Hopefully this weather in the upper Mid-West and Northeast will get the migration in full swing
yea, thats going to be great for the Mississippi flyway. I'm looking for a good nor'easter to get the east coast ducks on the move. However, I have heard of a lot of banded ducks being killed here that were banded in the northern part of the Mississippi flyway. I saw that you were looking to hunt the river here Brunswick Co...Let me know when you want to go and you can tag along anytime. We don't really "whack em" but we do kill some ducks right here in SPT.
scott
cant wait till the 19th. deer hunting just lacks its luster compared to having a flock of ducks commiting to your spread.
I'm headin to Arkansas Jan 7-10 and can't wait. First trip out there.
Going scouting tomorrow on the Cape Fear for a couple hours, hopefully I will find some birds!!
go behind bald head in cape creek and buzzard bay!
Scott, what kind of birds in there?
day before yesterday I saw 1 mallard, quite a few buffies, meganzers, and some other divers that were too far for me to tell what they were. there wasn't a ton of birds in there, but there were a good many
Do they stay in there overnight and you're shooting them when they leave?
I've recently been seeing some bigger ducks flying over the Oak Island bridge in the evenings. Looks like they are heading toward the Elizabeth river, but I can't be sure. I'm also not sure what type they are. Like I said they are bigger, not the buffies or mergansers I normally see flying around the saltwater.
imaheelsfan im not sure if they roost in there or not? the big ducks that you are seeing are probally going to those ponds on the golf course.
Headed up to Hyde on Sunday after X-Mas to hunt for a couple days. Was really busy before christmas so I was really lookin' forward to gettin up there and shooting some ducks.
On Monday we set up in a pothole in a big marshy area that we have had good success at in the past. Wind blowing about 15-20, things are looking good. Shooting time comes and goes and not a duck in sight. Bout 45 min into it, a Black Duck gets up a couple potholes over and decides to come take a look, he locks up pretty as can be and we shot him. Same thing happens about 5 minutes later and that was it for the morning, 2 Blacks. Only saw about 5 other Black Ducks that whole morning. We did see a huge flock of divers get up from the middle of the sound and make a few laps and sit back down. Probably 5,000 ducks at least...
Monday around lunch we go out to some open water and put the diver spread out. Saw a few trading back and forth off in the distance but there was very little bird movement. We had two Buffies come in and we shot both of them but that was all the action we had. We jumped up quite a few ducks on the ride in/out but unless they had to, they were not flying at all.
Tuesday we were pretty un-motivated so we set the diver spread back out in a smaller creek hoping to get a few divers coming out of the wind. We saw probably 12 ducks all morning. I know the ducks are there cause we saw them flying off the lake Monday evening, they're just not flying during the day at all right now. Thursday/Friday would probably be good days to be up there, with the rain/overcast conditions they might be forced to fly during legal hours...
This morning(Wed) I was supposed to go bluefin fishing but we decided not to go this morning. Went for a quick hunt over towards Buzzards Bay hoping to get a couple shots at whatever. Saw maybe a dozen buffies and 1/2 dozen big ducks and that was it, never pulled the trigger. Felt like I had Tues. morning set on re-play.
Hope it gets better quickly with the cold coming in and this moon starting to go away...
Been doin' quite a bit of hunting here around the Cape Fear area and have killed a few birds although most have been buffleheads, a teal here and there, and a few mergansers. The ducks still haven't been flying that well, at least in the spots I've been, but it should be getting better with all this cold weather freezing up the swamps and ponds. I have hunted the last 8 legal days in a row and finally took a day off today.
My plan is to Bluefin fish tomorrow and then head to Hyde Co to hunt on Friday/Saturday. We have a permit for Pamlico Pt but will probably just end up staying in Hyde to hunt. With all this cold weather and a low of 19 on Friday night we are afraid that Pamlico Pt will be frozen. I guess we'll just see what happens on Friday morning and play it by ear.
Here is a pic I received of the Currituck Sound that was taken yesterday...
I'm pretty sure Pamlico Pt will be locked up hard Saturday AM. A buddy of mine hunted Spring Creek Tuesday and broke ice 2" thick as the entire impoundment was frozen. With colder temps forecast for Saturday my guess is Pamlico Pt will be too.
I was down on Oak Island earlier this week working on the house. Took the boat out Sunday afternoon and scouted. I saw a few bluebills some buffleheads and ruddy ducks. Saw a big flock of teal prolly about 30 or so. Didn't get a chance to hunt, because all i had was my bay boat, and the tide was low both mornings. Next time I am definately taking the skiff, if I get back down before the season goes out