# roost hunting



## dlip (May 16, 2004)

I've always been against roost shooting, but these past few weeks, I've noticed ducks have started to roost on my lake that I hunt. The owner of the land that I know always gives me permission to hunt and he just told me the geese have been thick, my question is, should I still hunt the area for both geese and ducks although it is the roost. Would it hurt if I got them off of the water then set up, I just want everything to hang around. Please give me your advice and/or suggestions.
Thanks,
Dlip


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## DeltaBoy (Mar 4, 2004)

Dlip,

Have you found a field that they are feeding in? Or a possible transition slough that they are bumbing into... I guess it will come down to your own gut feeling with what you should do.

Good luck! :wink:


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## Decoyer (Mar 2, 2002)

Hunting the roost will give you one or two good shoots, but if you pattern the birds and take advantage of feeding areas, and transition areas you will have much more consistant hunting throughout your season.


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## Field Hunter (Mar 4, 2002)

Here's a senerio that I got from a good friend from MN that hunts ND every year during waterfowl season. He related that they have been noticing that as the days progress throughout their time in ND that the hunting progressively gets worse. They set up and base on a large WMA in ND. There are nice areas of open water that hold many divers as well as many backwater areas with large expanses of cattails that hold many mallards. The entire complex is a ROOST or another words where the ducks hold during the night. They have a tremendouos shoot the first morning as the divers move around and the puddle ducks return from feeding in the fields. Most years they hunt the same area in the eveing as well. The next day the action deteriorates fast. Where they shot limits the first day they are now down to maybe half the flight. The third day they rarely have much action at all as the ducks have been pressured off the roost. The bad thing about this senerio is that they not only messed up the action on the WMA for themselves but they probably messed up any action that they could have had in the fields not to mention the other hunters in the area that now have to scout and find where those birds were pushed too. I know it's hard to let a thousand or so ducks alone on big water, especially if you have a boat and are outfitted for that situation but if you do and hunt the area every 3-4 days instead of every day the action will more than likely stay more consistent.
Remember this is not a story related by a resident that is mad about the shooting of a roost but one related to a resident by a very knowledgeable NR from MN that is one of the best water hunters I've ever seen.

Do what you want to do but I know what I would do in your situation.....in fact I'd go as far as to ask the landowner to post the water...the ducks will stay in the area a lot longer if you don't scare them away from home.


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## dlip (May 16, 2004)

one more piece of info, the most ill be hunting it is 2 times a week(saturday and sunday), if that makes any difference


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## Ron Gilmore (Jan 7, 2003)

No I have seen roosts busted from one single hunter on the water for only a short time. Other times from a hunter jumping the roost and shooting into the flock.

FH makes a great point and we saw the impact of roosts getting hunted in the loss of attracting other birds. Roosting birds attract more birds. The group of waterfowl you are seeing did not arrive together but will leave together if you bust the water.

I talked with a lot of different people over the past years from many parts of th country that try and justify the hunting of roosts, but all of them report the same thing. Birds left and did not come back.

We hunted fields a lot this fall and did well, but others struggled to find birds. While the birds got a lot of pressure in the fields. little was done on the water thanks to landowners not allowing it. Educate the landowner for your benefit and other hunters in the area.

In fact if you find the field they are using is not available, contact the person that has access and explain to them that by sharing with you you will share with them by leaving the birds alone on the roost!

Good luck and good hunting!


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## take EM' close (Oct 21, 2004)

ok....if the birds sit there unmalested the night and/or part of the day before...then they will return. Though dont push them off.....all waterfowl especially geese will get up and fly for feed. Wait till they get off, then set up and wait for them to come back. Over here thats all we hunt. They usually start coming back at about 9:30 or 10:00 over here...i dunno about over there but somewhere in that time range probably. We killed so many geese/ducks this year from just setting up after the geese/ducks get off the water. Trust me it will work, though you may only get one hunt off of it, it will be worth it. Though if you kill your limit before the rest of the geese/ducks come in.....get outta there!!!! They will sit there that night and then do the same thing the next day. You can even leave ur decoys there if you wanted to....it wouldnt bother them at all. They wouldn't hang around your decoys much, they would land then pry head off to another portion of the lake but they will still land with them the next day! Well i hope this helped...i know quite a bit with the whole roost setting up type stuff because that ALL we do when teh water is unfroze so if you have any questions....pm me i will be glad to answer any!!! :lol: 8)


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

i know of a lake in ND that for the past two years ducks have been roosting on. and while talking to another hunter he told me that its a natural roosting spot, every year for years thousands of ducks, sometimes a few hundred geese, and every now and then snow geese will flock up there. they begin to bunch up at the begining of hunting season, some even a week before the first shot is fired. the surounding area is mostly cropland with big lakes and small ponds scatered all over. but those ducks choose to sit on that lake and that lake only. the guy also told me that he has watched them hold tight on the spot for up to 7 weeks if undisturbed, building up to enormous numbers before heading south. every morning and every night they head out to feed on which ever field it is that they desire to eat on. needless to say they get picked on by hunters out in the fields alot. we saw numerous hunting parties out there doing very well. but every few years someone comes along with a water spread, sets it up by shore, it doesnt work and they end up sky busting at the birds as they fly by well out of reach. all of a sudden the huge numbers that had been built up are cut in half, then as the roost harasment continues the lake ends up naked of all forms of waterfowl (except for a few coots). all the field hunters that had been having such good luck now see nothing, the people that decided to bust the roost see nothing, and everyone is in a crappy position. its later in the season, the teal, woodies, and most of the gadwal, widgeon, and shovelers have moved out, the only place to find a good mallard shoot is to find a roost and set up in the field or a transition slough. but its been shot up, the ducks are gone. they didnt just move to a different lake a few miles away. they move to a different lake a hundred miles away. your chances of getting limits and having awesome shoots have left with those ducks. to get to the moral of the story here, you have to weigh out your options of trying to bag some of these ducks. you can a) set up in the field b) set up on a transition slough c) set up someplace on the roost. lets look at these options. by setting up in the field your leaving the roost alone, giving the ducks a safe place to be, a home base for lack of a better term. by useing the transition slough you are doing the same, the ducks still have that big safe place where they arnt bothered. by taking either of these options you will keep the birds in the area, not much is harmed. but if you decide to bust that roost, you are harming something, you are harming the quality of hunt in that area. put it into a human perspective, you go to work and your boss gives you a hard time, you tolerate it because its a part of life. but if your boss came to your home and gave you a hard time you would likely tell him/her to get out. thats how it is for the ducks, they can handle getting bugged on the field, but not at home, and they dont have the option of asking the person busting the roost to leave so they do the next best thing. they get a first class ticket on the jet stream south and set sail. i know i have drug this out far too long but i belive it should be helpful to anyone thinking about shooting a roost. im not trying to tell anyone what they can or cant do, but as i said, weigh it out. think about more than just yourself, think about the people that are doing their part to preseve that roost by using the fields and transition sloughs. just because your only hunting one weekend, or your only in the area for a short time doesnt mean that its ok to lay down an offensive on the roost. dont be pig headed and greedy, we as hunters need to keep on good terms with each other, its one thing to go out and get skunked simply because there are no birds in the area or they didnt work for you, but nobody likes to go home mad because someone else messed it up for them.


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## Quackkills9 (Oct 25, 2004)

i hunt where the birds are..... so it doesnt really matter to me if its a roosting area or something. just love the birds comin in the decoys and end up not shooting at them cause i love to see them cup their wings in my dekes or circling the dekes and eveyrthing is perfect and fun to watch... thats one reason i love waterfowl hunting!!!!


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## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

Makes sense to me, screw everyone else, as long as you get your five birds, lets screw up hunting for everyone else!! :withstupid:


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## Field Hunter (Mar 4, 2002)

No kidding.....STAY OFF THE ROOSTS......PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## slough (Oct 12, 2003)

I'll second that.


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## Goosehunter04 (Nov 12, 2003)

I agree 
STAY OFF OF THE ROOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't ruin hunting for everyone else!


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## diver_sniper (Sep 6, 2004)

Quackkills9, for what reason does it not matter if it is a roosting pond to you or not? did you even read my post? http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/ducktips.php go to that link, please read it. maybe it explains it a little better


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## dugie_fresh (Jan 10, 2005)

Never, Never, Never, hunt a roost! I don't care where you're from, even if you own the land. Never hunt the roost if you want the birds to hang around.


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## take EM' close (Oct 21, 2004)

its up to you where you want to hunt. If you want to hunt the roost, go for it. I've been hunting the roost since the early season and we still got a lot of birds around. Ya you pry move some off and eventually push them away but if they got spots to sit then they will stick around. There is always one place that they can sit and be unmalested. During the later season...i say stay off the roost because thats when they will leave for good because they are limited on the places they can sit. Its up to the hunter guys......if you want to hunt the roost go for it if not then thats good too. Dont go telling them they CANT hunt the roost cuz its their choice.


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## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

:withstupid: :withstupid: :withstupid: :withstupid: :withstupid: :withstupid: :withstupid: :withstupid: :withstupid: :withstupid: :withstupid:


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## Field Hunter (Mar 4, 2002)

take 'em,

PLEASE stay out of ND in the Fall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## ikeslayer (Oct 28, 2003)

Ok so the ongoing debate continues but i have a question for you all. IF all the roosts were hunted constantly and when new roosts were formed on new lakes and those were hunted too would the ducks migrate? Or would they just keep jumping around? Just a question what do you guys think?


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## Ron Gilmore (Jan 7, 2003)

They do not simply move to another adjacent wetland. They pick up an move south. Go back and look at the USFWS Migration reports starting the first week of Oct. and pay attention to the numbers especially those for Sand Lake in SD.

I understand what you are asking but having spent most of my duck hunting years in the south central part of the state I can tell you they migrate south.

In the fall of 02 I followed about 500 ducks that where jumped off of a wetland roost. I quit following them when I hit the SD border. They had traveled about 100 miles without setting down and over flew some decent wetlands that where holding birds. Few times can one do this but that day we where lucky that they stayed on a course that allowed visual contact.

Hope this helps you with your question.


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## Maverick (Mar 4, 2002)

I can just about promise you if the water is small, they will be gone the first day you hunt them on the water. If it is bigger they can fly to the other end. Now the second day will be less than the first. If you field hunt them you will get 4 or 5 hunts out of it! in ither words:
Water hunt and get one or two hunts
Field hunt and get twice as much opportunity.

Take EM close is right..It is your choice! 
My choice would be to field hunt!
I would not chose to shoot the roost!
Look up the word roost in the dictionary and find out the actual defenition.
That should hopefully be enough


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## ikeslayer (Oct 28, 2003)

Gilmore do you think they always migrate when a roost is busted. What do you know from your experience. If it is true we should all go to Canada in September and get the ducks down in these states by Opener :wink:


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## Ron Gilmore (Jan 7, 2003)

Continued pressure will move ducks. When you hunt the same region like I have you tend to see the impact this has. Later in the season the less pressure they will take.

I know that a lot of hunters think that it makes little difference but it does. We have a couple big wetlands back home that will hold ducks and geese all fall most years. Two years ago one of these got busted once in the evening and they left. Oct 14th was the date.

This past fall the same thing. Only one time and only one hunter. Those ducks had a number of spots they could have went to but they moved out of the area.

Contact the head of the Wetlands district down at Kulm and talk to him about this. He is out daily and can give you a lot more examples like this than I and he has been there a long time.

They move and seek a place that is not pressured where they sleep. You can pound the heck out of them in the fields, and they stay until the food or weather pushes them out. Hunt them where they sleep and they are gone that day!


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## Field Hunter (Mar 4, 2002)

Ike,
The difference in Canada and ND is that there are not 30,000 NRs in Canada all during the 1st two weeks of the season. What you guys don't realize is that after the first NR opening weekend onslaught by the NR hunters, who by and large hunt the same area (lake) for the average 4 days that their here, that another group shows up right on their tail and does the same thing again.

Hunt the fields...you WILL shoot more ducks for a longer time period. Hunt the roosts if you just DON'T GIVE A DAMN about anyone else in the near future. Ask around MN and find out how many guys are happy with the DNRs position on allowing the hunting of geese on the water during the goose season.....pushes the birds right off the lakes to the refuges.

I don't know how many times this past season there were NR hunters boating around on roost pounds with their duck boats. EVERY time they engaged in this stupid activity the hunting was teribble in the surrounding fields for the rest of the season....the same fields that limits were shot out of consistently the prior days. The ducks MOVE ON. They just don't stay in the area.....and most of the time they travel many miles.

DO NOT HUNT THE ROOSTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

I live by a NWR and nobody busts those roosts, the ducks are here until freeze up every year.


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

Great point buckseye. Nothing more needs to be said other than that about why you shouldn't hunt roosts.


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

Guys,

I'm from Michigan, and have hunted ND for several years now. I'm new to this website, so I've been going back over some of the past posts, and this one about roosts piqued my interest. And before you start in on me, NO we aren't out of state slob hunters who bust the roosts all the time. But I'll admit we do prefer to hunt water over decoys, mostly because that's what we know...we just don't have the volume of birds that you have. We hunt a lot of small potholes/sloughs.

This may seem like a real dumb question, but when is a "roost" a roost? Since we're not used to seeing the volume of birds that you all do, is a pothole with 100 birds a roost? or 1000, 2000, or 3000? or what? The reason I ask is that if you consider a "roost" to be anywhere that any concentration at all of birds rest during mid-day, most any pothole I've seen out there has a good knot of birds on it mid-day. So in other words, if you are all saying "absolutely don't hunt the roosts", and if you consider any concentration of birds a "roost", then what you're REALLY saying is don't hunt water at all!!! This all really confuses me because I love water hunting.

We've learned to scout the flocks in the evenings to find the feeding fields, and we've had a few good shoots that way. But I'd really hate to think that you're suggesting avoiding all water hunting, because I still prefer it over dry fields. But we seriously don't intend to hurt the overall hunting by pushing the birds out for good. Any thoughts?


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## cootkiller (Oct 23, 2002)

I know it would not be feasable but for the sake of keeping birds around I wish all waterfowl hunters in North Dakota would just field hunt.
It gives the bird somewhere to go and rest.

As for your question I guess I consider a roost somewhere that birds go to water overnight. The midday resting slough where they go to water to me aren't roosts.

cootkiller


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

cootkiller said:


> I know it would not be feasable but for the sake of keeping birds around I wish all waterfowl hunters in North Dakota would just field hunt.
> It gives the bird somewhere to go and rest.
> 
> As for your question I guess I consider a roost somewhere that birds go to water overnight. The midday resting slough where they go to water to me aren't roosts.
> ...


See but that's where I get even more confused. You say "somewhere that birds go to water overnight". Most of the large flocks we've followed out there are feeding in the dry fields at night, not on the water? I've found it quite common to go by some of the dry fields at night, stop the truck, and listen to the birds in the dry field....sounds like a barnyard sometimes. I just don't think there's a right or wrong answer to this....what one person calls a roost, might be just another pothole to me. Not trying to argue...just trying to understand. The last thing I want to do is come to your great hunting state and screw things up for anyone...seriously!


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## cootkiller (Oct 23, 2002)

Yes they may feed well past sundown especially with a full moon but sooner or later they HAVE to go back to water.
They will not sleep in the field when there is water around for the matter of safety from predators.
They may not feed the next morning because they fed that late but will go to water before sunrise.

cootkiller


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## gandergrinder (Mar 10, 2002)

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

Read this article it may help clear some stuff up for you. The bigger the water is the more likely it is a roost.


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## drjongy (Oct 13, 2003)

Nothing wrong with hunting decoys over the water in a transition slough.


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## jbaincfl (Feb 5, 2003)

"What is a Roost" is the question:

Answer is any pond that holds birds at night. When you get to a pond in the morning (pitch black) and you can hear tons (hundreds or thousands) of ducks and geese, this is a roost.

To find the transition sloughs you need to drive around between 1 and 3 hours after sun up and the smaller ponds that are holding birds are the transition sloughs. When you get there in the morning there probably won't be a duck on it when you are throwing out your decoys, but as soon as the sun starts to break they will start filtering in.


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## gaddyshooter (Oct 12, 2003)

Just ducky....I , too am an out of stater, and you sound the same as me. I have had a few good field shoots up there, but for me it just isn't duck hunting unless the ducks are splashing when they fall. The first year we came up there we hunted the southeast part of the state and stayed at a house with a resident of ND. He never mentioned anything about not hunting a roost and every day we hunted up there were great big sprawling sloughs that after reading all of the posts on here would definately be considered roosts. The next year we came up, we went to Minot, as by brother in law was stationed at the AFB. We did as the resident hunter had showed us and looked for the big bodies of water with lots of ducks in the mornings and then would go out and set up our decoy spread. Probably ruined a lot of good roosts for people without knowing any better.

At least now, more people are being educated about roosts thanks to this site and word of mouth. Now when we come up, we purposely try not to hunt roosts. Your question of "what is a roost" is complicated and some opinions will vary. The way we have tried to avoid the roosts are find the large sloughs with lots of ducks on them that are roosts, and then drive around early morning and find the small bodies of water that those ducks are going to. If he have difficulty finding concentrations of birds, and have to hunt what could be a roost we find the smallest potholes we can that are holding birds, usually these will be gadwalls,widgeon and blue wings, which are fine with me and the guys I hunt with.


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

gandergrinder said:


> http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/ducktips.php
> 
> Read this article it may help clear some stuff up for you. The bigger the water is the more likely it is a roost.


Yeah I read that a few days ago in one of the older threads. That's really what got me thinking about this. Thanks.


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

gaddyshooter said:


> Just ducky....I , too am an out of stater, and you sound the same as me. I have had a few good field shoots up there, but for me it just isn't duck hunting unless the ducks are splashing when they fall. The first year we came up there we hunted the southeast part of the state and stayed at a house with a resident of ND. He never mentioned anything about not hunting a roost and every day we hunted up there were great big sprawling sloughs that after reading all of the posts on here would definately be considered roosts. The next year we came up, we went to Minot, as by brother in law was stationed at the AFB. We did as the resident hunter had showed us and looked for the big bodies of water with lots of ducks in the mornings and then would go out and set up our decoy spread. Probably ruined a lot of good roosts for people without knowing any better.
> 
> At least now, more people are being educated about roosts thanks to this site and word of mouth. Now when we come up, we purposely try not to hunt roosts. Your question of "what is a roost" is complicated and some opinions will vary. The way we have tried to avoid the roosts are find the large sloughs with lots of ducks on them that are roosts, and then drive around early morning and find the small bodies of water that those ducks are going to. If he have difficulty finding concentrations of birds, and have to hunt what could be a roost we find the smallest potholes we can that are holding birds, usually these will be gadwalls,widgeon and blue wings, which are fine with me and the guys I hunt with.


Yep, we're pretty similar alright. We have a couple of smaller potholes that we hunt quite a bit when we're there, which hold mostly gadwall, teal, widgeon, and some mallards. I'm sure these aren't roosts as described here, but just transition areas. In any case, we enjoy it because it's a lot better than our hunting here.


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

jbaincfl said:


> "What is a Roost" is the question:
> 
> Answer is any pond that holds birds at night. When you get to a pond in the morning (pitch black) and you can hear tons (hundreds or thousands) of ducks and geese, this is a roost.
> 
> To find the transition sloughs you need to drive around between 1 and 3 hours after sun up and the smaller ponds that are holding birds are the transition sloughs. When you get there in the morning there probably won't be a duck on it when you are throwing out your decoys, but as soon as the sun starts to break they will start filtering in.


So I'm back to one of my original questions...if you intend to dry field hunt and are trying to locate the feeding fields, would you suggest scouting for flocks first thing in the morning or waiting until evening? From reading all of your helpful posts, it sounds like it just depends on the variables like food supply, weather, hunting pressure, etc. So there is no right answer, right?

I guess the hard part about this is being from out of state, we have limited time to hunt. Scouting takes a lot of time. Now don't get me wrong, we aren't lazy and we still do a lot of scouting, but we're constantly reminded of how little time we have to be there. That certainly doesn't give us the right to bust up some roosts just because we only come out for a week each year, but you can understand why I'd like to get a better handle on this. You resident guys will probably tell us "that's what guides are for", because they can put you on birds right away. But we really aren't interested in shooting limits anymore...honestly. I come out there more because of the volume of birds you see every day. You can't understand that until you've hunted in our states where you're lucky to SEE 50 birds in a typical day hunting, let alone get a few shots. It's really a pleasure just to be in an area where you can see birds like this on a regular basis. Shooting a limit is way down the list of priorities to us.


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## jbaincfl (Feb 5, 2003)

We have a large body of water (1 mile x 1 mile) that holds thousands of geese and ducks. We typically drive around about 2 hours before dark. You will see flocks coming off the water. Sometimes flocks in the hundreds and sometimes small flock after small flock. Try following these birds to the wheat and corn.

The mallards feeding in the fields will "swoop" around like a flock of black birds low on the fields. Land. Sometimes fly around some more and land a few hundred feet away.

You only need to find a field with a couple hundred ducks in it. A lot of people on here aren't happy unles they find a feed with a thousand or more, but we can still only have 5 mallards a piece.

Then get back to this field and be totally set up and in your blinds a half hour before legal shooting hours as some of the mallards will be landing in the field well before you can shoot.


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## just ducky (Apr 27, 2005)

jbaincfl said:


> We have a large body of water (1 mile x 1 mile) that holds thousands of geese and ducks. We typically drive around about 2 hours before dark. You will see flocks coming off the water. Sometimes flocks in the hundreds and sometimes small flock after small flock. Try following these birds to the wheat and corn.
> 
> The mallards feeding in the fields will "swoop" around like a flock of black birds low on the fields. Land. Sometimes fly around some more and land a few hundred feet away.
> 
> ...


You describe exactly what we have done in the past...scout before dark to follow them. We describe those flocks as "tornados" because if you see them on the horizon at dark, that's what they remind us of. And we have specifically looked for smaller flocks, not thousands, for two main reasons: 1) as you said, you can only take 5 mallards a piece anyway, and 2) the smaller flocks don't draw as many hunters, so your chances of being the only group hunting them is better. The only difference being that once we've located a feeding field, we've generally tried to hunt them the next day in the late afternoon, gettting there an hour or so before we saw them beginning to feed. But quite often they come right at, or after legal hour ends. We just hadn't put two and two together that they use the same fields morning and evening. So we'll try morning hunting this year. Thanks for the advice.


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## duckbuster13 (May 3, 2005)

We have hunted roosts before,,but only one or two times a year at the very end of the season,,,we usually scare the birds out in the morning,quick shoot are limit and get the heck out,,,you never wanna hunt that last hour before dark, becasue this is when alot of your birds are coming back to the roost


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## hoosier dhr (Jul 24, 2003)

Here in N Indiana we mostly hunt water, one reason is because its hard to get permission to get onto the feilds, but when we go to ND we have found it is more fun to hunt the feilds. Like they said u can hunt a feild day after day if the birds are feeding there, and u dont have to worry about getting wet :beer:


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## Rick Risvold (May 25, 2003)

The first time I hunted ND I brought a boat along. Went out into a field the first day and roosted my *** on a five gallon pail and shot a limit of ducks. Went home, sold my boat and never hunted water again.


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