2009 Waterfowl Reports

[Lunker]

We have the Pic topic, but for the stories/those without pics thought we needed a thread.

Hunted WI Northern opener today on the WI River in central WI. Spent most of the night out on the water. Hunting was tough, a lot of people, not a great number of birds, and really hot sunny weather.

Had two mallards in the first hour, that ended up being it for my hunting partner and I for the day. Only other shot chance was at some passing woodies, missed. Talking to other guys it was much of the same,some woodies in the backwaters sloughs and that's about it. A friends group ended up with 1 Canvasback for the day...slow.

Mostly saw mallards and woodies, with a few other birds including the cans, ringnecks, and geese.

Be back at it tomorrow.

[Gordie]

good luck lunker

[RumRiverRat]

Scouted Saturday Evening.

Located plenty of ducks on everyone of the 7 possible spots I may hunt on the opener.

One of the spots had a small raft of Canvasbacks on it.

[Lunker]

2 more this morning. One mallard, one shoveler. Very few ducks moving around. Going to change it up and hunt a different area tommorrow where there were better numbers during scouting.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

39 geese and 2 ducks for sodak opening weekend. early goose overlapping waterfowl opener is great!

[Rost]

38 geese and 8 ducks on the SD opener for us. Carp, you're right! Why hunt ducks when the goose limit is still 5?

day 1 =10 geese

Day 2 = 29 geese, 8 ducks

[mudslinger]

Rost, those pics made my day. They also made me jealous and i'll be unable to sleep but hey. Good huntin

[tweedlap]

Roost,

Nice shoot ! Looking like the kids had a good time, too.

Great pic.

tweed

[Rost]

Thanks Guys..

Sorry, I deleted the pictures. The children in the picture are not mine, so I din't feel comfortable posting without their parents consent.

We've been taking kids quite often this year. We usually place them in a separate blind right behind us (for safety). They seem to really enjoy it.

[shnelson]

Hunted WI opener on the St. Croix - Hit a spring fed lake on sat and stirred up a few wood ducks when making our way to the blind. Had a loner pass over us 10 minutes before we could shoot, and a nice flock cruise a few hundred yards out about 930. Didn't bag anything in the AM, heard very few shots around us (this has been the quietest opener i've experienced on that lake to date).

Had a little better luck in the evening, tried a different spot on the backwaters. Had a few flocks come in close, but not close enough (mostly woodies, saw a few mallards). We bagged one woodie, I was able to call in some geese but we had no dekes and I'm still waiting on my goose license in the mail so we couldn't take em even if they did come in close enough =[.

Slept in a little yesterday, managed to get out early enough to see plenty of birds but couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Found out I grabbed the wrong box of shells (It was embarrassing to discover that I was trying to drop ducks with BB's all morning, wont make that mistake again!). Was mostly woodies again, can't wait to see some more greenheads come through!

[Lunker]

Hunted every day this week besides today. Things were slow with the exception of one day. Monday we hunted a public area where we should have shot quite a few but with 40mph winds we weren't shooting too well. Hunted there or back on the river all week. We would shoot a few every day but nothing great. Species killed since my last report include bluebills, woodies, teal, ringnecks, and widgeon.

[tracker x-2]

We had a pretty successfull morning despite the late opener. As we ored out we had mallards and geese overhead. We got set up and it was a while till the first teal came buzzing in with some woodies and a mallard. Left around noon and ended up with two teal five wood ducks and one mallard and four geese.

[norwall]

Started the mornin with a few hot cups of joe and a leftover slab of pizza then some good ol fashioned shootin the breeze. Proceeded to the haunt and all signs were good as mallards were "talkin" and woodies n teal were a buzzin. Set out the dekes and the wait was on, had a few mallards stop on in n ck things out,about 15 teal swam in for a look as well. All in all a decent shoot as we ended with 2 mallard 5 teal and a big smile across my rain soaked face.

[First Ice-Mike]

Tons of shooting around my place this morning. The marksmanship must not be very good though - I'd say 95% of the time the guns are being unloaded - unless they are doubling and tripling up a lot I'd say there are some rusty hunters out there - sounds expensive.

FI

[buckx37x]

went out this am ended up with 3 teal 2 mallards. had some others out on pond were we are usually alone, they also got two or three. all in all it was a great wknd. huntin with the whole family, wife and both boys thats real family time!

[Scott M]

10/3: Haven't had an opener this slow in my hunting experience; for the more tenured hunters in our party they can't remember hunting this slow since the 80's Midwest droughts. Didn't hear ducks, didn't see hardly any ducks...Most times you can at least get buzzed, see a few circle around...It was terrible. Hours passed between even seeing singles and I don't think anyone on the lake fired a shot until 10:15! Our group of 5 got a goose and 2 BWT. I only took one shot! The only good thing was seeing the dog work and taking a friend of mine through the paces. He had a good time and found the silver lining in the gray skies...watching the rain drop on the water's surface in the marsh, seeing how everything works, doing some calling...waterfowl hunting is pretty new to him. He called it his best day of duck hunting. He would probably pass out if he went to N.D.

10/4 Switched to private lands today and at least we got to see some ducks...Probably saw a dozen good sized flocks of mallards come in...it felt like 2nd, 3rd, or 4th weekend of the season...colder water and weather, gray skies, and mallards circling. Only trouble was they wanted to settle in the middle of the lake, the cattail rings and decoys made them nervous. 3 of us finished with 3 green wings-another indicator that the migration is on. We could at least stay awake with a few birds in the sky. I like this spot for later in the season, but I wish there was a prominent point or some piece of structure to work with. The roundness of the lake and the major bands of cattails keeps most birds in the middle of the lake.

I'm hoping for better days, but it still beats not going. Every once in a while you'll have an opener that follows a cold front and if you don't get woodies and teal to fill the bag, you often experience bad days.

I'm curious if anyone did any good out west closer to pothole country or further north. The DNR migration report last Thursday suggested the extreme north had some ringnecks move in. I haven't heard from anyone that's had a good day yet, which may explain the poor reporting in this thread.

[icecold]

Hunted the minnesota river bottoms, This was the least amount Of ducks I ever saw in the past 30 years of hunting the same spot on opener, very few mallards maybe 10-15 both sat and sun and very few teal and woodducks, The kids had a very poor youth opener a few weeks ago also, I hope things improve, Im afraid with the cold weather predicted for this upcoming weekend that the woodducks and teal are going to be gone .. We still got 4 woodies and a teal, but were used to shooting till your arm hurts, but not this opener

[tybo]

Hunted up near Hillman (4 of us). Saw lots of ducks on SAT but only got three. Nothing else would come by but we were on public land with a lot of hunters. We did better on Sunday after changing up our locations a little. We got 10 birds. in just over an hour. Mostly teal (blues & green) and a few wood ducks, mallards and ring bills. We got lots of shooting in today but didn;t see as many ducks.

[Stringerless!]

Same as da chise31 for me. Hunted Carlos Avery. One shot on Saturday for a ringie drake. No other birds close enough to shoot! Only saw 2 flocks before shooting time ! Sunday got buzzed by 12-15 teal a few minutes before legal. Took one shot at a flock of 4 and missed. {typical for me !] Was flagging a high flock of geese when I heard a close cluck. Turned around to see a loner locked up. 3 shots, away he goes still calling and looking back. I wave the flag and he turns back! I scrambled to find the BBs. In a closed ammo box and in their own box that I could not get open cause my gloves! By the time I got 2 shells in he was on top of me again. Missed the first and the second was a dud ! The excitment made my whole opening weekend. I could hear lots of shooting towards the refuge road.But that does not equal big numbers of birds ! 1 duck flys over everyone unloads. I have seen stone dead ducks still going UP in the air! One year I counted 19 guys shoulder to shoulder. This was the worst year I can remember. Usually we can shoot up a box or more on opener. 6 shots for the weekend is more like the 3rd or 4th week when the birds learn the refuge boundaries and become nocturnal because of late shooters ! Good luck this season !

[slabchaser]

Hunted south of mankato, we got 10 birds on saturday. 3 mallards, 3 GWT, 2 BWT, 2 woodies. today was slow, shot a bird two minutes after legal shooting time opened and then had to pass on a flock of woodies because I didnt know if the bird on the water was a woodie. our next shot wasnt fired for another 5 hours. made an awesome shot but it was a spoony but great shot no matter what. ended the day by dropping a honker that another group missed. was a good opener for us. could of used more wind today.

[MinnetonkaMan]

Are group of three hunted west of Kato and we were amazed by the woodie population. We were hunting a private pond next to some creeks and a small stream. Scouted friday night and saw at least 200 woodies and a few teal, some mallards and geese workin a big silage field that the owner dosent let anyone hunt. They fed their and we shot our limits of woodies both days coming back in to the roost. Also two gwt's on saturday. Good opener overall but last year was much better with 13 mallards in our sunday bag! Pictures coming and am looking forward for more posts to come up.

[broken_line]

we hunted by echo got 1 hen mallard, 1 spooner and one nice mounter drake woodie this entire weekend! by far worst opener i have ever heard of.. 2 years ago i couldnt keep shells in my gun! now they get rusty in it..

[tracker x-2]

Today we got five ducks. Two mallards and three teal. I think yesterday was better at nine o'clock lol

[Jameson]

Opener 2 of us bagged 3 woodies total. No mallards or teal seen.

Sunday bowhunting somewhere else I had 2 trophy drake woodies and a hen swim by at 40 yards.

[#fishhunt#]

Hunted Public land between Alex and Fergus Falls with my brother. We call it the Death March because no one else hunts it since it is a pain in the arse to get to. We pulle da canoe and a john boat 250 yards and another 30 yars of cattails to get the water. We always do well opener there when we hunt it. Got lazy the last couple years and hunted easier waters. We ended up with 1 Widegeon,2 Gadwall,2 GW teal, 1 Blue winged Teal, 3 drake Mallards, and a bonus Goose on Saturday. Sunday we shot 1 Gadwall, 3 gw teal, 1 bw teal, 3 drake mallards and 1 hen mallard. This place usually has tons of bw teal in it and that was not the case. Most of them are gone from this area already due to the temps. All in all not bad and with better luck should have limited out. Got buzzed numerous times early by teal and nothing was really decoying where we were set up. They wanted to get deeper into the smaller potholes in the sloughs.