Opener reports

[machohorn]

Was hunting a small lake in Wright Co. everything was out of reach, fired 2 shots Sat, not 1 on Sunday, Did not see much for ducks Sat (50) all way way out of range, more on sunday but 100 yds - 1 mile away.

[Ufatz]

Did not hunt personally, but gang of young tigers around here took a dozen-mix of woodies and teal. Geese moving around and more ducks than last fall but still a pretty humble opening day.

[magnum mike]

This was the first "ducky" opener we have had for several years. There were birds around and it sounded like everyone got some shooting. I have been hearing reports or predictions of an early and cold winter for several weeks now. We had several very large flocks of bills in the area that almost looked like the beginning of the migration. We had a group of 200+ lacy back bluebills spot our spread of 22 decoys, drop from 200 yards up, circle to get the correct wind and come into the slot with wings cupped and feet down. I haven’t seen a sight like that for well over 15 years. My duck hunting fire was starting to burn out but was re-ignited after this weekend. I predict a productive but short season for northern Minnesota.

[96trigger]

Lots of shooting on the lower Mississippi, pretty consistent all Sunday Morning while I was walleye fishing. Saw numerous large flocks of ducks and geese. Migration type flocks.

[dan z]

with the recent rains our first spot on saturday reminded me about the book misery loves company. the small slough that we hunted was muck so it was tough to get close enough to shore to really have a good shot, however one smiling mallard did fall

sunday was ten fold better than saturday, went to a big lake and shot 5 geese and several ducks. had a spread of 6- plus honkers and about that many mallards also. Actually had a few flocks work without someone messing it up by shooting.

seen a few flocks of migrating geese on sunday.

overall we had a pretty openner

[tb7108]

Hunted a small slough in Cent.MN, had a group setup down wind from our spread 10 mins before shooting time with 3 decoys, yep they shot at anything that made a pass at our decoys. The rain was relentless on Sat-Sun Morning. Getting back from a great hunt in Saskatchewan we slept in on Sun. We shot 1 greenhead and 2 geese. I will be Hunting during the week, My youngest son and I just could not believe the balls of some so called hunters, basically this group had 3 decoys, no dog, no boat the WMA has a dike to hold the water. I guess they hoped on dropping there 80 yard shots on there lap.

[chub]

Isn't hunting in MN great?

To say the opener was lame is putting it mildly.

[kobear]

Seemed like fewer hunters and more ducks. Did we start a week later?

Anyway lots of ringbills and mallards around. Geese too, had a flock decoy into my dog retrieving a ringbill. If only he would of swam circles instead of coming back into the blind.

Dog made some tough retrieves. Left Saturday with 5 ringbills and a Woodie just after 10am.

Lot's more shooting around on Sunday. Steady until I left around 9:30. Only got three Sunday, could have tried harder though.

This was on a WPA in West Central.

[DREZLER]

Hunted a private lake in Oak Grove, MN. There wasn't too many birds flying, and they were just hating our set-up. Killed 2 of the nicest woodies I've ever seen on Saturday, and got the hoop on sunday.

[Gordie]

went out on opening morning hopes up high for a great shoot because of all the birds that we seen as we were heading to our spot and man did the hope get flushed down the tubes in a hurry we had some birds swing by but most were just out of range and their were two groups that cut us off but we didnt see the numbers of birds as we went in .

On sunday morning we got the best spot on the flowage so to speak and the birds were somewhat noneggsistant for everyone on the flowage. still had a great time with my son and the other guys that went.

I talked with quite a few guys on sat and sun and some of the guys on sunday didnt even fire a shot.

We saw over a 600 mallards on saturdat morning and they never came back.

I got 1 goose this morning and just got off the phone with a buddy thats on Onamia and he said he has even seen one duck this morning there are 5 groups of guys out there and no one has fired a shot he said except for a couple of skybust shots at geese.

[glenn57]

seen lotz of ducks sat am before 9 am then they all but disappeared. yep they where safe, or scared, in the new london, willmar area.

[ChuckN]

Pretty poor around where I hunted near home, Battle Lake area. Several wood ducks opening day that lounged around us, and one flock of teal presented some shots.

Sunday we saw more birds, mostly mallards...wood duck numbers way down.

Not much shooting going on and poor local reports.

A week ago we had lots of ducks, but last week's 40+mph NW wind storm took care of that. Big difference in duck numbers.

[rattlem'up]

Never thought i would see as many mallards in minnesota as i did this weekend! Saturday hunted a public slough. 4 teal 1 drake woodie and 3 drake mallards. Saturday evening scouted and found a mess of mallards aprox 200. Set up for them sunday morning, the wind sucked since it wasnt good for the setup but ended up with 13 drake mallards 1 hen 1 drake woodie and 8 geese for 4 guys. watching 200 plus birds dropping in in the morning UNREAL! Fun to watch, then the shooting began after it was light enough to identify the drakes!

[Gordie]

seen lotz of ducks sat am before 9 am then they all but disappeared. yep they where safe, or scared, in the new london, willmar area.

dont feel bad glenn the ducks were safe where I was also

[dukhnt]

Hunting in Kandiyohi county. Never thought my first duck of the season would have been a blue bill, but it was. Also added a mallard and two nice drake woodies on saturday. Sunday I saw a lot less ducks. Shot one mallard and one goose. Think the lull in the season is already here before it started. Sure wish we could have shot the woodies and teal that were here last weekend. I never saw a teal this weekend.

[machohorn]

I will be up in the Talmoon area this weekend, hoping to do better,

[Gas Man]

I was East of Talmoon this weekend. Had to work hard to find rice and birds.

Gas Man

[aland147]

I hunted at our family camp in southern Cass County which for 30 + years was the prime duck hunting area in north central MN. Something changed dramatically for the worse about 2005 or 2006 and that trend continues. Local ring necks were the most common duck shot in the good years. Nowadays you may see a flock or two flying high but they have no interest in the lakes they once inhabited. If they do look at the lake they have absolutely no interest in decoys. As opposed to past years, we didn't pass shoot a single duck. Shot 4 single ring necks that landed in the decoys that were probably full of steel from someone else and 1 drake mallard. Did see a fair amount of mallards but they too were not interested in decoys. I am concerned about the future of duck hunting in MN.

[Farley]

Ditto what Glenn said. Lots of ducks up untill 9 a.m. Saturday. After that a lot of birds up high. Saw a lot of geese.

[BoxMN]

Not nearly as good as last opener, but had a bit of action. For 2 groups of us (9 guys) on buddies farm (one on lake, the other in slough) We got 2 geese, 4 redheads, few ringbill, 1 woody, couple teal and a gadwall. It would have sounded better if it wasn't so many guys, ha! Sunday we didn't see nearly as many as we thought we would.

Still a good opener, enough duck to eat Saturday night, and we even caught some pike while "trolling" (rowing) in the duck boat with muskie baits before opener on Sat So we had some cast and blast action as well!

[#fishhunt#]

2 guys, 18 ducks 1 goose(9 birds each day/all mixded bag of puddle ducks)near Ashby. Not bad for us. About 3 hours of hunting each day. Should have had limit on Sunday with better shooting and not getting buzzed by a few teal. 4 walleys on Pelican on Saturday .

[glenn57]

I was East of Talmoon this weekend. Had to work hard to find rice and birds.

Gas Man

i WILL BE west of talmoon THIS weekend.

[MN Greenheads]

I was out in far western mn and got a limit mall. pin. gwt. took sunday off to be at home with the family. Reports from buddies up north (Itasca, Aitkin Conty) were very poor. Very few woodies teal or ringers up there from what they all said. Metro was mostly crowded and few ducks from my one friend who braves it each year.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

1/2 as many vehicles counted at the 14 public spots that i drove by at 1030 am this year as compared to last year. (west central mn). stopped and glassed a few wpa's that didnt even have fresh tracks at any access point. didnt expect to see much for ducks where we setup, was more of a honker set, but were able to anchor the 3 blue wings that came in. saw 5 other ducks total within 100 yards, and a few flocks of blue wings numbering in the 50+ range up high and following the river valley south. had a good push of honkers into some of "our" area spots from what buddies told me on sunday. i didnt get up on sunday to hunt as i was (still am) recovering from my bachelor party. unless something drastically changes, i'll be hunting flooded corn this weekend here in sodak.

[strait-meat]

Hunted in west central MN--12 the first day, 12 the second and 2 the third. Very different year for us. No ducks decoyed at all--all the shoots seem to be pass shooting and far shots. The number of ducks each day decreased as well. Scouted Monday since nothing was flying and covered 500 sq. miles and hardly any ducks out on the water in great areas. Sorta disappointed with the way things were this opener even those we got ducks.