Grand Pass

[Hunter91]

Son and I went to Grand Pass recently on his reservation (quick draw). We killed our mallard limits after a heavy snow came through. Tons of birds around there! I shot a mallard that hit dry ground about 40 yards away but before I could get to it an eagle swooped in picked it up and left me there watching! Kind of cool but lost my bird. Great hunt with my son!

[slothman]

Awesome! Pretty neat to see an eagle do that. I’ve had them swoop on my decoys before, but never grab one. That is a pretty neat sight too. 

 

How are the ice ice conditions up there? I’m heading that way Monday. I finally got a quick draw after putting in every single day. I’ve been putting in every day and it’s been about 7 years since getting one.

I’ve hated the quick draw since it’s inception. I used to have quite a bit of success in the poor line, but since quick draw takes so many spots it is no longer worth the drive to have such a high chance of being turned away. Also, all of my backup spots turned into everybody’s primary spots after quick draw began. 

[jdmidwest]

Eagles usually react to gunfire, a warning shot may have saved that mallard. 

My buddies son was chasing a cripple across the lake in a kayak while we watched a bald eagle swooping down on him from behind.  His shotgun blast at the cripple changed the eagles course of flight.  We were watching it all unfold from the blind, pretty neat to watch.  He did not even know the eagle was behind him at the time.

[Hunter91]

There wasn’t any ice Last week. Maybe some by Monday though. 

Never had a chance to fire a shot to scare off the eagle as it happened so fast. After seeing it my son said “ Well, that escalated quickly!”

 

[dnj21]

Great picture and story.  I lost a Gadwall last year when my dog decided to pick up the closer bird first, Eagle grabbed the farther out bird and off it went.  Great story I can share for a long time........

[slothman]

Hunting sucked today. As I expected with the cold weather that rolled in over the past week, everything was froze up today. We found some ice that was breakable and broke a decent sized hole. The birds just didn’t fly today. Unless you were in one of about two or three spots, it was dead. 

You missed nothing but a hike, breaking some ice, sitting in the cold, and another hike. We saw quite a few bald eagles, some snow geese, a flock of swans up high and that's about it. No ducks. ☹️

 

Very tough hunting conditions up there right now. 

[Hunter91]

That’s usually my luck on a quick draw. They usually wack em good for a week until I get there then it’s tough.

[Hunter91]

Was fortunate to hunt again at Grand Pass last week on another buddy's quick draw. he had #1. three of us killed 11 mallards. This old man was one shy

Had to move three times to get on the x and ended up shooting all our birds between 12-1pm.  The birds were very shy.

The highlight of the trip for me was when two A10s buzzed the marsh! Very cool!

Need some new birds though.

[slothman]

Pill #1 usually makes for a pretty fun hunt! Awesome!

[Terrierman]

I dearly love going down the Grand Pass memory lane.  My duck boat was named the Grand Pass Special.  I can bore you with stories from there.  A few of them are even true.