# A Hunter's Report...



## mrodg (Oct 15, 2003)

Hi everyone, I just got back from North-Central Nodak and will provide my perspective and observations from the my week of hunting. First, this was my first trip ever to ND and was very dissapointed in water levels. I can tell everyone that the drought is unfortunately in full swing in the Missouri coteau region and SERIOUSLY doubt the duck production numbers given to us by Ducks Unlimited and the USFWS. After talking to locals in the greater bottineau region, they said they have not seen rain since the end of July. Whether or not these predictions were fabricated to sell hunting licenses or not, there simply are not near the ducks this year! I have friends who have hunted in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan who report the same thing, so one can not say they are still holding up north in unbelievable numbers. As for the geese, there are very impressive numbers of snows/blues on J. Clark Salyer. I can tell you hunters that after seeing on one night of scouting 3 fields with 50,000 birds in each, there are approximately 200,000 snows feeding in the area from Westhope to Newburg. This DOES not mean though that you will kill birds however!! The snows, in my opinion, acted stranger than they do in the spring season and provided great frustration to our party. The last day we set up in a 2X3 sq. mile barley field that held 30,000 the night before and tried something new with our 50 doz. decoys that did the trick; we shot 56 birds in two hours over shells, silos, and full bodies. Hunters, leave the rags at home, they flare birds, trust me!!! Try REALLY spreading your decoys out and use a combination of all the types of decoys mentioned above. This is just what worked for us. I hope this helps and good luck to everyone.


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## dblkluk (Oct 3, 2002)

> The snows, in my opinion, acted stranger than they do in the spring season and provided great frustration to our party.


Yep, that sounds like snow hunting in ND alright!!! Nice to hear theres some birds up there though! Good report.


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## mrodg (Oct 15, 2003)

Just wanted to add that everyone in our party was blowing Sean Mann's white-out snow goose call and it really seemed to help at least bring the juvies within gunning range(I would highly recommend purchasing this call- it's worth the money!!). We tried using our Final Approach X-lander blinds but the birds seemed to notice them even with a lot of barley in the stubble straps(it took us a day or two to figure this out) so I recommend everyone wearing white and doing it the old-fashioned way if you really want to get em' close. I mentioned earlier about spreading the decoys out - this is key!!...01 We would throw our 30 dozen carrylite and G&H shells as far as 300 yards(NO BULLSH*T!) around us from where we were sitting and then go ahead and fill in with full-bodies and silhouettes. Leave LOTS of space between your decoy groups and don't be afraid to put groups of one or two full bodies by themselves...this to me looks exactly like the fields of live birds we saw in the evenings scouting up there. Even though the spread was extremely spread out, the geese would come to the calls and this type of hunting produced a lot of birds for us. I hope you guys don't think I'm patronizing you, I just want to save the tundra...thats all  By the way, you North Dakotan's have a beautiful state and equally nice people to go along with it.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Sounds like you had a good hunt up here.But 200,000?
The refuge Manager is a friend of mine and he told me 60,000 at Westhope on Wed.Course everone that looks at a big flock will give a different estimate.

The locals are right about the rain.I live in Bottineau and I measured less than 3 in. since July 1.My garden is powder dry and too hard to even till.

It's raining right now and we have had NW winds at 40 mph gusting to 50.
Maybe this will blow some birds down.


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## mrodg (Oct 15, 2003)

Ken, I honestly don't know how many birds are in the area but I do know that the Mouse River is not the only water roosting birds...we found numerous bodies of water surrounding the refuge that were holding snows. We actually hunted a roost near Willow City that was holding 20,000 birds in the morning when we got there. I can also say that the flight coming back into the refuge Tues. night was 2 hours long for whatever thats worth(VERY IMPRESSIVE!). To me, 60,000 on Clark Slayer seems low but I don't work there everyday either.


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## recker (Oct 12, 2003)

I dont hunt in nd but near sand lake in south dakota and lots of times birds hold outside of the refuge. So when the counts are done these birds are not counted at all or seen.I guess to us the general rule is until we hear from friends that 150,000 plus are in the area it is not worth hunting since snows are so smart.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

The 60,000 figure was only north of Westhope.I also have seen good numbers off the refuge.


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

Couple more days before I leave to northern ND. We are going to give them hell! Got 700 north winds that are itching to be used!


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## mark (Sep 20, 2003)

goosebuster...where were you hunting in the snow?


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

Oh it was around. :wink:


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