Obsession is an Understatement!

It has been a very crazy couple of weeks for us up here in the great plains and for good reason: the migration.  Every year millions of ducks make the descent from their summer grounds all the way down to the tropics of the south.  In the couple of weeks this great phenomena has started to make its way into Nodak.  I’m going to start back a few weeks ago when some good friends of mine, Eric Wolf and Travis Genz, came up to experience what North Dakota had to offer.  They arrived early in the week and with their arrival came a lot of snow.  During the first hunt the area was boasting as much as 8’’, in early October…it’s crazy!  Well, driving to our spot was not fun to say the least, in areas that we could cruise at 80 m.p.h. were reduced to an average of 45 m.p.h.  We did finally get there to find a solid 1’’ in our pond.  We sat there for a short time and left to do some scouting.  We found a good area for jumping and Eric and Travis were ready to get some shooting in.  As soon as we had a flock zip over a volley of shots and ducks erupted.  For the next 15-20 minutes there was constant shooting taking place.  We ended up with a mixed bag and some big grins on our guest’s faces.  The next night I wasn’t able to hunt, but they did get into a lot of ducks.  Not only did they shoot their limit, but it consisted of the most elusive duck known to the Midwest, the good ole’ Spoon Bill.  I just had to laugh at the picture they showed me of the pile of brown, but it all tastes the same in jerky.  That weekend we had a little bit of a competition brewing and Blake decided that he would break away from us and try to out shoot us on Saturday.  We were not about to lose and took off late Friday night to sit on a flooded field that was sure to be money.  Sleeping 5 guys in a truck wasn’t the most comfortable, but it’s what we had to do.  The morning came and we did a fair amount of shooting, but then we were bombarded by a few of waterfowl low lives.  We clearly had the field taken, but that didn’t stop four other groups from illegally cutting through the beans to sky bust on our spot.  All we could do was leave shaking our heads at the audacity of some people.  We did have a little bit of a problem; we only had 10 ducks in our bag and we still had a competition to win.  We jumped a few ponds and brought our count to 21.  Upon arriving at home it looked like we would be the victors of the day with the other group shooting 16.  The next day the B-squad/ JV/ Jr. Gold, as we labeled them went out again with high hopes.  Sure enough, they spent half the morning seeing nothing to switching to a little flooded corn and bagging 19 nice Mallards.  We weren’t about to stop chasing ducks during the week so Monday we hit the dusty trail…Oh wait…muddy trail.  We hit the same field that yielded a great hunt on Sunday, and we were greeted with more Mallards.  We sat there picking and choosing drakes for the morning and ending up smacking a bunch of green heads.  Even better Blake shot his first band on a beautiful drake Mallard bringing our band count to 9 for the season.  Travis and his crew showed up to the 8^th street motel to spend the night in route to western ND.  The plan was to hunt the morning and once again shoot some green.  We arrived to the muddy area and after some looking, found the spot, and set up shop.  Right away we had a nice flock cascade down into the tiny hole and they sure ripped them up.  We ended the morning with a bag full of nice green birds.  It was awesome to get out there with some great guys and put some holes in the sky, thanks again guys for making the trip.  Scouting in the next few days was very, very successful; we found the ducks were back in the hole we got sky busted out of and during the week equals no hunters.  The next day we laid the smack down on the ducks right from the beginning.  The first flock dropped in and we did some major grinding.  After seeing a number of ducks dropping into another pond the Varsity team went to the other pond and we brought down some nice Mallards and a few widgeon.  A while later I heard a faint battle cry…we got jewelry.  After coming back we saw a bunch of hens, a banded goose, and a half a dozen big smiles.  For Saturday our plan was to hunt some geese on a field that was covered with hundreds upon hundreds of geese.  That morning, we got beat to our field so it was time for plan B.  We were going to run some traffic next to a posted winter wheat field.  When it got a little lighter out we heard the oddest duck noise ever.  After it persisted we found out it was a group set up in the winter wheat field.  I didn’t find it to be all that bad, they pretty much looked like scarecrows sitting in a field.  They acted just like we thought; every group would circle them and flair right to us.  They even had a flock land short of their spread, and we watched them miss all of them while they flew to us.  It was funny because we made short work of the flock sending everyone into the dirt.  That pretty much brings it up to date for the last couple of weeks.  The best is still coming up so make sure to keep looking for some great hunts.  From the sleep deprived state of North Dakota…Keep Livin’ the Dream!