Spring Snows

[dean nelson]

that's because they tend to stage up somewhere southeast of you kurt. if you can find where they stage up for a period of time and catch a few heavy north winds it can be good. but in most years they push threw our area in a matter of two days.

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also there migration route is a lot thinner and more condensed in SD. by the time they get north of 94 they are spread more laterally than in SD. somewhere between Gettysburg and roscoe would be tittysprinkles 9 out of 10 years

Yeah back a few years ago they had an extremely tight flyway. You could count on it being about ten miles wide at 94 with Dawson being at the center. Now days I find them from the east shore of oahe damn near to the main flyway. Used to be the birds were easy to spot with how few blues it has but it's getting to mixed now to be able to tell for sure. Have any of you seen a big push of lessers yet? I've seen a fair few flocks of them but nothing I would call the main push.

 

[dean nelson]

Never mind tons of little guys coming through tonight. Saw one wave of about 200 specks come diving in out at Mackenzie at sundown.

 

[Kurtr]

I was going to say the little guys were piling though here today

 

[jdinny]

Dean from my travels north of town along river no seen handfuls here and there of littles but not many. That's exactly what I am looking for too. I did see a string or 2 by the house tonight NE of town but nothing I would call insane yet. Though I'm assuming it will be shortly. I'll be hitting the ice in SC ND tommorow as a last ditch ice fishing effort and just to see what Tiittysprinkles in.

 

[dean nelson]

There were big strings of them out by the gun range at 6. Some of the waves were a couple miles long and there were lots of waves. We have enough open water out east to support the snows away from the river but only just. Always forget in drought years there is a source of open water that pops up right away and that is the water that froze a few inches deep on on the big mud flats. Shallow ice with a black background equals fast thaw. As for the lessers it had dawned on me that I hadn't seen the day where the sky was full of them yet and I've never seen the snows move through ahead of them. Most years it seems that the west snows track a day or two behind. This year is primed to be a vary weird year and I for one can't wait to see what they will do. For some reason I keep getting Jeff Goldblum's character from Jurassic Park stuck in my head when he says life will find a way. Replace the word life with snows and you find one of the greatest troughs in waterfowling.

 

[Trip McNeely]

was on the ice this afternoon an hour or so east and maybe a touch south and a lot of big cans where moving at sundown. a few squeakers mixed in but not a ton. I hear what you're saying dean but IMHO I think itll play out like the past years. birds will push past 212 tomorrow and hole up somewhere SE of kurt for a week or two. they will inch north daily until the next big south wind 65 degree day. it is a weird year for sure and Im just as curious to see how it all shakes out/. talked to my dad tonight and guys are driving out on 18 inches plus on alice in NEND. plenty of snow left up that way too he said. and yes the eyes were biting, for both myself and him.

 

[dean nelson]

Depending how bad this little cold snap is I'm guessing the flood gates will open towards next weekend. Birds are getting a little to stalled out now so they are bound to be getting a little antsy. They will be doing there probing of the ice line daily and the longer it holds out east the more that will shift west. I'm not saying the whole works will do it but we will probably be like the last few years where the west flyway has considerably more birds then it should. Say 1/4 to 1/3 of the over all flight instead of the 1/10 of years past. It's such a weird setup this year that it's just a big guessing game at this point. Hell never seen a spring that only had one storm to deal with like this year.

 

[jdinny]

Birds definitely moving heavy this am lots of bigs definitely lessers too. Some sizable strings

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I bet most of these are coming from the SE of me off Mckenzie and long lake. Musta sat down just shiort of me last night cuz I'm seeing the push now dean

 

[dean nelson]

Yeah there are big strings coming up the oahe this morning. I see the two of day cold snap might be a four day instead so if that happens it's going to take a bit longer for them to move vary far.

 

[Fishinfool]

I was out ice fishing south of Lidgerwood yesterday and saw a group of around 2000 sitting in a field. Plus saw a few other flocks flying around.

 

[Phill Latio]

Saw a few flocks migrating today and hear some going over right now, I'm pretty confident but Tuesday they'll be birds all over the border

 

[Trip McNeely]

canadas are on the move big time today. didn't see any snows while out fishing today. did see a couple flocks of specks though. they may move a little tomorrow but with a strong wnw wind probably nothing earth shattering. . . will be interesting to see how the cold snap affects any birds near the border. if they hunker down or head back south to open water. 10 degree lows will close the little open water up fast. either way SD will get the birds for awhile and they'll bust through ND like usual.

 

[dean nelson]

canadas are on the move big time today. didn't see any snows while out fishing today. did see a couple flocks of specks though. they may move a little tomorrow but with a strong wnw wind probably nothing earth shattering. . . will be interesting to see how the cold snap affects any birds near the border. if they hunker down or head back south to open water. 10 degree lows will close the little open water up fast. either way SD will get the birds for awhile and they'll bust through ND like usual.

Yeah i agree if Mondays temps are true i don't see what lititle we have open staying that way it's just too small and shallow. If the forecast holds we may not get back to where we are now till next weekend or early next week if that reinforcing shot of cold air comes later in the week like they say. The forecast guys are doing a horrible job with most forecasts off by a minimum of 7 to as many as 15 degrees. It's sad when weather.com is the only one that gets close. Sure makes it a bitch to plan what to do. Hell just a few days ago the forecast for today was 40 so they were only off by 33 degrees.....that's not bad right!? ;:;boozer

 

[Trip McNeely]

haha we've played the teeter totter game for enough years with these front edge bastards. actually the guys I hunt with call it "just the tip" because we end up getting birds staging just across the border and with the teeter totter weather they come into ND and retreat just as quickly. I agree its damn frustrating. its funny tho because they dark geese are moving north without a care in the world as to open water, even away from the river where we were fishing today. we poked around Mckenzie on our way out and the stream coming out an going into there from long lake was crazy. I bet there was at least one flock in the air in every quarter going back past long lake.

Every place I look for the weather is different except for Monday they al agree itll get cold. if we get any accumulating snow id expect the rest of the daily highs to drop later in the week as well, unless they accounted for that already. which I highly doubt.

 

[dean nelson]

I think that's part of the problem. ...I think the model they use has some level of snow factored in. Mind you I think they also have a large component of its far better to predict one temperature and be low then to predict another temperature and be high. No one complained that they were off by nearly ten degrees today but if it would have got to 40 people would have bitched.

 

[Hamm's]

Saw several large flocks of snows near Fullerton today. One flock had to be stretched over a mile long.

 

[jdinny]

I also I'd the ice fishing thingy in SC ND and didn't see but one snow goose all day. Did see 2'flocks of specks and a lot of darks moving but not nearly as significant as closer to the river. Buddy met me from Jamestown and said he saw 10 or so flocks of snows on his drive all smaller scattered flocks looking for water he's assuming.
To me it sounds like the snows are starting to check into " the sands" and will poke north exploring each day and each night head back to the sands.

 

[Phill Latio]

I will most likely be sitting in a spread some time this week in ND, any one is welcome to join me.
My experience has always been good with decoying the first birds into the state. It's like they're always looking for other early birds so they tend to decoy pretty dang well

 

[Trip McNeely]

I will most likely be sitting in a spread some time this week in ND, any one is welcome to join me.
My experience has always been good with decoying the first birds into the state. It's like they're always looking for other early birds so they tend to decoy pretty dang well

go get em! cant kill em if you don't try.

 

[Sakangler]

Decoyed this morning along the border. Ran a smaller spread of just 300 full-bodied in a corn field. Not much for commitment but got birds to work down to 60 yards and that's where most shots were. Shot 41 between 3 of us.