2009 Waterfowl Reports

[shnelson]

Hit a metro lake, saw plenty of birds leaving the water prior to shooting time. Activity was light afterwards, managed to bring home 3 teal. Saw a good mix of mallards and divers & more coots than you can shake a stick at.

[broken_line]

5 geese, 5 ducks today..

[Quackaddict9]

Hunted a field this morning that had mallards in the high 4 digits last night and shot our limit of greenheads and 4 bands. They were locked up and committed and loved the mojos! I'll post pics later.

[fishingguy]

3 limits of geese and 2 bw teal for us. Weird thing was we were hunting a field when we shot the teal. First time I've seen that before.

[RumRiverRat]

5 for myself on Saturday

1 Can

2 Ringers

1 RedHead

1 Mallard

10 for 2 guys Sunday

2 Cans

3 Redheads

1 Gadwall

1 Widgeon

3 Mallards

[ChuckN]

Just returned from hunting since Wednesday.

Our drive to duck camp in Western MN, no ducks in any ponds, fields...nothing.

With a front rolling in overnnight and forecasted W/NW winds certainly kept my curiousity up. Thursday our group of three limited out by 9:30am. It was fabulous, and a great mix of birds with 9 species of ducks. Lots of Cans, bluebills, ringbills, redheads, mallards, gadwalls, widgeon and some teal.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday we laid off the guns on most ducks and tried to take strictly close, drake ID shots. Ducks were pretty leery all these days and wouldn't respond to any calls, and seemed to be on a mission away from our positions. It was pretty chilly Saturday with lows at 19 degrees and a blanket of snow.

A fair amount of geese migrated from the north today.

The drive home found just about every pothole had ducks in it. Amazing what a few days brings.

[broken_line]

Just returned from hunting since Wednesday.

Our drive to duck camp in Western MN, no ducks in any ponds, fields...nothing.

A fair amount of geese migrated from the north today.

The drive home found just about every pothole had ducks in it. Amazing what a few days brings.

amazing this always happens sunday night =P

[Cheetah]

I went out Saturday morning near Hugo. Saw maybe 10 ducks total, and two small groups of geese. That was it, nothing came within range of me. Some guys a mile or so away got some good shooting in, but that was about it.

[Musky Buck]

I saw Squat in Ottertail County. Maybe 100 honkers in the area, usually there's 500-800 by now. Very few ducks. I had a good laugh at a buddy. He waited at a public WPA until 10 minutes before legal shooting, waiting for other hunters so he wouldn't set up and have them surround him again, no one came so he lugged his decoys out quickly and set-up, within a half hour 4 trucks blocked his rig in and they set up all around him and then some ones dog ran to him and spilled his thermos full of coffee and these guys were sky busting every duck or goose that flew over mainly out of range, packed up the decoys and fanagled his way for home. Sure is a fun hunt and here he tried to wait till 7:00am figuring anyone coming here would be here already, not.

[HOT SPOT]

Went out this morn with 2 buddys and it sure was fun. Had some big flocks of Northern Mallards dump in on us. Fianlly got some nice Greenheads.Also managed to pick up a real nice red head and a couple gadwals

[Riverratpete]

Drove up to Fargo Sat AM, most sloughs were empty, saw very little in the way of ducks or geese, Drove back to the cities on Sunday..same thing...actually saw more birds the closer you got to the cities..anybody says their wacking the heck out of the birds are either delusional or just happen to be at the right place at the right time but as far as any kind of migration theres nothing going on...as of yet.

[S 16 Guy]

RRR, I hate to break it to you, but looking out your windshield at 75 mph off the interstate is not an accurate scouting mission for the whole state assesment.

If you don't want to believe there are ducks in MN, that's fine. More room for me and my buddies. Your loss. I'm guessing your the kind of guy that only talks about going late season duck hunting and complains "it ain't like the old days"

[Riverratpete]

Just reporting what I saw..sorry if it offended you, didn't mean to mess with your fantasy..your right though, I was flying down the road..actually more whiteknuckling going up 94 Sat AM. And also I was out opening day..been duck hunting probably longer than you've been on this earth.

[dan z]

you can put on a million miles and not see a duck or you can put on 100 miles a see tons of ducks its were you look and how you look to make the difference. little lakes or big water can make or break your scouting... we seen more ducks over the weekend than we seen all year you just have to be in the right spot at the right time

[dan z]

then again its also amazing what 24 hours can do....

[tb7108]

Hunted a small slough on Sat in Aitkin County shot 1 green head and 1 ring bill.

Saw 6 geese and aprox. 10 ducks all morning. Picked up at noon and went grouse Hunting. Bagged 3 and 1 woodcock.

Very SLOW for ducks in this area all year.

[Roosterslayer05]

Hunted yesterday by myself and shot 4. Hunted a spot in the morning that held very few birds, picked up at 9 am and went scouting. Found a spot at noon that was holding allot of GWT and a few mallards. Hunted from 12:30 till 5:30 and shot 3 gwt and 1 mallard. Could have limited out but I got snuck by as many ducks as I shot at. The cattails in the spot I found were so high you couldent see the ducks until they were right on top of you. Shot all the birds between 12:30 and 3:30 during the snow. After the snow the birds stopped moving.

[Quackaddict9]

Hunted yesterday by myself and shot 4. Hunted a spot in the morning that held very few birds, picked up at 9 am and went scouting. Found a spot at noon that was holding allot of GWT and a few mallards. Hunted from 12:30 till 5:30 and shot 3 gwt and 1 mallard. Could have limited out but I got snuck by as many ducks as I shot at. The cattails in the spot I found were so high you couldent see the ducks until they were right on top of you. Shot all the birds between 12:30 and 3:30 during the snow. After the snow the birds stopped moving.

I hate being the guy accusing one another when I don't know fully.

but what you just said totalled up to 8 ducks if the 4 you shot in the morning were ducks? Its 6 ducks per day, so two limits a day is not legal. But if you shot at least 2 mergansers then you would be legal. I noticed the same thing over the weekend, the birds were moving more when it snowed out, makes it a fun hunt too!

[shnelson]

Originally Posted By: Roosterslayer05

Hunted yesterday by myself and shot 4. Hunted a spot in the morning that held very few birds, picked up at 9 am and went scouting. Found a spot at noon that was holding allot of GWT and a few mallards. Hunted from 12:30 till 5:30 and shot 3 gwt and 1 mallard. Could have limited out but I got snuck by as many ducks as I shot at. The cattails in the spot I found were so high you couldent see the ducks until they were right on top of you. Shot all the birds between 12:30 and 3:30 during the snow. After the snow the birds stopped moving.

I hate being the guy accusing one another when I don't know fully.

but what you just said totalled up to 8 ducks if the 4 you shot in the morning were ducks? Its 6 ducks per day, so two limits a day is not legal. But if you shot at least 2 mergansers then you would be legal. I noticed the same thing over the weekend, the birds were moving more when it snowed out, makes it a fun hunt too!

I'm hoping the 4 he mentioned initially are the same 4 that explained out further in the post. I took it as he shot 4 yesterday, of which 3 were gwt and 1 mallard. You never know I guess, and it's always best to educate as some people are simply unaware.

Still seems like there are a lot of teal in the area, still seeing plenty of woodies too. My prediction is that we'll get out of this small cold/snow snap for a few days of warmth, then be greeted by winter's frontlines and the migration to follow shortly after.

[PKretsch20]

Sunday Morning the 12th.. shot 30 ducks, 1 goose. 5 guys. Mainly teal with some shovelers, 2 mallards, 1 pintail, and a gadwall. Got set up to late as the mallards were landing as we were setting up decoys. still a very fun hunt.

[Jordyn Kaufer]

went up to my cabin last weekend and got 1 goldeneye and 2 green winged teals.. Pretty weird to get GWT and goldeneyes in the same day at this time of year... Goin up again this weekend to see if we can't get some more ducks and maybe a few grouse... Lots of ducks flying but not many coming in to decoy up.. Although when we were pickin up the dekes, we decided to leave the mojo in until we left, and sure enough 3 or 4 groups of teals about 12-16 in each one cam flying in and then pulled out when they noticed us takin the blind down... Only if they let us shoot an extra 20 minutes at night!!! We actually shot our two teals at 6:34 and sun set was at 6:40...

[mudslinger]

Me and a buddy hunted some rice today. The duck gods finally smiled down on me. We limited out with Ruddys, Ringers, Red Heads, Cans, GW & BW Teal, and Mallards in the bag. My four legged friend is exhausted and i'm grinning ear to ear. Many fast crossing shots. Im always amazed how far a duck can skip off the water after it tumbles from the sky.

[Moonie]

Went out after work yesterday after work from 5:30 to sunset. Saw tons of malls and shot a couple blue wing. Should have had more birds but my buddy's beretta auto had a firing pin problem. Had a bunch of geese turn and come over with the call, but didn't have any goose blocks out so they didn't come in close enough. I'll bring them today tho (along with an extra shotgun for my friend).

[hart0670]

heading out tonight in the south metro along the MN river, anyone that has been hunting around there lately have any reports? Weather looks like it should be very cooperative, I'll report back tomorrow on how it goes.

[jparrucci]

Hunting the Rice Lake in the Wilkie Unit hart0670? They really need to limit the hunters and regulations down there. I have hunted it once each in the last 2 years during midweek mornings, at it was still an overcrowded skybusting nightmare of a hunt. There were some ducks around and I did manage to bag a few. I was also checked by a CO both times. I also had somebody get behind me in the cattails and shoot my decoys from over my left shoulder. I will never hunt that place again without them installing some type of regulations regarding the number of hunters or methods. Skyblasing for shore and not retrieving anything shot is not even remotely ethical. It has also become too dangerous. I couldn't even imagine what a weekend looks like down there.

I did see hundreds of mallards last night in the metro, working ponds and fields where they are safe. Figures!