case head 50 to 60 miles straight east. You should find some good hunting in that area and an abundant number of corn fields to hunt. Good luck and send pm's if you need help


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## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

Here's the article Bob was referring to:

http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/ducktips.php


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## Joltin_Joe (Oct 11, 2005)

Bill,

I am by no means an expert, but have learned a lot from the good people at Nodak Outdoors.

Your gear sounds great. From my experience, purchasing more full body mallards is unnecessary. With the amount of honkers and mojos you have, the puddlers will already be dive bombing you if you do your homework.

I think most others will agree.

Good luck! :beer:


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## Ron Gilmore (Jan 7, 2003)

If blind space is a issue, I would suggest getting some 4" foam rubber and have a piece of plastic to wrap around them to put on the ground. The cold wet windy conditions will sap the warmth right out of a person. You may not run into those conditions, but the foam will make field hunting a lot more comfortable. I use to use that type of setup and it worked well and they can be pushed into some very tight spaces!

Good luck come fall!


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## Ridge Nelson (Jan 19, 2006)

dont spend the money on g&h mallard shells. If anything invest in full body goose decoys. I have found the ducks will come into about all goose decoys, but not as much the geese into the duck decoys. hope this advice helps


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## huntin1 (Nov 14, 2003)

Your gear sounds good, I would not waste the money on duck shells, spend it here in ND instead. :wink: 

I would find something to put between you and the ground. If it's wet or there's snow, you'll need something or you won't be out there very long. Either rain or snow is possible during that time period, but I would lean toward snow.

Have you lined up a place to stay, or are you camping out?

The area you picked is good, but that late in the year I would be prepared to move, the smaller water may be froze over so don't tie yourself down to just one spot. Of course, there's also the chance that you'll be hunting in short sleeved shirts. ND is a wonderful place, I've seen temps during that time anywhere from -5 to 65 above, not in the same week, but from one year to the next.

Good luck!

huntin1


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## Sasha and Abby (May 11, 2004)

gundogguru said:


> Snake is that you???


Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa :lol: :beer:


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## bill jenkins (Apr 23, 2006)

Thanks for the input fellas, I enjoy learning as much as I can - So now everyone has me thinking, good idea on the mats for laying out on, your bones get cold if you sit there long enough. I guess I will be able to judge the weather a few weeks before we leave pa, but I better bring some white sheets to cover up with in the event of snow. As far as accomadation, we rented a house in the area, it sleeps ten, I 'm guessing it is not the ritz carleton but it has all the amenaties including a bird cleaning station, and the price is fair. This has been paid for so some dollars have floated towards your state. It seems the consensus is to concentrate on the honker spread with some mallards mix in, mojos of course, but don't get crazy with building a spread of field mallards. The only bumped in the road came yesterday, my father an brothers are flying into aberdeen, I'm driving with the gear and k9's - Lucky me. We tried to rent a car at ABR, and a ford explorer was 1200$ for the week, I thought this was kind of high, the same car through bismark was 425 for the week. Any Ideas, for this type of price difference they will fly to bismark. Thanks for all the input- Keep the ideas flowing. This helps the of season go fast.


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## bill jenkins (Apr 23, 2006)

As the research continues, I read the article by Chris H, excellent description and photos, very thorough, nice job. This is what I figure to be looking for transition sloughs and fields they are feeding in, i guess it just depends on what hand your dealt that day or week. The rental car issue is solved, if anyone is in this perdicament call avis direct in aberdeen, they will give you a much better rate than you can find on the web especially for a 4wd. As far as if a freeze sets in, option one is head east 50 to 60 miles east in search of birds feeding in corn fields, or let me run this one by you, what about heading west towards the missiouri river, I'm guessing I will find birds there. Another thing that crossed my mind is I'm sure the area is quite vast, is there an easy way of finding out who owns the land? I guess just stop in the closest far and inquire. Thanks for the input, it has been great so far. :beer:


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## huntin1 (Nov 14, 2003)

If the land is posted, in most cases the landowner will have his name and a phone number on the no hunting sign, don't be afraid to ask! You may also run across some signs that don't have this info on them even though it is supposed to be there. Asking at a farm in the area may work, the only other way I know of is to get a county plat book, but they are rather expensive and sometimes are not up to date.

I'm not too familiar with the non-resident thing, if I recall correctly you are restricted to zones, Ashley is in zone 1, don't think you'd be able to go west. As I said I don't know much about non-resident hunting so I'm not sure, check out the ND Game & Fish website if you haven't already:

http://gf.nd.gov/hunting/waterfowl.html

Sounds like you guys are doing your homework well, you should have a great time.

huntin1


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Another option if frozen.....hunt pheasants.

You would have to get a county atlas or one of the Midland atlas's to know landowners names.

They aren't really required to have names and phone numbers on signs....since a lot of signs are left up from year to year and wash off.Plus the GNF regulation is different than the state law.If it says no tresspassing....you can be prosecuted even if his name isn't on there.

Yes....there are 2 zones down in that area and you would be required to hunt in one of them,but only if you take the 14 day license.If you come for 7 days only.....you can hunt in both 1 and 2.


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## bill jenkins (Apr 23, 2006)

Thanks again guys, good advice on the pheasants, here in the east our pheasants don't live from year to year, our conservation commision stocks them each year, but the numbers are weak, 50k birds for the whole state, not to mention when you try to hunt the stocked area it becomes very crowded, not that much fun. So we actually join a club and they stock birds, at a price of course, 24 birds for 400$, not cheap. The birds flush but not very well, an aggressive retriever will grab 2 of every six, fun right-wrong. his is why I'm coming to nd on a 3000 mile voyage. you guys are probably scratching your head saying that sucks, well your right. The fella we are hunting with in ND was asked last year by the nd fish and game to do a video promoting tourists, it think it will be on the air mid summer, some of you make like to hear this and some not, anyway he is rather successful when in comes to this, hopefully we can do ducks and geese in the morning and some upland in the afternoon before scouting. I'm sure i will exhaust myslef, who cares you only live once. As far as the zone issue, we will only be there for 6 days, so I think we should be okay with all the areas, Next question, what types of liscense's so we need? Are there two, waterfowl and pheasants? I'm not totally clear. thanks again


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## huntin1 (Nov 14, 2003)

bill,

Go here, http://gf.nd.gov/hunting/ it will describe the licenses you will need and the cost.

If you click the "Online Services" tab you can purchase your license online.

huntin1


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

bill....nothing personal....but your right,that sucks. uke: I wouldn't live in a place where that is the only kind of hunting available.

Yes....you would need seperate licenses for waterfowl and upland....

total cost.....$185


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## tgoldade (Jul 28, 2004)

It was said before but I would be extrememly worried about freeze up when coming that time of year. The earlier you come in the season the better you are as far as Im concerned. With that said as long as its not unseasonably cold you should be right on the edge of the season. I believe last year the last day I went duck hunting was somewhere around November 9-15th and a day later everything was froze over good and there were zero ducks left.


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## bill jenkins (Apr 23, 2006)

Thanks again guys, for the info, I'm getting mixed feelings about the dates I planned on coming the last week in october but the gentleman I'm hunting with suggested the first week of november, I'm guessing it will depend on the Good Lord, and what I'm dealt with. The guys booked there flights today, what a bag of crap this is, last week the price of the tickets was 401, this week 534 because of fuel costs, :eyeroll: Hopefully fuel prices will come down closer to hunting season....


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Heck,by Oct. they will probably ad a fuel surcharge.


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## shiawassee_kid (Oct 28, 2005)

tgoldade said:


> It was said before but I would be extrememly worried about freeze up when coming that time of year. The earlier you come in the season the better you are as far as Im concerned. With that said as long as its not unseasonably cold you should be right on the edge of the season. I believe last year the last day I went duck hunting was somewhere around November 9-15th and a day later everything was froze over good and there were zero ducks left.


ya thats about right. I left ND on the 5th it was still warm enough, no ice....but we got stormed on the way out.

Another thing to keep in mind is alot of the farmers around where i hunted posted up their land pretty good anticipating the deer season (early november). Pretty much shuttin out the pheasant hunters but were pretty liberal with us duck hunters....didn't want the pheasant guys tromping thru the deer beds. We hunted between Rutland and Gwinner where there was some deer territory. Not sure about where your goin.

Good luck and have fun, I had a blast and loved the state.....everyone i met had the best of hospitality and was top notch.


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## bill jenkins (Apr 23, 2006)

The fella I'm hunting with feels acess will not be a problem, I'm getting more concerned about the weather, it would be nice to hit a freeze on the last day, and have new birds show up the days prior. I'm not that lucky - it ill be frozen.


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