I joined some buddies this year on their annual trip to North Dakota. It was my first time, and I wasn't sure what to expect but the stories they told of past trips had me excited. This a trip I have wanted to experience for a while now, and I wasn't disappointed. The migration is a week behind from what they said but we still managed to have good hunts.
We hopped in the truck at 2:30 A.M. Sunday morning and started the 25-hour drive from Virginia. We pulled into the Air BnB around 3:30 on Monday morning and were debating on what to do. Half wanted to scout that day and half wanted to hunt. We decided to hunt the morning and scout the evening. The first hunt started off with heavy fog, but we still managed to get 17 birds, which is phenomenal for what I am used to in Virginia.
We scouted that evening but didn't end up finding what were looking for, so we decided to hunt a lake they had been to during previous trips. The hunt didnt go as planned but we still ended up with 10 birds that morning. I didnt get any pics of that hunt. We decided to head close to the Canada border to scout that evening since we weren't finding much around where we were staying. We ended up finding a few hundred snow geese on a field but got a "no" from the landowner so we kept looking. Right before dark I spotted a wad of birds in the sky and we followed them to a feed. There was enough there to hunt so we made a plan, especially since we wanted to hunt fields instead of water. We woke up at 3:30 the next morning and headed North. The hunt should have been better but we couldn't figure out what they didn't like about the spread. I believe we figured out after the hunt that the straw we used was bright yellow while the rest of the field was brownish. It was still a good hunt, and my first field hunt for ducks.
After that hunt we scouted a little more up north, but didn't see any birds except for the ones we hunted that day, so we went back south. Right off a major highway I saw another big group of birds circling a field. We quickly made a U-turn and found the farmer cutting soybeans with the birds landing on the field behind him. We sent our buddy Joey who is a big former marine goofball with braces to secure permission from the farmer, even though the land wasn't posted. Joey had to sprint across the field to catch him before he got into the grain truck to take off for the day. Joey made his way back across the field and delivered us the good news and we were set for the next day. Everything seemed to be in our favor for this hunt between the timing of seeing the birds and catching the farmer right at the end. And we raked up some the fresh soybean grass to cover up our yellow straw. This hunt is what I came to North Dakota for. A 6 man limit of wigeon, mallards and pintails in a fresh cut field all in the first 45 minutes. We were leaving the field at 9 A.M. We left the farmer a thank you note and big bag of fresh Virginia peanuts in his combine for giving us permission.
Day 5 we hunted the same field, but the wind was blowing 30. We still managed a 4-man limit but a lot of the wigeon weren't around like the day before. It was still a great hunt for me since I am used to Virginia. On day 6 we hunted another feed that they found the night before. A lot of the birds didn't come back to the field that morning, but we still got 17. I didn't get any pile pics of the last two days.
North Dakota waterfowl hunting is something I've wanted to experience for 10 years and it did not disappoint. I flew back due to work yesterday while they drove back. Heres the last pic of a Nebraska sunrise from the plane.
We hopped in the truck at 2:30 A.M. Sunday morning and started the 25-hour drive from Virginia. We pulled into the Air BnB around 3:30 on Monday morning and were debating on what to do. Half wanted to scout that day and half wanted to hunt. We decided to hunt the morning and scout the evening. The first hunt started off with heavy fog, but we still managed to get 17 birds, which is phenomenal for what I am used to in Virginia.
We scouted that evening but didn't end up finding what were looking for, so we decided to hunt a lake they had been to during previous trips. The hunt didnt go as planned but we still ended up with 10 birds that morning. I didnt get any pics of that hunt. We decided to head close to the Canada border to scout that evening since we weren't finding much around where we were staying. We ended up finding a few hundred snow geese on a field but got a "no" from the landowner so we kept looking. Right before dark I spotted a wad of birds in the sky and we followed them to a feed. There was enough there to hunt so we made a plan, especially since we wanted to hunt fields instead of water. We woke up at 3:30 the next morning and headed North. The hunt should have been better but we couldn't figure out what they didn't like about the spread. I believe we figured out after the hunt that the straw we used was bright yellow while the rest of the field was brownish. It was still a good hunt, and my first field hunt for ducks.
After that hunt we scouted a little more up north, but didn't see any birds except for the ones we hunted that day, so we went back south. Right off a major highway I saw another big group of birds circling a field. We quickly made a U-turn and found the farmer cutting soybeans with the birds landing on the field behind him. We sent our buddy Joey who is a big former marine goofball with braces to secure permission from the farmer, even though the land wasn't posted. Joey had to sprint across the field to catch him before he got into the grain truck to take off for the day. Joey made his way back across the field and delivered us the good news and we were set for the next day. Everything seemed to be in our favor for this hunt between the timing of seeing the birds and catching the farmer right at the end. And we raked up some the fresh soybean grass to cover up our yellow straw. This hunt is what I came to North Dakota for. A 6 man limit of wigeon, mallards and pintails in a fresh cut field all in the first 45 minutes. We were leaving the field at 9 A.M. We left the farmer a thank you note and big bag of fresh Virginia peanuts in his combine for giving us permission.
Day 5 we hunted the same field, but the wind was blowing 30. We still managed a 4-man limit but a lot of the wigeon weren't around like the day before. It was still a great hunt for me since I am used to Virginia. On day 6 we hunted another feed that they found the night before. A lot of the birds didn't come back to the field that morning, but we still got 17. I didn't get any pile pics of the last two days.
North Dakota waterfowl hunting is something I've wanted to experience for 10 years and it did not disappoint. I flew back due to work yesterday while they drove back. Heres the last pic of a Nebraska sunrise from the plane.
