Just around the corner.
North Zone Puddle Ducks
ithaca10
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109 Posts
I can't wait, especially since it is going to be my first year out there. I've been trying to scout as much as possible and still need a few more things to be ready to go. What should I expect in regards to amount of other duck hunters I will see? I understand that the harder walk in places will be a lot less crowded but how are the majority of places? Is it as busy as the beginning of bow season? six day firearm(I hope not)?
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5,456 Posts
It all depends on how well the location is known and hunted. On the other hand multiple hunters can actually help by keeping the birds moving. Public land is public land so you just have to hope the other guys at least have some idea what they are doing and everyone keeps a good distance from each other. We have still killed plenty of birds even with some asshat blowing his kazoo as I call it, all morning long. We had a good shoot two years ago where there was another group on the other side of the beaver pond we were on and we were bouncing birds back and forth to each other all morning. Plan accordingly and hope for the best. Public land can be rewarding and a pain in the ass some times as we all know.
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1,650 Posts
Some of my best days out I had other hunters pushing birds all around, don't call like your trying to call birds in the next county and have confidence in your spread and you can have a good day. May have to change things up a bit but other hunters can help sometimes in my opinion.
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109 Posts
Yea I have been practicing on the call the past few months but will try and use it as little as possible. It sounds sort of like some days in the stand where having guys pushing deer around can be a good thing, other times not. I'm up in Lake Mohawk so I feel like I have a good amount of spots pretty close to home to try out. Thanks guys.
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292 Posts
Depends on when you go out. I pretty much only hunt weekday/non-holiday mornings in and around where you are and it is very rare that I run into another duck hunter. Also, the handfull of places I go are no secret and evidently pretty well known. I'll see plenty of evidence of other duck hunters, but not usually the hunters. I suspect that the spots I go to see pretty good pressure after work and on the weekends, but they are almost always empty in the morning. I rarely hear shots, let alone someone else calling. Good Luck this season.
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111 Posts
i was up your way last week doing some scouting. if you ever need help with the old goose whistle, just let me know. i've helped quite a few guys get started. i certainly could help a beginning duck caller as well, though i'll never claim to be an amazing duck caller.
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109 Posts
That's what I like to hear. I was surprised to hear some guys mention the amount of guys hunting waterfowl in NJ. I'm out there a decent amount of times in the morning either fishing or deer hunting October through January and I have maybe seen a couple guys actually duck hunting over the years. 99% of those times were when I was fishing Spruce. I am going to do my best to use vacation days to hunt during the week to avoid guys. I don't like to be jammed by dudes no matter what I am doing in the outdoors, hunting or fishing. Also since I am new I don't want to make any mistakes that could ruin a guy's hunt that is hunting nearby.
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109 Posts
Gonna stick with ducks only for now and I might take you up on that offer depending on how my first few trips go. haha
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6,142 Posts
You haven't seen any guys down at Spruce Run reason being never any ducks there thats why we call it Death Valley.
The reason there aren't any ducks is because you shoot them all Mike. [lol] Since they opened the range back up there hasn't been many ducks to talk about. With all that banging going on no duck would want to stay on that water. Then you get the pheasant hunters and that just makes it worst. Where are the good old days with less hunters and more open land. We can't forget the fisherman trolling into our rig every now and than either. I'm done. Mark
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109 Posts
Hey, lets keep fisherman out of this. Well, I don't really consider trolling fishing anyway so I guess keep on going haha.
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297 Posts
Love the kazoo comment. There's no shortage of over calling. The birds usually know where they want to go. I put a mojo out last year and never called once. Birds were coming to that thing like a magnet. That was early in the season though.
It's all about being on the X. Only call enough to get ducks attentions and late season use less decoys and pretty much no calling. It's funny how much some guys over call when you listen to ducks naturally early season they call a lot once they've been shot enough they keep it to a minimum and not loud.
I can' t wait for the season to start. I have been shootin clays just to keep myself sane. I want to them to stop breaking up the season and just let us hunt the whole time with out the break in the middle. We have way to many geese why can't we shoot them through out the regular duck season too??
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5,456 Posts
You can, but the birds you see during duck season are migrant birds. These birds are under federal guidelines and seasons, the idea is not to wipe out the whole population.
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1,650 Posts
The federal gov. puts aside 60 something days for each state to hold there season, NJ does it this way while other states have there own way. If they didn't have the season splits we wouldn't be hunting as late into January as we do.
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