By David Draper

Waterfowlers in the Central Flyway are still reaping the benefits of last week’s winter storms, and with the long-term forecast showing a warm-weather pattern until at least Sunday or Monday, the holiday weekend should continue that trend. On the downside, the warm-up has made for some short days in the field as birds fly early and then spend the rest of the day resting. As Avery Pro Staffer Jerrod Watson put it, “This warm weather is confusing everything, including me.” Still, with plenty of birds up and down the Flyway, a few hours might be all hunters need to fill their strap with a mixed bag of ducks and geese.

Down in Choctaw, Oklahoma, another Avery Pro Staffer, David Williams confirms that birds have made it at least that far, and are staying in the area despite low water levels. According to Williams, the migration is showing “pretty decent numbers for the middle of November, including good numbers of teal, gadwall, and redheads and decent numbers of mallards, widgeon, and ringnecks. Hunting has been better than expected considering the fair weather and less than desirable water conditions,” he said, also noting that the hunters who are having the best success are taking the time to scout--a key factor when food and water conditions are less than ideal and birds are scattered. [ Read Full Post ]

By Michael R. Shea

Cold temperatures this week are finally moving ducks south in the Atlantic Flyway. Every state in the flyway is open, or will open, this week or next. Though no serious weather is on the horizon next week, many waterfowl hunters are getting amped for what could be banner hunts.
 
“It’s looking awesome, awesome, awesome!” said Avery Pro Staffer Sean Fritzges. A civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when he’s not hunting geese, Fritzges oversees dredging in Baltimore harbor and channels through the Chesapeake. “I see waterfowl all day, everyday, but now it’s incredible. There are a lot of birds around and they’re steadily coming.” Maryland’s short season opens on Saturday.
 
Fritzges hunted last Saturday during Maryland’s youth season with his son and three school friends. By 7:30 a.m. they had three geese on the ground. By 9 a.m. they were one bird shy of an eight-bird limit. “That’s my rule, because that one bird will keep you coming back for more,” said Fritzges, who shared the photo above. “The kids had a blast!” [ Read Full Post ]

By David Draper

As expected, last weekend’s winter storm in the northern Central Flyway finally got ducks on the move. The snowy conditions were accompanied by sub-freezing temperatures that locked up the sheet water and smaller impoundments up north, pushing waterfowl down the flyway and onto the mid-Plains states where hunters have been waiting for fresh birds since the October openers.
 
My contacts in the Dakotas all reported seeing high migrators passing them over on Sunday, a day or so after the storm first hit. In South Dakota, Chris Hull sent in the following e-mail, complete with capitalization to better get his point across that the birds are really on the move: [ Read Full Post ]

By David Draper

For the past few weeks, waterfowlers have been lamenting the bipolar nature of pre-peak-migration duck hunting. It’s a here-today-gone-tomorrow proposition, as once plentiful local birds get pushed out by hunting pressure, leaving the skies comparatively empty.

That’s the complaint I’ve been hearing from many of my contacts on the Flyway, especially those in the central and southern parts. But waterfowlers are optimistic by nature (what choice do we have?), and those same contacts who have been moaning about the poor season so far are pumped up about the weekend’s Arctic clipper, which plunged temperatures up North into the single digits and promised to push birds south.

Last week, I heard several second-hand reports from north of the 49th parallel that conditions there are freezing up and birds are moving out. Hunters in Saskatchewan have been having good success, but say the small geese and many ducks are all but gone, leaving big honkers and some mallards to target.
[ Read Full Post ]

By Duane Dungannon

Duck hunting can’t heal all wounds, but it can soothe the soul.

Many who serve our country say that what they most look forward to when returning home are the simple pleasures and freedoms for which they fought—and in some cases made supreme sacrifices. Injured veteran Joey Lowe lost the use of his legs in an IED explosion in Iraq, and last week, he got to enjoy one of the simple pleasures he fought for when he joined Avery Outdoors pro-staffers Allen Griggs and Kent Contreras for a duck hunt in eastern Washington.

“Each year my hunting partner Kent Contreras and I donate a guided hunt to the Wounded Warrior Program,” said Riggs, who snapped this photo of Lowe with the day’s bag of birds. “We had a great time, and Joey shot several nice birds.”

An influx of new birds helped the hunting, he said. [ Read Full Post ]