November 7th thru 9th - Ogemaw Co.

Went up to the cabin to see if we could repeat last years bufflehead hunt on a local lake.

We went out Friday afternoon, the 7th, to check out the lake with a quick shoreline setup, there were only a couple of small flocks of bufflehead and a few mallards on the lake. Nothing worked our decoys. With only about 30 bufflehead on the lake it only had about 1/5 of what we had last year to work with.

We were up early on the 8th and set up for a morning hunt, we had one drake buffy in early that escaped my three shot barrage. That was the only bird to decoy that morning as the few small flocks on the lake wanted to work the far shore.

The morning of the 9th had me the "Old Man" worn out and my son Scott (3Shells) went out in the snowin' and blowin' weather to try to outsmart those crafty ducks. He took the Puddler and set up on the far shore where the birds had been working the previous morning. Set up at shooting time he said it wasn't until about 9 am when a flock of seven buffies pulled into the decoys and as they bunched up over the dekes he shot three times, as he began to reload for possible cripples he noticed there were six ducks belly up in the decoys (his limit) and only one left in the air. He later said that he was in order for a nickname change as his alias 3Shells/3Seconds came from when he was young, his dad was buyin' the shells, and every duck he shot at got the three shot salute through an 870 faster than most people could shoot an auto. He now wanted to be called 3Shells/6Ducks. I told him that'd be fine as he was now buyin' his own shells and was shootin' a lot slower.

November 12th - Genesee Co.

Some geese were workin' the cut corn at a freinds farm the previous evening, so we set up bright and early hoping for a few mallards to work the sheet water in the field. Never saw a duck in the air all morning and this has been a good spot for years. About 8:30 am a single goose locked up and swung into the decoys where we busted him. Then nothing in the air til about 10 am when 50+ geese flew about 1/2 mile to the west, one flock swung our way and we broke one off from the flock and the rest began to follow. But one high circle was all they gave us and proceeded to land in a field about a mile to our south. Darned fickled geese. Again 2 dozen GHG FFD lessers had the single feet down over the decoys. Well at least it wasn't a skunk and breakfast at a local restaurant sure was good after sittin' in the cold all morning.

Oct. 24th - Fish Point
Hunted the PM Hunt and we never fired our guns, very few birds working the fields. Until 15 min. after shooting time then 100's dropped in. Those are well educated birds.

Oct. 25th - Genesee Co.
Hunted a small pothole on a friends deer hunting lease, he had been seeing quite a few wood ducks and mallards using it while bow hunting. We pushed 8 mallards off the pond when we went out for an evening hunt. That was all we saw except for the 2 mallards that came in with about a half hour left to shoot they did not leave. Really slow for ducks here locally.

Oct. 28th - Nayanquing Point
Really been slow there, so slow that there were only 6 parties in the PM draw that day. Water levels and crops are good there this year, a big change from last year. We saw very few ducks and heard almost no shooting til the last 1 1/2 hrs. We shot 5 ducks, 3 mallards, a black, and a pintail. Out of the three singles and one small flock to work our field. Weather has been way too nice and the birds all have their PHD's in hunter encounters.

Oct. 30th - Genesee Co.
A buddy had been seeing quite a few geese flying in the area of his farm, we had a pheasant hunt planned for the day, so he asked that we show up early and try for some geese. Most of the geese were headed to a harvested corn field about a mile away but we managed to break two off a flock and get 'em over the decoys. We picked up at 10:30 as it was a beautiful Indian Summer day and proceeded on our pheasant hunt.

Oct 31st - Genesee Co.
Same field as the previous day. Again 100+ geese were headed to the harvested corn and we had to run traffic. We managed to turn a small flock of 3 birds and sucked 'em into point blank range over the decoys. That was all we could sweet talk from the masses that morning. But 3 birds in the bag was a success considering the circumstances. In the 2 days of hunting that cornfield pothole we did not see but 2 ducks and this is usually an area that has a good population of mallards.

Nov. 5th - Genesee Co.
Lack of ducks has our attention on geese as they are still fairly plentiful. A number of birds had been working a buddies field (winter wheat) the past few warm days. After the first 45 min. I thought it would be a replay of a week ago as we watched 100+ geese pour into a corn field a mile away that they had began harvesting the previous morning. When at about 7:30 am a flock of about 8 approached low and quietly over the tree line and locked on to the decoys. Five shots later there were 3 geese on the ground. While lamenting our poor shooting another flock approached in stealth mode from our backside with locked wings and then black feet down just over the decoys. We dropped one to complete our limit and our hunt was over in about 10 minutes after our first shot. The last 3 goose hunts have been over 1 - 2 doz. GHG FFD Lessers and they really seem to be doing the job on these wary local geese as all that we've shot have been feet down over the decoys, either when running traffic or being on the "X" as we were today.

October 14th - Genesee Co.
A friend called and said he had 100+ geese landing in a field near his house that he had permission to hunt. Was to meet him after he got out of work and hunt it. Unfortunately the geese decided to dine early that day and beat us to the field. We bumped 'em and they came back wary and we couldn't get 'em to commit.

October 18th - Genesee Co.
Another friend called and said he had about 50 geese in one of his fields a few days before and wanted to hunt it on the weekend. Three of us hit the field Saturday morning, a cool clear day, the birds were not moving in the area as we only saw about 20 all morning and none wanted anything to do with the field.

October 21st - Oakland Co.
We hunted a private lake that we had done well on in the past that morning and saw lots of birds in the area but they were well educated. Lots of geese trading around the lake but they kept their distance, would respond to a call but avoided our decoys like they had the plague. A few wood ducks gave us a pass early taking us by surprise as they came low over the cattails in stealth mode. We did manage to work in couple of pairs of mallards, dropped one pair in 2 shots and whiffed on the other.

I have been seeing a fair number of birds but most are still locals and are well educated. But the last time out I did see some big flocks of high flying geese which may be migrants.

Well, we started the day with two singles that came in and never left then took three outta a flock of five that swung in too low and too close. That was before the bright sun got higher in the sky and started casting shadows and makin' things too clear making a few flocks of those spooky educated geese pull off the spread about 80 - 100 yds out. By 9:45 we took our five and called it a day.

Sep - 01- 08 - Saginaw County Michigan - Early goose season started fair for us today, the birds from time to time this morning but never in serious numbers. The weather was great but a little more wind may have helped pattern them the birds when they wanted to get onto the lake.

We managed to take two this morning, the first came at 7:30am when a single broke over the south west tree line and came on a straight line right for our spread, it made one pass a little high, did a 180 degree turn cupped its wings and right into the decoy opening.

Our second goose came, right after a flock of about 12 landed in the middle of the lake, six more was following this group, but we did manage to get one when they made a swing heading straight to the 12 in the middle of the lake.

We thought we had hit the jack pot at about 10:30am when a flock of about 50 circled the lake twice before landing once again in the middle of the lake followed by another flock of about 20 again circling just out of range before landing in the middle of the lake. Even tully all of them got spooked and took off.

Lessons learned. We headed out for an afternoon hunt on Saturday, made sure we were correctly set up for the wind. When the geese showed up we were ready and had our three man limit in less than 20 minutes. A muddy chisel plowed corn field isn't the easiest place to make necessary adjustments when conditions change but if you don't it can make the difference between a few birds or a limit.

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What'd I haul the boat/blind up and all them diver decoys All I needed was a 1/2 doz. buffie decoys and a little marshboat. Who said ya need big water and lots a decoys ta hunt divers.

Nov - 10- 07 - Fish point State Game Area - What a great day for November, but these kind of days are not made for good ducking in Michigan. These are the kind of days that dogs just love to run and explore. Our next trip here will be when the weather is more of a duck day and not a sun tan sort of a day.

We took zone 9 after drawing 23rd out of 24 parties in the draw. The good news is, there is now about 6 inches of water in front of the blind which was great for setting out decoys. The bad news was the ducks weren't flying.

This was our first opportunity to use our cart to haul our decoys, instead of hauling them like a pack. The cart worked very well, but we will replace the straps supplied with this model with bungie cords.

Better hunting next time - we hope!

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Nayanquing Point has hardly any cover and only about 50% of the area has "some" water. Hunting has been spotty with few birds being taken most days. Very few.

You can get a canoe / small boat up the ditches but must carry gear into most fields as there is a lot of sheet water and dry spots.

However, on the 31st, we did manage a good draw on a good day with a front coming through, heavy overcast, mist, and 20+ mph winds got the ducks flying off Saginaw Bay. It was very difficult to pick out the Drakes in those weather conditions for a couple of old guys with tired eyes and the ducks were real wary of the two blobs sitting in the sparse cover and didn't want to fully commit. We both had headaches from eye strain by the end of the hunt but we did manage to eke out a limit.

My buddy went back two days later and only fired a few shots.

Went to Nayanquing Point on the 11th and never fired a shot, the situation there was dismal the corn is almost nonexistent stalks are sparse and only about waist high and very little water.

Hunted local fields (Genesee Co.) for geese the 13th and 14th, the last 2 days of goose season in the SJBP before the split. Went with my buddy Chris his Cousin and their boys, the geese flew well the 13th and we shot our 5-man limit before 10 am.

Went back to the same field on the 14th, since it was the last day of the split with Chris and his son Lucas and managed to take 3 geese out of the one flock that gave us a close enough pass.

Been a slow start for our crew this year.

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Great Morning

Its a start!

Sep - 01- 07 - Saginaw County Michigan - Early goose season started very slow for us today, no birds flying, but we did have a few ducks working the area and our setup. Will be after them in a few days when the pressure lets up a little. The dog had a great time checking out the the lake when he wasn't sleeping or back in the cattails.

Every season we all look through all the catalogs and see television ads telling us how great a certain product is and how we can't get along without it. So we are going to test these products and see if they have real value and use for the regular hunter. This year we will be using a two wheel cart, we plan to use it to haul our decoys in and out of the fields, it could also be used to haul gear into your deer hunting area and haul the big one back out. We will update you after every hunt as to how this cart performed or if we even have found a use for it. So check back often and if you would like us to try something just send us an email with what you would like us to try.

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Richard and 3 early teal.

Richard with his first Drakes.

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Sep - 02- 06 - Saginaw County Michigan - Well the picture to the right should explain the second day of the early goose season. Yes the fishing was better than the goose hunting. A few distance flocks flying at about 7:30am and then nothing.

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The Set-up

Reward after a long chase