I will say this: we had far more sandhill cranes overhead and even some that seemed to respond to our decoy spread on Saturday than geese or ducks.
That aside, deer hunting is the main focus now with the second firearm season Thursday through Sunday (Dec. 3-6). There are still some over-the-counter permits available for Illinois deer hunting.
Weather looks decent for the deer hunters.
I know turkey hunting season seems months off–and it is–but today (Dec. 1) is the final day for Illinois residents to apply for the first lottery. Click atdnr.illinois.gov/hunting/turkey.
As to waterfowlers, there was definitely a push with the weather 10 days ago. And it showed up in at least some of the public sites in northeast Illinois.
Last Wednesday (Nov. 25), 19 boats at Heidecke Lake reported 134 ducks. Of course the Monday and Tuesday rest days may have helped those numbers. The weekend hunt at Heidecke was decent with 17 boats taking 44 ducks on Saturday; 19 boats bagging 32 ducks and three geese on Sunday.
Saturday was a decent day at William Powers SRA (Wolf Lake) as 28 hunters bagged five geese, one mallard and eight others.
Braidwood had a slow weekend (90 Hunters, 44 ducks, 1 goose), as did Mazonia North (29 Hunters, 1 duck) and Mazonia South (30 Hunters, seven ducks).
