Wisconsin Duck Season Is Coming October 2nd

Wisconsin Duck hunters are getting ready for Opening Day which is this coming Saturday, October 2nd.

The river bottoms have had good water levels all summer and have produced a lot of “local” ducks.

The great majority of ducks that are hatched in our area are Bluewing Teal, Wood Ducks and Mallards. Occasionally you’ll see a few Greenwing Teal but they’re not very common. I’ve always loved going down and standing along the high bank of the river bottoms at dusk and watching the ducks come into the ponds for the night. Mallards are returning from farm fields where they’ve been eating grain and corn. Teal also will feed in fields and you can find them in soybeans quite often. Woodies will follow the area streams up into the hills and then land and find oak trees and fill their crops with acorns.

They go out in the morning and evening for a meal and then spend the rest of the time resting on one of the many ponds and sloughs in the Wisconsin River bottoms. When you add in hundreds of geese that also call the bottoms home, you can have a great time watching waterfowl real close to home. The River bottoms are one of the reasons I moved back to this area and spent my life here. I wish I knew how many times I’ve heard the “Eeee Eeee” sound a hen wood duck makes as she comes into a pond just at dark. It’s a special kind of music to a duck hunter’s ear.

Post written by: Dan Bomkamp
Author & Host of "How's Fishing?"