Well it is time to move on and look forward to spring. The blind will be closing this weekend for the season. All in all we had a decent year for the lack of ducks that we saw. This might be the first year ever, that I can remember, that we never had a good mallard day. One of the best days that we had was the season opener, but that was the only snow storm that blew through the Dakota’s this year.
We had very high expectations with the duck numbers reported in the Dakota’s, but since the Dakota’s had so much water the birds were very much spread out, and when they migrated it was very hit and miss.
On a positive note this year was the best year we have ever had on dark geese that we can remember. This is the first year that we have shot more dark geese in the last weeks of the season than ducks.
This might be the worst time of the year. Hunting season is over and we have to wait three more months until we can shoot the dirty white birds on their decent back north. If you have never taken place in a spring shoot, I really recommend it. Who can pass up a season with no limits and no plugs?
Everyone from Kopecky Hunting Club would like to thank all members for creating some great and fun memories for the 09’ season. We wish everyone a great and safe holiday and cannot wait to see you all next spring.
CJ and Tate, Wow these guys are crazy spring breakers who live on the edge! Spring cannot come fast enough!
Thanks for the pictures Jon.
This is a retrieve from 12/4/09.
Beener
Beener with a Honker
Big snow storm in the forecast, better get out while you can and get your hunting in.
Sunday 12/6/09 -
Well I really hoped today was going to be the day. We had a decent wind and a big group of hunters, so if we would have had some birds we could have done some damage. We witnessed dark geese fly all day until the snow hit. We only managed 3 geese. There was a flock of 5 that came in and gave us a decent shot, with 6 hunters most of us thought all 5 were dead. Well the geese had other plans as only 3 went down and the others went sailing all the way back to the river. We could tell that the other 2 were hit, but not good enough. Later in the day when the snow started to pick up we could not see anyting. We heard a group of geese and it sounded like they passed right in front of us, then all of a sudden they were right in our face. This might have been the largest flock of Honkers I have seen work us in quite some time. The Northeast wind really hurt us with this flock, the geese did not want to finish over the ground behind us, they kept swinging our Southwest side of the island. The geese gave us maybe a 50 yd shot, but we opted out. Once the snow really picked up I picked up. There were a few guys that stuck it out, I will have to check with them to see how they did.
Saturday 12/5/09-
No ducks! We watched snow geese fly the hundreds all day long, but no ducks. The temps increased and the wind switched, but our luck on hunting ducks is still very sour. The hunters did get some snow geese. Right away in the morning the hunters were walking down the the blind, when they noticed a bunch of white birds running around in the decoys. The hunters waited until it was shooting time and formed a line that walked up to the blind, but the birds did not move. Finally the geese flushed like pheasants and the crew harvested 9 total birds.
As most of you who hunt with us know, one of our family members goes to school in SD. He gives us weekly waterfowl reports and any time it gets cold or wind starts to howl out of the North we get a phone call asking how the hunting is. Well on Tuesday the wind switched and started howling out of the North for 2 stait days. Wednesday morning reports from blind were stating A LOT of bird movement. However, mid morning the birds shut off. The snow geese have been migrating consistanly for the past week, with dark geese mixed in, but very, very few ducks. Thursday hunters were very optimistic, but not one shot was fired all day. Friday the wind switched to the south, the optimism turned to pessimism. But, the waterfowl god's were looking upon the hunters today. The blind took 5 honkers and ended up pulling an all day hunt. Good thing they did, because they got into some late day Mallard migrators. They ended the day with 5 honkers and 6 mallards, and from what I am being told they should of have some more ducks, because they got busted out side of the blind by a flock of 50.
Warm temps and south winds are forecasted for Saturday, but they way the ducks have been acting all year it could be the biggest duck migration of the year. The only way you will know is if you hunt.
There was a lot of hunting going on last week so I will jump right into it.
11/23-11/25:
These three days were a big let down to some of the hunters. Monday and Tuesday there was low to fairly low success. Wednesday, there was a great wind. What more could a hunter ask for when there is a 20-30 mph NW wind? Oh yeah fowl to shoot. Hunters did get a few this day and started to see some late day migrators.
11/26 - Thanksgiving Day:
Well were do I start? Great day to be out in the blind, NW breaze of 10-20 mph. After the report given yesterday of the late day migrators, we all thought there would be some early shooting, and there was, one lonely mallard dive bomded the set and never flew out. Around mid morning we started to see a consistant flight of Honkers. We did have a flock of 30-40 honkers ball up on us and start their descent, with three of them wanting in so bad they left the group and were the first ones within shooting range. Three came in and three did not leave. With only three of us hunting we only needed six more honkers for a limit and the way they were working it seemd very possible. Well right before we quit for Thanksgiving dinner, there was a bunch of 10-15. This bunch worked us really well, a little too well. The birds gave us a shot at 30 yds, we were greedy, the birds never came back. Someone threw the flag they were so mad, but for dignity sake I will not name names. No other game was taken the rest of the afternoon.
11/27:
With warmer temperatures today, no one really was to optimistic. The amount of ducks that flew off the east lake was incredible this morning, however none of them will stick around long enough for any shots. Honkers were still around today and the crew took four.
11/28:
More warm temperatures did not have anyone getting out of bed early today. We were set up by 7:30am. However, someone left the pump off last night, so there was no open water. I think we counted 5-6 flocks of honkers and had two ducks work us, but with no open water of duck decoys out it was tough to finish them. We did have one group of honkers work us, and they gave us a shot, but without mister itchy trigger finger hunting, we waited for the money shot, which we did not get. Everyone had to leave at 12:00pm for more family events, a couple hunters hunted the afternoon, but did not see much.
11/29:
Finally some more cold weather and a wonderfull NW wind. However, no migrators. We did manage to harvest 3 honkers and 1 snow goose, but no ducks. Hunting ended at 2pm. Besides the four geese, the day was a bust.
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A major cold front is among us that will change the weather from early fall to mid winter this week. With the cold temps up north things should start freezing up. hopefully the birds migrate south instead of to the big water. If you want to hunt you better get it out of your system, becasue the season is almost over. Every NW wind day from here on out could be the money day, but my bet goes to whenever SD gets a major snow storm.
Sorry for the grammar or spelling errors, this was
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