[Perry Thorvig]

Our party seems to be reporting the first snow goose kill. Ferb got a nice eagle head blue last Friday near Rock Lake. There were about a thousand geese there this weekend.

We encountered cars from Wisconsin, Illinois, and New York in the area. Competition for the few geese was fierce, but there really weren't many hunters in the area. (See my full report at waterfowler.com.)

We talked to some young looking dude from Wisconsin who had flown to Devils Lake and then driven to Rock Lake to meet someone to possibly by a farm in the area for hunting. Oh, Great. That's all we need.

We also ecountered two No Hunting signs signed by someone by the name of H. Nichols in Dixon, Illinois. The two spots were several miles apart. But, our contact in Cando said that that might just be a family member who just happened to move down to Illinois rather than from someone coming up to Towner county to rent land for hunting. Our contact knows just about everyone in the county.

 

[fishhook]

sorry perry, my brother lives in that area and shot 5 sob's on thursday...you were a day late!!!

I headed that direction this past weekend for a saturday morning hunt and came away rather dissapointed....Ducks were VERY decoy shy...non-residents can't get enough of em...and few geese. Managed 2 adult geese in the decoys and pass shot 8 ducks between 3 of us. Not good.

It seems in that area more and more land is bought every year by nonresidents for hunting. They rent it out and charge people to hunt it. To each his own i guess. I just hope it doesn't get to the point there aren't any opportunities for a average hunter.

 

[Perry Thorvig]

Fishhook,

Boy, are you right about those mallards being decoy shy last weekend. We were in the same field as thousands of them and they would not even give us a look after 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. I'm glad it was not just our decoy spread. The other half of our party was in a different spread about a mile and a half away. They had no luck either trying to get the mallards to decoy. There was a set up a quarter mile away with just a few honker decoys and a roboduck. The mallards would pass us, go to them but not get close enough to shoot. To what do you attribute their wariness? Too much pressure?

On Sunday, they were gone.

Where were you hunting around Rock Lake? We were just a mile or so south and then a mile west of 281. Were we in the same area?

P.S. I didn't say we got the first snow. We just reported the first kill.

 

[fishhook]

No perry i was northwest, but i'm pretty sure i know who was out in that field with the robo-duck. The birds had been frequenting that area for a few days. He was gonna go with us in the morning, but got a call friday night and went out with someone else. Between you and i, i don't think it mattered how close those ducks were, he couldn't hit a bull in the *** with a scoop-shovel.

I know that area gets hit very hard with nonresident hunters early in the season. I know a couple of guides up there and other non-residents own homes in the area and have people fly in from everywhere to hunt mainly ducks. The hunting pressure is what the main problem is. My guess is this weekend will be an absolute mess up there. Hunters everywhere. I would be surprised if there are huntable numbers of ducks up there in 2 weeks. I could be wrong...but i doubt it.

But i did bag one of the nicest drake mallards i have ever seen. It was about the size of the ross goose we got and did not have 1 speck of white on its head. Very nice bird. a very bright green.

 

[fishhook]

ps...Did the "young looking dude" from wisconsin say who he was going to meet?