Whatchya seeing out there?

I have been hitting up Geneva swamp and on Tuesday morning we saw an awesome sight all we heard was the swooshing of wings and my buddy and i were stunned to see about 150 ducks hard to tell what they were but my buddy is an avid duck hunter he said they looked to be mallards we were in shock we just stared at the flock flying over.


i tried hitting a teal but it hauling the mail and missed a couple local woodies but that sight of all those ducks was something else i cant wait to get out again.

Decided to give my gun a good cleaning last night, and get all the misses out   Paid off as I finally washed the skunk off this morning.  Funny too, 'cause on my way in, there was a very strong skunk smell not too far from where I set up.   

Had several birds come into the puddle I was hunting in pairs & groups of 3 or 4 right before LST.  Probably had close to 20 birds in front of me.  Let 'em settle for a bit and waited about 20 minutes while they swam laps around the puddle.  Really, really cool to watch them feeding, socializing and to hear their feeding chuckles and chatter.

Was about to jump 'em up, but one drake made me out and lifted off.  I dropped him, and picked out two more drakes as the flock was climbing and dropped them too.   

My lab Hank was pretty happy to finally get a few retrieves in, though they were about the easiest ones he's ever made. 

blaze, I hear you about the wings.  I was very well hidden next to this little puddle, and the birds coming in were mostly silent, but those wings were whistling loud as they were coming in 10 & 20 feet over my head.  Such a cool sound. 

Saw a few more high flying flocks after that and a few small groups of geese. 

What a beautiful morning to be out.  I know by most standards, that's not a stellar bag of ducks, but it was my best duck hunt ever.  Had a couple of two bird days before, but never 3.  And I was pretty happy after the last 2 days to do it in 3 shots. 

Got my first banded bird this morning. The online band reporting is slick. Found out in a matter of minutes that it was banded in Ontario in 2006. Even better was that I had my best hunting buddy with me.

funny thing crappiefisher , we saw the same exact things yesterday , but easily 90 duck rather than just a few .. but im beginning to think that where hunt im only gonna see hooded megansers ... im slowly learning to be way more selective with my shooting

Only took one goose so far here in South Butler county..

Gonna give it a shot tomorrow morning before the bird goes in the oven...

if anyones plannin on huntin at wilhelm your goin to see like 98% of the birds that fly over are hooded mergansers, thats all ive gotten cuz thats were ive been cuz the river is to high at the moment... a few mallards & shovelers from time to time tho... geese r there just about every day tho if u want some of them... theyre all still fun to shoot tho... went to geneva yesterday (last day till after deer, for goose anyway) & saw some ducks & got a goose. not on the swamp just down at the iron grate bridge were the little dam is.

Had an hour this morning before I had to get going for the day. Decided to see if the weather the last couple days brought some new birds to one of my puddles.

Scratched out a mallard drake, and missed a couple. Not a lot on this puddle this morning, but a quick drive around my area showed lots more geese - even though they're off limits right now - and a good number more mallards than last week.

Gonna give it another go tomorrow at another puddle at my buddy's house right up the road. Said he's been seeing some mallards the past few days on his pond - not a ton, but it only takes 4 good shots for a limit of 'em

Deer can wait till Saturday. Finally hit a point in my hunting career where I prefer ducks over deer. Or maybe it's that I prefer hunting with my lab over not hunting with him. Either way, gotta hunt those ducks before my puddles freeze over and are done for the year. Just too nice being out the door and having my spread set up within 20 minutes.

Got a doe tag for 2B so I have lots of time to fill a deer tag. Antlers are nice, but venison is venison.

I hope genva doesn't freeze up anytime soon

ORIGINAL: blaze16412

I hope genva doesn't freeze up anytime soon

 
As of yesterday the 4th it was starting to freeze & now we are suppossed to get a foot of snow by Tues.
Mike

There was a large flock of swans at Shenango Sat. 3 different groups lifted up around 10.
Saw a ton of geese. Few ducks. Most were beside rt. 18. Looked to be mergansers.