Duck Season 2021

[Ryan Miloshewski]

Hunted the opener in KS Low Plains Saturday. We shot 7 birds--pintails, woodies, and GWT. Not great, but fun. Sunday was 30-40 mph sustained winds so we did not hunt.

Went back out today and boy howdy did birds show up. I landed ~200 mallards and gadwall in the decoys around 8:45 am. Could have shot a 2-3 man limit if we were inclined. Spot we hit is a hidden gem so we like to keep it good--as much as we can on public. Saw probably 500-1000 birds all morning. GWT, mallards, gadwall, wigeon were the main players. Going back out Wednesday morning. Shot enough for a good meal...it's early!

[snagged in outlet 3]

3 hours ago, Ryan Miloshewski said:

Hunted the opener in KS Low Plains Saturday. We shot 7 birds--pintails, woodies, and GWT. Not great, but fun. Sunday was 30-40 mph sustained winds so we did not hunt.

Went back out today and boy howdy did birds show up. I landed ~200 mallards and gadwall in the decoys around 8:45 am. Could have shot a 2-3 man limit if we were inclined. Spot we hit is a hidden gem so we like to keep it good--as much as we can on public. Saw probably 500-1000 birds all morning. GWT, mallards, gadwall, wigeon were the main players. Going back out Wednesday morning. Shot enough for a good meal...it's early!

NICE!   Years ago I witnessed a mallard tornado.   Thousands circling down from way up and piling into our set after we limited.  We just sat there in awe....  I'll never forget that.  At a private spot across from Fountain Grove.  

[Ryan Miloshewski]

12 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

NICE!   Years ago I witnesses a mallard tornado.   Thousands circling down from way up and piling into our set after we limited.  We just sat there in awe....  I'll never forget that.  At a private spot across from Fountain Grove.  

I was shaking after it all ended. It might be the coolest thing a person could witness in the outdoors. 

[Gavin]

Good for you! Had a great day at Fountain Grove last year. Bunches wanted to be were I was. Certainly wasn't anything I did, just hidden were they wanted to be. Didn't take long to fill  out. Shooting did not bother them, they couldn't hear it. 

Looks like NW corner is covered with birds, not so much on the east side. Shot a couple, and I'll take it. It will get better every week.

 

[Johnsfolly]

18 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

NICE!   Years ago I witnessed a mallard tornado.   Thousands circling down from way up and piling into our set after we limited.  We just sat there in awe....  I'll never forget that.  At a private spot across from Fountain Grove.  

Saw that twice in Eagle's Bluff CA in Columbia over the refuge area while we only had one or two ducks fly into our spread all morning.

[GRANDPA TATER]

I hunted private ground by Squaw Creek on Saturday. Zero wind and foggy in the morning. Did the usual opening day stupid stuff like not communicating well - passing on ducks we should have shot at, shooting at ducks we should have let come around, etc. We shot 7 in the morning - 3 wigeon, a woodie, a gadwall, a GWT and a spoon. Went back to the same blind in the afternoon with a Dad and his 12 YO son who was a first time waterfowl hunter. Really cool to watch him shoot his first duck - a GWT (same as my first one 55 years ago). I think we may have created another ducker.  I do not believe I saw a mallard in the morning (mainly little ducks and a few pintails.) In the  evening though we watched flight ducks coming in from the NW up in the stratosphere. We ended killing 3 mallards in the evening. Ducks absolutely fogged us while we were picking up and walking out. 

As a side note I have never seen as many specklebelly geese in one day as I did on Saturday.

[Ryan Miloshewski]

Another decent day for me in KS. Two wood ducks and a drake mallard. Lots of teal, mallards, gadwall and woodies flying but not as much as Monday. There are a lot of birds in the area, though. The suicidal single drakes wanted to die all morning. Another great day chasing feathers.

[Gavin]

Buddy finally killed some from his pit in STC yesterday. Shot one more this AM but we only hunted till 8:30. His new dog got a new chew toy. Numbers building slowly.

[budman]

Season hasn't started here in Oklahoma yet, Nov. 13th is opening day of the first half. A few years ago I got to hunt along the Navigation Channel in NE OK on some soybean fields. It was always hard to hunt because the fields were so big and very little cover. One year when there had been lots of rain the the farmer couldn't harvest the beans we had several days where several thousand mallards would circle in and land. The duck tornado is how I discovered this field. I saw the bird from a couple miles away and thought is was a large flock of black bird circling just up the road, but the closer I got the bigger the bird were. That is when I realized they were ducks. It took several days to contact the farmer and get permission to hunt. He was surprise I was asking to duck hunt because everyone else ask to deer hunt. The best way we found to hunt these large fields was to lay flat on the ground and hope the came in on you. Had several days when we would limit out on the first flight that came in. Several time I would down 5 birds on the three shots on the first group. Then we would just lay there and watch them come in and sometime they would feed right over to us and then flush when we moved and several times they would crap all over us. Only had one year like that and still hunt the field but have never have the number of bird again. But we still talk about it every year. 

[Johnsfolly]

@budman sounds like one of those remarkable hunting adventures. I hope that you do well this duck season.