Pa. N W zone

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Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Tue Oct 03, 2017 5:18 am

The north west zone opens Sat. and more than likely it will be another bust. Season opens way too early up here and esp. where I live most of the crops won't even have begun to be harvested. The PGC doesn't care about anything but deer and they show it to the duck hunter season after season. Our dates here ate Oct 7 til Dec 9th (or there about) and then one boner week Dec 27 Jan 3 ( which we will be completely frozen out by then. The flight birds will not make it in time for any real shooting for us up here, but hey there are only 19000 waterfowlers left in Pa. so who really gives a chit about them right? To say I'm disgusted would be an understatement.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby SpinnerMan » Tue Oct 03, 2017 6:29 am

I never realized the odd dates in the rest of the state. I grew up in the south zone. I like the dates there. Problem is there are no more ducks and very few geese left in my old stomping grounds.

don novicki wrote:The PGC doesn't care about anything but deer

No, they screwed the deer hunters in a lot of the state when they changed strategies awhile back. A large fraction of the hunters I know only hunt deer. I don't know a single deer hunter that is happy. Many have lost interest because things have gone down hill so bad.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Tue Oct 03, 2017 7:18 am

At the waterfowl symposium many many guys/groups battled for different season dates. The PGC politely listened and then did what they wanted to do based on a survey from 2011. There was one guy in the whole place that wanted the dates to stay the same. In Pa. the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many. We lost 27% of duck hunters in 2016, now down to about 19,000 as I said and I expect that number to drop again after this season, esp. with the dates we have. The rest of the state, N and S zones all have much better opening/closing dates but here in the NW zone we are screwed once again. One thing you can say about the PGC is that they are consistent................................................ :evil:
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:44 pm

85 degrees and sunny for tomorrows opener. Should be a slaughter fest for sure with weather like that. I am praying that there is no wind either. You don't need any weather or wind as the ducks automatically fly south on Oct 1....... :lol:
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Fri Oct 20, 2017 6:14 am

Excellent duck weather since the opener. Only 1 day that hasn't been sunny and warm with temps that ranged from 82 to the mid/high 60's. Perfect weather..............for tanning. I hate Pa. duck hunting.................... :evil:
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby aunt betty » Fri Oct 20, 2017 7:33 am

The same exact people that are pushing the climate-change global-warming agenda assert that the earth is flat. They also insist that the ducks migrate by the calendar and that their migration is not affected by climate change.

Don't forget the bug spray, tanning oil, and your sun hat.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:24 am

Can you let me know what date on the calendar the ducks have planned for migration? I won't waste my time going out unless I know they are coming............. :lol:
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby aunt betty » Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:30 am

don novicki wrote:Can you let me know what date on the calendar the ducks have planned for migration? I won't waste my time going out unless I know they are coming............. :lol:

Contact your state waterfowl biologist. He'll have an exact day.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Fri Nov 17, 2017 4:01 am

Last day for inland duck is Dec. 9. Can still hunt P.I. until Jan but it will be frozen by then. Another bust of a season. Four years in a row. Time to take up a different sport...
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby aunt betty » Fri Nov 17, 2017 9:10 am

So far this year I heard a guy shoot a coot.
The guys that did all the shooting on opening day got tickets because they were hunting where they should not have been.
The gw made a show outa checking me because I was done first.

When he asked me "what's going on?" and "what are all the boats doing down there?"...then asked "what is it...youth pheasant hunt or something?"...I was perplexed. Said "I dunno I'm here hunting ducks myself if that's what you're getting at".
Youth pheasant hunt?!?!?

Got the whole lake to myself. 8-)
Not enough ducks. Not even close.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Sun Nov 19, 2017 6:01 am

Tomorrow might be the day, with the cold and snow we are supposed to be getting. I have a corn field that has about a half acre depression with knee deep water in it. Very ducky. If no tomorrow then I doubt it's ever going to happen as it's supposed to warm up next week. I would like to at least see a mallard this year. That's not asking for too much is it? On a side note I may have to go out on Thanksgiving because my wife's aunt is coming and it's like having Ethel Merman in your living room. She is super loud and NEVER shuts up.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Tue Nov 28, 2017 5:34 am

Have had some very limited success here in the NW zone but there are not a lot of birds around. Our season ends on 12/9 so not much time left. Another bust of a year here in Pa.. Heck even our go to place: Presque Isle state park doesn't even get the blue bills like we used to even 5 years ago. Don't know what happened to our duck hunting here but it's gone. Right when I retire and finally have time, now there are no birds anymore.......
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby aunt betty » Tue Nov 28, 2017 5:28 pm

Wasn't there some sort of weather event that had ducks starving to death all over? Wanting to say it was 2 or 3 yrs ago but my frain is bried. It was 2014. My brain still funtions...woa. "Starving waterfowl and the freeze of 2014".

It sucks here too. I mean unless you want to watch sea gulls. Hell even the cormorants are gone.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Wed Dec 06, 2017 4:41 am

Lake effect snow coming our way. Won't be of any help goose hunting if we get 2 feet of snow. Cold temps will lock all the small water. Going to Presque Isle today. Hope to see at least a few birds. :thumbsup:
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Sun Dec 17, 2017 4:52 am

Hammered by snow and cold the last few days. We hot 11 inches of the white stuff last night.Have had 34" so far this month. Fields are buried and most small water is hard. Supposed to go to Sandusky Bay this week for a layout hunt but most reports don't look good. Can't shoot ducks here in the NW side until 12-27 then we get one week and done. Goose goes out Jan. 20. Maybe it's me but these seasons along with life in general just seem to blow by. The older I get the faster things move.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Wed Dec 20, 2017 4:38 am

Going out for geese this morning but the big story is that there are birds at P.I.. know a guy that got a banded Pintail last week and they are hitting them hard at beach 11 taking Red Heads, Bills,GE, and of course Buffies. Unfortunately my brand new Rogers waders leak like a sieve and neither Dicks or Field/Stream has anything in stock so I am hoping to get a pair before Christmas but this is a bad time of year to try to get anything shipped. :(
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Thu Dec 21, 2017 7:26 am

Nothing yesterday except 1 small flock of 12 birds beating hard south. I think all the snow moved em out
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Tue Dec 26, 2017 5:32 am

Even though we get our bonus week Dec 26 thru 31, it's over for us here. We have received over 2 feet of snow and it's still coming down as I write this. I was covered in mallards Sat. and now when we could finally get into them this happens. Another pathetic season comes to an end for us. On the plus side I haven't had to clean the gun too much this season....,. :evil:
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Thu Dec 28, 2017 7:50 am

102 inches of snow so far this Dec. We usually get about 100 inches for the season. Everything is at a virtual stand still. P.I. remains closed. State of emergency has been lifted but that doesn't mean things are back to normal. Any thought of field hunting is out the window. We got 62" of snow on Christmas day. Hell of a way to end the season.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby Deltaman » Thu Dec 28, 2017 8:00 am

Don, based on your repeated negative reports, seems you need to either move, or find another hobby that breeds more success. Keep your duck hunting stuff handy, just in case you get rare season with birds, and take up something that you can enjoy without the frustration.
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know for sure, that just ain't so"
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:08 am

I'm a;ways pissed off at everything. It's my natural disposition................ :evil:
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby Deltaman » Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:47 am

don novicki wrote:I'm a;ways pissed off at everything. It's my natural disposition................ :evil:



Don, as I age, I find myself less tolerant as well, but hey, no matter how bad things get..........they can always get worse :o
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know for sure, that just ain't so"
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Fri Dec 29, 2017 5:46 am

More snow coming. We are expecting another 12 to 16 inches today. I am supposed to pick up my new snow blower today. Getting too old to shovel by hand anymore.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby don novicki » Thu Jan 11, 2018 4:30 pm

Most of our snow is now melted but I fear that the volume of snow we received sent the birds packing. We have until Jan 20 for geese but they are few and far between. Time to pack it up and call it a season. Like they say: there's always next year...,..
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby aunt betty » Thu Jan 11, 2018 6:19 pm

Odd winter this year. Was 58 today with my bees (or what's left of them) buzzing around doing their "cleansing flights".
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby SpinnerMan » Thu Jan 11, 2018 8:44 pm

don novicki wrote:Most of our snow is now melted but I fear that the volume of snow we received sent the birds packing. We have until Jan 20 for geese but they are few and far between. Time to pack it up and call it a season. Like they say: there's always next year...,..

Around here they come back ASAP. Driving to and from work today I saw more geese than I have seen all season. A few days ago, they were few and far between.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby aunt betty » Thu Jan 11, 2018 9:31 pm

SpinnerMan wrote:
don novicki wrote:Most of our snow is now melted but I fear that the volume of snow we received sent the birds packing. We have until Jan 20 for geese but they are few and far between. Time to pack it up and call it a season. Like they say: there's always next year...,..

Around here they come back ASAP. Driving to and from work today I saw more geese than I have seen all season. A few days ago, they were few and far between.

Your geese migrate all the way to between Mattoon and Effingham. That's their south and is why they return when the snow melts. How I know...met a guy named (Ray?) Marsalla who was the Illinois state waterfowl biologist. He banded a couple of the geese I collected bands from.

For all you non-Illinoisans spinner's geese only go about 200-250 miles south and might range 150 to the north. They're not your everyday Canada geese. Go to Arkansas and shoot a Canada goose then compare and you'll see what I mean. The Arkansas Canada geese I've seen stay by the west side of Blytheville and don't move much. I see em in the same field every time I go by.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby SpinnerMan » Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:46 am

Everybody has GCG - giant Canada goose - aka golf course goose. The GCG are not a migratory sub species. This is why they behave like this. However, the MVP - Mississippi valley population - our primary migratory geese tend to follow the GCG when they come sown from Ontario. We get about 2 GCG per MVP over the course of a normal year.

If you have a lot of GCG, I would expect the same. These residents move when they have to, usually only as far as they need to, and then come back when they can. Since their range and numbers are expanding so much. I expect this pattern to be more common.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby aunt betty » Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:27 pm

I know but the minute we bring up giant geese we get laughed at by pretty much everyone that has never harvested one.
The first giant I shot made me look like a hobbit real bad. The guides INSISTED on taking lots of pics because it was like a woman's hand holding a fish to make it look big. That goose made me look really small.

If you want every goose to be a giant head over to Canton and look for Corky's Run of the Luck. Brad's probably still guiding there.
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Re: Pa. N W zone

Postby SpinnerMan » Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:43 pm

aunt betty wrote:If you want every goose to be a giant

I really don't care. Big or little they are all fun.

What I do really want to get is a Cackling goose.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cackling_Goose/lifehistory
"The smallest form of the Cackling Goose is only a quarter the size of the "Giant Canada Goose" subspecies."

I have seen these little guys on occasion. The size of a mallard or a little bigger.
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