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Nov. 17–Nov. 23
Cool and moderately windy early in the week before becoming absolutely stagnant through the end of the week and weekend.
On the heels of the cooler temperatures on the 16th and 17th we reached our highest refuge count of the year, around 15,000 birds. Numbers dropped off rapidly this week in part due to warmer temperatures and birds presumably loafing in the lake, but also due to some disturbance from a law enforcement helicopter over South Channel on several days.
Corn cover is starting to really degrade in a few of the units from hunter use. We have lost water out of 1–4 due to a dike leak. Those zones are still huntable but have water levels similar to earlier in the season compared with the last couple of weeks.
West Side Corn (1–18): Crops have done very well in most zones, except for 11, 13 and 18 (which was not planted this year). Zones 11 and 13 both took severe damage from sandhill cranes. Zone 11 is still huntable and has good corn on the western end. Zone 13 has functionally zero cover and has been eliminated for the season; it will be combined with 14 to create one large zone. Zone 18 was unplanted this year and managed for moist-soil conditions but has a permanent blind and buttonbush for cover.
East Side Corn (21–27): Conditions are very good, with very little damage from geese this year. Zone 25 took significant damage from cranes, but the replanted corn recovered very well and will provide good cover.
Bottom Corn Fields (28–30): Zone 30 took a lot of damage from geese and cranes and will have limited to poor cover, especially if hunters do not take care to preserve the corn. Zones 28 and 29 have pockets of crane damage but are overall average.
West Marsh (60s and 70s): This marsh was drawn down winter 2024 through this summer and is shallower than it has been recently. There has been a lot of plant growth, especially in shallower zones like 72. Overall conditions are very good for the season.
East Marsh (30s and 40s): Very shallow and thick with weeds. Nearly impossible to access with an outboard. A mud motor or paddling/punting is highly recommended.
Despite the much lower levels of hunting success lately, hunters are still coming out regularly. We’ve still been seeing hunters who are new to the area and out-of-state hunters regularly. We had 615 hunter trips this week, with a low of 11 parties on the morning of the 20th and a high draw of 50 parties on Sunday afternoon. We averaged 24 morning parties and 36 afternoon parties, for an overall average of 30 parties per draw this week.
A total of 562 ducks and four geese were harvested this week. Monday and Tuesday were decent hunting days, taking 259 ducks between the two days and averaging 1.45 ducks per trip. The remainder of the week was much slower, taking 303 ducks over the final five days and averaging 0.69 ducks per trip — by far our slowest stretch of the season. Overall through 11/23, we have taken 6,713 ducks in 5,026 hunter trips, averaging 1.34 ducks per trip, along with 162 Canada geese so far.
A massive winter cold front is forecast to begin Wednesday and carry through the Thanksgiving weekend. I expect hunting success and participation in the draw to increase dramatically over the holiday weekend. We may have some ice by Saturday and Sunday, but if the forecast holds, we will likely have significant ice by early next week.
Firearm deer draws are at 6 a.m. and noon Nov. 16–30.
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