Just wanted to wish all you waterfowlers good luck on the opening day. I am at the very south end of the central zone so this is the first opening then thanksgiving morning get another opening. Seeing a good amount of mallards,teal,shovelers and dark geese. Be careful and lets hear your stories. I realize most of the members are in the south zone but some of us start tomorrow. Good luck and don't forget your gun and camera....:D
With the recent drought, will have a difficult time getting to the blind but I will be there.;)

Thanks getting stuff ready, and don't forget to pack your FOOD!! And good luck to all........:cool:

Good Luck Fellas!!!!

Slower first day but did manage a mallard drake, (immature) no green head and a canadien. Saw mostly mallards, not much of anything else, very few woodies which is uncommon for this time of year.

http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/5254723ba8ac46a2.jpg

and down they come... SWEET

Nice job Kevin. Fredbird hunt w/ ya?

im quackhead and i are going out to horseshoe tomorrow morn and try out luck. good luck everyone

:rolleyes:We killed 6 Bluebills at Lake, then went to a pond and killed 3 mallards and 1 pintail.. Sorry no pics, how did everybody else do???

quackhead (zach) and i made it out to horseshoe today and got three ducks, only thing really fly were a bunch of divers, but we had a blast. heres a few pics. i winged a few but were unable to retrieve them, them lil divers are fast.

quckhead with ducks
two ringnecks and a immature woody
http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/5864724e1193ad60.jpg

Quackhead with my dogs
http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/5864724e119324af.jpg

me waiting for the ducks
http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/5864724e1194322b.jpg

Got two more canadiens this morning, mallards were a little shy, had them work early but wouldn't come over the decoys with the still water. Speaking of water, below is a pix from the blind this am, water levels usuallay from timberline to timberline, but now it is just a creek. It is tough hunting, barely able to navigate the boat. Only 12-16 inches of water, normally 3-4 feet...sad.
Dave, Fred and Skip are playing Hells Angels and are on a motorcycle trip to New Orleans, if they don't get arrested they will be back at the end of the week.

http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/5254725021a9933b.jpg

Had a fantastic time out with quackaddict.... Can't wait to go out again!!!

Man that water is low Kevin. Worse than last year isn't it? At least yer getting some action.

Dave, it is bad, the weatherman isn't forecasting much good news either. At least the southern zone spot has water...:rolleyes: but that is four weeks away as you well know.

I went out with a buddy on the Miss Saturday afternoon. We were going to put it at Riverview, but there was about two feet of mud on the boat ramp and we weren't sure if we could get the truck out of it. Ended up putting in at Columbia Bottoms. My buddy missed one mallard and I shot a mallard drake. Saw lots of birds on the river. We couldn't set up right with the wind since we couldn't hunt the MO side of the river. It was still fun to finally get out and see a lot of ducks.

Got the corn out, bush hogging the stubble tomorrow then just add water and ducks!!:D

http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/52547267f1a5c4a9.jpg

We hunted Reds Landing Saturday and Sunday. We did pretty well. There were a good amount of birds flying. Conservation needs to look into enforcing the laws there. ALOT of people were having proplems with other people. Besides that, great time.

6 Woodies on Saturday
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z243/coachhaynes77/102707_11451.jpg

Nice looking Woody
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z243/coachhaynes77/102707_11471.jpg

5 Woodies and 1 Ringneck on Sunday
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z243/coachhaynes77/102807_13491.jpg

It felt good to be in the water. Except the water was cold.(Hole in my waders)
How were the birds working at Horseshoe on Saturday?

NICE birds FullDraw, going at it again tomorrow morn. ill let you guys know how it goes.

Nice work there Full Draw. Great day on the water fer sure!

Kevin, that is a good looking spot. Is that by Carlyle?

Nick (quackaddict) and I went out to horseshoe again today and did fairly decent from what others did.

Nick got 2 ruddy ducks and a gadwall

I got 2 ruddy ducks

He may post some pics up sometime today

Jess it is the north end of the lake in Fayette Co. Just south of Keck's Marsh. A couple of my friends own it and I am giving them a hand with the mowing. It is a great spot.

Here are the pics of this past tuesday, finally got the time to put them up.

View from the Blind
http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/586472a9c45e3cdb.jpg
The Ducks
http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/586472a9aac74c9b.jpg
My big ugly Mug
http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/586472a9aac7d166.jpg

Dang son, that blind brush jumped up on to yer chin there...same thing happens to me come November..LOL

Great job........Nice pics....I would like to see a bigger version of that first pic..........quack........that looks really nice......and eye level.....Gretch, maybe we need to go hide in a blind to get some good pics..........lol...
Sounds like you all had a fun time.......:D :D

im trying to look like duck commander lol jk. hey bam these pics were from my cell phone (R.I.P) i dropped in in horseshoe lake today when i went duck hunting.i was so angry and then on top of that didnt get any ducks.

You got a LONG way to go for duck commander beard...

Someone needs to make an outdoors phone that can stand up to what people like us do to em...

Ya, a floating phone would be nice. Just a heads up that there a few companies out there (and some of the phone companies as well) that will store your SIM card info for ya in the event you get the dropsies like me. My prob is my cheap azz phone won't support these services...figures.

My stepson had to get a new cell phone (Sprint) and got one that is supposed to be durn near indestructible. They advertise it as meeting some mil spec or something. Anyway, it's a lot sturdier than most of them. I don't know about water resistance though.

About a third of the way full, everything working out so far. Just add ducks:D.

http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/525472bb03f3441c.jpg

Man, that field looks nice. We just got our nice, expensive pre-cast pit put in today...too bad the farmer plowed all the corn stubble under so who knows what we'll do now. The small pond we dug a few seasons ago is still there with some water but no corn or beans around. Anyone have any good ideas on what to do other than just hunting somewhere else?

Maybe you can plant something QUICK

im trying to look like duck commander lol jk. hey bam these pics were from my cell phone (R.I.P) i dropped in in horseshoe lake today when i went duck hunting.i was so angry and then on top of that didnt get any ducks.

Ya, a floating phone would be nice. Just a heads up that there a few companies out there (and some of the phone companies as well) that will store your SIM card info for ya in the event you get the dropsies like me. My prob is my cheap azz phone won't support these services...figures.

Hey whatever works for ya....I know lots of folkz carry there camera phones with them everywhere now....Pictures are pictures............

A hint I posted before about B's phone is to put it in rice for a coule days...that phone has been in the lake, pool and washed(severall times) lol.......DON'T TURN IT ON THOUGH! take out the battery, and put it in some rice and move the rice around a little every once in a while for about 2 days or so then put it back together and try it..........:rolleyes: We usually put it in a bowl, but Im guessing maybe a ziplock would work just as well or better maybe........:rolleyes:

The phone companies can tell if it's been in water from the little white dot(sticker) on the inside of the phone usually down by the battery......if it gets wet it turns red......:rolleyes:

Good luck.......;)

Don't give up on it. You can still take advantage of that new pit. Since you are probably ready to hunt already in Central, I would scratch in some regular grass seed and wheat if the farmer will let you. You can get that pit covered w/ina week or so or at least green it up a bit. I would cut some cane and brush it as well. The cane will keep it's green for some time yet. Visibility in plowed fields is a big issue. One trick that I have heard it to do is make the white patch on the goose decoy butt larger w/ paint. This helps make them satnd out in the plowed ground. The addition of a couple of dozen snow goose deks off the side of the Canada's will help them stand out as well. Hopefully your pond is close to the pit. I would decoy it as normal for ducks and add those goose floaters or full bodies right at the water edge. I frequently hunt plowed ground up north and have equally as good suces if you decoy it right. A small family group out from the main batch of dekes really helps in my opinion. Add some type of motion to the group either with a flapper, flying wing deke and flagging. Remember to turn off the duck robo's when geese are coming. I'm sure some of the other diehards here will lend some advice as well. Good luck to ya and congrats on the new pit.

You may already know this but the cane I'm talking about is Arundinaria gigantea. Google it for some images.

Cody try to convince the farmer next year to leave the crop alone till spring if he will listen. Or keep a few acres around the pit alone anyway. I would still make sure you cover the surface of the pit with some natural vegetation, whatever you can come up with. If you hurry you may get a start of grass, I don't know if there will be enough warm days to germinate wheat, but could have been done middle of last month and you may have had a chance. FInally talk with the farmer and express your willingness to help him out next year with the discing or plowing, if he has a time problem. You have got to try to hunt over a harvested field for better success. Maybe you and the farmer can work something out. As DetectDave said you are not completely out of luck, just position your decoys for visibility, if the pond is close, load up on floater decoys. Good luck..

The Smith brothers
always went overboard
making their duck blinds.


http://www.cybersalt.org/cl_images/1zzzzxa/t/tankduckblind.jpg

made a little road trip thursday and hunted sanganois with 2 others. killed 5 mallards lost 1 in the timber and could have had a few more if we were ready at shootin time. good ammount of ducks for the first hour and a half and then it just quit. heading back up on thurs for more. i'll bring my camera this time.

Dave I think you need to work and I will go for ya:):)

I just may be able to break away and head up there with you on Thur V.
How long it take you to get there? what time you get back?