Every year my brother and I spend a week duck hunting in the Devil' s Lake area. We probably spend 750-$800 each while we are up there. The resort that we stay at in Minnewaken is always full, and everybody there is from out of state. Small towns like Minnewaken really depend on the money they bring in from out of towners like myself.
Unfortunately there is a small minority of loud mouthed locals in the devils lake area that think non-residents(especially Minnesotans like myself) are spoiling their hunting opportunities,I don' t understand that. We have never had a problem finding places to hunt where nobody else was. Even though more and more land is getting posted every year.
I think that ND is failing to look at the big picture by doing things like limiting non-res license and only allowing residents to hunt the first week. ND should be trying to cash in as much as they can while there are still lots of ducks around. I' ve heard talk that limits this year may be only 3 or 4 ducks/day. If that happens, fewer non-resident hunters will travel to ND to hunt, and little towns like Minnewaken will loose out on money that they may have been able to collect last year, if there hadn' t been a limit on the # of non-resident hunters allowed.
Anyway, I hope things will go back to the way they were before, so everybody who wants to can enjoy chasing the birds around the great state of North Dakota. The hunting in the Devils Lake area is unmatched as far as I' m concerned. Maybe some day we' ll run into each other. Later....