(click on the settings button in the bottom right corner and change the videos to high quality)
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Post Season Videos
Some videos Jason took in the past week while he attempted to goose hunt. Sure makes it tough to focus on geese when you're covered up with ducks!
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Flooded Corn Roost
Typical of many years, the ducks continue to hang around the area in mass numbers weeks after the season has ended. At least we got to enjoy a week of hunting this before the season closed. This just gives us a little more encouragement that flooding standing corn was worth it, and we will continue to keep trying to improve the habitat to see sights like this (hopefully moreso during season if the weather and ducks cooperate!).
The ears of corn are stripped clean, but they continue to hang around and use the field as a roost and feed on what waste grain and invertebrates are left. Jason went down a couple times this past week and took some pictures and video of what was hanging around.
The ears of corn are stripped clean, but they continue to hang around and use the field as a roost and feed on what waste grain and invertebrates are left. Jason went down a couple times this past week and took some pictures and video of what was hanging around.
Late December Bean Field Hunt
Here's the full video of the field hunt we had near the end of the season in some cut beans. Gets a little slow and repetitious towards the middle, so if you want, fast forward to the last 6 minutes or so to see the big groups of ducks funneling in!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
A Look Back at the 2012 Duck Season
The 2012 duck season has come and gone, and while the majority of the season left us discouraged and disappointed, we ended on a high note and had some memorable hunts to close out the last week or two of the season.
Expectations were high going into the season, but the majority of November and December consisted of unseasonably warm temperatures and dry conditions. We were fortunate enough to get a couple very timely rains in October to prime our river enough to pump and give us a season, yet there wasn't enough to allow us to flood our timber. I believe that alone would have made a significant difference in the outcome of our season, but what can ya do. There were ducks in the area but there was very little movement with the temperatures as warm as they were, and more mosquitoes were probably killed from the blinds in November than ducks. We still got in a few decent November hunts but nothing like we had hoped.
December approached with little relief in sight from Mother Nature. We finally got a much needed cold push on the 10th that heated things up for a bit, and the mallards seemed to have found our flooded corn like we had hoped. Even then though, we weren't seeing as much usage and movement in our immediate area that we hoped....and the hunts were still hit or miss. We still managed to have some good hunts and as always, good times in the blinds with friends and family.
Finally, once the shallow water in the area started icing over around the 23rd or so, we saw another significant increase in duck movement in the area. From then on through the close of the season, things were much closer to what we had hoped and expected coming into the season. There were still a few iffy hunts, but the majority of the hunts we were seeing excellent movement in the area, and anywhere from a couple hundred to several thousand mallards were calling our corn home. I could never get tired of hearing the roar of mallards getting up in waves out of the corn when we arrive in the early hours of the morning, or watching them funnel in after sunset.
We witnessed duck numbers like I have never seen before for the last week of the season. I've had some big groups of ducks work our spreads before, but nothing like we had the last week where it wasn't unusual to have over ~1,000 ducks working our spread all at once. Several times we found ourselves not even touching our calls or guns, and just watched "the show."
Lastly, after the last 3 or 4 seasons of saying we were going to take up field hunting, we finally bit the bullet and gave it a try when the ducks were hitting a lot of the fields in the area. Got some layouts and full body dekes and experienced some of the most amazing hunts I can remember....talk about massive groups of ducks up close and personal! Didn't have my camera with me in the layout on those hunts, but did get a video or two (see below, more to be uploaded later)
Now it's time to start planning for next season...........!!!!
(click on first image, then use arrow keys to quickly navigate through the full-sized pictures)
Expectations were high going into the season, but the majority of November and December consisted of unseasonably warm temperatures and dry conditions. We were fortunate enough to get a couple very timely rains in October to prime our river enough to pump and give us a season, yet there wasn't enough to allow us to flood our timber. I believe that alone would have made a significant difference in the outcome of our season, but what can ya do. There were ducks in the area but there was very little movement with the temperatures as warm as they were, and more mosquitoes were probably killed from the blinds in November than ducks. We still got in a few decent November hunts but nothing like we had hoped.
December approached with little relief in sight from Mother Nature. We finally got a much needed cold push on the 10th that heated things up for a bit, and the mallards seemed to have found our flooded corn like we had hoped. Even then though, we weren't seeing as much usage and movement in our immediate area that we hoped....and the hunts were still hit or miss. We still managed to have some good hunts and as always, good times in the blinds with friends and family.
Finally, once the shallow water in the area started icing over around the 23rd or so, we saw another significant increase in duck movement in the area. From then on through the close of the season, things were much closer to what we had hoped and expected coming into the season. There were still a few iffy hunts, but the majority of the hunts we were seeing excellent movement in the area, and anywhere from a couple hundred to several thousand mallards were calling our corn home. I could never get tired of hearing the roar of mallards getting up in waves out of the corn when we arrive in the early hours of the morning, or watching them funnel in after sunset.
We witnessed duck numbers like I have never seen before for the last week of the season. I've had some big groups of ducks work our spreads before, but nothing like we had the last week where it wasn't unusual to have over ~1,000 ducks working our spread all at once. Several times we found ourselves not even touching our calls or guns, and just watched "the show."
Lastly, after the last 3 or 4 seasons of saying we were going to take up field hunting, we finally bit the bullet and gave it a try when the ducks were hitting a lot of the fields in the area. Got some layouts and full body dekes and experienced some of the most amazing hunts I can remember....talk about massive groups of ducks up close and personal! Didn't have my camera with me in the layout on those hunts, but did get a video or two (see below, more to be uploaded later)
Now it's time to start planning for next season...........!!!!
(click on first image, then use arrow keys to quickly navigate through the full-sized pictures)
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