Northern IL numbers

[wackin_n_stackin85]

How's everything looking up in the Northern portion of our great state? Many birds?

[Quackwhacker]

Last week I drove from Chicago O'hare to Madison,Wi and birds everywhere.

[dux_99]

I work at a duck club south of Chicago about two hours and we are startin to hold some birds; not big numbers; but not bad for this time of yr. The N. IL opener should be ok for us.

[Johnsonevinrude]

I live in Beach Park, Il. I could probably pass
shoot geese from my front door and do okay.
I could also run down as many as I wanted on the
street.
There are lots of duck also.

[randy fox]

THEY Are getten thicker, now if we can just get some fields picked!!!!

[wackin_n_stackin85]

yessir....I dont know if you guys got it as bad, but we got about 2 inches in the last 36 hours! They better get busy...season opens up up there in what, a week? Good luck, and save some for us!

[arhosick]

I live in south central Illinois and we too have had a ton of rain the past few days. I do a lot of my duck hunting in the Kaskaskia river bottoms and checked one of my duck holes this past sunday night to find that it was dry as can be. Kind of a bummer because the river was so low that I could see four wheeler tire tracks along the sand bars, which for me meant no pumping this year. I went out for a drive again last night to check the river level after hearing that a bunch of the bigger creeks were out of the banks. As a hunter and not a farmer, I was very happy to see that the river was maybe 5 or 6 feet from being out of its banks. When the river gets out, it normally floods my hole itself and holds for anywhere from 6 months to a year. Not only that, but I saw a few hundred ducks flying not more than a few feet above the tree tops right above my duck hole. Still have a few more weeks until season opens but last night definately got me pumped up!

[illinoisduckboy15]

i operate a club near joliet, ducks are hear and near my home in orland park theres birds thick as hives. As far as fields being harvested theres going to be a long wait, most farmers planted late due to a wet spring and the corn is just not ready. This frost tonight will cut off all kernel development and likely the corn will take for ever to dry, resulting in farmers harvesting later even into december.

[Gary]

THEY Are getten thicker, now if we can just get some fields picked!!!!good luck on the fields , it's so wet out here i think it will b a dec-jan harvest again this year . last year i had 2 pull traffic birds every time i hunted !!!! will say that the beans are about ready 2 come off in some spots.

[BlackMouth]

its was cold as heck up here this morning. all the puddles were frozen over solid this morning. the just started to pick alot of the corn up here also. alot are just chopping it for silage, but they are picking some fields. the picked the 60 acres brhind my house last night in just under two hours.

should be alot of birds heading down your way from up here. its been bitter cold the last 2 days with a strong wind coming from the north.

[Joe Doris]

It will be a interesting year to say the least, I farm with my cousin and the general consensus from the majority of the farmers here in central Il is that most guys wont be into corn til at least november and wont finish up until late december so I hope and pray that its not gonna be to late and the majority of the birds pass us up due to the lack of harvested feilds

[Just Hunt]

It will be a interesting year to say the least, I farm with my cousin and the general consensus from the majority of the farmers here in central Il is that most guys wont be into corn til at least november and wont finish up until late december so I hope and pray that its not gonna be to late and the majority of the birds pass us up due to the lack of harvested feildsDitto on that...Pike County in west central Illinois has maybe 25% of the corn harvested as apposed to a normal year of about 75%. It may be tough on waterfowl and deer:rolleyes:...sure hope not

[Sgt14]

My hunting partner and I are planning a trip to Braidwood Lake (via Braidwood Lake Hunt Club) the second week of December, and hope that there will be no problems.

Here in NW Indiana, geese are thicker than thieves. We have the problem also of having minimal grain fields being harvested due now to wet weather in the harvesting season.

We hope everyone gets a chance to put the smack down on some birds. I for one, am planning on it.