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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