# Todd Farms opener (Allegan)



## maxloadBBB (Nov 21, 2009)

Anyone taking any youngin's on saturday? Who is going to go for the opener Sunday, anyone? 
I have not been up there is 6 years or so, so I think I will go and check it out, I have heard there are not many birds there but ohh well, A bad day hunting with some buddies is always better than a good day at work.


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## Sparky23 (Aug 15, 2007)

There is some birds but, better pray for wind and a very good draw and or good neigbors.


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## waterfowlhunter83 (Aug 10, 2005)

Cue the clown music...


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## maxloadBBB (Nov 21, 2009)

well, I have usually had good luck up there when I used to go, its a good time up there and I havent had any problems with people in the zones around me. I personally dont have many places to hunt around here, and especially nowhere that holds thousands of birds.


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## TeamFowlAssassins (Nov 7, 2007)

I would think sat. would be good there. Quite a few geese, and they are spread out in the zones right now due to not being hunted yet for the most part... Plus with the weather I'd say it might be a good opener there this year for the youth!


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## norton shores killer (Oct 24, 2009)

is it just youth that can hunt tommorow or is it parties with youth get priority and then partys without get to draw


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## waterfowlhunter83 (Aug 10, 2005)

just youth


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## norton shores killer (Oct 24, 2009)

thanks 83 you just saved me an hour drive at 4 in the morning


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

Only youth parties and only the youth can hunt.

If you haven't been hosed by your neighbors, you haven't been hunting the farm regularly. It's in my back yard but I'll drive 60 miles to the MWW given a chance.




So, that said, here's a Todd Farm story for you.

Need some ducks to salvage a dismal season. Roll into the farm this morning and only find one truck in the lot where I'm hunting, and they're deer hunters. OK. So we chat (I'm not that outgoing) and since they were there first, I ask them where they're headed. _A and _C. Cool. I can go where I wanted.

Set my spread in the dark and break the wires off one of the spinnies. Battery dead in the other. I can swap. Oh wait, I soldered the one together. Nice.

Finger starts throbbing. Took a big chunk out putting a new pump on the Jeep and just got the dressing off. Find the remnants of a bag of pancake mix all through the decoy bag from not unpacking the wife's SUV quickly enough. You can't clean that stuff off. Better.

Get set up and right at hours a group of 20 comes out and worked really low and tight. Right into _B, between the two deer hunters. Never mind the 3 spinnies and 4 dozen ducks over here you know.

Twice the herds of geese get up, both times they came over and brought a few little friends with them. No joy.

Soon the geese start landing right off the end of my zone. Sweet. Out come four mallards. Drake peels off and lines up on the spread, and then flares like someone insulted his mother. Look over and in the next zone is a deer hunter. Not hidden in the corn, but sitting, in orange from head to toe, 15' out from the corn on a chair. Sat there for about 1/2 hour. OK, that explains a lot.

Then a pheasant that sounded like a squeeky dog toy that had been abused so long it could not longer cry landed behind me and serenaded me with this awful racket to the point where the first clear shot I would have been hard pressed not to turn him into soup meat.

So I finally give up about a hour after the pumpkin leaves, only to have three mallards work perfectly with me in the spread, gun cased. And as I walk out, two bust out of the ditch at 20 yards. And while picking up the decoys on the second trip, my finger tip split back open and I could not get it to clot. But then, I had pancake mix handy. So with a quick dip in that, the bleeding stopped.

If you get a zone tomorrow and you think a coke head had it recently, it's just BisQuick.

I redeemed the day by taking my 6 year old daughter out in the 14' and she landed her first river steelie, a 5# hen that went back unharmed. Epic.


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## norton shores killer (Oct 24, 2009)

mww is in my back yard and im not sure why in the world you would drive sixty miles to get here


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## Horseshoe (Oct 15, 2003)

Taking my boy out in the morning. Hopefully we get a good pick. He has only been a spectator to this point, so tomorrow he gets to be the trigger man and I get to spectate. Hopefully will video tape him killing his first goose. We'll see how it goes. All packed and ready. I'll be up there sunday with gun in hand.


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

I like to hunt birds. I like to scout and get rewarded for it. I don't like my hunts being dictated on a whim by my neighbors. I don't mind working and carrying and hiding in fields w/o cover. It makes me a better hunter.

We run huge spreads and get birds 1 out of 3 trips at the Farm. At MWW I ran 21 trips in a row over 3 years from opener to 18" of snow, 60 mph winds, hail, lightning, and came home with birds every time.


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## backroadstravler (Jul 12, 2006)

Kevin, we are all happy you like the waste water.


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## Far Beyond Driven (Jan 23, 2006)

Thanks Erv.

I like the Todd Farm too. Where else can you:

Have the guys next to you shoot their four birds over your spread as they sit in the gap between zones? I then shot my bird, before I could pick up the redraw guys came in and told me "don't pick up, the guys before us said we could sit in the gap and shoot birds over your decoys"

Watch a group in 7 cripple 13 birds, make no effort to retrieve any of them including some that landed in plain sight on 116th? I walked out with my two that day without shouldering my gun. Not that we could have shot anything, these guys were shooting over our heads at birds on the far side of our spread from them that we let pass - easily 150 yards from them. Steel makes a nice sound going over your head. 

Have a guide in the next zone with clients that rattled off all 60 rounds without hitting a goose, all of them at birds that at least started within 40 yards. He ripped into them and then as he walked by to get the truck told us "I won't be getting a tip today"

Watch 2000+ birds come out on the deck over zone 5, and the moment the first bird crossed the line, one guy touches off and scares them all back into the refuge.

Sit on the way north end in the late split and watch the guys in the Christmas tree farms shoot over 2 cases of shells for a grand total of 1 dead, 3 sailed, and who knows how many gut shot for coyote chow once they made it to the refuge. When talked to, the best answer was "if I only lead them a little more, I'd have hit them".

Get your decoys peppered (after diving to the ground) when the guys next to you mop up a cripple by shooting back at the corn.

Watch guys get all their gear stuffed into the back of the green truck after trying to take out sandhill cranes. As one told the other, "I said they had long legs". Yeah, but you both shot.

Bad calling. I guess bad calling is like sex as even when it's bad, it's still fun, so people who call badly still call a lot as it's better than not calling at all. Yes I suck with a duck call, but I know it and use the call sparingly and rely on other tricks to get ducks to me.


At least if you pay attention, with the high hunter density you can learn really quick what works and what doesn't. And there's always remnants of the mint that used to be farmed there to chew on while watching the show....


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## RyanV (Oct 7, 2009)

My truck has 3 chips in the windshield that showed up a morning when parked in the lot by the bridge between zones 2 and 3. Gives it great character. Had a guy accuse me of stealing his bird a few years ago, he confronted me at the head quarters when i checked it in. After he hit it (a pass shot at a flock), it went on at a half mile flight West of zone 4 before pealing back towards the refuge and setting in perfectly to the dekes, maybe 4 sections down from him. I couldn't stop chuckling at him, I am not a serious waterfowl hunter, just go there once in awhile for the entertainment value.

Ryan


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## maxloadBBB (Nov 21, 2009)

After yesterday and today I can say it's funny to watch the guy's skybustin at birds you couldnt hit with a cannon. It would take a helicopter and a .50 cal to hit some of the birds those guys shoot at. Other than that, it didnt seem to be too bad but wasnt great, not that many birds and they didnt exactly want to decoy in...still managed to grab a few birds and get out all while having fun


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## waxico (Jan 21, 2008)

Road Trip!


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## just tryin to fish (May 31, 2004)

> it's funny to watch the guy's skybustin at birds you couldnt hit with a cannon. It would take a helicopter and a .50 cal to hit some of the birds those guys shoot at.


 haha ill second that sunday we hunted in 7 and never pulled the trigger but the guys next to us though they were using bazookas or somthing i mean 150 yard shot straight up it was funny


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## maxloadBBB (Nov 21, 2009)

Yea, Sunday I was in 5 and there were some guys in 6 that had the big FA brand stickers on the trailer and Foiles Migrators stickers all over yet they were taking some 100+yarder's I could only laugh at it...thought they were suppose to be the "pro's"


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## smoke (Jun 3, 2006)

> Yea, Sunday I was in 5 and there were some guys in 6 that had the big FA brand stickers on the trailer and Foiles Migrators stickers all over yet they were taking some 100+yarder's I could only laugh at it...thought they were suppose to be the "pro's"


Having your trailer stickered up with call company and decoy makers logos etc. does not make you a pro hunter. All it shows is you have money to buy vinyl. 

Now there are some guys who have there trailers and trucks decorated with vinyl that I would consider to be, way better than average, but make no mistake....................because you have stickers on your trailer, does not make you a pro hunter. Watching to many dvds in my opinion. All wannabe pro hunters. LOL Pretty funny to see though wasn't it. The Todd farm can be very productive if you hunt it right, and use the right techniques, we ended up with 157 birds 
(if I remember correctly) and 8 bands last year from the Todd farm, so we had a pretty good year out there. That was with a larger group that hunts together a lot out there. In 2 different parties. 

When you hunt the Todd farm you have to be ready for close quarters combat with your neighbors. Set your decoys accordingly and call your arses off most days, because when you quit calling the birds will slip to the side of you, and everyone knows what happens then, your neighbors whack your geese or there geese however you look at it. If you go there with a different mindset you'll be OK. Just relize where you are and expect lots of funny stuff to happen. 
Smoke


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## field-n-feathers (Oct 20, 2008)

lilsean95 said:


> I have hunted the Todd Farm a few time and dont get the "You have to do your homework." What homework.........its a draw. There is no homework to do. If your are lucky enough to get a great draw the first 10 than you are better the 60-100.


No offense, but I personally find this laughable to say the least. Why is it then that many times parties in the top 10 draw don't shoot anything? I'll tell you why........they have no clue. I've said it before and I'll say it again, in order to be consistently successful at the Farm you need to know what is going on with the birds. I've lost count at the number of times I've shot birds in zones that aren't even in the top 50% of kills, just because I know what the birds were doing. 



lilsean95 said:


> .........how is the one guy hunting geese on his lease when the season is closed to all but the GMU throughout MI?


Because the entire GMU is open, not just the Farm.



lilsean95 said:


> ........just think going somewhere else like Southern IL or Missouri is better for $120.00/day for 5 geese and not $4 for 1 or maybe 2.


If you are worried about $4 per day to hunt, buy a season pass. Not to mention the fact that the only time you pay is when you select your hunting zone. It costs nothing to find out what your draw number is.



Saying that killing geese only because your lucky is an insult. I don't know anyone that claims the only reason they consistently kill birds year in and year out is because they are "lucky".


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## maxloadBBB (Nov 21, 2009)

anyone hunting the farm know if zone 7 is waterlogged at all? I know it typically had standing water in years past just wondering how it is this year...any input would be appreciated


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## just tryin to fish (May 31, 2004)

no water


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## maxloadBBB (Nov 21, 2009)

thanks, I may be going up this weekend and may need a backup spot in case I dont get a decent draw, zone 7 never has been my favorite but ya never know what will happen....


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## smoke73 (Jun 4, 2006)

7A is holding water. I'm not sure if you can dive behind 7? The turn around has always been difficult. I do know that the road behind 6 is closed from the beginning of C on down.


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## maxloadBBB (Nov 21, 2009)

smoke73 said:


> 7A is holding water. I'm not sure if you can dive behind 7? The turn around has always been difficult. I do know that the road behind 6 is closed from the beginning of C on down.


 thanks for the info! good to know that there is some definite water back there


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## lilsean95 (Mar 6, 2007)

field-n-feathers said:


> No offense, but I personally find this laughable to say the least. Why is it then that many times parties in the top 10 draw don't shoot anything? I'll tell you why........they have no clue. I've said it before and I'll say it again, in order to be consistently successful at the Farm you need to know what is going on with the birds. I've lost count at the number of times I've shot birds in zones that aren't even in the top 50% of kills, just because I know what the birds were doing.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
Yuo just need a hug.......it was my opinion and nothing more but thanks for show me how smart and a good hunter you are. I bet you hunt Grand Mere too!!!!!!!!!!! LOL That was a joke so dont get your panties in a bunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BREATH, BREATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOL


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## field-n-feathers (Oct 20, 2008)

lilsean95 said:


> Yuo just need a hug.......it was my opinion and nothing more but thanks for show me how smart and a good hunter you are. I bet you hunt Grand Mere too!!!!!!!!!!! LOL That was a joke so dont get your panties in a bunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BREATH, BREATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOL


You sir have completely missed the point of the post. The reference to my success at the Farm is simply an example of what scouting gets you....not luck, and certainly not a back door attempt at boasting my abilities or my intelligence.


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## Sparky23 (Aug 15, 2007)

I dont goose hunt it very much at all, but if you put your time in for ducks you can have good shoots just by knowing where they are flyin out, we crushed the woodies one day this year, because we kept seeing them flying low and ended up picking up to se where they were coming/going, got in that spot next morning and were covered up wih in the face woodies


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## field-n-feathers (Oct 20, 2008)

Sparky23 said:


> I dont goose hunt it very much at all, but if you put your time in for ducks you can have good shoots just by knowing where they are flyin out, we crushed the woodies one day this year, because we kept seeing them flying low and ended up picking up to se where they were coming/going, got in that spot next morning and were covered up wih in the face woodies


Sounds like you had a great hunt. Good job!


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## quackersmacker13 (Dec 9, 2009)

scouting is absolutley crucial, especially in public areas such as the todd farm. its such a large area that you could get a good draw, and choose a spot without scouting it out and be nowhere near the birds. This time of year there are ussually only one or two zones they are using, and if your not there you only get to watch geese fly 1000 yards away. Earlier in the year 6D had alot of water but i dont know its current condition as we have avoided it because it is pretty high. could probably shoot some ducks in there though.


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