# No more field reports



## Jerry Lamb (Aug 3, 2015)

It seems the guys on this forum have developed lockjaw.

Me too


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## Bayport (Aug 29, 2009)

Jerry Lamb said:


> It seems the guys on this forum have developed lockjaw.
> 
> Me too


No ducks on Wildfowl Bay


Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

I shot one mallard this week.


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## craigrh13 (Oct 24, 2011)

It’s pretty slow everywhere I’ve heard. Good hunts here and there but slim pickings.


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## Highball28 (Oct 17, 2014)

Shot some private land geese on Wednesday. Birds were pretty smart, we managed what we could.

Confession time...

I still personally have not shot a duck this season. Been a great year for geese but holy crap these freaking ducks.









Sent from my SM-S727VL using Tapatalk


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## Boyd (Aug 19, 2006)

Harsens has been SLOW to say the very least.


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## Sea Nags (Dec 26, 2001)

FP has a ton of birds in refuge but they don't leave until dark thirty !

Sent from my SM-N920V using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


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## BumpRacerX (Dec 31, 2009)

One mallard Thursday on short float in the backyard.

Hunted Saturday afternoon in West Branch at the parents, nothing.

Floated again this afternoon, no dice. Only had two birds in the short stretch that I can shoot. The first was a smaller bodied dark duck that I didn't get remotely close to. The second was a fat mallard hen that flushed to my right, while I was looking left with a paddle in my hand, not the shotgun


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## John Singer (Aug 20, 2004)

I hunted duck twice this week and pheasants once. I saw and killed more pheasants than ducks.


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## Jdhunttrapfish (Jan 14, 2016)

We shot 2 mallards yesterday morning, geese didn't want to play


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## Shupac (Apr 17, 2005)

Hunted FP in the morn. yesterday. Aside from swarms of them over the refuge, saw one duck @ 100 yds. out. Guys across the road from me shot quite a bit.


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## flighthunter (Nov 21, 2005)

I will be walking out the door about 150 yds to the spot shortly. Hunted Saturday and Sunday around charlevoix. All buffs and eyes. No mallards or geese sighted on Saturday. About 6 mallards Sunday and 3 geese seen. Was able to have fun both days shooting the black and whites. I guess there was snow last night in the up. Watched the horizon until dark and there were some mallards flying south. This morning they’re already getting loud on the water. Hopefully it’s a good day. Wind is perfect for the spot. Saturday it was right in my face Sunday was a cross wind. Will post some pics later.


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## Doug1028 (Jan 11, 2015)

Hunted st charles last night, one goose for our group of 3, waited 30 mins to see if the birds would fly into the zones and nothing, birds are stale and pressure on the managed area with a bad year for crops means you need the gods to give you a good draw or you’ll b watching the show


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## Wall-llard Willie (Sep 10, 2004)

I had a couple of buffy shoots on LSC the past week with the odd bb or rh mixed in.


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## dinoday (Feb 22, 2004)

Went out yesterday, saw 1 woodie and 2 mallard, none close enough to shoot and that was it.
I didn't even hear anything calling at sun up.
Slow as it gets.


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## meganddeg (Sep 29, 2010)

Sea Nags said:


> FP has a ton of birds in refuge but they don't leave until dark thirty !
> 
> Sent from my SM-N920V using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


I'll send that.


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## AaronJohn (Oct 18, 2015)

We are cleaning up the geese frequently. Fields are starting to hold ducks if it’s wet. 

Been shooting good amount of mallards on private land, not like last year. Lots of woodies but that’s par for the course. 

Actually had two really good public hunts too: all thanks to scouting. Only hunted them because we new when they were using to the exact minute. 


Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


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## BFG (Mar 4, 2005)

Big time cold coming this week. If you don't start seeing flight mallards by the weekend I would be slightly worried.


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## zoombaiter25 (Oct 27, 2011)

Only been having luck with honkers lately. Took time off of work last week and hunted 3 managed areas with similar results.

St Charles Monday morning. 2 ducks. Not much flying off the refuge
Muskegon WW Tuesday 0 birds. Geese flying to private land and hardly any ducks
Harsens Island Fri, Sat, Sun morning hunts. 3, 2, 1 ducks on each hunt. Horrible kill counts all weekend according to the DNR

This state needs a fresh push for sure


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## Aaronjeep2 (Nov 18, 2016)

Seen about 500 mile high ducks heading south Sunday morning.


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## craigrh13 (Oct 24, 2011)

Shot my mallards a black and 2 geese over 26 bottles at the bingo this morning. All birds were feet down in the spread. The black and one of the geese actually landed.


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## John Singer (Aug 20, 2004)

Did you anchor those bottles with spark plugs or hex nuts?


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## craigrh13 (Oct 24, 2011)

John Singer said:


> Did you anchor those bottles with spark plugs or hex nuts?


Bailing twine and old weights I had laying around!


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

Best post of the year. Possibly ever.


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## lefty421 (Dec 7, 2012)

Just imagine if you would have flocked those bottles!


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## monkel (Nov 11, 2013)

craigrh13 said:


> Shot my mallards a black and 2 geese over 26 bottles at the bingo this morning. All birds were feet down in the spread. The black and one of the geese actually landed.
> View attachment 338513
> View attachment 338511
> View attachment 338509
> ...


wait... is this real life? This is possibly the best/most hilarious thing i've seen in a very long time.


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## Doug1028 (Jan 11, 2015)

Craig do you remember st charles in its hey day, flocks of hundreds of mallards cupping over them damn super mags......we had rollers to the south prior marshes, we lived for that three day split when they opened the refuge over thanksgiving, 1-4b, a,b,c, the mill pond, no winches, congrats on your hunt


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## StiffNeckRob (Apr 19, 2007)

monkel said:


> wait... is this real life? This is possibly the best/most hilarious thing i've seen in a very long time.


He's been threatening to do it for weeks on FB. He def backed up his smack talk. Lol


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## lefty421 (Dec 7, 2012)

zoombaiter25 said:


> Only been having luck with honkers lately. Took time off of work last week and hunted 3 managed areas with similar results.
> 
> St Charles Monday morning. 2 ducks. Not much flying off the refuge
> Muskegon WW Tuesday 0 birds. Geese flying to private land and hardly any ducks
> ...


Lots of divers on the bay. We don't normally hunt them, but we did this past weekend and had a lot of fun. Divers seem really dumb compared to the dabblers we usually target. We had hundreds of divers, mostly blue bills cupping into our spread all morning, a few mallards too. We saw thousands of divers flying all over. We hunted the shore, and were covered in BB's. Easy limits of those. Out deep, the large rafts of birds looked like smoke clouds billowing up in the distance. There are lots of birds on the bay to get after. I plan on making jerky with those BB's. If it's not edible, then the dog gets some new snacks I guess. Its better than staying home!


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

Let the black jug decoy wars begin. I've got empty cat litter containers that are like super super mags.


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## craigrh13 (Oct 24, 2011)

Doug1028 said:


> Craig do you remember st charles in its hey day, flocks of hundreds of mallards cupping over them damn super mags......we had rollers to the south prior marshes, we lived for that three day split when they opened the refuge over thanksgiving, 1-4b, a,b,c, the mill pond, no winches, congrats on your hunt


Thanks. 

That must have been a long time ago. I did not hunt there during that time.


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## charminultra (Feb 8, 2017)

craigrh13 said:


> Shot my mallards a black and 2 geese over 26 bottles at the bingo this morning. All birds were feet down in the spread. The black and one of the geese actually landed.
> View attachment 338513
> View attachment 338511
> View attachment 338509
> ...


Obviously you painted your face, or else those ducks would have seen you behind all those 2 liters.


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## craigrh13 (Oct 24, 2011)

charminultra said:


> Obviously you painted your face, or else those ducks would have seen you behind all those 2 liters.


Obviously.


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## waxico (Jan 21, 2008)

Some observations:
1) Many birds showed up between September 15-30, early this year.
2) The first 10 days of the season we had unreal shooting.
3) A major number of birds left 9 days ago on the north wind. Our recent totals are less than half of what they were early in the season.
4) The Wild Rice has come back spectacularly. I've never in 42 years of hunting seen such a robust crop.
5) Coincidentally, we are shooting the most Bluebills in 30 years. Blacks are way up too.
6) Inversely, we have only shot 2 teal, and no Widgeon.
7) We are getting a steady stream of small migrations, enough to reload with a few birds. They stay a day or two, then split. But it varies by the day. Same spot, we shot 5 one day, next day 13, next day 3.
8) Should be an interesting last month if we can keep the ice away.


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## flighthunter (Nov 21, 2005)

Posted earlier in the thread... Monday was a bit of a disappointment with only 3 buffs taken. Maybe it was the south wind, who knows. Either way finished the 3 days with 14 ducks. Of course had 3 mallards commit from across the lake as I was bs’ing with my wife on shore, then circle past us looking for the source of the duck call 150 yds from the decoys. The worst part of that is that she says get your gun they might come over here, lesson learned... listen to your wife.


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## Lurker (Jan 25, 2009)

HI every Monday and Thursday.
4+ birds per trip.
Buddy is doing slightly less.


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## duckbuster0123 (Jan 31, 2013)

Lot of work after those north winds a few weeks ago!! But getting a few here and there


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

Channeled my inner Dedgoose this morning. Did not want to spend a vacation day in full Zombie mode with two 14 hour days coming up, so I passed on a hunt this morning after being up until 1:30 and stayed in bed watching One Flew Over the Cockoo's Nest with the wife. We went and voted, then ran some errands, got Fazolli's, and picked up a bushel of grade two Cortland apples as my youngest loves them.

It's great to take the kids and pick apples, but at $1 a pound u pick vs. $15 a bushel and they load them into the Jeep in the rain, well...


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## Jerry Lamb (Aug 3, 2015)

Great report. I guess Cuckoos are technically birds. Close enough.


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

Sold decoys, bought new decoys, no questions asked.

Stripped reel while fishing with wife and daughter, buy new reel no questions asked.

Sell firewood, buy, what I like to call gift wrapping for my favorite presents. 

I won the wife lottery. If that means skipping a hunt or two, so be it. If that means spending hard earned firewood money on stuff for the wife or family, so be it. (Not to say I didn't research the rental rate on the Gaddyshsck. It's about 11 cords for a week)


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