Ladd Marsh Hunting???

[salmonking]

Can anyone tell me anything about hunting in Ladd Marsh, just out of LaGrande? How is the duck hunting? Are there any pheasants to hunt there? Anything else? Thanks :grin:

[Rauly]

I have never hunted there, but have heard a lot of good things about the duck hunting there.

Rauly

[XXL]

Salmon,
Looks like you and I are only going to hook up on Ifish. Ladd is a good place to hunt but there's plenty of hunters around and the birds can be real spotty. The first part of the season is hot and clear and there's just a few local birds. Usually we get a good freeze just about the time the Northerns are due and open water becomes a problem. The marsh is open Weds., weekends and some holidays. It used to be open all of pheasant season but they changed the regs when duck numbers got so low. I've still got your cell phone number and I'll ring you so we can swap lies.
XXL

[Mad Mikey]

Pheasant hunting there went downhill in the 80's when they stopped releasing the birds.
I grew up in LaGrande and hunted all that area, we eventually went to Vale for Pheasants but the duck hunting, my oh my, was incredible.
I used to have access to a private spot on Ellen Mulienburgs' property. I did some farm work for her in the Summer to get access.
Hot Lake had an outlet that eventually trickled down to her place and there were two or three ponds that NEVER froze up.
When the Northerns showed up we had those poor birds on the only open water in the valley.
Late in the season the ducks are not necessarily looking for water and will land in the stubble fields. If you are lucky and it is very windy you can watch them land and hopefully you are on public lands. Then you have to drag yourself by your chin and sneak up on them.
There is a spot about 2 miles South of the Husky truck stop on I-84 where you can park and walk the fence line on the border of the refuge but you will not kill many birds there. The locals will line up there and "skyblast" the birds as they land in the marsh. Not a pretty scene, usually ends up in a lot of wounded birds that die later on.
I've found it is best to go to the houses and "ask" for permission to hunt the private property.
Times may have changed but I usually got access about 50% of the time.
When the pheasant hunting crapped out we turned our interests to grouse which were readily available all over in the hills with lots of public access. Big Blues on the ridge tops and ruffeds in the creek bottoms. More birds and they taste much better than pheasant anyways.
XXL, did you grow up and graduate in Union???
I am class of 86' at LHS, we may know some of the same folk or possibly traded girlfriends at one time or another.

[ 07-19-2003, 06:47 PM: Message edited by: Mad Mikey ]

[salmonking]

Thanks for the info on Ladd. If anyone else has any info, please add to this list.

[XXL]

Mad Mikey,
I grew up in Baker and graduated back in '70. I would have liked to have swapped girlfriends with you but in '86 my wife and kids would have noticed, I think. That place we used to go off the freeway and hunker down in the ditch or under the Russian olives is now off limits. The ODFW got together with the City of La Grande and pumped treated sewage water into some newly built dikes and ponds right in there and they won't let you in anymore. You have to set up quite a ways further back (east) now and the birds have enough flight time to gain too much altitude for pass shooting. You remember how they used to be plenty high when they came over I-84 unless the wind was really howling, well now it's even worse. The good part is though, I think there will be a lot more birds hatched with the improved habitat. They also bought Henry Simonis' place over on the other side of Hot Lake and have started building dikes and ponds over there. The pheasant hunting still sucks major, but it's been a couple good years for quail.
I think that place of Ellen Muillenburg's now is farmed by her niece. There's still that small hot spring over on the west side of the freeway where once in awhile you can jump shoot a few when everything else is froze up. The waterfowl and pheasant hunting has gotten more and more restrictive as the years have gone by but it still beats staying inside and watching bass fishing on TV!
XXL