The second half of the season for us generally means some of the best mallard hunting in the Midwest.  This year was no different from an excellent hunting standpoint!   However, Mother Nature didn’t have it in her cards to have a ‘normal’ late season in terms of weather.  Typically the latter part of the season the weather is cold and we are battling ice.  With the use of Mallardview Outdoors Ice Eaters we are primarily hunting in our timber holes, standing flooded corn, and also in dry cornfields. 

With the mild temperatures the latter part of the season our flooded corn and timber were still good…but the moist soil foods came on very strong!  Areas where we had Chiwapa millet, japanese millet, rice, and buckwheat along with the natural millet and smartweed were being overrun with ducks.   No two seasons are ever the same, that’s for sure! 

The most memorable hunt for me this Fall was when my Dad was down.  We don’t get a chance to hunt together as much as we used to.  I killed a blond phase drake mallard thatday to go on the wall next to the blond hen I killed a couple years ago.  Having my Dad sitting next to me made that an unforgettable experience!  It was a sad sight to see the last of the guests leaving the lodge in Fall 2011 as it was the closing on our best year ever!  We are looking forward to putting in the work to make 2012 even better yet!! 

If you are interested in a Fall ’12 Missouri duck hunt with us, I would reccommend we look at dates sooner as opposed to later as the schedule is starting to fill.  Please shoot me an email and I’d be happy to go over available dates with you.  tony@habitatflats.com   Thank you!!

I can’t believe it is already here and gone….it was a blur, whirlwind….of feathers jockeying for position to get into the decoys!!!  Fall 2011 will forever go down in the books as an incredible one!  It was extremely dry early, meaning that we had to pump pretty much every drop of water we had.  Overcoming the trials and tribulations of pumping water, the table was set and it couldn’t have worked out any better.   The great hatch on the breeding grounds was apparent in the Fall Flight.  We always get our calendar ducks, our ducks that get here based on the time of the year and the hours of light in the day.  However, when they showed up this year, they came in green WAVES!  By far the best early push of mallards I have ever witnessed. 

I haven’t had a chance to make it through all of my photos for this year yet…..but below are some of the ones I have made through from November.   Habitat Flats was extremely fortunate to have a lot of good friends back in camp this Fall and to make a lot more new friends!  Some of the best memories of the Fall are sitting in the lodge in the afternoons with our guests and enjoying the view out back, while hearing about the different styles of hunting they do in their neck of the woods.  The memory bank was working overtime to file away all the sights and sounds of Fall 2011.  The food has never been better and the hunting was as good or better than it ever has been!

Thank you to our guides, lodge staff, and guests who made Fall 2011 such an incredible one!  The schedule is filling for Fall 2012, if you are interested in getting something set up, I would strongly recommend looking at dates sooner as opposed to later!  We have a few January Canada Goose/Upland combo dates available yet as well, if you are interested, please email me.  tony@habitatflats.com 

Looking forward to a 2012 that surpasses 2011, Happy New Year from all of us at Habitat Flats!!!