# Official 2018/19 Todd Farm thread



## West side shooter

Lots of changes at the Farm for this season, who is ready for the west side season to get rolling?
We will be hitting the youth hunt/opener tomorrow and regular hunt on Sunday.


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## AaronJohn

Won’t hit it till late season, good luck!!!!!!


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## Far Beyond Driven

Sitting in the Jeep waiting for a rain shower to pass. Got almost two hours to set up so no hurry, only have 13 dozen decoys to set. Almost bailed this morning but my first pick of the second field I wanted was on the board. Don't think I have neighbors to the south, so with no wind I'm going as far from my neighbors to north as I can. Will post updates.


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## Far Beyond Driven

Frustrating. We set up at the bottom of our zone, neighbor set up on the gap 60 yards away. Single goose came in from behind and was going to die, flew over them and they folded it. Ok. Nice shot. But I am the only guy running spinnies and when the ducks are circling my spinnies don't light them up fifty up in full cup headed my way.

Maybe they learned as we just had a single hen work a tight but fast lap and they let her slide. It was close enough but my daughter could not catch up to it as it banked behind us.

Guys to the north blew a gimme single that wanted to die. Couple big flocks just came out but not looking.

Kind of slow all around. Not nearly the shooting I'd expected.


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## jduck

Is there a map around of what they did to the zones now?


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## West side shooter

We had a pretty decent morning


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## Highball28

Nice job! Did they manage to get the beans in 8 "h thru j" down?

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## Far Beyond Driven

Not yet.


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## West side shooter

41 parties today, drew 30 so we will see what happens


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## West side shooter

Decent afternoon
Drew 30, figured we were already there so might as well hunt.
Scratched out 2 geese and a nice drake, should have had more.


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## West side shooter

Went for a quick afternoon hunt tues, took 5H with the W/SW wind. Some birds moving but nothing close enough for any excitement.


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## jduck

Anyone need a vet for their party to get into the priority Drawing Sunday 11th?

Includes 10dz goose silos, 
1 dz gooose/duck full bodies
4 duck spinners.


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## TNL

jduck, we all need Vets; every day of the year. Thank you for your service!


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## TheHighLIfe

jduck - ditto tnl! thank you for your service. hope you find great guys to hunt with and get a good draw!


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## MILONEWOLF

Well only an hour left to the day and most people in zone 5 were gone except me and SKY BUSTERS. I will go somewhere else for now on. People told me dont go over there, because of that. Birds they were shooting were so high up, maybe suface to air missle, the a few minutes later another flock even higher, same thing.


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## Highball28

MILONEWOLF said:


> Well only an hour left to the day and most people in zone 5 were gone except me and SKY BUSTERS. I will go somewhere else for now on. People told me dont go over there, because of that. Birds they were shooting were so high up, maybe suface to air missle, the a few minutes later another flock even higher, same thing.


5 is usually very consistent. You're gonna run into skybusting all over the unit this time of year, it's certainly not specific to zone. I start hunting the farm when the weather gets super nasty and the skybusters stay home. Lots of geese shot out of 5 that time of year.

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## Far Beyond Driven

We just yell "try again" every time they shoot. The applaud when they're emptied out.


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## MILONEWOLF

Well it had been a laid back time, right up to them shooting at clouds. I was not polite of what I yelled down to the southern part of zone 5. In fact I didn't know they were there until they shot. There were several groups that put out some huge spread of decoys that packed up to move to another field or went home?


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## notime

What came out worked right into the pocket today. That was nice for a change


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## West side shooter

Heading out for the afternoon 
We will see how it goes


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## StiffNeckRob

Far Beyond Driven said:


> Fennville is special like that. There's so many rules that contradict or open up gray areas, that I've hunted it for 30 years and still have to double check a lot of stuff. I for one am not sure when I can hunt zones 1, 9, or 10 any more...


YOU can't. They did that to specifically exclude you lol


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## West side shooter

Going to head out again thurs, see what happens.
This weather has everything mixed around, hopefully some new flights work down.


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## West side shooter

Nothing doing thurs, report was pretty much the same today.
Hopefully the break this week will bring in some more birds and jump start the hunting.


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## JSchipper

Hunted some ditches around the area. Met Mike, real good dude. Heard a ton of shooting for the youth hunt there. How'd everyone do?


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## StiffNeckRob

JSchipper said:


> Hunted some ditches around the area. Met Mike, real good dude. Heard a ton of shooting for the youth hunt there. How'd everyone do?


How were you able to hunt the ditches yesterday?


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## JSchipper

StiffNeckRob said:


> How were you able to hunt the ditches yesterday?


Around the area not on the Todd.


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## West side shooter

22 parties today 
Drew 29?
Bird activity much better than it was a week ago , not sure yet how that will translate to shooting though.


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## Highball28

West side shooter said:


> 22 parties today
> Drew 29?
> Bird activity much better than it was a week ago , not sure yet how that will translate to shooting though.


Thought about it today, didn't like the weather report though. What's the bird count? Gonna be hitting it hard in the next couple weeks.

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## West side shooter

5K Geese and 9K ducks I believe 
Pure TF-
Group next to us comes in at 7:30, sets up 2-3 doz decoys and sky busts the only goose that comes over them at 60+ yds.


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## MILONEWOLF

Skybusting at Todd Farms! For the sake of our sport implement vision testing, fundamentals of what a shotgun with steelshot can do, if that doesn't work , issue seeing eye dogs who demonstrate common sense.


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## Highball28

MILONEWOLF said:


> Skybusting at Todd Farms! For the sake of our sport implement vision testing, fundamentals of what a shotgun with steelshot can do, if that doesn't work , issue seeing eye dogs who demonstrate common sense.


That today?

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## MILONEWOLF

No, not today. I was commenting on West Side Shooters comments. I will not go back to Todd Farm to hunt waterfowl because of the skybusting. My fault for thinking it was a one time event but turned out that it happened every time I went and left early.


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## Highball28

MILONEWOLF said:


> No, not today. I was commenting on West Side Shooters comments. I will not go back to Todd Farm to hunt waterfowl because of the skybusting. My fault for thinking it was a one time event but turned out that it happened every time I went and left early.


It gets better. Keep at it, wait it out. Go when it gets cold. It's an excellent dumb a$$ repellent.

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## Far Beyond Driven

Been happening there forever. You can deal with it, or stay home. Moves me one up in the draw if you do. Have you posted a positive report from there, ever? 

Many people have solid hunts there. Learn from them.

Hunted it three times this year, got birds twice and the third time was the youth hunt with my daughter not being able to catch up with the birds that were blowing through the spread. I could have limited that day easily.


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## Far Beyond Driven

Froze our balls off last year over the holidays only to get idiots next to us. Ended up moving 17 dozen decoys due to them while birds wanted to work. Shot two birds feet down afterwards, ran out a nice blocking arm to cut off their 18 mostly white front shells.


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## MallardMaster

Drove threw on Saturday and saw 1 field on the East end that had birds in it. I honestly saw more deer than geese. They were everywhere. Yesterday I drove through again and didn't see a single bird sitting in the refuge. The creek was even empty. Did see some ducks flying around on the south end. If they are saying that there are 5K there, I am wondering where they were at. I think there were more birds at Schultz park then at the entire Todd Farm. Might need some nasty weather to get things going.


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## fowlpursuit

Made it out yesterday.. really beautiful day.. birds were working back and for and I had a few hard lookers but nothing commited... it was definitely enough to convince me to continue on my new auto goose flapper invention.. the surrounding spreads got O looks


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## MILONEWOLF

I have had hunts early in the season where I had no issues with anyone. It is the recent hunts where the birds are not allowed to work the decoys. Birds clearly over me are being shot at by other zones. They figure if they can't have the birds no one should mentality. Normally I do not bother anyone. I prefer the birds feetdown and about to land.


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## Far Beyond Driven

Guess the bigger zones this year aren't working like they thought they would.


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## MILONEWOLF

I am confused I thought the season ended on 12/9? And does not pick up on the 2 days at the end of the month and then the late season in january?


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## West side shooter

Found a couple ducks this morning


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## waxico

TNL said:


> 40.
> 
> Went solo. Drew 49th...figures. No shots fired on the east side as of 11:30. Very few birds on the 'fuge. Board says 10K ducks and 5.5K geese. They must be someplace else.
> 
> Should've went to Boyne City and tagged in.


Conditions improved a ton today. It was c-o-l-d.


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## MallardMaster

I drove threw at noon and didn’t see a single bird. Saw more on the corner of M40 and the highway than the entire farm.


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## waterfowlhunter83

Myself and StiffneckRob were there this morning but the zones we were gunning for were off the board early. So we got his boat and made a trip over to Lake Erie. I think we made the right call.











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## TNL

waterfowlhunter83 said:


> Myself and StiffneckRob were there this morning but the zones we were gunning for were off the board early. So we got his boat and made a trip over to Lake Erie. I think we made the right call.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


Well played. You guys must be wiped out.


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## Far Beyond Driven

Best Todd Farm report yet. Screw the bad draw and limit out on heavy walleye.












Here's the view from the candle light dinner at the top of Boyne Highlands on Friday. They were thawing out the pipes and turning on pretty much every snow maker as soon as it got cold enough.


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## waxico

Far Beyond Driven said:


> Best Todd Farm report yet. Screw the bad draw and limit out on heavy walleye.
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 358549
> 
> 
> Here's the view from the candle light dinner at the top of Boyne Highlands on Friday. They were thawing out the pipes and turning on pretty much every snow maker as soon as it got cold enough.


You were witnessing the work of a friend of mine, whom is in charge of snowmaking at the Highlands. Glad I came up here, my cousin hunted with LumberJ and they 0fered. There were thousands near them but the 20 boats going out in the morning didn't help.


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## Far Beyond Driven

I would thing an o fer with Lumber J would still be highly entertaining. We shot nothing at Fennville Thursday in horrible weather and I hurt myself laughing as the crew was hysterical.

We covered every thing from meat ball subs flavored with horse crap to Burning Man for geese to the rise and fall of Ford's truck inventory.


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## West side shooter

Wrapped up the Farm duck season with an 0 for 2 hunts after our 2 bird Saturday morning, decided to skip the draw today after seeing no working birds this am. 
Here is hoping we get some weather and new birds soon or this season will be a bust for us.


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## StiffNeckRob

Day 2 of the Fennville blow off went something like this. Funniest looking Mallards I've seen in awhile.


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## waxico

Liquid Gold


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## ice ghost

Todd farm thread seems about right. Guys showing pictures of candle light dinners and talking skiing.


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## Far Beyond Driven

Lots of hens in that picture.


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## BaldwinHunter

anyone hunt the farm this week?


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## Far Beyond Driven

Bet Friday was brutal. Blue sky, no wind, no new birds. I saw 400 geese in a hay field in Indiana when there's as many corn fields as the eye can see.


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## BaldwinHunter

I don't see enough cold in the future to get me back down there this year!


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## AaronJohn

First year living on the west side was hoping for better weather than this!! 


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## Far Beyond Driven

I put the decoys in long term storage last night. I'll come out of retirement if needed, but perch and steelhead sound better right now.

Gotta love West Michigan. 100's of options half an hour from my house.


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## notime

stale birds is an understatement...need a good week or two of freeze up.


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## Far Beyond Driven

West Side Shooter took 40% of the ducks over the split. There were five ducks taken that weekend. Ouch.

I put up a cord of wood this weekend which will be sold to buy decoys which will go straight into storage as I'm not going to subject them to Fennville.


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## MIfishslayer91

Far Beyond Driven said:


> Best Todd Farm report yet. Screw the bad draw and limit out on heavy walleye.
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 358549
> 
> 
> Here's the view from the candle light dinner at the top of Boyne Highlands on Friday. They were thawing out the pipes and turning on pretty much every snow maker as soon as it got cold enough.


Ehh I don’t know about “best” report yet lol I would hands down freeze my arse off and get skunked before you ever caught me at a “candle light dinner” with a bunch of yuppies at Boyne.


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## Far Beyond Driven

The best report was for the "we drew 40th or so and went to Erie and caught a limit of walleye" put up by WH83 and SNR.


The dinner was pretty cool though. We went to get on the sleigh and this older couple said we could not sit next to them, as that would get in the way of taking pictures. I informed them that my tickets cost the same as theirs, and there were no other seats, so I'd be sitting wherever the h I wanted.

We get to the dinner and guess out of 30 people who we are seated next to? But the couple on the other side of us were truly awesome people and we had a great time hanging out with them. The crotchety older folks said maybe three words to each other the whole time.


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## grassmaster

Chandlers in Petoskey, slightly better than the Blue Goose cafe, unless its snowing silver dollar snowflakes and you have #1 redraw in your pocket.


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## TNL

+1 on Chandlers in P-town. Although the best fish in the state is at Terry's in Charlevoix. Good duck too!


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## waxico

TNL said:


> +1 on Chandlers in P-town. Although the best fish in the state is at Terry's in Charlevoix. Good duck too!


Make sure to say Hi to Scott the head bartender for me.


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## MILONEWOLF

By reading the glowing reports of stale birds at Fennville, so the question is did they just fly on by? Never made this far South? I have heard of a few people here n there getting birds, and nothing consistent. Or, brace yourselves, the birds have gotten smarter than the average duckhunter?


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## Highball28

Haven't made it south yet. No need to. An hour away in muskegon they have an open lagoon, acres upon acres of corn, and nobody to shoot them. Until we get a hard freeze they won't come down. Gonna try this Saturday but mostly because I have nothing to do.

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## AaronJohn

Lots of open water and food in SW Michigan. As to what is here: they eat, sleep and poop in the same spot every day. Basically what highball said. 


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## BaldwinHunter

They haven't


Highball28 said:


> Haven't made it south yet. No need to. An hour away in muskegon they have an open lagoon, acres upon acres of corn, and nobody to shoot them. Until we get a hard freeze they won't come down. Gonna try this Saturday but mostly because I have nothing to do.
> 
> Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk


 They even hardly made it to Muskegon like they should.


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## Far Beyond Driven

Don't forget last year when we hunted on Christmas break is was -4 when we set decoys one day. A few weeks later we were digging into 4' drifts in the corn in 8M.

We haven't had any shot of cold weather yet to pull the birds into Fennville.


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## West side shooter

Live from the NE quadrant with a 14 draw-
It’s a Brisk N/NE breeze today with very little action. Lots of birds from the north at first light but ver little activity since.
We


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## BaldwinHunter

How many parties? Count?


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## Highball28

30 parties with dead balls. Got a poor draw, went north and shot a bird. Lots of birds coming from the kzoo in saugatuck and off of hutchins. A few looked but not the majority. A pair just got a little too close...

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## AaronJohn

Will add that my “spot” in SW Michigan was feeding more birds than I’ve seen since early season. 

Possibly calendar push they’re only feeding when they absolutely have to otherwise it’s loaf city. 


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## Highball28

Things are starting to freeze, we are right on the cusp.

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## TNL

Next weekend looks mighty cold. May not have a bunch of snow, but water is definitely going to lock up. Hopefully it flips the switch.


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## spartansfan

Fwiw, I've seen a huge increase of birds in berrien county. Definitely has some to do with water freezing and birds grouping up. However have seen some snows and specks which typically signals winter birds being in my area.

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## MallardMaster

Just came up 31 from Indy yesterday and most of the ponds/lakes next to the highway are all froze up. To be honest, I only saw (3) flocks in the air around Plymouth. Not a whole lot going on. Afraid that if it gets cold here they are just going to keep on moving right through Indiana.


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## Highball28

Last year was the first year I've seen the creek on the farm 100% freeze over. This caused A LOT of birds to leave. They usually leave it pretty open and I'm not too worried about it. Pretty tough to leave when they have the open water and a tremendous food source.

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## MILONEWOLF

Anyone going out this Saturday? Wife giving me crap about planning on going. Am I the only crazy person!


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## BaldwinHunter

craigrh13 said:


> They were at 276 on Friday. 43 were shot yesterday. Hopefully they can get the changes hey want to the area to help out. I know there’s a lot of potential for ducks there.


 a ton of potential for ducks for sure!


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## waterfowlhunter83

craigrh13 said:


> I know there’s a lot of potential for ducks there.


Been saying that since the early 2000’s and it fell on deaf ears with the staff at the time. The Farm was still shooting 1000+ geese a season during that time. Now that the “old guard” has retired and the goose hunting continues to decline there, it is the perfect time to explore more that potential. Some of the improvements already done are great additions but there is more that could be done to further improve the duck hunting there.


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## craigrh13

waterfowlhunter83 said:


> Been saying that since the early 2000’s and it fell on deaf ears with the staff at the time. The Farm was still shooting 1000+ geese a season during that time. Now that the “old guard” has retired and the goose hunting continues to decline there, it is the perfect time to explore more that potential. Some of the improvements already done are great additions but there is more that could be done to further improve the duck hunting there.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


Stop in and talk with mike and Don. I think you will be happy with what he and Don want to do to the area and what is already being started that you probably can’t see right now.


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## grassmaster

The farm has went from shooting 5000 birds a year in the 70s, to maybe shooting 500 now.
Way more geese now, I think everyone would agree with that.
Other than instinctive behavior from 100s of years ago when that whole place was underwater
I just cant see how a ditch with open water would ever be expected to produce more than a couple 100 geese per year.
your not even hunting over a food source for god's sake. tundra grass!
I've leased pasture ponds that kill over 300 a season.
How few hunters does it take to just close the place down and make it state land, or sell it.
Don't have a cow I'm not the only one who wonders why that place has more staff then hunters.
I've been in the waterfowl business for over 25 years now because of that place.
It was once a field of dreams, sounds of gunshots almost non stop from the distance,
laughter as we huddled outside yelling shake em up, you had to wait for a table at the Blue goose cafe.
I had a guide in Arkansas tell me never to buy hunting land for waterfowl ,only lease it.
The reason being is that birds invariably will change there habits and you'll be stuck with a gar hole.
which by all accounts the last 10-20 years it what Todd Farm has become.


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## Far Beyond Driven

More like 1000-1500 most years, with a couple exceptions. That still puts it above most of the other managed units for goose kill most years. Shiawassee and Fish Point on a good year may kill 1000.

I'd rather go there knowing I'm probably going to get within a zone or two of my first pick than go down there and not even know I'm going to hunt as I just drew 144th. Yes, there's fewer birds there, but there are fewer hunters. It is what it is, and serves its purpose.  Not all of us have the time or resources to line up private property, especially those of us that hunt when we can, and can't justify the resources needed.


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## MILONEWOLF

So the geese are not concentrating at the Farm like they use to? But they are dispersing throughout Southern Michigan or moving out of the area altogether?


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## craigrh13

MILONEWOLF said:


> So the geese are not concentrating at the Farm like they use to? But they are dispersing throughout Southern Michigan or moving out of the area altogether?


From what I’ve gathered from attending CWAC is we have different geese all together, shifting flyways and geese that are more spread out. You don’t see the massive concentration of geese ANYWHERE like you did at the Farm.


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## BaldwinHunter

Im in the Muskegon area and the geese have changed their patterns a ton. Don't get me wrong, you can still kill them but im spending a ton more on gas to find them in smaller numbers than say five years ago.


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## MILONEWOLF

I dont doubt the change. Lived in Portage for the last 23 years and there are more geese in the city limits than ever. They land on the big cooling pond by Pfizer, and gather in mass on the lawn next to where I work. Not a few dozen but a couple of thousand of them. Fun to watch. So the geese did get smarter.


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## West side shooter

Live from a windy and cold northern zone- nothing moving yet but our neighbors just showed up to set their decoys!


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## stacemo

Maybe they read DU magazine article that says that on cold days, geese fly during the warmest part of the day. If I go out tomorrow for the opener, it will be after noon. The past 2 weeks, on warm days (~> 25 degrees) I have seen geese moving at 10 AM, but on cold days (~<20 degrees) I have seen geese moving 1 - 3 PM. Of course that is just my locale in SE MI. Everywhere can be different.


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## AaronJohn

stacemo said:


> Maybe they read DU magazine article that says that on cold days, geese fly during the warmest part of the day. If I go out tomorrow for the opener, it will be after noon. The past 2 weeks, on warm days (~> 25 degrees) I have seen geese moving at 10 AM, but on cold days (~<20 degrees) I have seen geese moving 1 - 3 PM. Of course that is just my locale in SE MI. Everywhere can be different.


accurate to my observations in SW MI for last 1.5 weeks. Today is cold, I'm betting on birds feedings at 2-3:00 in my "indicator" field.


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## Far Beyond Driven

The next ten days range from cold to stupid cold to WTF cold. Geese gotta eat sometime....


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## dawntodusk

Question from a Todd farm noob: What is the party size allowed? Is it 4 like the other managed areas? I thought I remember it being larger but can’t seem to find it again. Thanks!


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## Far Beyond Driven

Well my season is over. Three broken bones in the foot. Not supposed to put weight on it for 4-6 weeks.

No to figure out how I'm driving a manual in a walking boot.



Parry size is 1-6. No penalty for singles.


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## notime

dawntodusk said:


> Question from a Todd farm noob: What is the party size allowed? Is it 4 like the other managed areas? I thought I remember it being larger but can’t seem to find it again. Thanks!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


1-6


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## West side shooter

Report for the day, had 3 pack work the decoys but slid off and got lit up by a group 2 zones down. Heard some other shooting but tough sledding with the wind


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## West side shooter

Weekend report-
Birds will work if you let them and lots of guys had some good days. We personally know a couple groups that put up some good #s for the Farm.
Some good hunting before the season ends!


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## waxico

Far Beyond Driven said:


> Well my season is over. Three broken bones in the foot. Not supposed to put weight on it for 4-6 weeks.
> 
> No to figure out how I'm driving a manual in a walking boot.
> 
> 
> 
> Parry size is 1-6. No penalty for singles.


What happened?


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## spartansfan

As per typically with this gnarly weather, south of the farm we have more geese and ducks than I've seen all year. Yesterday I scouted a field with 500 honkers and 200 ducks. I don't think I'm willing to brave the outdoors for a few days though.

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## Far Beyond Driven

I was worried as soon as we got corn strips at Muskegon we'd get the lazy guys from Fennville. We did. They didn't scout and never shot anything, so we never saw them again.

If you hunt Fennville enough you'll get stupid neighbors. It's a pity as the zones are so small they will screw you. But the majority of your hunts will be ok.


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## West side shooter

You don’t need to pass shoot birds all the time, they will decoy if you let them!


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## craigrh13

Far Beyond Driven said:


> I was worried as soon as we got corn strips at Muskegon we'd get the lazy guys from Fennville. We did. They didn't scout and never shot anything, so we never saw them again.
> 
> If you hunt Fennville enough you'll get stupid neighbors. It's a pity as the zones are so small they will screw you. But the majority of your hunts will be ok.


Have they thought about or has anyone brought up eliminating some zones and changing boundary lines to make the zones bigger? I mean, they don’t get near the numbers they used to. So there’s frankly no need for that quantity so why not increase quality?


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## Highball28

craigrh13 said:


> Have they thought about or has anyone brought up eliminating some zones and changing boundary lines to make the zones bigger? I mean, they don’t get near the numbers they used to. So there’s frankly no need for that quantity so why not increase quality?


They made them bigger this year. Eliminated a few, and re numbered them so they actually make sense.

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## Far Beyond Driven

Still nothing like you'd be used to at other units. The 30's and 40's at Shiawasee would be the closest I think, but still at least 2-3x as wide. The south field at Nyanquing Point blew me away with how huge the zones were.


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## BaldwinHunter

Ill be there today, tomorrow, and all weekend. If nothing else its great entertainment!


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## Far Beyond Driven

Birds were moving on my ride to IN this morning.


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## BaldwinHunter

They be moving. Captured a few so far.


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## West side shooter

If there is no school tomorrow we will probably be out, but for sure Saturday and Tues to wrap up our season.


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## BaldwinHunter

I’ll be back in the morning.


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## Far Beyond Driven

It's pretty raw out there. Just wanted to point that out. In case you hadn't noticed.


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## BaldwinHunter

I currently can’t feel my face. But I’m picking up because I just tripled for my limit.


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## BaldwinHunter

Yesterday and today.


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## Highball28

Way to improvise in bad corn with the grass mats!

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## MILONEWOLF

Nice, congrats. Never had them close enough to shoot. Others in adjoining zones did not want me to shoot birds in my zone.


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## BaldwinHunter

Today or yesterday?


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## Far Beyond Driven

Every time he's been there if you read his reports.


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## BaldwinHunter

Highball28 said:


> Way to improvise in bad corn with the grass mats!
> 
> Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk


Had to do something! Pretty beat down out there!


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## BaldwinHunter

I ha


Far Beyond Driven said:


> Every time he's been there if you read his reports.


 ahh.unfortunately it goes with the territory. You can let it ruin your day or just get over it.


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## West side shooter

Went yesterday morning, pretty slow day. Only managed one bird, passed on another at 40yds because we thought it was getting down in the decoys and it rode the breeze over to the neighbors. Saw pics of a snow that was shot as well, but didn’t hear much shooting. Birds cut right off about 11am, literally nothing flew after that. Very few birds coming into the Farm leads me to believe that most birds roosted on the Farm from Friday to Saturday.


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## notime

Made it out today for the last of season for me. Had one small flock give us a fly over and managed one.


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## BaldwinHunter

notime said:


> View attachment 372525
> Made it out today for the last of season for me. Had one small flock give us a fly over and managed one.


8i?


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## notime

BaldwinHunter said:


> 8i?


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## BaldwinHunter

I was in 8J


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## notime

BaldwinHunter said:


> I was in 8J


Nice looking pup you had out there.


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## fowlpursuit

Made it out yesterday as well.. plenty of activity but very few working decoys.. managed to stone 2 out of a 3 pack that came to close.. also recovered a spec for the neighbors that they sailed earlier


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## hammerdown

thanks again for doing that man does not happen to often up her


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## fowlpursuit

No prob.. figured that’s someone’s trophy..


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## Highball28

I hate hunting bad winds but it looks like for the last couple days of the season here the wind will be all over the place. What kind of spread does everyone set when you hunt the wrong wind?

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## fowlpursuit

Replicate what you see the birds doing.. I hardly ever use a “j” or a “u” . I set a couple or 3 separate groups. This opens up several approach directions. The birds will tell you how they wanna do it.. adjust your shooting position accordingly


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## Far Beyond Driven

Depending on the zone, don't be afraid to set decoys behind you as well. Especially if there are birds coming in from that direction. Last year we were in 8m and piled a couple dozen behind us, had a single come in totally silent and was about 4' up when he got dropped, not by me, I never saw him. Had another day on a brutal SW wind in old 2R where I put 8 dozen sleepers up on the bluff by the creek and shot two birds coming in from the Ottawa that locked up 1/2 mile out and tried to land up there. My neighbors were kind enough to gap sit and shoot one off those decoys too, dropped it over the creek and then asked me to get it. Nice guys.

Other than that, wind in the face, two big staggered pods seem to work pretty well. Just account for enough room that if they swing to do it right, they don't get out of your zone.


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## Highball28

Party number 5 today, bingo balls. Told my buddy I was feeling lucky as I went to pull the first ball out of the bucket. Number 5... Got booed on the way in to pick the zone Lol. 

Set a 4 pod spread with some behind and some in front, looked real nice. 10 minutes in and a pair comes straight out and into the pocket. Went feet down a bit early at about 35 yards and we used a few more shells than we would've liked to anchor them. The snow picked up after that and so did we. Couldn't see your hand in front of your face let alone the decoys or the geese. 

No hero shot, didn't dare take my hands out of my gloves!

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## West side shooter

I don’t know that I have ever seen someone pick themselves for the #1 draw! 
We drew 3rd, headed to 2N and watched Hiball and his guys work that pair in and take them out. Besides those birds, never had any serious birds give us a look. Wind kicked up out of the west, driving snow into our faces and we decided to call it a season. Still a great year overall and I look forward to some of the changes I have heard proposed for the Farm.


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## Far Beyond Driven

Got any details on these changes?


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## craigrh13

Far Beyond Driven said:


> Got any details on these changes?


Lots of good changes to the area to improve duck hunting. Changes to the old backside 8 areas and MAYBE MAYBE moving around the refuge lines opening that up.


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## dawntodusk

West side shooter said:


> When you have neighbors that want to work together, everyone can shoot birds. Our other side neighbors were good guys, shot 5 birds and even thanked us for helping them out with calling during our hunt. The whole “sitting on the cut” came from them thinking they shot a goose in our zone that we actually shot and finished off.
> Now that I know who they are and how they hunt, I can be better prepared for the next time.


Kind of a late report but mostly wanted to thank those in this thread for answering questions and offering a lot of great tips. 

We were in the other zone next to you that day and managed 5. A whole lot better than the day before when nothing flew! It was only my third time at the farm and felt very good to have a pretty successful day. We all had a great time catching up with some good buddies and getting to watch a lot of geese. 

Sucks when you have neighbors like the above, but like you said good to take note of them and avoid in the future. The day before this picture, this same guy was set up in the turn-around in the road and wouldn’t move any decoys to let me turn my truck and trailer around. 

Thanks again to everyone that offers such great info about this place. I am excited to continue to learn what all it has to offer. 











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## West side shooter

It was an excellent day!
We would hunt with you guys anytime, just hit me up sometime.


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## Highball28

Tough year on the unit but looking back it was somewhat consistent. Lots of one and two bird days.

Saved all our good draws for the end of the season and took 8j again for the 2nd hunt in a row. In the last hour a 4 pack came out of nowhere from the south, gave us a good look and we took two of them swinging 35 overhead. Thanks to Jschipper for enduring the Todd farm for one more hunt! I'd say it was worth it.

















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## JSchipper

Only my 3rd hunt at the Ol' Todd. Slow day but worth the wait. Highball is a heck of a hunter and a good dude to have to BS with in the blind. Looking forward to more hunts with you guys!


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## BaldwinHunter

That corn in 8J was thin! I had a blast at the farm this year but not until February. Learned a lot. Im a mww guy but it was fun to come down and learn a new GMU. I look forward to next year.


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