@@HokeOutdoors we definitely do. I have a few spots I need to start scouting for October. Still no teal up here that I can find yet. Tons of local geese though.
I went on my annual trip to the outer banks for christmas last year and while we were there it was unusually warm. very few mallards, gadwall and widgeon everywhere. back home in the middle of the state of nc it’s rare to see a mallard, strictly woodies and hooded mergs. one of my favorite holes we have to hunt i seen the first mallard in 5 years a week after season which was a cool surprise.
Here in North Carolina super big high packs of mallards and woodies, definitely migrators during the snow we had here, seen over 500 birds that day on the river
Landlocked NC here...usually all wood ducks but in January I saw a huge push of GWT. It was a nice change to all the weary resident woodies that were left by that time in the season!
Those are the best hunts when you...don't expect much and boom its lights out...as for migration here on Long Island ...December was awful...stale birds and no weather to make what birds we had move...but that changed 2nd week in January...got big push of birds and perfect weather to hunt them...
Absolutely agree, low expectations make for a lot of excitement when the action is hot. Sounds like y’all had about the same migration we did, the those few weeks of January were a lot of fun
I'm in SW Washington. Last season we had our best days at the very end of December when we had a big cold spell and a bunch of snow. Got the most and biggest mallards of the season and a LOT more gadwall than usual. We had a few days of great hunting during that snow and for a while after.
@@HokeOutdoors tidal influenced river. The Columbia River definitely has some big tide swings. During full moon the swing can be the difference of 9+feet. Especially closer to the ocean. Texas rigs do not work out here lol.
Awesome video and good looking birds hopefully the weather is colder this season didn't see mush until late goose season in late January. 100s of duck dropping in the goose spread. Of course season was closed
Mid January to early February the migration was on in the northern neck. Youth hunting day for my brother was surreal and his first time hunting he got a mallard and black duck limit!
Around Core Sound, Pamlico Sound and Nuese River in NC we were mainly seeing bufflehead and scoters until the end of December. Then more blue bills started pushing in and the blue bills and redheads really showed up in January
It's good to hear that the big divers made it down there this season! We saw a lot pushing through the lakes I hunt in early January. Do y'all ever see canvasbacks as well down there?
@@HokeOutdoors I haven’t personally seen any here. I’ve had some buddies shoot them occasionally on Pamlico or Currituck sound, but around here it’s mainly bluebills and redheads
Awesome video! Definately getting a motion spreader this season, and for me january there was a pretty good push of wood ducks and other big ducks in the marshes
Here in January you can only shoot sea ducks and mergansers… and of course everything else was absolutely loving the decoy spreads particularly the black ducks I found
@@HokeOutdoors our resident black ducks don’t leave at all! They stay in the saltwater when everything else freezes up, but most of our divers move on after it freezes but they are normally back just in time for it the thaw out again lol
Wassup Thomas. We had a winter snow and hard freeze years ago and my hunting buddy and I found a spot of open water in the middle of a roost that was opening up into a feeding, resting area. It was maybe a half acre and there was hundreds of birds in that spot. We left them and came back the next morning and had a morning like this one minus the geese. Awesome hunt. Thanks for sharing. You have a lot more consistent hunts with more variety than my area of S.E. North Carolina. We seldom got the numbers of birds you seem to have every hunt.
Thanks for watching and sharing that story! The hunts like this are always fun ones, although they seem to go by in the blink of an eye when the birds are bombing in. The hunting is certainly more consistent in VA than NC from what I've seen, but I believe coastal NC still holds many more birds than Virginia ever will. The habitat in that part of the state is just outstanding
Oh and are best migration day we had in ohio was January 12th. Birds flew from sun up til 4 pm when we left. Tons of gadwell black ducks redheads and bluebills ringers ruddys... that day was awesome we watched more birds work are spreads then all yeah. When I say we had multiple groups working same time I ain't lying. Gadwell were dropping out the clouds seemed like from a mile up.
Forsure !!!!! I actually grew up in virginia also..grew up in Woodbridge and stafford/Fredericksburg...duck huntins is alot better on the east coat then up here.... but ohio were opposite up here we want cold fronts but not a freeze out til later.. we have mainly lakes few rivers once it's locked up hunting gets great but it gets to be hard work man. And out rivers are shallow were getting a jet drive next season!!!!
I saw a nice push of mallards in January on the upper Rappahannock and an unusual number of woodies most of the season. The woodies had a very successful hatch and survival rate in 2021.
South east Iowa saw a big migration in January 2-3 weeks after the season closed for us. Tons of mallards but all our wood ducks and stuff are gone before December. Still had tons of pintail and mallards still here end of January early February
We had 1 day in Texas where we had probably 400-500 fly over head in a massive group. I had never seen anything like that before. It almost blacked out the sky
I'm from vermont our season wasnt very good either the birds seemed to wait till it got pretty cold to move which was well after the season I didnt get any ducks and I got just a few geese last year.
I’m coastal NC and everything did seem to pick up late January compared to earlier in the season. I had the 2 military waterfowl days as well and we were covered in ducks in February
I hunt here in East Tn and the last two weeks of season we got a huge push of shovelers and wigeon and pintails. Even shot some blue bills too. Last two hunts of our season we shot 3 man limits which typically doesn’t happen.
Saw huge numbers of divers and mallards in the lower Chesapeake Bay Area right as the 21-22 season came to an end. I remember it got ridiculously cold here because I was isolating in my garage trying to stay warm. Got a dose of Covid from a coworker and was didn’t have the strength to to hunt the last week of the season.
Hate to hear about the covid, hope you and your family made it through it alright. That' great to hear that the birds showed up in that region this year though, seems like y'all have had the short end of the stick on the migration with the lack of winters
Saw a couple of little pushes in january but not a lot. Divers showed up heavier on NC coast redheads and bluebills but puddle duck numbers didnt increase much where I was.
January started the migration this year for us in md, but it wasn’t great by any means. Lots of wood ducks, and especially divers moving through. Black ducks were present, but the big numbers of mallards weren’t there like they usually were. Plenty of geese throughout the season though.
Hunt all over southeastern, nc. I killed one mallard in the early season and about 90 wood ducks this past season compared to 12 mallards previous season and 75 wood ducks. I didn’t even see very many hooded mergansers. Mornings when I thought the birds would push down from the northern part of the state would only see bufflehead and occasional gadwall at the coast and the normal wood duck limit in the swamps. Was a strange season. Seeing more and more resident geese numbers increasing quickly.
It seems to be a tough part of the state down there from what I've heard. Hopefully the cold weather returns this season and you can get on some more greenheads!
You already know where I'm from Thomas but we didn't seem to see anything past Nov. until everything froze up in Canada. By that time, our season was closed and it was all over. Finally get goose season til Jan 21 this year, first time ever. Hoping to find some southern VT geese late season.
Looking forward to hearing about those late goose season adventures with all that ice up there! Should make for some intersting hunting to say the least
@@HokeOutdoors If it's a warm year, I think we'll be fine finding open pockets of water but if it ices up they're either hitting fields or have moved south. Feel free to make a run up here if you're bored! We open 10/15
We had a good push birds here in N.C. until about 2nd week of January. Everything froze and the most birds I seen after that was a 8 pack of wary mallards on big water. However the best push of woodies was definitely first 2 weeks of November.
I hunt southern New York and the Jersey coast we had a small push in October and the black ducks came early but we didn’t have a huge push until late December January and by that time my home area in New York was closed. It wasn’t until January when the Canvasbacks and Redheads came
I dident see a big migration in January but in north Iowa duck season ends dec 8th and goose ends Jan 8th but for are late season we still did really well
I hunt coastal and southern nj and it seemed to me that birds hung out near the ice line, staying just barely south of it. Lots of local birds all season long though with small groups here and there that weren’t local.
@@HokeOutdoors depends on what part of the state I’m in, coastal nj winters a crazy amount of black ducks and mallards, bluebills and bufflehead and all other sorts of divers. You’ll see wigeon and gadwall mixed in the earlier part of the season too. Southern Jersey has everything from mallards, black ducks spoonies, pintail, wigeon, teal, woodies, gadwall, wigeon depending on when and where you go.
@@HokeOutdoors no mallards or canada geese.plenty of bluewings and gadwall,pintails early,divers later.I mainly hunt the Mississippi river birdsfoot delta,very far southeast louisiana.
Hoke Outdoors another great video from you. Thank you! You inspire me with what you share. Love your hunts from Virginia and love how you are adventuring out of state and meeting the great American huntes the good Lord has blessed you with. This past season in January in N. VA I saw a huge push of geese and some mallards with them. I got my mallard limit and first banded drake that was from Vermont. I managed 2 geese that day and would have easily gotten my third if I wasn't recovering from covid. Hey it was a Thursday and I had to be in quarantine. Might as well self quarantine in my Prodigy and glad I did. It certainly paid off. You are most welcome to join me this season if you want. I have met many wonderful hunters and share my boat with them in Virginia and Maryland. I even met fellow TH-camr MCOutdoors out there and we both ended up hunting together the last 2 years. I love duck hunting more for who you meet, especailly how hard the Atlantic flyway can be. I have been looking for you out there but have yet to run into you. Keep up the great work and awesome videos!
Thanks Matt! I’d definitely be down to get together for some hunts this season. I’m working up in MN right now, but I can let you know when I get back to the east coast. Glad to hear that you got to see the migration in action in January too! It’s an awesome thing when we get weather and ice in VA
What advice can you give to a new water foul hunter wanting to make a good duck and goose habitat out of a farm pond? What do you look for when you’re finding a place to hunt that waterfowl gravitate towards? Thanks!
Food, cover, and pressure are the biggest components in my opinion. I would see if you can drain down the farm pond and plant millet in it or let the natural vegetation come up. There's not much you can do for cover for the birds on a farm pond, if you own the spot though planting a few trees around the edge would be a good start. As for pressure it'll vary on how much of a migration is pushing through but I'd say hunting a farm pond only once a week is a good idea
Thomas I d like to ask you a question and hopefully you can help me with an answer to something I saw back in my day. We hunted an area I often refer to as an open marsh. It was a swamp that was logged of hardwood and cypress then I heard was fenced and cattle grazed there preventing it from growing back with new tree growth. It did have pockets of maple, cypress but mostly was open with weeds and other duck food. My question is almost every morning we hunted there just before shooting light there were flocks numbering from 50 to one hundred or so birds that I don't believe were migration flocks but rather birds heading somewhere fairly close and I feel most were the same flocks every day. They sounded like chicken biddies, peeping . Do you think they were widgeon, I never shot one but know they whistle. I've also seen a pond covered in mallards and they were making that same peeping whistle. Do you think these flocks that came over every morning could have been mallards or widgeon. I know this may be a difficult question to answer but I.know you find many species and know and can identify flying birds as far as species go. Our hunts only lasted 15 - 20 minutes and usually there wasn't sunlight enough to ID most birds. Fortunately we mostly saw mallards or woodies with a few blacks in late season. When we had the point system this was a big problem with mallards hens carrying 70 points while drakes were 25. We learned pairs of mallards typically had the hen up front with the green head in back looking at his ladies behind I guess. This wasn't in stone but typical. I always wanted a pair of widgeon and had a chance once. A pair landed and weren't driven off as I took in my decoys and I slipped close enough to water blast the pretty drake missing him at 50 - 60 yards. My most wanted species was the Candian Goose and I put a few bbs in one slowing him but they are tough birds and he mnaged to catch his buddies and flip me the bird too. My only chance at geese I really enjoy watching your hunts. You hunt places that remind me so much of the same type areas I hunted. You drift shoot also. It's tough with longer shots usually. We brushed up our boats and it made a difference. I once had a flock of woodies part to let me go between them. We were brushed up well and drifted with the current to get that close. It was a one time but amazing sight. Id also use a woody call occasionally and sometimes would get a response from birds marking their location. It works try it. Have a great season and hunt safe. Thanks for sharing your hunts. You are an awesome shot and amaze me with some of the hits you make. Good luck my friend.
Thank you Sam! I really appreciate you watching the videos, your comments, and insights as well! I would say that it was probably mallards if you heard a similar sound to what the mallards you saw were making. If it was more of a "peep" sound then I would venture a guess to say it might have been flocks of teal. The wigeon have that distinctive whistle so if you didn't hear that I would doubt it was them. Sounds like a very cool spot nonetheless!
My ice hunting experience has been limited to trying to find bags of it when a hurricane is coming. Looked like Nolan was real close to geting an ice bath. That would suck.
Haha that's the beauty of VA, we get those hurricanes from time to time but also some cold weather like this every few years. I think Nolan did get pretty soaked but he took it like a champ
I’ll say this, it’s good to see someone who can shoot posting videos on here. You are an excellent marksman. Is that natural ability or are you an avid sporting clay shooter in the off-season?
I appreciate it! I hardly ever shoot clays but I wouldn't call it natural ability either. I've just worked on my shooting form a lot through a few simple drills and tried to learn from my misses the past few seasons by using the ShotKam footage
Love your videos mate but quick question why do you shoot the birds on the water? I shoot in the UK and I probs say most of us won't do that as we see it as unsporting (not having ago) but av seen loads of videos in the USA Canada doing it
Thanks Brad! I see the sport of waterfowling as decoying birds, so if they land in the spread then I want to take the most ethical shot possible instead of flushing them back up and risking a crippling shot. I certainly think there's more sport to shooting birds on the wing but it's not the most important part of the hunt in my opinion
Not many at all, I think I saw about 10 cut fields all weekend. Saw quite a few honkers that had hatched out late and couldn’t fly yet either. It’s definitely gonna be a lot different start to the season than last year
@@HokeOutdoors Ya it’s the same around my area. There are some geese around but same thing here, a lot of young geese still. It will definitely be an interesting opening day
Ouch! Buddy joined the polar bear club haha. Great hunt!
Haha an ice bath after some hot first light action is only right
Thomas that was a great hunt thanks for taking us alone with you enjoyed it
Thanks Chuck!
As always love your videos. Glad to see some new ones come out. Lots of mallards last season. And lots of geese.
Thanks Fritz! We need to get together for a hunt this season. It's been far too long
@@HokeOutdoors we definitely do. I have a few spots I need to start scouting for October. Still no teal up here that I can find yet. Tons of local geese though.
I went on my annual trip to the outer banks for christmas last year and while we were there it was unusually warm. very few mallards, gadwall and widgeon everywhere. back home in the middle of the state of nc it’s rare to see a mallard, strictly woodies and hooded mergs. one of my favorite holes we have to hunt i seen the first mallard in 5 years a week after season which was a cool surprise.
Mallards everywhere on the tar and Nuese river last year
How come no one commented on how dark it was. I was just using my phone. I could not see the birds flying.
This year was the best year for woodies here in north Alabama ive ever seen
That’s good to hear! Hopefully we’ll have a repeat again this year
Very nice video... really enjoyed watching... I like how you use the woodie call also.... Blessings
It’s a very overlooked tool in my opinion! Doesn’t always work but it’s definitely worth a shot
Here in North Carolina super big high packs of mallards and woodies, definitely migrators during the snow we had here, seen over 500 birds that day on the river
You know the migration is on when you see those big packs of woodies heading south!
Landlocked NC here...usually all wood ducks but in January I saw a huge push of GWT. It was a nice change to all the weary resident woodies that were left by that time in the season!
Those teal are always a welcome surprise around here! Do y'all ever see any blue-wings late in the season down there?
@@HokeOutdoors Late in the season, no. I've seen a few during the first split, but by January they've all been shot or fled for private land!
Awesome hunt! Great looking spot too. I could almost feel that cold water your buddy fell in
Haha he took it like a champ, I don’t think I heard him complain about it once and it definitely wasn’t warm that day
@@HokeOutdoors I was too excited from the unbelievable VA hunt. I'm still not sure if this hunt actually happened
Had a lot of mallards push in to southwest VA in late January with a few black ducks
Those are the best hunts when you...don't expect much and boom its lights out...as for migration here on Long Island ...December was awful...stale birds and no weather to make what birds we had move...but that changed 2nd week in January...got big push of birds and perfect weather to hunt them...
Absolutely agree, low expectations make for a lot of excitement when the action is hot. Sounds like y’all had about the same migration we did, the those few weeks of January were a lot of fun
@@HokeOutdoors i hope when you come up we have some weather but at the very least we'll get you on some crazy Brant action
Good stuff!!!
I'm in SW Washington. Last season we had our best days at the very end of December when we had a big cold spell and a bunch of snow. Got the most and biggest mallards of the season and a LOT more gadwall than usual. We had a few days of great hunting during that snow and for a while after.
Very interesting, are you hunting tidal stuff out there or a different environment?
@@HokeOutdoors tidal influenced river. The Columbia River definitely has some big tide swings. During full moon the swing can be the difference of 9+feet. Especially closer to the ocean. Texas rigs do not work out here lol.
5:43 nice shot 👍
Fr
It was nice to finally get a shot at a woodie that wasn't dipping and diving!
Awesome video and good looking birds hopefully the weather is colder this season didn't see mush until late goose season in late January. 100s of duck dropping in the goose spread. Of course season was closed
Thanks Bob! Mainly mallards up there that time of year or were you seeing other birds are well?
I always enjoy your videos.
I appreciate you watching them!
Mid January to early February the migration was on in the northern neck. Youth hunting day for my brother was surreal and his first time hunting he got a mallard and black duck limit!
Hell yeah! It was definitely nice to have a little ice and snow up north for a change! Here' to hoping it happens again this year
Around Core Sound, Pamlico Sound and Nuese River in NC we were mainly seeing bufflehead and scoters until the end of December. Then more blue bills started pushing in and the blue bills and redheads really showed up in January
It's good to hear that the big divers made it down there this season! We saw a lot pushing through the lakes I hunt in early January. Do y'all ever see canvasbacks as well down there?
@@HokeOutdoors I haven’t personally seen any here. I’ve had some buddies shoot them occasionally on Pamlico or Currituck sound, but around here it’s mainly bluebills and redheads
Awesome video! Definately getting a motion spreader this season, and for me january there was a pretty good push of wood ducks and other big ducks in the marshes
I know you won't regret it at all! Hopefully we get more cold weather this season and you can get on them again in those swamps and marshes down there
Here in January you can only shoot sea ducks and mergansers… and of course everything else was absolutely loving the decoy spreads particularly the black ducks I found
I always enjoy seeing your FB pictures from those late season hunts! It's pretty crazy to me that birds stay that far north that time of year
@@HokeOutdoors our resident black ducks don’t leave at all! They stay in the saltwater when everything else freezes up, but most of our divers move on after it freezes but they are normally back just in time for it the thaw out again lol
Great shooting 👍👍
Thank you!
That was a great hunt y'all!
Thanks Bobby!
THIS WAS TOTALLY EPIC!
Thanks for watching!
Wassup Thomas. We had a winter snow and hard freeze years ago and my hunting buddy and I found a spot of open water in the middle of a roost that was opening up into a feeding, resting area. It was maybe a half acre and there was hundreds of birds in that spot. We left them and came back the next morning and had a morning like this one minus the geese. Awesome hunt. Thanks for sharing.
You have a lot more consistent hunts with more variety than my area of S.E.
North Carolina. We seldom got the numbers of birds you seem to have every hunt.
Thanks for watching and sharing that story! The hunts like this are always fun ones, although they seem to go by in the blink of an eye when the birds are bombing in. The hunting is certainly more consistent in VA than NC from what I've seen, but I believe coastal NC still holds many more birds than Virginia ever will. The habitat in that part of the state is just outstanding
Oh and are best migration day we had in ohio was January 12th. Birds flew from sun up til 4 pm when we left. Tons of gadwell black ducks redheads and bluebills ringers ruddys... that day was awesome we watched more birds work are spreads then all yeah. When I say we had multiple groups working same time I ain't lying. Gadwell were dropping out the clouds seemed like from a mile up.
That's awesome! Hope y'all have the same kind of migration days this season, although it coming a little earlier would be nice for us guys down south
Forsure !!!!! I actually grew up in virginia also..grew up in Woodbridge and stafford/Fredericksburg...duck huntins is alot better on the east coat then up here.... but ohio were opposite up here we want cold fronts but not a freeze out til later.. we have mainly lakes few rivers once it's locked up hunting gets great but it gets to be hard work man. And out rivers are shallow were getting a jet drive next season!!!!
Here in NC. When Buffalo NY got frozen and the Midwest froze. We had a huge migration bump last week of December first week of January.
I hunt in Virginia as well and I saw a decent amount of migration, I definitely saw a lot more wood ducks in January than I did the rest of the year
I saw a nice push of mallards in January on the upper Rappahannock and an unusual number of woodies most of the season. The woodies had a very successful hatch and survival rate in 2021.
Great video nice shots can’t wait for more keep it up
Thanks Brayden! I appreciate you always watching!
@@HokeOutdoors you are my favorite TH-camr you should come out with some hoodies
enjoy your hunt.
Thank you!
South east Iowa saw a big migration in January 2-3 weeks after the season closed for us. Tons of mallards but all our wood ducks and stuff are gone before December. Still had tons of pintail and mallards still here end of January early February
Damn that's pretty wild, no wonder the guys down in Arkansas and Louisiana are always complaining about not having birds to hunt
Here in WV we don't see too much generally until late January, however this year we've had birds coming in early.
Yeah see tons of wood duck in early season late is usually hit or miss on big ducks in Wv
We had 1 day in Texas where we had probably 400-500 fly over head in a massive group. I had never seen anything like that before. It almost blacked out the sky
I'm from vermont our season wasnt very good either the birds seemed to wait till it got pretty cold to move which was well after the season I didnt get any ducks and I got just a few geese last year.
Hope it's better for y'all this season! I'm sure that the St. Lawrence being north of you is a big hinderance to the migration when it stays warm
I’m coastal NC and everything did seem to pick up late January compared to earlier in the season. I had the 2 military waterfowl days as well and we were covered in ducks in February
Glad to hear they finally made it down there this season, thank you for your service as well!
Great video as usual Thomas. Hope one day I will be hunting with you in VA. Looking forward for the 2022/23 season.
I hunt here in East Tn and the last two weeks of season we got a huge push of shovelers and wigeon and pintails. Even shot some blue bills too. Last two hunts of our season we shot 3 man limits which typically doesn’t happen.
I live in Pennsylvania and I didn't see much of a migration this year I was very disappointed in the goose and duck hunting
Solid intro buddy subbed
Thanks brother! I appreciate it!
Need to come get on the Oklahoma public land sometime!
Saw huge numbers of divers and mallards in the lower Chesapeake Bay Area right as the 21-22 season came to an end. I remember it got ridiculously cold here because I was isolating in my garage trying to stay warm. Got a dose of Covid from a coworker and was didn’t have the strength to to hunt the last week of the season.
Hate to hear about the covid, hope you and your family made it through it alright. That' great to hear that the birds showed up in that region this year though, seems like y'all have had the short end of the stick on the migration with the lack of winters
Agreed, it will get cold for a few days maybe a week then we’re back up in 60’s- 70’s again.
Saw a couple of little pushes in january but not a lot. Divers showed up heavier on NC coast redheads and bluebills but puddle duck numbers didnt increase much where I was.
January started the migration this year for us in md, but it wasn’t great by any means. Lots of wood ducks, and especially divers moving through. Black ducks were present, but the big numbers of mallards weren’t there like they usually were. Plenty of geese throughout the season though.
Sounds pretty in line with what we saw in VA as well. Are you up in the 1 goose zone up there or out west of the bay?
@@HokeOutdoors I’m out west, my county is actually split down the middle between 1 goose versus 5
Hunt all over southeastern, nc. I killed one mallard in the early season and about 90 wood ducks this past season compared to 12 mallards previous season and 75 wood ducks. I didn’t even see very many hooded mergansers. Mornings when I thought the birds would push down from the northern part of the state would only see bufflehead and occasional gadwall at the coast and the normal wood duck limit in the swamps. Was a strange season. Seeing more and more resident geese numbers increasing quickly.
It seems to be a tough part of the state down there from what I've heard. Hopefully the cold weather returns this season and you can get on some more greenheads!
What a awesome hunt man. I feel like we had more green wings than normal here in SC around late December/January
I felt like we saw more of them too this season, particularly in November. Hopefully it happens again this season
@@HokeOutdoors definitely was more on NC coast from late oct opener through 3rd week of november.
You already know where I'm from Thomas but we didn't seem to see anything past Nov. until everything froze up in Canada. By that time, our season was closed and it was all over.
Finally get goose season til Jan 21 this year, first time ever. Hoping to find some southern VT geese late season.
Looking forward to hearing about those late goose season adventures with all that ice up there! Should make for some intersting hunting to say the least
@@HokeOutdoors If it's a warm year, I think we'll be fine finding open pockets of water but if it ices up they're either hitting fields or have moved south. Feel free to make a run up here if you're bored! We open 10/15
We had a good push birds here in N.C. until about 2nd week of January. Everything froze and the most birds I seen after that was a 8 pack of wary mallards on big water. However the best push of woodies was definitely first 2 weeks of November.
Huh that's interesting to hear. Do y'all not have big water around your area to hold them when the swamps and such lock up?
@@HokeOutdoors We have a lake in our county, so I guess birds could have been on the lake and no one could really put a pin on where they were.
Be nice to see an update on your pond project
I’m working in MN for the summer but when I get back I’ll check in with the land owner and see if I can hunt it again this season
@@HokeOutdoors Gotcha. Really just interested to see how many seasons it takes for a new spot to be productive. Thanks for the reply
First mallards I got to shoot at was the last week of the season here in North east nc saw a lot of birds in the weeks just after the season
We did see a decent migration
Need y'all to freeze up this year and send them all down this way!
Starting again hahahaaha yesss
Thanks for watching!
I didn’t see much in January but in February resident goose we had several flocks on can and or redheads on a goose pond we hunted a couple times
That's always an awesome sight to see even when they do get here after the season. Hope you had some luck with the geese!
Here is Wisconsin we got 4 or 5 huge pushes of wood duck
Are those coming through in October mainly or into November as well?
@@HokeOutdoors yes mostly October some years early November
I hunt southern New York and the Jersey coast we had a small push in October and the black ducks came early but we didn’t have a huge push until late December January and by that time my home area in New York was closed. It wasn’t until January when the Canvasbacks and Redheads came
That has to be before shooting time ^^ so dark haha
Just the GoPro making it look dark, it was a couple minutes after shooting time when we shot the first mallards
I get to go duck hunting this year for the frost time
First
Good luck! Hope you "catch the bug" as we say
I dident see a big migration in January but in north Iowa duck season ends dec 8th and goose ends Jan 8th but for are late season we still did really well
The very last day of season on high rock in nc I saw about 40 woodies and like 10 mallards
Were they migrating through or using an area?
Would love to get a mixed bag like that but the only ducks around here are woodies and mergansers
Florida?
@@efaciler2462 middle ga
@@maddawgsoutdoors same here in north Florida. All we get. On the coast have some variety but freshwater holes woodies and mergansers
@@efaciler2462 have a few geese but no holes big enough to get them in
Same and I’m in mid alabama
I hunt coastal and southern nj and it seemed to me that birds hung out near the ice line, staying just barely south of it. Lots of local birds all season long though with small groups here and there that weren’t local.
Definitely seemed like the bulk of the big ducks stayed north of us in VA so that makes sense. What are your typical birds up there?
@@HokeOutdoors depends on what part of the state I’m in, coastal nj winters a crazy amount of black ducks and mallards, bluebills and bufflehead and all other sorts of divers. You’ll see wigeon and gadwall mixed in the earlier part of the season too. Southern Jersey has everything from mallards, black ducks spoonies, pintail, wigeon, teal, woodies, gadwall, wigeon depending on when and where you go.
Here in Central Louisiana the few birds that were around disappeared mid December and no new birds came down to replace them.
Damn that's disappointing to hear, I'd wager a guess that they probably headed back north with as warm as December was
I didn’t see any good numbers in Texas until January right before the season ended.
You should come hunt Michigan this season! Awesome video man!
Also what kind of woody call is that?
Good luck am from the thumb of Michigan
way south louisiana got a push mid to late january
What kind of birds do you get down there mainly?
@@HokeOutdoors no mallards or canada geese.plenty of bluewings and gadwall,pintails early,divers later.I mainly hunt the Mississippi river birdsfoot delta,very far southeast louisiana.
Yeah here in north central MA we saw much fewer birds this season. The migration was definitely late
Hope it's better this season! What are y'alls main birds up there?
Southern NJ didn’t get good good till January
Mainly black ducks down there or other birds as well?
حيات جميلة اعشق هكذا اجواء 😔💔
Big wood duck/ mallard push in central nc
Y’all ever get many gadwall down there?
Never seen a gadwall in the few swamps I hunt. A wigeon is my dream duck. But this is only my third upcoming season with waterfowl
I can't for the life of me make that wood duck sound
Just gotta say “dew weep” into the call
Hoke Outdoors another great video from you. Thank you! You inspire me with what you share. Love your hunts from Virginia and love how you are adventuring out of state and meeting the great American huntes the good Lord has blessed you with. This past season in January in N. VA I saw a huge push of geese and some mallards with them. I got my mallard limit and first banded drake that was from Vermont. I managed 2 geese that day and would have easily gotten my third if I wasn't recovering from covid. Hey it was a Thursday and I had to be in quarantine. Might as well self quarantine in my Prodigy and glad I did. It certainly paid off. You are most welcome to join me this season if you want. I have met many wonderful hunters and share my boat with them in Virginia and Maryland. I even met fellow TH-camr MCOutdoors out there and we both ended up hunting together the last 2 years. I love duck hunting more for who you meet, especailly how hard the Atlantic flyway can be. I have been looking for you out there but have yet to run into you. Keep up the great work and awesome videos!
Thanks Matt! I’d definitely be down to get together for some hunts this season. I’m working up in MN right now, but I can let you know when I get back to the east coast. Glad to hear that you got to see the migration in action in January too! It’s an awesome thing when we get weather and ice in VA
@@HokeOutdoors It is indeed. I look forward to sharing all that I have been blessed with this coming season.
There were a lot of birds in south west michigan the first week of January. But 99% of the wood ducks were gone.
What time of year are your wood ducks typically gone by?
@@HokeOutdoors I'd say most years wood ducks have left sw mi before Thanksgiving.
What advice can you give to a new water foul hunter wanting to make a good duck and goose habitat out of a farm pond? What do you look for when you’re finding a place to hunt that waterfowl gravitate towards? Thanks!
Food, cover, and pressure are the biggest components in my opinion. I would see if you can drain down the farm pond and plant millet in it or let the natural vegetation come up. There's not much you can do for cover for the birds on a farm pond, if you own the spot though planting a few trees around the edge would be a good start. As for pressure it'll vary on how much of a migration is pushing through but I'd say hunting a farm pond only once a week is a good idea
@@HokeOutdoors thank you! Is there anyway I could send you some pictures of the current spot? I know you’re busy but I need expert opinion haha
Thomas I d like to ask you a question and hopefully you can help me with an answer to something I saw back in my day.
We hunted an area I often refer to as an open marsh. It was a swamp that was logged of hardwood and cypress then I heard was fenced and cattle grazed there preventing it from growing back with new tree growth. It did have pockets of maple, cypress but mostly was open with weeds and other duck food. My question is almost every morning we hunted there just before shooting light there were flocks numbering from 50 to one hundred or so birds that I don't believe were migration flocks but rather birds heading somewhere fairly close and I feel most were the same flocks every day. They sounded like chicken biddies, peeping .
Do you think they were widgeon, I never shot one but know they whistle. I've also seen a pond covered in mallards and they were making that same peeping whistle. Do you think these flocks that came over every morning could have been mallards or widgeon. I know this may be a difficult question to answer but I.know you find many species and know and can identify flying birds as far as species go. Our hunts only lasted 15 - 20 minutes and usually there wasn't sunlight enough to ID most birds. Fortunately we mostly saw mallards or woodies with a few blacks in late season. When we had the point system this was a big problem with mallards hens carrying 70 points while drakes were 25. We learned pairs of mallards typically had the hen up front with the green head in back looking at his ladies behind I guess. This wasn't in stone but typical.
I always wanted a pair of widgeon and had a chance once. A pair landed and weren't driven off as I took in my decoys and I slipped close enough to water blast the pretty drake missing him at 50 - 60 yards. My most wanted species was the Candian Goose and I put a few bbs in one slowing him but they are tough birds and he mnaged to catch his buddies and flip me the bird too. My only chance at geese
I really enjoy watching your hunts. You hunt places that remind me so much of the same type areas I hunted.
You drift shoot also. It's tough with longer shots usually. We brushed up our boats and it made a difference. I once had a flock of woodies part to let me go between them. We were brushed up well and drifted with the current to get that close. It was a one time but amazing sight. Id also use a woody call occasionally and sometimes would get a response from birds marking their location. It works try it.
Have a great season and hunt safe. Thanks for sharing your hunts.
You are an awesome shot and amaze me with some of the hits you make.
Good luck my friend.
Thank you Sam! I really appreciate you watching the videos, your comments, and insights as well! I would say that it was probably mallards if you heard a similar sound to what the mallards you saw were making. If it was more of a "peep" sound then I would venture a guess to say it might have been flocks of teal. The wigeon have that distinctive whistle so if you didn't hear that I would doubt it was them. Sounds like a very cool spot nonetheless!
Make a vid on your gear. Like shells, chokes, etc.
Will do!
My ice hunting experience has been limited to trying to find bags of it when a hurricane is coming. Looked like Nolan was real close to geting an ice bath. That would suck.
Haha that's the beauty of VA, we get those hurricanes from time to time but also some cold weather like this every few years. I think Nolan did get pretty soaked but he took it like a champ
The last two years we have still had birds up here in January in New Brunswick but season ends in December
That's wild, I would've never thought birds could hold out that far north so late in the year. What kind of birds were still up there mainly?
@@HokeOutdoors Mostly mallards and blacks. There are good numbers. The river didn't really freeze over until late January.
I’ll say this, it’s good to see someone who can shoot posting videos on here. You are an excellent marksman. Is that natural ability or are you an avid sporting clay shooter in the off-season?
I appreciate it! I hardly ever shoot clays but I wouldn't call it natural ability either. I've just worked on my shooting form a lot through a few simple drills and tried to learn from my misses the past few seasons by using the ShotKam footage
hi, how many krams do you throw?
Love your videos mate but quick question why do you shoot the birds on the water? I shoot in the UK and I probs say most of us won't do that as we see it as unsporting (not having ago) but av seen loads of videos in the USA Canada doing it
Thanks Brad! I see the sport of waterfowling as decoying birds, so if they land in the spread then I want to take the most ethical shot possible instead of flushing them back up and risking a crippling shot. I certainly think there's more sport to shooting birds on the wing but it's not the most important part of the hunt in my opinion
What county of VA are you in seeing as many birds as you always see?
I hunt a bunch, mainly the east and central part of the state
So how many mallards are they allowed up there again?
Two mallards for the Atlantic flyway, only one may be a hen
@@HokeOutdoors I got you. Here in Arkansas we are allowed 4 mallards. 2 of which can be hens
Are you finding many cut wheat fields in North Dakota so far, or are they mainly loaf ponds for geese?
Not many at all, I think I saw about 10 cut fields all weekend. Saw quite a few honkers that had hatched out late and couldn’t fly yet either. It’s definitely gonna be a lot different start to the season than last year
@@HokeOutdoors Ya it’s the same around my area. There are some geese around but same thing here, a lot of young geese still. It will definitely be an interesting opening day
Awesome video. Do you do this full time or just a weekend hobby?
Thank you! It's just a hobby but I go as often as I can
This video is very good, if it is sent to our platform, more people will definitely watch it and get more income
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Is that a fully flocked cork or foam widgeon decoy?
Fully flocked foam
Wickeddddd
Jezz Thomas chill this is hear
I think auto correct got ya
What gun do you use? Is it a stoeger
Franchi Affinity 3
👍👍👍👍👍👍✌✌
in mis all we had were geese ducks didnt get there tile after christman
Damn that's rough, did y'all get a good push of ducks in January?
@@HokeOutdoors yes
what is the name of the weapon
Franchi Affinty 3
Nolan Minor?
Yup!
@@HokeOutdoors those boys are everywhere. Friends with his Dad
They are hard after it for sure! Definitely a little jealous of all the cool fishing they get to do
Nolan minor?
Awesome video! FYI your discount code does not work for motionducks
I appreciate it! Thanks for letting me know about the code too, I'll get it sorted out as soon as I can