Opener reports

[RaininFeathers]

Do you know if the lake used to have fresh water shrimp? Lots of lakes that used to be great in MN had shrimp that the ducks loved but for some reason the shrimp have been dying off.

[benbosh]

Actually had a few flocks work without someone messing it up by shooting.

we had the same problem. everytime we were working a flock and they were just about in someone would shoot across the lake. sunday a guy down about 300 yards would shoot everytime we had some circling to ruin it for us. it was just the local pr-ick

[Musky Buck]

saw zero drake birds so zero for the 5th straight year, but I expect to get shut out so then there's no let down, got a pair of honkers on Sunday morning.

[RaininFeathers]

Hunted McGregor area. Got up at 3am and beat another party to our fav spot on a lake by 15 min. My brother and I got six, 2 BWT, 2 ringers, a drake mall, and a woodie. Probably could have had a limit if we shot better. Lots of fast shots at ringers cruisin at 35-40 yards about 50 mph. Hunted the flowage sunday. More people there than I had ever seen. Had to be 15 trucks and there is other landings. My grandpa and uncle had hunted our private point sat and told us where to set up for the mals deep back in a bay. It was nearly impossible to get back there...without the rain that week wouldn't have been able to. Worth the work, Mals were mostly gone but the teal wanted in. Got 1 drake mal, four BWT, and three gwt for two of us. Lost two in the thick rice. Could have had a limit if we were on our shots. Least amount of ducks in the area in years. Not much other shooting in the marsh. Three other groups in our camp got three all together. Scouting and putting in extra work paid off.

[jparrucci]

Hunting in North Central MN was pretty slow on opener, there were a few wood ducks left still, but NO teal, and just a few mallards. Did see a few suprise divers but none presented good shots. Saturday I was always in the wrong spots, as the rest of my group got some decent shooting in, I was always posted right where the birds weren't. Sunday morning I dropped a pair of woodies with ONE shot. A drake and hen fell, they are headed to the taxidermy man. I also dropped one greenhead as well. Monday, I was the only one to shoot, 2 shots, 2 woodducks. Both were passing shots on birds nearing the edge of shooting range, so I was very pleased with my abilities. If opener was a week earlier, we would have had many, many more shooting opportunities. I prescouted many spots the week before opener for the last 4 years. Each year, there are many, many more ducks (TONS of teal, and more woodducks). It is just slightly depressing to get up there a week later each year, and see 1/4 of the duck from the previous week.

[lindy rig]

Pretty slow in SW Minnesota.

Talked to local DNR and he said everyone was doing below average.

[RaininFeathers]

Elwood the flowage is a zoo isn't it. We own land on the north flowage on the west side. Has a couple good points on it. Usually I avoid the flowage on opener but got a tip from my G-pa who hunted one of our points sat and ended up getting 8 back deep in a bay on sun. Hit me with an e-mail if you have an interest in chating. [email protected] Would be happy to let you know when our points will be open for hunting.

[Roosterslayer05]

I had a decent opener, but nowhere near as good as the last two years. Shot 14 ducks and 4 geese saturday. 7 bwt, 4 mallards, 1 gwt, 1 shoveler, and 1 woodie. All 4 geese were migrants also, either lessers or EPP's. Sunday we got 18 ducks, 1 mallard, 5 woodies, 1 shoveler, 2 gwt, and 9 bwt. Monday we got 5, 2 woodies, 1 mallard, 2 bwt. 5 guys.

[delta dude]

hunted ortonville area till mon afternoon. Worst opener I have ever had out there. Most teal and wood ducks are gone, not many other ducks in area either, Mallards are sitting in the flooded fields impossable to get to. Most of the geese in the area are sitting in the area closed by our wonderfull dnr till mid month. Ended up with three ducks for two guys.

[John Swanson]

I was in the same area as delta dude, 9 birds 9 guys 2 days very sad, woodies, teal, gadwall, megansers. delta dude where abouts do you hunt out there?????

[strait-meat]

Do you know if the lake used to have fresh water shrimp? Lots of lakes that used to be great in MN had shrimp that the ducks loved but for some reason the shrimp have been dying off.

Actually yes there was shrimp in the lake. I just could not believe that there were no birds around this area and years past was a different story -- I have only hunted duck for the last 7 years but can say that this was the worst opener/hunting I ever had as far as seeing ducks and ducks moving around.

[no bait nate]

put in over 300 miles friday scouting public WMA and WPA areas. found lots of bird and sat on the X on saturday morning. Shot limits for four guys on saturday, with lots of ducks falling in all over the decoys. Sunday was a rough day after celebrating too much saturday night with not as many birds. Monday we were a few short of a two man limit and had one XL honker. mainly a teal shoot all weekend with a few eclipse mallards.

[delta dude]

To J Swanson--- We hunt mostly NE of Clinton. Sometimes we go West of Graceville. Most of our hunting is on wpa's. Have hunted the area for a long time, Was tempted to go to Marsh on Monday but with the rain we stayed on a smaller wpa. Had a top past spot all alone on Sat. and we only fired three shots. Two years ago we were done at 11:00 in same spot. Saw mostly teal and ringbills, a few Mallards high. Only big amount of shooting on Sat we could hear was up by Thelkie lake. All private lakes. We usually stay at the Valley View motel. Have a tan dodge pu and pull a 12' boat on a trailer. If you see us there say hi.

[Gas Man]

Glenn77, will you be as far west as the lake formally known as Squaw?

Gas Man

[strait-meat]

To J Swanson--- We hunt mostly NE of Clinton. Sometimes we go West of Graceville. Most of our hunting is on wpa's. Have hunted the area for a long time, Was tempted to go to Marsh on Monday but with the rain we stayed on a smaller wpa. Had a top past spot all alone on Sat. and we only fired three shots. Two years ago we were done at 11:00 in same spot. Saw mostly teal and ringbills, a few Mallards high. Only big amount of shooting on Sat we could hear was up by Thelkie lake. All private lakes. We usually stay at the Valley View motel. Have a tan dodge pu and pull a 12' boat on a trailer. If you see us there say hi.

I was out in that area as well over the past weekend and on Monday there were hardly any ducks in that area -- 500 sq miles and hardly a duck on the water or sky.

[Gordie]

Elwood the flowage is a zoo isn't it. We own land on the north flowage on the west side. Has a couple good points on it. Usually I avoid the flowage on opener but got a tip from my G-pa who hunted one of our points sat and ended up getting 8 back deep in a bay on sun. Hit me with an e-mail if you have an interest in chating. [email protected] Would be happy to let you know when our points will be open for hunting.

sorry I goofed up on my post I guess it would be rainingfeathers that I would take up on the tip sorry roosterslayer my bad

[ZEEK1223]

I didnt have the time to get out of town, so I hunted near the metro area. I scouted quite a bit so I would have different options to get to in the early morning. We hunted on tues morning with the rain. Two of us had plenty of shooting, but we could not hit anything. We had 3 nice flocks with over a dozen birds come right in. Coulda shoulda woulda. I was dropping early season geese like crazy, but could not hit a duck to save my life. Oh well, fun either way!!!!!