Roost Buster - The Non Resident Way

[Wildyote]

That dude would be in trouble if he came into my turf. Oh the shenanigins that would be played would send him back to Minnesota or Wisconsin crying and sucking is thumb.

 

[Duckslayer100]

One of the greatest joys I've come to find are those little, overlooked water spots. The "teacups" as the ranchers call them out west. They barely show up on Satellite images, and rarely catch the eyes of fellow waterfowlers scouting the evening before. But you know them when you find them. Usually, they are devoid of action in the early morning. This is the ticket. If you kick ducks off when stumbling in the pre-dawn darkness, it raises an eyebrow. No, the key is that there are no ducks there. Because that means there MAY be ducks in a couple hours.

Patience is the key. You still get the hunger -- the itch -- as the first burning hues of sunrise paint the eastern horizon. But in the back of your head you know: just wait. Put the gun down. Scratch the dog's ears. Pour another cup of coffee. Eat a gas station donut. And wait.

Because after the shooting around you commences, and after the sun has finally completed it's awakening, only then do you see the first few ducks. They've been kicked out of their normal spots, harassed by shots and hunters and confusion. They're looking for a quiet puddle to relax. Someplace that, surely, is a safe haven.

But it's not. You're there. Well aware of the secrets this little "teacup" holds. The drawing power it has over ducks on high alert. It's why you only put out a handful of decoys. And only call quietly as the ducks are working the edges.

And it's why you're on your way home with a limit of ducks and happy dogs, while everyone else is cussing out the hunting pressure, or stalled birds, or bad weather, or whatever else excuse they can come up with for not getting birds to come within shooting distance.

 

[SDMF]

Well Devils Lake had the rodeo in town one weekend and then the next weekend the circus showed up and boy let me tell you the blue plates were really shinning. There isn't a weekend of the year I hate more than non-res opener. The amount of duck boats and idiots clogging up gravel roads for farmers and locals is out of hand. Initial I was going to do a big rant post about how much of a pain in the ass these out of staters can be, but I think I will just give some friendly info for hunting ducks in ND.

First of all... leave them damn boats at home. The only reason to bring a boat to DL is to go catch some walleyes! YOU DO NOT NEED to hunt water to kill ducks. This is different from your "hunting" back home. This big water stuff has got to stop, unless you're shooting blue bills on the big lake. I'm not sure if its because people don't realize what they are doing when they hunt big water or if they just don't care that they screwed up the weekend/week for another group of hunters. I had one guy tell me (after I told him he busted a roost and messed up the hunt for other people) that he didn't care, hes only here for 3 days. People just need to put some work in to actually hunt the birds the right way around here so it isn't one morning of chasing and blasting ducks around the roost. If you leave the birds alone on the water where they are comfy, you can shoot them for many days in the surrounding fields. If water hunting is the only thing you know, the only gear you have, and the way you want to hunt, thats fine! Just stay off the big water roosts. Look at a map, find these big water roost, and get in a transition slough between them and I promise you will get some quality shooting.

Put on some miles and talk to landowners. Come a few days earlier than you usually do and put in some work. A lot of guys around here just want to know who is out there. Please don't use the excuse "everything is posted" or "all the guides have everything leased" because that just isn't true. Go to the county office and for $40 you can buy a map that shows who owns every field, their farmstead, phone numbers... all the info you need to ask for permission. This does mean getting more than 15 miles away from DL, Cando, Lakota... Drive and put in the work.

I am not going to sit here and tell you that every person from out of state is a POS, because I also know that that is far from the truth, but its the 80% of the idiots that don't care, don't follow all the laws, and do shady things that make every non-res lumped into one category and that's a tough hole to dig out of, but I promise you that if you are respectful and nice to landowners they will typically show it in return (wouldnt hurt your case to show up with some beer, cheese curds or jerky/sausage). Heck, who knows... maybe you and this landowner hit it off. Maybe you treated his land with respect and didn't do the stupid stuff that they see every other non-res do. And just MAYBE he would be ok with you coming the same week every year and hunting his stuff because he knows who you are and knows you will treat his land and property with respect.

This is just a message from a local guy that is just getting tired of the boat parade coming to town every weekend. Tired of watching my roost get busted at shooting time and listen to them take 6 shots all morning and mess up our hunt. Tired of having to talk to farmers about how frustrated they are with these people.

If you don't care what I have to say, that is what it is. If you do take anything out of this post (you know who you are) please read and listen to this. GET OFF THE ROAD! The shoulder of a road or just pulling off IS NOT a good spot to leave a truck and boat trailer. This is harvest time! GET OUT OF THE WAY! Combines with 40 ft headers take up a lot of space on the road and over the edge of roads. They can't just turn around or go around you. Find a field crossing of a harvested field and park there. Just please get out of the way. A lot of my friends are farmers and they dont have time to sit there and wait for you to come strolling out of the reeds to come move your truck and watch you struggle to back it down a road until you find somewhere to pull off.

-TippinWingz

Newest member of "Team Valve-stem"!

 

[Vollmers]

agree 100%. It would be like a pheasant hunter with a big sticker on his back window that read "ROAD HUNTER"

You come around some areas with a decoy trailer boasting Roost Busting and that's a green light for certain locals to bust out the valve stem removal tool...

 

[Migrator Man]

Roost busting sucks and I wish people would learn to not be big a hats. We hunted a field this weekend and another group set up in a couple fields over and their first few shots emptied out the roost pretty quick. It's not just water hunters doing the damage. Granted I'm not sure if it was sconies or blue platers but they really messed it up for the rest of us. This is why I like to find less desirable areas to hunt with less hunters.

 

[TippinWingz]

All I'm saying is that lets all place nice, don't do dumb things (roost bustin), and be mindful of the farmers/landowners/other hunters. A little effort could save a lot of headache for many people. Its so easy even a sotie can do it!!!

 

[Enslow]

The fields around devils lake are leased up. It's all pay hunting. The biggest worry is the zebra mussels from these boats.

 

[KDM]

The morning went very well. I didn't want to rut up the field if it was still a bit wet (which it was) so I towed the 4 wheeler instead of the decoy trailer and just used a couple dozen deks. It was a blast!!! I watched the world come to life, had a 130's buck trot by at about 40 yards, learned a fair bit about hauling stuff on my 4 wheeler, and shot 4 big honkers along with ONE greenhead. He was the only one with a green head in the whole flock of about 20. The rest looked all brown and I wasn't into susie killin' this morning so I only watched him fall. I saw quite a few birds, but most of the birds treated me just like the states between the mississippi and californistan and flew right over me without so much as a peek and WELL out of shotgun range. I'm actually kind of surprised at how well I did today as I lost ALL wind, got rained on which didn't help the look of the decoys, and broke by flag. All in all, it was a great day in the goose fields.

 

[luvcatchingbass]

 

[luvcatchingbass]

Right here is a good reason to hunt fields

 

[You]

The fields around devils lake are leased up. It's all pay hunting. The biggest worry is the zebra mussels from these boats.

No doubt. The plastic welded hulls of some of these cheaper duck boats are prone to leaking and filling with water. Most if not all have a plug or drain but as an owner of kayaks and paddle boards, with similar welded hull designs, one NEVER gets all of the water out. Not good.

I don't mean anything by it, but it's only a matter of when unfortunately.

 

[love2hunt]

I hunted small sloughs with a couple dozen cheap decoys growing up and had decent luck. Switched to a trailer with 10 dozen big foots about 8 years ago due to father having hard time walking into sloughs. After 8 years of field hunting I miss the water duck hunts and the different species one runs into. I have contemplated buying a duck boat and hunting a big body of water I've watched my entire life full of ducks without having access to wear they always go. As I get older and my father even older I realize that our time hunting together gets limited every year and at this point I'm going to do what's best for us and our time spent in the great outdoors together. Now id never go in with intention to bust a roost but at some point gentleman things are out of all of our control. I know I'll get heat for this but like KDM said, it's not always about the kill. Boat hunting this slough has been something my dad and I have talked about since I first started hunting 16 years ago and I'd hate to look back and realize I let that dream slip by. I will probably be a ND hunter that might piss a few guys off in future but let me be the first to tell you that as a avid outdoorsman my goal in the end is like everyone else. Be successful but more importantly share memorable time in the outdoors with the people I love and experience new things. Happy hunting to all and stay safe out there. Life is to short to let the small things that we have no control of wreck our days.

 

[snow]

Good report KDM,one never knows what sunup will bring its always an adventure and with luck good things happen,No dog?

 

[Bowhunter_24]

The kids and I went out Saturday morn and hunted a tiny creek north of devils lake. The amount of shooting around us coming from the water was insane. We had mallards raining in on us all morning. We got our 5 mallards and a bonus drake wood duck.

fun times and great memories. My daughter held that wood duck the whole way home and it was the last bird to get the knife and she was reluctant to let that happen. It took some coaxing. ha

 

[Migrator Man]

The kids and I went out Saturday morn and hunted a tiny creek north of devils lake. The amount of shooting around us coming from the water was insane. We had mallards raining in on us all morning. We got our 5 mallards and a bonus drake wood duck.

fun times and great memories. My daughter held that wood duck the whole way home and it was the last bird to get the knife and she was reluctant to let that happen. It took some coaxing. ha

Nice woody! There are a few hanging out up there !

 

[luvcatchingbass]

The kids and I went out Saturday morn and hunted a tiny creek north of devils lake. The amount of shooting around us coming from the water was insane. We had mallards raining in on us all morning. We got our 5 mallards and a bonus drake wood duck.

fun times and great memories. My daughter held that wood duck the whole way home and it was the last bird to get the knife and she was reluctant to let that happen. It took some coaxing. ha

Awesome! That is a nice woody indeedThumbs Up

 

[roosterfish]

Well i remember the days when i lived up North!!! Boy those wingnuts could wreck a previous nights spotting in the 71 impala and 5 bucks in gas lol. by sitting in the ditches wasting double ott buck as the birds came over the refuge fence on Darling!!! Man i remember the first Mn. duck boat that messed up a hunt on "butterball pass" as we were sitting between 2 sloughs by berthold!!! Or the countless times we couldn't figure out why the honkers wouldn't come in and we would end up with guys dam near in our decoys because they were sneeking our DEKES. Not alot we can do boys!!!! Therefore I fish more and more

 

[Obi-Wan]

If they are hunting legally like it or not that is their chosen method.

My experience hunting the waters of the Missouri River and the land near by is that when the birds are busted off their roost they usually split up in smaller groups and are easier to decoy than larger groups. Another aspect of hunting over water is it usually gives you opportunities to bag birds all morning as the birds are flying around and coming back and forth between the fields and the water as they are being shot at in the fields

 

[zoops]

If they are hunting legally like it or not that is their chosen method.

My experience hunting the waters of the Missouri River and the land near by is that when the birds are busted off their roost they usually split up in smaller groups and are easier to decoy than larger groups. Another aspect of hunting over water is it usually gives you opportunities to bag birds all morning as the birds are flying around and coming back and forth between the fields and the water as they are being shot at in the fields

Agree that it's part of the game as long as it's done ethically. Several years ago about a 100 acre roost was holding tons of mallards in an area I hunted; a guy went out there in a duck boat & motor and chased them around and wrecked it - not so cool. I'm not big on pushing sloughs for deer but some guys prefer that; go right ahead.

On your other point, I've never experienced positive results when a roost gets busted, unless maybe there are several other roosts around that don't get busted (peak snow geese type of hunts).

 

[Obi-Wan]

Just a little hypocritical to bring the " one tag " into your neg rep. I never said you didn't have the right to, as you put it, bitch I just stated that they are within their legal right.

You don't seem to have a problem limiting someone else chosen way to hunt but when it affects your chosen method you go into full libtard mode and try to shout them down and give neg reps while being a pussy and not signing your name.


Thread: Roost Buster - The Non Resident Way You’re saying if they’re doing something legal we don’t have the right to bitch? Take that opinion and cram it up your one tag hole

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Ethically and legally are two different things. Chasing/harassing animals with a vehicle is illegal and that guy should have been reported.

Agree that it's part of the game as long as it's done ethically. Several years ago about a 100 acre roost was holding tons of mallards in an area I hunted; a guy went out there in a duck boat & motor and chased them around and wrecked it - not so cool. I'm not big on pushing sloughs for deer but some guys prefer that; go right ahead.

On your other point, I've never experienced positive results when a roost gets busted, unless maybe there are several other roosts around that don't get busted (peak snow geese type of hunts).