Wednesday - Better Shooting & More Ducks

Today we again hunted the 'half-circle pond', just south of Pickardville. We totaled 7 ducks today: 6 Gadwall & 1 Drake Mallard. Had everything gone perfect, we could have shot 2 limits today (12 ducks), as we missed a few shots that were on the more difficult end of the spectrum. The morning opened with us being set up on time & jump shooting a group of ducks that had landed near our decoys - getting 4 of them. Moose was whining a little for the 5-10 min we had to sit and wait for shooting light, but was overall pretty good-considering 10 ducks landed about 12 yds in front of him & swam around taunting him. Of those 4, 3 were very simple retrieves. The 4th caused me to seriously consider whether I wanted to continue to provide housing & food to this canine jackass.

The problem was that he saw a wounded bird on the other side of the pond (about 200 yds) & decided on his own to go get it. Repeated whistles, verbal commands, shouting, & cussing could not get him to stop or come back. The bird was very alive & not likely he was going to be able to catch it... Luckily, there was no danger over on that side, but it was a BIG waste of time. He sawm all the way across & then hunted the far shoreline for 5-8 min, until he calmed down enough to somewhat listen, & make his way back to me (not coming to me as he was called to do - but hunting the whole way around the fringe of the pond back to me). Dan executed the proper plan of walking around the opposite way to the other side of the pond & finishing the bird with a shot on the water. Moose then retrieved it & we all got back to hunting.

Shortly thereafter, we shot a single that flew another 100yds or so behind us before crashing into the adjacent field. An hour or so later, when action got slow, we went to go get it & Moose did a good job of hunting the area and finding it.

Our last bagged birds came as both Dan & I executed very good shots (rangefinder verified at 45-55 yds) on a pair. Moose again marked & retrieved both without a problem (though he did have a controlled break on our shots).

Today was the first day of the trip that birds readily decoyed-in to land with our fakes. We're not sure why that is, but we did reduce our 'spread' to just a pair of Widgeon & we took extra care in hiding ourselves and Moose. We moved him from the retriever stand (that you've seen in pictures the last few days) to his 'mutt hut' blind - to provide a lower profile & to hide him better. For the pic below, we moved his blind out of the cattails, but when hunting, he blended-in invisibly into the cover.

Overall, there was more consistent action of birds flying & they cooperated better by coming into shooting range. We are definitely ahead of the main migration (we're betting next week here is going to be great hunting), but there are enough birds to keep us busy, as evidenced by Dan processing our harvest below.

Tuesday-Really Good for a While

We ended the day with a total of 6 ducks: 3 Widgeon, 2 Gadwall, & 1 Mallard. Everything we shot was before 9am. We stayed until 11, but not much was flying & nothing else came within range. 

We opened the morning by taking 1 Widgeon (out of a pair), then a single Drake Mallard while Moose was retrieving the 1st bird. As I was taking the duck from Moose, another pair of Widgeon came over and Dan got 1 of them.

About 40 min later, a group of 3 birds arrived and we shot all 3, but 1 was only wounded. It swam into the cattails on the other side of the pond and by the time Moose got to it, it had regained enough strength to take wobbly flight and escape. He then brought in the other 2 birds (1 at a time - though he did try to get them both together). It did take a couple thrown rocks for him to get the second of those 2 birds. It's a good thing that one of us is an expert at throwing things accurately!

At that point, the day was going great, but then the duck faucet turned off and not much else flew all morning. We’re grabbing lunch now, then heading out to scout a spot for tomorrow - maybe back to the half-circle pond (that we hunted on Sunday).

We did have a bit of drama and a great amount of good luck this morning. After walking into the pond (about 400yds), Dan realized that his gun was no longer in its case (strapped across his back), & he had no idea where or when it fell out. Needless to say, he was not happy! After about 30 min, he found it and it was no worse for wear. That delay caused us to spook some birds that landed with our decoys just before shooting time (we used a total of 3 decoys today: a Mallard pair, with the drake on a jerk string, & a Higdon feeder). We were set up & ready to hunt 2 min before legal shooting time, so not too bad - considering the potential alternative outcomes…

Monday Similar Results

 Weather & results were similar to yesterday. We hunted a wide spot on Turtle Creek, on Darrin Miller’s property. It was a long (& tougher than necessary) walk in - about 800yds, the last 100 thru cattails. After it was daylight, we realized we could have come in a different way and limited the cattail portion to about 30yds!

We're counting this as a 4-bird day. We shot 3 birds: Gadwall, Mallard, Shoveler - and we also let a hen shoveler go without shooting. She was swimming in front of us at 13yds & we chose not to jump shoot it (since you can’t eat them). We also missed 2-3 shots overall. The 1st pic below shows our 1 decoy (partially hidden behand a cattail) and the Shoveler we let swim away (farther out to the left).

Today was also similar in that there was a lot of bird activity all around us just before shooting time and then very little moving anywhere all morning. Our walk in took so long that we weren’t set up before shooting time - when 5 ducks landed in our spot and sat for a minute or 2 before our movement (of getting set up) spooked them. 

Moose marked & quickly retrieved 2 of the 3 birds. He was screened by cattails on the 3rd one (which fell behind us in the sea of cattails), so Dan marked it & directed Moose & me to it - and then Moose quickly used his nose to find it.

Dan’s seat broke this am, so we drove to the Scheels in Bismarck (an hour away) to get a replacement this afternoon/evening after some quick scouting for tomorrow's hunt. As you can see (below), both Dan & Moose were very tired!

Tomorrow, we’re going to hunt Christopher’s favorite spot - the Secret Pond at Goven’s.

 

Sunday: Lot of Action for Only 2 Ducks

In the10 min before shooting time, we had 100+ducks working over and near us. Moose stayed steady, but he was getting pretty excited! Once it was legal to shoot, much of the activity had slowed & birds seemed to be weary of our decoys. We got an early opportunity on 3 birds - with Bill getting 1 drake Mallard. A bit later we both missed on a crossing pair of Gadwall. We had action around us all morning, but most of it was 50-75 yards away (just out of shooting range). After watching a lot of birds skirt our spread, we pulled all of it except 1 resting widgeon. There wasn’t a lot of bird activity after that, but we feel like it was either a helpful change or had no impact. It got really irritating watching birds work just out of range and then set down 80-100yds away in the middle of the pond...

Much later (10:30ish), a pair came in just as Dan was getting some snacks (so he wasn’t in a good position to be able to shoot).  Bill got 1 of the 2; a hen Shoveler.

Moose made quick work of both retrieves for the day. Last night was a low of 25 degrees, so we had to add a layer of clothing, & it was a very comfortable morning overall. We’re feeling like we want to find some small potholes for the next couple days to limit the bird’s ability to land out in the middle of bigger water (avoiding all the edges,  it just where we were at) as they did all day today.

We're going to hunt the creek that runs through the Miller property, as we've seen ducks there every day & it fits the bill for 'smaller water'. Also, we've had success hunting that creek in the past on Miller's property & just North at Jerry Riser's. Temp is going to be low of around 25 again tonight, so fingers crossed that we don't have to deal with ice in the morning.

The pumpkin muffins are very good - thanks Mom for making them for us! 

As you can see from the picks below, Moose is taking full advantage of sleeping anywhere he can - he was whooped after being 'on alert' virtually 5 hours this morning.

Saturday was a much better day!

 Today was much more like the haunting we hope for on this trip. What a difference a change in the weather makes. This morning it was around 40° and winds were 20 – 40 mph. Ducks were moving much better and we managed a total of 6 by the time we stopped hunting at 9:30 AM.

We were in the front pond at Goven’s, as expected, and the only major problem was that the water in front of our chosen hiding spot got deep very fast and we could only put the decoys a maximum of 10 yards away from us. It was an odd-looking spread for sure, but actually looked fairly natural, the way a lot of birds feed close to the edges here. in total, we shot 4 GW teal and 2 gadwall, and we both also missed at least 1 other bird. Moose did a great job, retrieving all 6 birds cleanly, including a simple blind retrieve and a double on teal that I shot where he picked up both birds in one trip. Talk about efficiency!

The disaster that was our accommodation at the Dakota Rose Inn has been fixed. We moved out of there, getting a refund for the nights we didn’t stay, and we moved into a new place in Turtle Lake. It is much more along the lines of what we need, and it has the bonus of being 10 minutes closer to most of the spots we hunt. I could definitely see coming back here again in future years. After spending a couple hours to pack and then unpack again, we grabbed dinner at the Rusted Rail Restaurant (Christopher's favorite place!) and are now heading to bed, just after 9 PM, with alarm set for 5 AM tomorrow morning. We will be hunting a brand new spot about 20 minutes east of us that has had nice bird numbers the 2 days.

First Day of Hunting

Although we managed to scratch out 1 bird, and it should have been a couple more, today really would’ve been a much better day for golf. The weather here was 73° and mostly sunny. Not great weather for duck hunting, as the ducks that are in the area were generally sitting around all day and not moving.

We hunted the small pond next to Lake Brekken for the first 3 hours of the morning and had an opportunity at a pair of Drake Mallards, but didn’t hit either one. We scouted through the middle of the day and returned to our same decoy spread for the last 2 hours of daylight. The only birds we saw in the air during that time was a trio of geese who gave our decoys a look, and I was able to drop 1 of them. Moose was very happy to have something to retrieve!

The room we are in at our normal hotel is not our normal room! It is a tiny, 2 bed, 1 bath unit with no kitchenette and it’s lacking too many other important things to list here. We believe we are going to be able to move into a normal size unit tomorrow afternoon, so fingers crossed on that. The place is so small that there isn’t even room for a coffee table in the living room, so Dan improvised using a couple cardboard boxes as a table to eat dinner tonight.

Weather tomorrow should be improving - forecast for 40 degrees, 20mph wind. We’ll be hunting at Goven’s (front pond), where we saw several dozen birds hanging out all day today. 

Thursday travel

It’s currently 345 on Thursday afternoon and we are between Fargo and Bismarck (ND). The drive so far has been good. We had a great visit with Craig Peterson at his house outside Minneapolis today. Thanks Craig for lunch! We have been very close to our planned itinerary, leaving Columbus yesterday at 4:30 and staying overnight last night in Deforest, WI. 

We’re planning to arrive and get set up at the spot we’re going to hunt tomorrow morning (Brekken Pond) a little before sunset tonight - so we have a better chance to be on time tomorrow morning. The rest of our scouting will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. Moose has been good thus far, if not a little bored… He did get to have some adventures the beginning of the week conquering the city of Pittsburgh. He got to ride on the bellman’s cart to the 15th floor in our hotel and later he got to meet some homeless people. At one point he was really interested in the guy sleeping on the bench (in the picture below at Mellen Park in downtown Pittsburgh).

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The weather forecast for tomorrow is warm and windy so it should be an easy day if nothing else, with no trouble battling against the weather. We are starting to see good numbers of ducks in the ponds along the roads here, so that’s a positive indicator!

2027 Trip Plan

 This year, the combination of Christopher's college baseball & mid-term schedule prevented him from joining us. Even looking at flying him to Bismarck wouldn't work. So... We're back to our original trip setup - just Dan & me (& Moose). Below is our plan. We'll be updating the BLOG daily once the trip starts.

Plan as of 10/14/26:

1. Overview: Bill leave Atglen 10/19 for meetings M-T-W in WPA/OH. Dan leave work Wed ~ 1:30p & arrive in Columbus at 4p to be on the road at 4:30p. Assume driving speed of 75 mph with hotel near Deforest, IL (b/t Chicago & Minneapolis). 1-hour time zone change in IL to our benefit. Food/bathroom stops of 20 min each, unless otherwise noted. Columbus to Deforest (506 miles). Deforest to Underwood (743 miles). Total 1,231 miles (fastest route-thru Chicago). 70-65-94-294-290-90-94-ND83.
2. Schedule:
1. Wal Mart: Renner Rd, Columbus, OH – Meet 4p (Bill fuel up & air Moose before meeting), switch gear to BMW, get dinner – Depart at 4:30p (EST).
2. Arrive Hampton Inn Deforest, WI ~ 10:35p CST (506 mi + 1stop).
3. Depart Deforest, WI Thursday ~ 7:30a CST.

                                                              i.      contact Dakota Rose to get codes, call Jerry to let him know we’re on our way.

4. Meet at Craig’s for lunch 11a- 12:30p CST (274 mi).
5. Arrive Dakota Rose ~ 7:00p CST (469 mi + 1 stop). Unpack & set up for Friday hunting.
6. Brekken Pond Friday am - Shooting time is 7:45a.
7. Limited to N side of Rt200 for Fr/Sa.
2. Contacts:

                                                              i.      Jerry Reiser - (701) 805-8790

                                                            ii.      Daryl & Zona O’Shea - 1151A 5th St. NW, Turtle Lake

                                                          iii.      Gerrard Goven – (701) 330-5652

                                                          iv.      Bill Kuehn - (701) 220-6027

                                                            v.      Morris Miller – Jerry’s neighbor to the South

                                                          vi.      NDGF Riverdale Office – (701) 328-1190

4. Depart after morning hunt on Friday the 30^th. Hotel Friday night ~ Eau Claire, WI / Madison, WI. Arrive Columbus Sat afternoon (~4p). Dan home ~7p. Bill home ~ 11p.

As of Saturday, 10/16 all areas are open: PLOTS, WPA, WMA, etc.

Trip Recap & Thoughts

As of 2:45pm on Thursday, we are between KC and St. Louis with an expected ETA at Dan’s house around 3am. Christopher and I will get a few hours sleep, then finish our portion of the trip back home to Atglen.

Overall thoughts, in no particular order:

- ​Although 125,000 ducks is a lot to be present on a 14,000 acre property, we saw only a small fraction of that number & most of those were high flyers that were not huntable. 

- We had a good time; this being the first trip for Dan, Christopher, & me together. We’re already talking about how to work around his collegiate academic & baseball schedules to go somewhere again next fall/winter.

- Based on how the trip went, we think Dad will be happy with his decision to not come along this year. With every day being a very early wake up (3:30a was the norm), cold / ice most every day, & long walks (.5 -.75 mile walk each way daily), he likely would not have enjoyed much of it.

- Hunting pressure here is insane, with some days having 200-300 hunters on this property, all competing for locations and birds. 

- The inability (as a visiting hunter) to scout effectively made the best areas worthless to us (as we experienced on Wednesday).

- Overall we shot 13 ducks & 2 snow geese. Admittedly, we could / should have shot better & we did start taking more marginal shots as opportunities became more scarce.

- Moose was good for the whole trip. He could have been a little better with basic obedience, but didn’t do anything that caused any problems. He retrieved all the birds he should have, with only 1 wounded bird escaping all week; & that one wasn’t his fault (it was a Houdini duck that also escaped my vision, so I couldn’t help him). He dove head & shoulders under water a couple times going after wounded birds & grabbing a couple that as they tried to get away.

-We found that after we put a towel or a pad in his mutt hut, he was a lot more comfortable & appropriately stayed in there. 

-We learned that my boat is not safe for 3 people & their gear (it’s too small). I also see that although it is a low profile craft, it’s not really made to be a mud/shallow water boat. It functioned in that environment, but was not optimal.

- If we would ever come back to Missouri, it would not be to 4 Rivers. Someplace that would have a draw system to hunt fixed blind sites would be ok, but the draw system used at 4Rivers isn’t helpful to us. Also, the walk-in areas at 4Rivers were mostly very large expanses of shallow water with very sparce vegetation &/or willow trees that didn’t look like it would make for good hunting.

- We timed the migration very well this year, but the weather was quite cold and caused some difficulties each day.

Thursday - Final Day

​Based on the lack of huntable birds / our success rates, we decided to head for home after this morning’s hunt. 

Today was very cold (16 degrees at sunrise & 15mph wind). With that wind, the lake was open when we arrived, but began to ice over around sunrise & didn’t begin to recede by 0930 when we called it a day. It took several visits into the decoys through the early am to keep the ice from becoming a problem. It was really cool seeing the moon over the decoys early in the am.

We had a couple shooting opportunities & killed 2 hens - a mallard & redhead. We also missed an easy pair. The hen mallard was part of a group of 10-12 & I called the shot prematurely (2 were landing while the rest were circling - I should have let them land & wait to call it when the bigger group was committed). This limited our shooting only to those 2 birds…

Moose was good through the am and didn’t seem to mind that the water froze on his coat within a minute of exiting the water.