# Tribute to Opener - Pulling out old school



## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

With opener coming this weekend I gave the homepage a mid-month makeover of some new stuff and I wrote a tribute to opener.

Dead End Slough

I hope you enjoy it and good luck working this week with anticipation for this weekend! :beer:


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## Eric Hustad (Feb 25, 2002)

Man, I remember that day in 2002. The fuel pump went out in my pickup, but we got it fixed in time to head out to the slough. It had rained and we had to hump all the stuff out there in our waders. I will say the slough was as good as it sounds and that was a lot of fun. The amazing thing is I left my hat out there and you found it the mud the next day. Good times....


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## g/o (Jul 13, 2004)

> After a 20-minute talk in catching up on old times, I asked if the land was still being leased. "Yes, it's still leased but I tell ya what. He's not going to be around there this week so go ahead and hunt it in the morning. I can only let you on tomorrow though, I hope you understand." I about fainted like some dramatic scene in a movie. I can't even begin to describe the excitement that came over me.


Glad you put this part in Chris, it goes to show that just because something is leased does not mean it's off limits. It pays to ask permisssion.


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## Ima870man (Oct 29, 2003)

The Dead End Slough story brought back many a memory from my past. There will always be those little sloughs that most people overlooked, that were over a hill, that were out of site, and that the ducks just loved. I am fairly sure that if I went back up into the neck of the woods where I use to hunt -- this year -- I would find many of them dry. Moreover, they hold many memories of days gone by when I was younger. Nice story!

Ima870man


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## dosch (May 20, 2003)

Thanks for making work even harder this week. I don't know what it is about opening duck/goose but at times I get so excited could about puke.


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## deacon (Sep 12, 2003)

Chris, great story! Brings back lots of good memories probably for all of us. You are fortunate to have so many good hunts out of the same slough
:jammin: :jammin: :jammin:

Horseshoe Slough

Wood Duck Pass

Upper Island

Road Slough

Just to name a few over the years.


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## N2DUXS (Oct 5, 2004)

Great read, Chris. Thanks for sharing!


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## mallardhunter (May 15, 2004)

that is a great story i like that one alot. good job on that :beer:


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## R y a n (Apr 4, 2005)

Great story Chris 

Ryan


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## dblkluk (Oct 3, 2002)

Great Story Chris!!
That brings back lots of memories I have of hunting J Clark, near Westhope.


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## HonkerExpress (Sep 23, 2005)

Awesome Story Chris, That wouldn't happen to be north of Devils Lake and just a bit East of Webster would it? I used to have one slough like that but now its all leased up.


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## ADN (Sep 27, 2005)

There's a little pond back home that my duck hunting roots are sunk deep into. The land around it used to be owned by my grandfather.

It is the place that got me interested in duck hunting. After my grandfather sold the land to my cousin we couldn't get permission to hunt there for several years. We have been able to get access to it the last couple of years.

Now, the ducks don't use it like they did back in the late 90's. It's been dry most of the season for the last couple of years.

Whether or not I hunt it, it still is one of those places that is duck hunting to me.

Kind of like a little spot not far from East Grand Forks. While attending UND, me and some buddies would skip classes and head out for a morning hunt. It's no ND as far as number of birds go, but we had a great time out there. Made some good friends out there, too.

Something about how the ducks would round the corner, just over the water, with a background filled with cattails, and then suddenly pitch into the decoys.


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## Remmi_&amp;_I (Dec 2, 2003)

I loved the story Chris. I have a few "dead end slough" type areas of my own. It is really fun to see the weird reactions I get when I share some of my secret destinations with friends. We have areas such as "horseshoe slough", "thresher hill", "little mott", etc...


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## Mac (Jul 9, 2006)

Wow....good story!!! Brought back some good memories!!

Reminds me of my first trip out to ND. We didn't know what we were doing or where to go...90% of the potholes were froze up. We had been there a few days with limited success. Asking farmers for permission was difficult to say the least as they either would say no, or we couldn't locate the owner.
We started driving down section line roads not really knowing where we were going. We got down one road almost to where it turned into a goat trail and turned down an unposted fence line where we saw a larger pond. It was there we spotted about 3000 mallards crammed in the middle of this frozen pond in the only open water it had left. The sign was marked WPA or some other federal sign (not protected).

We sat there gazing in awe at the site as neither of us had seen such a concentration of ducks before, however we both knew there was no way to get out to the ducks due to the 200 yards of ice between them and the shore....the ice was pretty thick and breaking it would have been impossible.

It was then that my partner said "holy %$%^!!!"
To our left was a smaller pond that was shaped like a bowl. There was no ice because the water line was very far below the top of the bowl. The entire pothole was filled with a good 5000 mallards, wigeon, gadwalls and shovelers. It was incredible. We drove around an found that although we couldn't locate an owner, it was not posted. We grabbed our gear and headed down to the pothole...there was no way to sneak up on it as it was pretty much barren. As we walked up the pond erupted. We just sat down on the edge and watched. They all left and then slowly it began to fill up again. We then got up again and set a few dekes out, but of course we didn't need them. We hadn't planned any field hunting so without the field equipment, that was out of the question. In 15 minutes we each had our bag..picking out the largest and fullest drakes. The ducks had to drop so quick into the bowl, as we sat on the bank it was like shooting at sitting targets. As we left the pond filled up once again. It was a memory I will never forget and one of the reasons I come back to ND. Haven't ever had a hunt like that again, but I keep hoping. I moved to a new area to hunt so I've never been back there....hopefully one day I will.


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## hoosier dhr (Jul 24, 2003)

Very good read, 
one thing ive learned from hunting ND the last 5 yrs is getting to that "off the beaten path" spot.

Good luck and Happy Hunting to all this weekend! :beer:

We have to wait till Oct. 14 here :******:


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## MNgoosekiller (Aug 21, 2006)

great story, like others have said, we each have a place like that which has special sentimental value...i have several places like it that bring me back each year. hope i find more places like em...


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