Getting married in October and the bride wants to go on a great duck hunting trip for our honeymoon.

Looking for names of the best duck outfitters in northern U.S. or possibly Canada.

Everyone keeps telling me habitat flats but afraid they might already be booked up.

havent been but i would be trying to get into habitat flats if they have an opening!

Your fiancé wants to go duck hunting on your honeymoon!! The ramifications for you are dire. Twice the expense to hunt. Your hunting padnahs will abandon you. On the other hand, there are fringe benefits. Have a happy honeymoon.

None of the above are true with this one dean sorry to bust your bubble.

I'm not a beach kind of guy and most men would love to get to go hunting for their honeymoon.

It's a trick play. You think she wants to go duck hunting, but she is testing you to see how you respond. What she's really doing is giving you the opportunity to say no to ducking and that you'd rather take her on a honeymoon to Jamaica.

I hope you realize I'm just messing with you.

There are some pretty good outfitters in Kansas, but habitat flats has got a great lodge and accommodations. I can't imagine you'd want to rough it too much on a honeymoon.

Jeff coats, pit boss waterfowl, he's a kick ass dude and you'll have opputunities to limit every day

I got married last October and I'm telling my wife she should be more like this. And over heard nothing but good things about Habitat Flatts

James River Outfitters in Columbia, SD

If Canada is a possibility, you've got to do yourself a favor and call Mitch Hughes with Canadian Prairie Outfitters. Mitch is a great guy who runs a first class operation up there in Saskatchewan. Amazing accommodations and they work their tails off to make sure to put you on the birds. Plus October is prime time up there. You'd have to schedule a trip later in the season if you went with Habitat Flats. Plus like you said, they're probably already booked. Tony Vandemore is a great guy though. Met him once 2 years and their outfit has really taken off in that time.

Canada is an option but we would be going the last few days of October/first week of November and didnt know how many birds would still be in Canada or exactly when the season closes.

I'm wanting to get her on a good mallard hunt and shoot some greater Canada's.
Those are my two main goals.

Which then brings up another question, with it being colder up there will the mallards have good color by first of November?

We shoot a few in Texas at that time but not big and pretty yet.

It's been getting later and later. I'd bet that there would still be birds a plenty in Canada then, but Nodak may be a safer bet.

We usually go to the Nodak/canada border right around the first week of November. That has been when the big push is just starting. Birds are big and in color, not like the ugly brown birds you shoot in October. We use to go to Canada but have found it easier to hunt in the states. Now we don't have to worry about getting guns into and out of canada, duty tax on shells, etc etc. 2 weeks in nodak is cheaper then 2 in canada and the hunting is about the same.

Thanks for the info. That's kind of what I was thinking mostly. GooseC are y'all just hunting public or using outfitter?

I have some good connections in the nw corner of the state so I am hunting private lands but if we find ducks on pulblic we will hit them up. I don't know of any outfitters over in that area, I could call and see if they know of any.

Never been to habitat flatts but I know it's $$$, but thats Diego the fact they have thousands of acres and very little pressure. 2-3 days cost as much as a week in some places but they may not be as complete of a package as habitat flats

St Lawrence outfitters

And if you show up with them for a few days you're in my neck of the woods I'll take you for a free hunt =)

Also our season is 22 September - 7 January

Early goose season is 6 September - 22 September.

Youll be fine - that is in southern Ontario in 75% of the WSUs

I got married in Vegas and honeymooned in the mountains of Montana, went horseback riding, hiking, fishing, it was awesome and she loves to fish and I hunt whatever, whenever. just saying...

Willett if you are going to Nodak let me know. I have hunted there many times early and late in the season. Also have hunted almost every where there too. I will be happy to phone call you and pass along some good areas. I have only free lanced there. Never used a guide. I have killed a lot of birds there.
I now hunt where Buzz is pointing you. I have been going to Ontario for many years and piling up greater Canadas and corn field mallards. Ol Buzz has probably seen my truck up there and not know it. I'm not a fan of D..D..D..David of St Lawrence outfitters but they do kill a lot geese.

One year my doctor buddy and I flew his Sirius plane to Bismark. Gun,cloths,shells and waders in the plane. we landed rented a suv. Drove to a sporting goods store I believe Shiels or Shields and bought two dozen cheap mallard decoys,fishing line and lead fishing weights. Drove around hunting pheasants at daylight and then off to hitting potholes for ducks. The hard part of the trip was killing the sixth bird. All we killed was mallard drakes and some morning we would kill a pintail or a diver for the last duck.
All the other years I would pull my enclosed trailer with 10-12 dozen bigfoots and snow goose wind socks. We would waylay the geese and kill mallards in the fields.
A couple years we pulled my Lund Alaskan full of canada floaters and hunted the Missouri river north of Bismark. I am a waterman and prefer the river hunting. Best trips for me was when we hunted the river. The Missouri up there is non barge traffic. Its shallow, winding with lots of sandbars and soft water off every bend. We would get to the river at day liight and run up river and find a huge concentration of canada geese. We would hide and wait for them to lift off and fly out to the fields to feed. Once the majority of them were gone we would bump the rest and set up decoys and make sand bunker blinds using a shovel, drift wood and tank netting. Then while we waited for the geese to come back we would light up the mallards. Then the geese would come back and get the 'what for'. Some days the weather would be really crappy. The mud up there is ALL GUMBO when wet. We would skip the field set up and pass shoot geese as they left the roost/river. You can shoot sandhills up there and draw for a swan tag. Jackrabbits galore. Pheasants and grouse galore. The puddle duck hunting is awesome.
One thing to remember is that at the end of Oct or early Nov mother nature shuts her doors. We would always go up there the last couple days of Oct and the first of Nov. Most of the time we were spot on with the massive migration. I have never personally went there where we did not kill most of our limits every day. I do know guys who have gone up there and had a miserable success rate. I will say that I will pick up decoys and drive eight hours to be on the birds if need be. I drove to far to be a hour or two away from the majority of the birds.
If you want to free lance ND here is what I would do the first time. Go for pothole ducks and pheasants. You can drive around find the birds and hunt them. Get your birds and then drive around looking for the next day while keeping a eye out for pheasants. Don't fall into the snow goose trap unless you can set up and pass shoot them. The snow geese are just as smart up there on day one as they are in South Texas in late January.
If you want to chat about this send me your cell number by pm and I will call you and spill the beans.

How does one "freelance" hunt? If you tried that here in LA one would get shot.

Sort of, that in combination with the many WMA's that don't see much attention and knocking on a few doors.

Big bend outfitters. Saskatoon

When my friends and I went to Kansas this year we would find a pond/field holding birds, go to the farmhouse down the road and ask permission.

Never once were we told no and several told us to kill every goose we can. They hate em up there.

wide open hunting. If anyone would like info to free lance hunt let me know.

Netman, sent you a PM.

I hunt North Dakota twice every year. I've never used a guide and almost never missed a day limiting out on ducks and geese. I usually go the 2nd and 4th weeks of October. I understand using a guide if you're not familiar with things, but IMO its really not needed there if you have your own equipment.

I hunt a South Dakota Indian Reservation in November around Thanksgiving week and it's also something where you really don't need a guide if you have your own equipment. This hunt is migration dependent.

Again, not using a guide isn't always feasible or a good idea but there are non-guided opprotunties up north.

Habitat Flats is pretty expensive!! but not a bad set up. Their lodge is amazing!!! They are in the North Zone of Missouri and that usually if not always opens up the saturday of the last weekend of October and goes a straight 60 days from there. That may not fit in your time from, so I just figured i would throw that out there.