what are your guys' thought on trying to hunt open water where ducks and geese are roosting? had a field hunt wrecked this morning on the very last birds in my area due to some guys trying to break ice and setup on the edge of the only open water left in the area, and in the process spooking all the mallards (couple hundred) and the few honkers left right out of the area? im not against water hunting, or getting in one last hunt over ice, etc; but its just frustrating i guess...

ya i don't blame you on that one. just some people don't realize when you make loud noises really close to a roost you will scare birds away. sorry to hear that your hunt went bad.

im sorry to hear what happened.
i myself i hunt alot of water dont have much any land to hunt. its not that i have not ask permission to hunt fields here i live. most farm have give permission to somebody else. so just i stick with water and ya breaking ice makes alot noise. and sometimes it pays of breaking ice.

I hear ya. I hate hunting water, but when we do, it works best wait until the ducks leave (to feed) before setting up the decoys.

I like the guys that hunt water. That just means less competition in the field for me.

Ohhh thats to bad. Maybe you should have set up farther away....then you wouldn't have even known what was going on. I like it when people scare the birds off the water in the morning, gets the birds movin = more action for me! I guess I just don't see what they did wrong? or why you are mad? Of course people are going to break ice to reach open water to hunt....common sense tells you to find the open water. If their are birds already on it...... of course your going to scare them away and set your decoys right where they were roosting.

scouting dictates where i set up...and if you would have read my post, i stated that the birds left the area; as in they are gone. which is what happens when the last open water is pressured. i have no qualms whatsoever with somebody getting in a late season hunt, nor did i say they did anything wrong; im just frustrated that in this case, it caused the birds to completely migrate out.

They probablly are not GONE. Most likely flew to a different lake or stream where they found a safe place to land again, or went to a field (obviously not the one you were in) to feed, then found new open water to spend the night. Its just not right to complain about people trying to get one last hunt in, that are minding their business, and doing nothing illegal. I'm pretty sure every avid duck hunter has broken ice in search of open water, and if your an avid duck hunter....I'm sure you have done the same.

.......Thats why its called HUNTING......not killing!

Ohhhhh I get it now.......Those birds must have belonged to you?

I shot a big old mallard and a few geese the other day....funny thing.... I found they all said carpshooterdeluxe imprinted in each breast when cleaning them. Sorry for shooting YOUR birds

I am a big advocate of field hunting as well because if you leave them alone on the roost the birds will stay around longer. HOWEVER, they did nothing wrong and it is perfectly legal to hunt on the H2O

The age old question. Let me run a scenario by you (maybe from the other hunter's perspective). You spend all day scouting & find birds in a field (in this case carp's field). You stop by and talk to the landowner who says that someone else (carp) has permission to hunt & no one else can hunt it. Later you find the only open water in the area & decide that its your best for your last hunt of the season. So you hunt the water the next morning, bust the roost & don't shoot any ducks, but you wouldn't of shot any ducks sitting on the couch either, so it was worth the chance at having a good hunt.

My main point is that just because the roost is busted does not mean that the birds will not come back (how does this guy know that its the only water around that is open?)

Finally, the real source of the issue is access to land to hunt. If the guy had access to land, the roost would not have been busted.

I hate these guys who look down upon water hunters (not saying you are bad mouthing water hunters). this is why I don't do alot of field hunting.
1.big foot goose decoys 4/$100 (1 dozen big foot decoys $300)
2.field blind around $150-$300
3.trailer for decoys and blind more than $2000 bucks.

what I am saying it feild hunting is alot of money. its cheaper to have 2 dozen mallard water decoys. and a boat than it is to have a full blown field set up. and around here by Annandale if you don't know a farmer or someone who goes hunting in fields good luck trying to find someones land to hunt on. i just hate all of these rich hunters who look down on on water hunters and calling them roost busters just because they don't have the money to buy a full field set up and have land to hunt on. Thats my 2 cents if you have a problem with that. Well thats just tuff!!

I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH WATER HUNTERS. I never said they did anything wrong. nor was i complaining about a particular style of hunting. i was just curious on what fellow hunters feelings were about choosing to hunt a late season roost, and gave an example of how it affected my field hunt. if some of you feel the need to misinterpret what ive typed to bash field hunting then go right ahead. i never bashed water hunting. im not a rich man. the guys on the water had me severely out equipped. they had more fullbodies and floater honker dekes stacked in that 18 foot war eagle than i had in my field spread. all i was looking for in my original post was opinions on "last open water roosts". 2 days of scouting after these birds left tells me that was the last of em. im not bitter, angry, or upset, simply frustrated and looking for opinions. in that case i guess i got plenty.

i never said you were bad mouthing water or field hunters. I never said your rich. I am just saying that I don't like these guys who think if you hunt on water your a roost buster. when people read posts its hard to understand there tone of voice when you are reading it. I never ment to make you mad and I hope i didn't but of I did I am sorry.

On Sunday we experienced the same thing. For a week, we've been able to hunt the same ducks coming from the same roost. In fact we shot 3 nice limits off of this lake. About 500-1000 ducks were keeping the water open off of a point on the lake.

Well, Sunday mid morning we showed up to hunt the field they were feeding in and sure enough there were 4 guys hunting the point. Needless to say, the ducks are gone for good now.

Like I said earlier, I don't mind it when guys hunt water. But when late season rolls around and the ducks are concentrated down to one or two bodies of water in an area, I'd just assume have them out in the field with me.

Also, earlier someone mentioned that it costs so much for a field spread. Well, that's not a fact when it comes to field hunting for ducks. All you need is 1 dz shells and a spinner.

I see nothing wrong with being frustrated by the situation, but that is part of hunting. It is just like finding a field full of birds, but not being able to get permission.

If you guys did not have permission to hunt the fields & had the proper equipment to hunt the water, would you have not hunted the water because it is the roost and someone else might be field hunting nearby?

We all have hunts that go south due to other hunters, it is just part of life.

in my particular case, there was no effective way to hunt the water. large lake, open water 200 yards from shore, and no cover for a boat to hide in. it just didnt make sense from my perspective as to why somebody would try to hunt it?