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Name: Rick Turch
Date: Jan. 15, 2018
Location: Sartell, Minnesota
Weather: Cold.
Snow Cover: Four inches.
Water Conditions: Frozen.
Feeding Conditions: Frozen.
Species and Numbers: Geese are still around but a lot have finally decided to leave.
Migrations: Stale.
Hunting Report: Season is closed. Haven’t been able to get out ice fishing lately.
Name: Kyle Boike
Date: Jan. 16, 2018
Location: Morris, Minnesota
Weather: Bitterly cold again with high winds yesterday and negative temps.
Snow Cover: We have enough snow cover to cover the ground right now, a few inches in spots to probably 4 to 6 inches in other areas.
Water Conditions: Almost 100 percent of our water is froze up completely.
Feeding Conditions: 99.9 percent of our birds are completely gone, so the few we have around are still flying north of town to feed somewhere from what I've seen.
Species and Numbers: The only thing left is honkers in the area and there's maybe only 20 to 30 left I've seen holding one small spot on Crystal open.
Migrations: 99.9 percent of the birds have migrated through.
Season Stage: Season is closed.
Hunting Report: Season has been closed up for quite some time in our area.
Gossip: Nothing at this time.
Name: Richard Shamla
Date: Jan. 17, 2018
Location: Clara City, Minnesota
Weather: Cold and clear with lows below zero. We are starting a warm up that should push above freezing this weekend.
Snow Cover: Dusting.
Water Conditions: All water is frozen.
Feeding Conditions: Water fowl feeding mid-day.
Species and Numbers: Not many Canada geese remain in the area.
Migrations: Over.
Season Stage: Closed.
Hunting Report: Coyote hunting has been slow in the area.
Gossip: Vikings pulled off a miracle!
Name: Gerry Mazur
Date: Jan. 16, 2018
Location: Perrysburg, Ohio
Weather: Very cold morning with highs just into double digits and wind chills below zero.
Snow Cover: Most of the area ranging from 1 inch to 3 inches but blowing and drifting.
Water Conditions: The extreme warm weather from last week has created huge ice chunks along the coast of Port Clinton. The Maumee River has seen a rise of several feet with all the melting.
Feeding Conditions: The area was totally green for several days until this past snow so food is easy to get at. Corn and grassy areas are dinner.
Species and Numbers: Mallards and a few redheads make up the numbers taking advantage of the warm water discharge. Canada goose is mixed in the area also.
Migrations: What is here seems to be staying, but the bottom of the state has seen some snows mixed with ducks and geese.
Season Stage: Ohio late season is open.
Hunting Report: Nothing to speak of.
Name: Trapper Padgett
Date: Jan. 17, 2018
Location: Lonoke, Arkansas
Weather: Clear, sunny, cold, frozen, snowy, icy. Lows in the single digits, highs in the 20s.
Snow Cover: Various throughout the state, 1 to 6 inches.
Water Conditions: Great water levels, and seeing a little increase with snow melt and ice melting occurring. Chance of rain over the weekend so we will seem more increase as season comes to a close.
Feeding Conditions: Birds are hungry and looking for food however they can get it. Lots of dry feeding by ducks and geese. With everything being frozen for the second time lots of birds are struggling to keep full and satisfied.
Species and Numbers: Lots of mallards are in the state as well as lots of puddle ducks. Specks and snow are covering the prairie and also go up into the river valley area.
Migrations: Increasing numbers across the board and expected to continue.
Season Stage: Less than two weeks left in season.
Hunting Report: Great hunting on open water and in dry fields!
Gossip: Lots of folks are upset with the freeze we have received and other are happy due to more available resources to killing birds by having big water or fields to hunt.
Name: James Staten
Date: Jan. 15, 2018
Location: Russellville, Arkansas
Weather: This week is going to be back into the freeze. Last weekend was cold and we had a large cold front push through.
Snow Cover: Dusting over the weekend.
Water Conditions: Good water everywhere.
Feeding conditions: Good feed is open right now but may freeze up this week.
Species and Numbers: Fair amount of ducks here now. Mallards and gadwall are the biggest groups. Ducks are getting stale in some places and getting tough with late season birds.
Migrations: Got a small push over the weekend.
Season Stage: Only two weekends left.
Hunting Report: Ducks are getting tougher and paired up.
Gossip: It’s almost over, get out there and hunt!
Name: Cody Grisanti
Date: Jan. 15, 2018
Location: Wynne, Arkansas
Weather: Getting colder. Temps plummeting into the single digits over the next 24 hours with chances of 1 to 5 inches of snow.
Snow Cover: Chance of 1 to 5 inches.
Water Conditions: Fields are beginning to freeze thanks to cold front moving through. The bottoms and rivers are sitting open but will begin to freeze back up due to single digit temps and lack of current.
Feeding Conditions: Ducks and geese have been hitting the bottoms and rivers.
Species and Numbers: HUGE numbers of birds throughout the area late last week into the weekend. Birds moved out the first chance they got with the break in the icy weather. Numbers are beginning to decline and will get worse as the week goes on until the weekend.
Migrations: Dwindling.
Season Stage: Two weeks left, better make it count.
Hunting Report: Birds are working to open water. If you can keep a hole open, you will kill ducks. Leave you calls at home and let your jerk string do the work for you.
Gossip: None.
Name: Brock Perry
Date: Jan. 18, 2018
Location: DeWitt, Arkansas
Weather: Cold — 17 to 40.
Snow Cover: Light snow.
Water Conditions: Stable.
Feeding Conditions: Fair.
Species and Numbers: Mallards, teal, wood ducks, wigeon, snow geese, white-fronts, Canada geese.
Migrations: Holding due to snow and cold snap, ducks and geese are moving from the south as of this week.
Season Stage: Mid to late.
Hunting Report: Ducks and have been moving back north in small flocks, recent cold snap has pushed some back. Ducks are in good numbers, geese even better.
Gossip: Late-season specks are very wary of calls at this time. Having a good sizable decoy set is key, snows are staring to feed on dry fields now. Big numbers of mallards are still on the public timber, flooded rice and corn is holding ducks well and open water is more dominant across the grand prairie at this time. White River, Cache River, every WMA that is north of Stuttgart are holding big numbers of ducks at this point. Find open water during the freeze or create a hole with jerk rigs is best. Arkansas river is seeing some mallards but mostly divers at this time. Keep an eye on ice breaks and water temps before heading out.
Name: John Gordon
Date: Jan. 17, 2018
Location: Chatham, Mississippi
Weather: Cold and windy with another major front on the way.
Snow Cover: Received a few inches on Tuesday. Very rare for the central Delta.
Water Conditions: Shallows frozen solid, deeper waters still open for now. Everything should thaw by Friday afternoon as temps climb back into the 60s, crazy weather!
Feeding Conditions: Birds hitting flooded beans and vegetation.
Species and Numbers: Mallards, pintails, gadwall, GW teal, ring-necks, snows, specks
Migrations: Some new birds must have come with the latest blast of arctic air. Can’t be much left to the north.
Season Stage: Coming into the last of it, season closes on the 28th.
Hunting Report: Very good, limit shoots around the area have been the norm and not the exception.
Gossip: Finally had a winter in Mississippi! Now if we could only hunt a couple of weeks into February.
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