The cool weather has finally set in so we've been able to get a little hunting in. This past weekend there were definitely new ducks moving in, but not any real large numbers of mallards. Our hope/expectation is that this storm system that is dropping a little snow up north will push birds down our way. With all the moisture over the last couple weeks, we may need to find some alternative areas and fields of the flooded variety.

The pit held up well over the summer.  it has already produced some fun times...  "Think about it!"

We also upgraded our lucky duck spread by building a battery box to run all the decoys off of one large 6V battery. This gives us the added opportunity to be able to shut all of them down with the flick of a switch when the honkers are flying. It certainly helped on a few of them this past weekend and should be a great benefit down the road.

Just in case people didn't know where they were...our signage got a huge upgrade this fall too!

Seems that old man winter just won't let go.  We were just starting to see the juvies show up and then we get a major ice and snow storm...in mid April...who saw that coming?  Oh, yeah, Jay Trobec did...  Now the stupid snow cover map is moving in the wrong direction and there is more snow in the forecast for the next couple days.  Next week is supposed to bring warm weather and the storms have hit up north even harder so the snow geese haven't really moved out of the region yet.  I think there will still be some great hunts yet to come this spring...once we're finally done with winter!

The pit is open for business and has claimed its first victims. There are thousands of snow geese in the area and general waterfowl of all sorts. Most of the snow geese here now are mature birds that we've found difficult, but not impossible, to decoy. We've seen very few juvies flying around. However, the weather the last couple of days has really burnt the snow pack off considerably. We expect to see the mature head flocks move north soon so we can give the juvie flocks a nice warm welcome. In the last 3 days we've shot a little over 100 snows. It's been fun already and should only get better!

It's finally starting to warm up and melt some snow. I heard reports of geese flying over the lodge today. The decoys are on their way out to the pit. It's only a matter of time now. Better make sure you've got your ammo!

Matt here...  I drove up to the lodge this last weekend and saw a ton of waterfowl between Salem and Howard. Donkey has pictures of ridiculous numbers of snows on the south end of Lake Thompson.  The birds are very close. We just need a couple days of sunshine to clear the snow off the pit field and it will be a killing zone.  Our field has less snow on it than most of the surrounding fields so it will be one of the first to open up.

Expecting a high of 38 degrees on Wednesday (Mom's birthday) and even warmer weather after that.  Won't be much longer now.