GreenSkins Classic Recap

By Chris Hustad
The North Dakota resident opener proved to be a huge success for all those who took part. In our group’s extensive scouting around the state, we’d witnessed large masses of ducks for weeks. The trend appeared to be the more northeast you go, the more ducks you’ll come across. Local canada geese are [...]

GreenSkins Classic Recap – 2003 North Dakota Duck Opener

By Chris Hustad
As I sit here typing my first keystrokes, I’m looking out an airplane window watching North Dakota disappear behind me. As I prepare for my out of town business all week, I can only sit back and recap the prior weekend in my mind. It was the duck hunting opener for North Dakota [...]

Rory and the 2001 Hunting Season

By Doug Panchot
Having gone every hunting seasonexcept for last, without having a dog to hunt with of my own, I came to the conclusion that a gun dog is something that everyone should have the opportunity to have. Sure I have hunted with others who bring along their dogs when we hunt together. But there [...]

The Good Old Days

By Perry Thorvig
The Nodak crew shot the greenheads big time again in this year’s duck opener. They celebrated the tenth anniversary of the breaking of the drought of the 1980s and early 90s. Ironically, we may be heading back into another drought cycle. But, there are still birds around and then can provide some great [...]

Hunting the Honey Hole

By Perry Thorvig
Kenny Z said that he first “discovered” the honey hole when he was 16 years old. Now it is 39 years later, and he is still hunting the same spot.
There aren’t the numbers of birds around that there used to be. But, hey, shooting the birds is only half the fun. The favorite [...]

Purple Loostrife & SaltCedar – Noxious Weeds in the Outdoors

Jim McAllister
Sportsman, are you aware of noxious weeds that can limit habitat in wetlands for wildlife. In the last 10 years, the state of North Dakota has had two noxious weeds move into our wetlands. They both can have devastating effects if not properly controlled. They are purple loosestrife and saltcedar.
Purple loosestrife has been in [...]

New Life on the Prairie (2002)

By Jason Phillips
 Just when it seemed like it’s over, the action on the prairie potholes continues….on perch and northern pike that is. Well it looks like old man winter decided to get the last laugh this year and brought us some of the coldest weather of the season…in March. While it is tough to lose [...]

The Streak

By Perry Thorvig
My brother-in-law, Kenny Carlson, loves to hunt and fish. As most hunters do, he got started hunting during his high school years. Kenny is a lean six-footer. I guess that’s a kind way of saying that he must have been a pretty skinny kid in high school. He was not a Friday night [...]

Wildlife and Habitat Management: The Joint Venture Concept of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan

By Robert A. Langager
Introduction
Migratory waterfowl have traveled the North American continent for thousands of years. They have awed many who have seen their great winged migrations. Waterfowl inspire many to watch them, hunt them, and study them intensely. As a resource, waterfowl and other birds generate nearly $20 billion in economic activity and create more [...]

The Value of Temporary Wetlands

By Doug Leier
A recent rainy spell has rekindled somewhat the time-worn debate over the value of wetlands, small ones in particular.
North Dakota has hunreds of thousands of these small, shallow wetlands. They’re often called temporary wetlands because they typically only hold water for a few weeks after spring snow melt, or after heavy summer rains [...]

Water Up – Ducks Down

By PJ Maguire
When flights of ducks returned to the prairies of North Dakota from the south, numbers looked good for the 2004 waterfowl season. The annual spring breeding duck index was the 3rd highest on record, and was up 9% from last year. These numbers were surprising considering that there was a 16% decrease in [...]

All I Want For Christmas

By Chris Hustad
 

 
Christmas season has come and gone yet again, with plenty of memories to crown the year. This will be a very memorable Christmas for people all over the country who’ve never had a white Christmas before. On the weather channel, I saw some areas in the Gulf Coast of Texas received between 4-12 [...]

Junior Duck Stamp Contest Winner Announced

By Chris Hustad
A pair of blue-winged teal were the top winning waterfowl chosen as the 2005 Best of Show in the North Dakota Junior Duck Stamp Contest. “The Sun Watchers”, is the title of the Best of Show winning drawing by 18-year-old, Daniel Dwyer from Bismarck. Daniel used oil paints to depict a pair of [...]

Who’s Going To Look After the Ducks?

A Day in the Field With Delta Waterfowl – By Jed Fluhrer
Who’s going to look after the ducks? While I have spent many days in the marsh and field scanning the skies for ducks, it wasn’t until I stood in a wetland east of Bismarck, North Dakota surrounded by a group of Cub Scouts and [...]

All My Heroes are Duck Hunters

By PJ Maguire
The Old Man and I spent many summer afternoons discussing the usual topics; investing, religion, fishing and of course duck hunting. He was a strong Catholic, the kind that kept a painting of the last super by the dinner table. We said grace before we ate our meals, and we enjoyed many a [...]

Alternative Land Use Services Moving Forward

Federal, provincial and territorial Agriculture Ministers meeting in Kananaskis Alberta approved a four point policy agenda which would include testing of an ecological services plan called Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS). Often referred to as the “Farmers Conservation Plan”, ALUS was designed by the farm community across Canada. ALUS has been widely recognized as the [...]

The Mysterious Coot

By Doug Leier
Have you ever thought about hunting coots?
To be honest, most hunters never even consider bagging one and bringing it home, even though they are readily available on many North Dakota waters and regulations allow a daily limit of 15 and a possession limit of 30.
But this season, I might think differently when I’m [...]

The Best Waterfowl Hunt

By PJ Maguire
I have often been asked, “What is the best hunt you have ever been on?” I am a very modest person, but I have a long list to choose from when it comes to this topic. I have been blessed by befriending some of the best waterfowlers in the country. Being lucky, and being [...]

First Forecast

By Perry Thorvig
This year’s first comprehensive summary of agency reports and anecdotal observations concerning the prospects for the 2004 waterfowl season.
Last month you read that I was pretty discouraged about duck hunting prospects in general because of increased commercialization of the resource. In the space that follows, I will summarize the agency and individual reports [...]

Memorable Hunting Retrievers

By PJ Maguire
Life is just a series of moments where you connect with another person, place, or feeling. Every bird dog I have ever owned has had it’s own moments. These were times when dogs did remarkable things based on minimal training and experience. These moments seem to burn deeper in my memory for the [...]

Survey Says

By Doug Leier
With the final shots of North Dakota’s bird hunting seasons behind us as of the close of turkey hunting on Jan. 11, we’re actually only weeks away from the opening of the 2009 spring snow goose conservation season on Feb. 21. Beyond that, the spring turkey season is only a couple of months [...]

Montana Goose Hunting

By Chris Hustad
My phone rang late last summer and my good friend Lyle Sinner was on the other end. His call was straight to the point, “Hey Chris, are you interested in heading to Montana to goose hunt?” While it took all of about 2 seconds for me to decide, my decision was an obvious [...]

The Other Migration

By PJ Maguire
One thing that waterfowl hunters can always learn more about is the migration patterns of ducks and geese. To be successful as a waterfowl hunter it is important to understand how and why ducks and geese use certain migration patterns. Of course weather, moon phases and the calendar all play a major role [...]

August Goose Hunting

By Doug Leier
Non hunters and hunters who don’t target Canada geese may be a bit take off guard when learning those hunters they’ve seen and heard are out taking part in the early Canada goose season in North Dakota–for good reason.
In 1988 the US Fish and Wildlife Service annual spring waterfowl survey indicated about 18,000 [...]

The Canada Goose

By Doug Leier
I  don’t think of myself as a veteran hunter. But when I put pen to paper and add up the years, I realize it’s been nearly 25 of them since I took hunter education in LaMoure in 1984.
During that time, I’ve already experienced some significant changes in our hunting landscape.
In the mid-1980s deer [...]

Hunting Ethics from an Old Soldier

By Daniel D. Narum
On an early morning in September, I awoke just before my alarm sounded and spared my wife the noise. It was 4:45 a.m., and a balmy 63 degrees outside. My gear was already loaded and I had a cup of fresh hot coffee to enjoy on my way to the field. A [...]

The Spring Snow Goose Blues

By PJ Maguire
The blues have always been American. As American as apple pie, extension tubes, electronic calls and a high enough population of the North American Lesser Snow geese to warrant a Conservation Order. In the last month, I have gone from a blues bar in Chicago on one weekend, to snow goose hunting the [...]

A Spring Goose Hunter’s Lament

By Richard Kaplan
Note: Article Written at the end of April
Hello. My name is Richard. I’m addicted to hunting spring geese and today is the seventeenth consecutive day I have not checked the Spring Snow Goose Migration Report at Nodak Outdoors.
My support group believes that writing this article will be therapeutic for me. You see, I [...]

Waterfowl Hunting Memories

By Chris Hustad
Well here I am, back in another airplane for a cross country trip home from work. As I write this I’m on the first lag of my trip back to North Dakota from Blacksburg, Virginia. After a long exhausting week, it feels good to know I’m going home. And this isn’t just any [...]

Ducks, Geese, & UV

By PJ Maguire
Every year waterfowl hunters are bombarded with new equipment and ideas. As waterfowlers there is a lot of stuff we need in order to pursue ducks and geese. A wise goose hunter once told me that in order to be successful, you have to lead the pack and not follow. Since then I [...]

Bird Band – Duck Band – Goose Band

By PJ Maguire
Every year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service and agencies ran by the states, place leg bands on a variety of birds across the country. Migratory birds, like ducks, geese, and most recently doves are some of the most commonly banded birds. Harvesting a bird sporting a leg band is a special joy [...]

First Time on the X

Richard Kaplan
Most of my goose hunting success depends on my ability to run traffic over my decoys. I almost always hunt for geese in a harvested field within a mile of a heavily-used roosting area to ensure that a sufficient number of birds would fly over my decoy spread on their way elsewhere to feed. [...]

Hunter’s Choice Waterfowl Regulations

By Doug Leier
About 15 years ago I attended my first Game and Fish Department advisory board meeting. I was a fisheries and wildlife management student at North Dakota State University, and had a goal of one day working in the natural resource field. I decided it might be a positive learning experience to attend this [...]

2006 Midwest Waterfowl Festival

By PJ Maguire
Right now it is August, and I can feel the fall creeping in. The nights are cooler and the days are shorter. It is time for me to organize decoys, check gear and count the shotgun shells I have remaining from last season. It is also time to check out new gear and [...]

Sudden Ludden

By Chris Hustad
Forecast: 40% chance of rain turning to snow with 25-35 mph winds out of the N with winds gusting over 40 mph at times. The day was the last day of goose season in 1990 and it was on that day that I learned the phrase “Sudden Ludden”. And it was the night [...]

Field Blinds – Are They Losing Effectiveness?

By Chris Hustad
 In my neck of the prairie, the month of November officially changes our waterfowl season to the late season. While this means changes in rules and regulations such as a season close for canvasbacks and pintails; it also means the rest of the waterfowl world will be tougher to decoy. Try decoying a [...]

The E-caller. Don’t Go North Without It!

By Perry Thorvig
Twenty years ago, there were plenty of snow geese in North Dakota by the mid-October. Kenmare, Westhope, Bowbells, Bottineau, Rolla, Rock Lake, Cando, and Devils Lake were the hotspots. There were even a few on the river north of Jamestown in those days. But, those were the good old days. Now, those seeking [...]

Hook and Bobber Hunting

By Doug Leier
I’ve come up with a new phrase describing how I hunt. Maybe it’s not mine originally, but it effectively describes what I’ve been doing for most of my life. Itxs called hook-and-bobber hunting.
My intent is not to degrade how I hunt, or offend anglers who have no desire to use the latest fishing [...]

2005 Spring Light Goose Outlook

By Doug Leier
The variables of each hunt, whether from day-to-day, season to season or species to species, are like fingerprints between humans – no two are ever the same.
Sure, there are similarities, like spending opening day with the usual crew in the same field year after year. But the unique aspect of hunting assures each [...]

The Population Ecology and Population Genetics

By Charles Gorecki
Lesser Snow Goose is one of three species of snow geese; the other two are the Ross’s Goose and Greater Snow Goose. All three species are migratory waterfowl that fly south each year for the winter and then back north to the arctic tundra in the spring to reproduce. The life history traits [...]

2003 Snow Goose Migration Chronology

By Perry Thorvig
Snow geese begin their migration in late August. By early September, a few of them appear in Saskatchewan. The big migration from and across North and South Dakota occurred on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, October 30 to November 1 in 2003. The following chronology describes the year’s migration.
 
September 7-13, 2003
8th – The first [...]

Hot Spring Goose Hunting Gear

By Chris Hustad
There are a lot of new and existing products on the market today that are becoming popular “must have” items for spring goose decoyers in the flyways. Keep your eye on the following products to help make your hunt more efficient and successful.
Field Shuttle
Decoying spring snow geese is not a sport for the [...]

Spring Goose Hunting isn’t for the Weak

By Chris Hustad
 

 
Spring goose hunting in North Dakota is not for the weak. Whether you’re a decoyer or a sneaker/pass shooter, the mud and weather can make things miserable. I know some pretty hardcore fall goose hunters that won’t even attempt to hunt in the spring. “Too much work” or “Too much mud” or a [...]

Spring Goose Hunting in North Dakota

By Doug Leier
North Dakota’s spring snow goose conservation season is in progress, but since the birds are just beginning to arrive, it’s a good time to reflect on the past five years of this recent hunting opportunity.
The spring conservation season on light geese was one of several responses to an elevated population of breeding birds [...]

Saskatchewan Goose Hunting

By Chris Hustad
There are moments of waterfowling that you can’t really put into words. An explosion of geese on the horizon that just keeps growing and growing until it’s all around you, literally. Instantly, childhood memories of hunting snow geese had reappeared. And I’m sure some of those same geese I hunted when I was [...]

Hunting Alone

By Perry Thorvig
Who would think that there is actually a “down side” to having the luxury of a lot of time to hunt? The problem is that it may be difficult to get enough hunting partners to accompany you. My hunting partners usually set aside one long weekend a year to hunt geese in North [...]

Saskatchewan Waterfowl Hunting 2003

By Chris Hustad
The snow goose migration was extremely predictable when I was growing up. On the waterfowl opener in North Dakota, you could find my family staging at the Gateway Inn along with a hundred thousand snows along J. Clark Salyer Refuge by Westhope. We didn’t have to question whether or not huntable numbers were [...]

The Evolving Canada Goose

By Jason Phillips
Like clockwork the geese left the roost just as the sun rose above the horizon. The geese had their sights on our decoy spread. Our calls matched their mounting excitement as they approached the landing zone, this was the moment that we had all been waiting for. The geese were approaching the spread [...]

North Dakota Hunting Trip – Year 2000

By Perry Thorvig
The 2000 trip to North Dakota was nothing less than spectacular. Though there were not many geese around on the second weekend of October, the ducks were everywhere and in big concentrations.
Jerry Vandelac and I experienced an uneventful trip until we got to the Munich area. It was there that we experienced white-out [...]

The Hilton — Old Goose Hunting Shack in North Dakota

By Perry Thorvig
I  suppose that most towns in the popular hunting areas of North Dakota have one. I am referring to a hunting shack that sits vacant the whole year accept for a few weeks during hunting season. This is a story about one of those places that we called the Hilton. The Hilton was [...]

Snow Goose Hunting After the Blizzard of 2001

By Perry Thorvig
The most severe storm that I experienced during the mild winter of 2001-2002 occurred in late October. It had a huge impact on our hunting that weekend. The trip started off in a big snowstorm and ended in another kind of snow-storm.
You remember the storm don’t you? It was the one that tied [...]

Hooked on Snow Geese

By Perry Thorvig
Some who have tried it are apathetic when it comes to waterfowl hunting. Most of those that walk away from hunting have failed to have those premier experiences that can hook a hunter forever. This is the story of how four hunters got hooked on North Dakota waterfowling.
My brother-in-law, Ken Carlson, and I [...]

The Youngster’s First Hunt

By Perry Thorvig
I had waited for several years for the day when my son Erik would be old enough to sit in a North Dakota stubble field and watch the white specks lose altitude and tumble into a decoy spread. Ken Carlson and I had experienced a great flight of birds in 1994 and I wondered [...]

The Challenge of Late Season Geese

By Jason Phillips
It was just after 5:00 on an early November afternoon as I watched the sun set in the western sky. It was a particularly spectacular sunset unfortunately I was watching it from the window at work instead of while out scouting for geese. Luckily, my hunting buddies were able to go scouting. It [...]

2002 Duck Hunting & Goose Hunting Season Recap

By Perry Thorvig
The 2002 hunting season was a big disappointment. I guess it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the goose gods saying, “Gotcha!”
The first disappointment was that I never got out this spring to chase the snows because of the need to move my elderly parents [...]

North Dakota Or Bust!

By Perry Thorvig
Some hunters will do anything and endure a lot of hardships to make their annual hunting trek to the North Dakota prairies. I am one of those guys. This story is not about shooting birds and decoy layouts. It is about the adversity we hunters endure to pursue a few flying fowl.
I first [...]

Spring Fling

By Perry Thorvig
Monday, March 17, 6:05 a.m. A lone Canada’s honk penetrates the pea soup fog and wakes me from my half sleep. It is the morning after a weekend hunting trip. I notice that the furnace has come on and I am starting to feel uncomfortably warm lying in bed. I throw off the [...]

North Dakota Goose Hunting – A Generation of Change

By Perry Thorvig
(Part 2 of a 3 Part Series)
There have been many changes in waterfowl hunting in North Dakota in 27 years. This is the second of a three part series and describes the changes in waterfowl equipment.
Equipment
Waterfowl hunting equipment has changed substantially in the last 27 years. Perhaps the biggest change is that there [...]

Why I Decoy Hunt?

By Perry Thorvig
There has been a lot written about the tactics needed to shoot snow geese. There are decoyers, sneakers, pushers and pass-shooters. We will see all kinds this spring as we look for opportunities to thin the population of snow geese. They may all have their place. I am one of the old school [...]

North Dakota Waterfowling – A Generation of Change

By Perry Thorvig
There have been many changes in waterfowl hunting in North Dakota in the last 27 years. This third part of a three part series covers tactics, communication, and access to information that will enhance the hunting experience.
Tactics
Despite all the changes in snow goose hunting equipment and decoys, there are still three basic ways [...]

It’s Crunch Time for the 2002 Waterfowl Season

By Jason Phillips
The 2002 waterfowl season is just around the corner and it’s time for final preparations. For avid waterfowlers, preparation begins at the final sunset on the last day of the previous season. August is crunch time! The planning, preparation and anticipation has reached its climax and everything will soon fall into place for [...]

Getting Hardcore for the Spring Season

By Jason Phillips
The passion that waterfowlers exhibit may be unmatched in outdoor world. This passion is perhaps most evident during the Spring Goose Season. The Spring Season extends the waterfowling season and has become one of the most anticipated times of the year for waterfowlers throughout the flyway. The challenge of decoying birds that have [...]

Spring Goose Season – A Lesson Learned

By Jason Phillips
 I  learned a very valuable lesson during the snow goose migration this spring, a lesson that will definitely help me bag more birds next year. The weather in the northern plains this past winter was anything but typical, so it was no surprise that the snow goose migration was also unpredictable which demonstrated [...]

Spring Snow Goose Hunting Ethics

By Doug Panchot
What does hunting the snow goose in the spring mean to hunters? To many it is another opportunity to get out in the field once again and too enjoy the time with friends and family. Too others it is a mission to go out and shoot as many birds as conceivably possible. Many [...]

The Dawning of A New Waterfowl Season

By Jason Phillips
 As the eastern sky began to show signs of light, our anticipation mounted. We had been looking forward to this moment for months. Day was breaking on the North Dakota Early Canada Goose Season Opener. As the sun began it’s ascent it was evident that it was destined to be a very memorable [...]

Too Many Geese?

By Jason Phillips
As the sun fades in the western sky the splendor of colors serve as a picturesque backdrop for the Canada geese as they return to their roost. This appears to be a sign of success in the dramatic return of resident Canada geese to the Northern Plains. During the height of the drought [...]

Getting Stuck

By Perry Thorvig
The little town of Middle River, Minnesota has an annual goose hunting opening day celebration. They sell beer in plastic mugs that say, “If you ain’t a goose hunter, you ain’t sh*t.” That phrase reminds me of the one that my hunting partner Ken Ziegler says about being stuck. He say’s, “I ain’t [...]

Early Season Goose Hunting Anticipation

To many the early September season doesn’t conjure up images of a traditional waterfowling experience. With the potential for temperatures into the 90s and mosquitoes still claiming their throne as kings of the prairie, there is no doubt that the early season is accompanied by some nuisances. However these are minor annoyances that can be [...]

Fish / Hunt Swap Stories & New Friends

By Chris Hustad
 
It’s 2:30 a.m. on a cold, April Saturday morning. I’m sucking down coffee to make up for the lack of sleep as I pull out of Fargo. We wandered almost 2 hours from home the night before scouting, only to turn around and do it again 6 hours later. But we were excited. [...]

Winged Migration

By Doug Leier
I’ve got a short attention span. In fact, my 9-month-old daughter can stay on task longer than I can. I say it’s a factor of society, the internet, email and cell phones – the “right now” culture that seems to have us trapped.
But somehow, that all changes when we get outdoors. Outside, the [...]

Special Goose Seasons Continue

By PJ McQuire
September 1st will be the opening day for the 2004 early season Canada goose hunting in North Dakota. The 2004 season will be the sixth time in which the North Dakota Game and fish has allowed the early Season for North Dakota hunters. Once again shooting hours will be one-half hour before sunrise [...]

The Early Canada Goose Hunting Season

By Doug Leier
Not so long ago, in the early 1990s, North Dakota hunters could bag only one Canada goose per day for much of the waterfowl hunting season.
The season also ended well before federal frameworks allowed because North Dakota Game and Fish Department biologists were cautious about directing too much hunting pressure on giant Canada [...]

Goose Calls Are My Weakness

By PJ Maguire
My first goose call was a Knight & Hale Double Cluck. I don’t believe that I ever got that call to make a single honk. Now that I am older I realized it was not the call, it was me that had the problem. My father bought me a Big River flute shortly [...]