2009 Waterfowl Reports

[311Hemi]

Opener was very slow for our group.....probably one of the slowest out of the past 7-10 years. We hunted near Marshall. We saw birds before shooting time on Saturday and then not very many around after that. My bro and I ended up having a good day and ended up with 5 teal (green & blue) and two geese (one was banded...my first band!). Out of the other 6 guys in our party only one goose was taken Saturday. Sunday the tides turned and my bro and I did not even shoot the gun, but a couple birds were taken by the others in our group. Definitely did not see many birds around....the CO we talked to said the teal and woodies were around in good numbers before the cold weather and wind in the previous weeks before opener. Our reports were consistent with other reports in the area. Didn't really see any mallards in the area.

[S 16 Guy]

we were pretty slow in the dent area as well. One ringneck/day for three guys. We should have connected on a couple more possibly, but that's always the case.

Overall we saw really low to moderate numbers. Mainly ringnecks in the rice. Only a small scattering of teal/woodies. Mallards seem to be becoming as rare as the do-do in MN too.

Hopefully progress never ruin the Dakotas like it seems to in MN...

Minnows, fish, tiles, fishermen pushing loafing birds off lakes like Bowstring/Winnie later in the fall, invasive species, skybusters, nutrient laden runoff, tiles, less n less CRP, no nesting cover, tiles ..... LAME

[crawler harness]

Our opener was decent up here in the Ely area. Saturday we ended up with 2 mallards and 2 woodies and a bonus goose, should have had alot more birds, the shooting is still a little rusty. Sunday was better we ended up with 3 mallards, 3 woodies and 2 hooded mergansers. Seen lots of birds but just where set up in the wrong spot, ended up with mostly pass shooting. At one time we had about 200 mallards flying around but could not get any in close enough for a shot.

[HOT SPOT]

We had a decent opener. We had 14 guys in three differnt spots on saturday. The group I was in shot HORIBLE we had 6 guys and probally went through dang near a case of shells. We ended up with are 36 ducks and 4 honkers so I cant complain. I was happy tho we had 15 greenheads 1 hen 11 teal 1 ring bill and 7 red heads and lost one in the weeds. Are other group had 5 ppl and ended up wth there limit of a nice mixed bag as well. The last group of three ended up with 13. So overall, we had a good opener

[skee0025]

Hunted near Fergus Falls. 2 hunters, 2 days... 2 woodies (1 banded) 1 teal and a red head. Not a good weekend.

[Huntin&Fishin]

Yup bad weekend for us to!! Not many ducks! Worst opener in my life

[Lunker]

Hunted this morning, central Wisconsin. Fog rolled in right at shooting hours so we sat there for an hour and a half not being able to even see the dekes. After that burned off there wasn't much moving, but we managed one mallard, one woody, and one goose.

[Quackaddict9]

8 mallards for 2 guys this morning...ducks worked nicely.

Saturday- 5 man limit of honkers on water and Sunday had a good field with mallards and geese but they were very skittish and would not come in the decoy spread, would just fly up and down all around us, but managed to shoot 1. Lots of birds around but very cautious. It was good to be out shooting some ducks!

Good Luck the rest of the season guys!

[kobear]

Had another good opener. 5 ringers and a woodie, packed up to go home by 10:10 on Saturday. There was 200+ ringbills on the slough when I walked in (it's public too). Not much shooting going on. Lot's of stupid geese around.

Sunday was slower till after 9am. Then groups of mallards 4-15 started to work the area. Watched other groups sit all morning and then leave as soon as mallards started to show up, they dropped two then packed up. The ringers pretty much sat in one end of the slough and didn't get up. Lot's of shoting after 9 am pretty steady in the Underwood direction. Fewer stupid geese but still a couple. Didn't limit but should have.

I was in the Fergus Dalton area.

[whitewolf6647]

Never fired a shot on Saturday and only saw 2 ducks neither of which we could shoot at. Didn't even hunt Sunday morning, just no birds in the area. Or at least not where we were.

[coombia21]

142 ducks and geese between the 4 hunters we had in our group in the last 4 days in north dakota

[Gordie]

those are the numbers I'm hopeing for next week.

where you at coombia? were heading to Cando

[coombia21]

anywhere from spiritwood to kensla we have hunted there for a while now and have lots of good connections with some of the farmers out there and now we set up camp in one of the farmers barns for the weeks we want to hunt and we come help out when he needs help like branding cattle and helping with the harvest

[RaininFeathers]

Elwood my dad is heading to Cando on Friday and I will be there the 22nd. Heard some good reports from the area. This year we found an old lady who rents apartments with kitchens and all for cheaper than the hotel.

[mudslinger]

Had a very poor weekend near Alex. There was some shooting on the lake but the spots I chose were very unproductive. Heated up my barrel this morning with some Ringer and Goose action further north. Finally! The good shooting came much later than I had imagined. Im guessing the fog set everything back.

[BucksnDucks]

Observed many new birds in south central mn arrived after the the rain finally let up Tuesday evening around 5. Mostly honkers but also mallards mixed in. Looked to be hittn the sweetcorn fields pretty hard in the evening. Today noticed some new birds in chopped corn that was holding surface water.

[Gordie]

Elwood my dad is heading to Cando on Friday and I will be there the 22nd. Heard some good reports from the area. This year we found an old lady who rents apartments with kitchens and all for cheaper than the hotel.

were staying at webers place its an outfitter service If you wanna callit that I been hearing mixed reports as well we will be hunting the wheat and barley fields and I hope to make it to Devils lake once or twice for ducks and eyes also

[coombia21]

let me know how you do on devils lake i have wanted to hunt there but never wanted to drive away from a good spot i am on just to find others but if it is good hunting it might be worth the drive

[johnsd16]

Our group hunted North Dakota for opening weekend through tuesday. 83 ducks for 4 guys, no geese and lots of birds grilled on the trip. It was my first opener there but not my first trip. We filled out the first two days and nearly did the next two but were restricted by posession limits, being beat from hunting hard, or scouting.

There were TONS of mallards. They were our most common duck in the bag followed closely by teal (almost all bluewing) and gadwalls. Pintails also seemed to be up big.

Lots of redheads around, but tons and tons of teal. The amount of water was unbelievealbe, there was water in every field, ditch and slough and every one had ducks in it at one time or another. We would jump a puddle and more often than not when we would walk away more ducks would come pile back in.

There were also tons of ruddy ducks. We didn't shoot any since we haven't figured out how to get them up when you jump a slough. Lots of them on Devil's as well.

We shot Mallards, Blue and Green Teal, Gadwalls, Pintails, Redheads, Woodies, a couple Shovelers and a Widgeon. We saw lots of shovelers and widgeon but didn't bag many, spoonies by choice and widgeon because we didn't have many come in or jump any.

Tons of birds looked to be young of the year, very small especially mallards, pintails and gadwalls. We plucked some gadwalls that were the same size as bluewings. So it looks like they had great producktion (couldn't resist) out there on puddlers and redheads especially for divers. Few mallards were colored out which made our field mallard hunt really really tough.

Also saw lots of buffleheads but did get any. Few bluebills around with almost all spotted on the big lake and none bagged, though many seemed to have moved in by Wednesday morning when we rolled out. I don't think I saw a ringneck the whole trip.

IF YOU PLAN TO HUNT DEVILS LAKE******* Go check it out before you head out in the dark, the water level has changed a lot-- a few feet. Many spots are not where they were and there are new areas of wood and boulders just unter the surface that were easily seen in years past. Points of land that were huntable are now over the waders.

First Morning over decoys, we jumpshot to finish

Second morning, one went unrecovered so we brought home 23.

[walleyehunter80]

nice

[duckster]

I had to work this weekend but wish I could have made it out.

[shnelson]

I managed to make it out after work for a quick hour last night. Saw a small group of woodies take off down river from me, and another came over my decoys just shy of sunset (didn't come in close enough though, they weren't at all interested in my spread).

This was on the st. croix south of osceola, I'm hitting minnesota this weekend and hope to have a better show based on the weather coming through!

[skee0025]

Went out this morning. Fergus area. 2 teal, Buffle heads, Cans some mallards and a pintail. Plenty of ducks about but mostly what you would expect to see later in the season, not in the first week.

[canman]

Nice push of birds seen this am! Limits were easy. Lots of divers and puddlers. Felt like November.

[chub]

Wow.....what's the date....LOL