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Gordon
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Honkers

Tue Nov 26, 2013 8:04 pm

Still keeping some non spring fed water open around Pope and Stevens counties. Hopefully they can last it through this cold and windless night and let the games begin over Thanksgiving weekend.
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h2ofwlr
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Re: Honkers

Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:29 pm

In the past I've set field decoys on ice. I broke open an area about 40 x 70 and had them to one side and along the shore and then a few floaters in the water. I worked. Maybe a few guys could try it to extend their season.

One thing though--thin ice and dogs--can easily kill a dog. They break through in more than 4' of water and they can not get back up on the ice. Years ago I almost lost my dog on a ice retreive on a small lake. I had to break through 1" of ice with my boat to get to him. It seemed like an eternity to go those last ice covered 85' to get to him.
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maplelakeduckslayer
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Re: Honkers

Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:35 pm

I was gonna scope western MN myself possibly Friday afternoon...girlfriend would like to get one more hunt in and this is her only weekend off til mid December. Past years I have found birds, just not the best luck getting on the fields. Or birds were walking from the roost to the field.

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Gordon
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Re: Honkers

Wed Nov 27, 2013 3:02 pm

The only issue with setting goose decoys on a random pond and breaking ice....is that the ice is easily 4 to 5 inches thick on most ponds, and even up to that thickness on small lakes. People are ice fishing on Lake Minnewaska.

If you find a nice chuck of pond in the same area as the geese, i've seen guys set sleeper shells right on the ice and have birds decoy nicely. But opening a hole in the ice would be a ton of work with out an ice eater!
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h2ofwlr
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Re: Honkers

Wed Nov 27, 2013 7:55 pm

that thick it certainly not worth the effort. But under 2" it usually is.

Another option on thick ice is fill 5 - 5 gal pails with water. Add blue vegetable dye to it and throw it out on the ice. Supposedly (I never tried this) it is supposed to look like open water.

Also, I know of guys buying large sheets of black poly and spreading it on a low spot of a field to mimick open water. It probably would work on ice too--but you need to weight it down or secure it somehow.
Last edited by h2ofwlr on Thu Nov 28, 2013 12:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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lumbertick
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Re: Honkers

Thu Nov 28, 2013 10:53 am

I've done the black poly thing.....it was a disaster. We couldn't get the poly anchored down and even the slightest breeze would get under the poly and flip decoys everywhere. Also poly on ice is slippery as snot on a door knob! I'll never do it again.



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