Waterfowl Reports

[Maxxed Out]

Maxxedout, so did the birds show up?

Headed out there this weekend.

Have a friend who has a cabin on LQP lake.

Heard there are a TON of bluebills there right now also.

Side note, do you ever see any snow geese or specks?

Would it be worth throwing in a couple snow goose decoys?

Good hunting to you and all.

You must be friends with Sveims. They have the only cabin that is left on LQP on the actual water front. If that's where you were headed you were just a 1/2 mile from our farm, (blue house with big evergreen tree right in the front.

There were a ton of Bluebills on the refuge, I don't know if they are still hanging around because I was in the field all weekend.

I have never shot a snow goose on Lac qui parle and I'm 32 and I just shot my first speck out there two weekends ago. Does it hurt to throw some out, I would say no. Would I go out of my way to put some in my trailer? Again the answer would be no.

I don't know if you got this late, hopefully you had a good weekend. It we absolutely slammed the birds this weekend.

[HYLANDLAKER19]

Hunted outside Big Stone Refuge all weekend. Huge migration of geese showed up Saturday afternoon. Yesterday morning was a goose bonanza like I've never seen. The geese rolled off the refuge for hours. Lots of ducks Friday and Saturday morning, but everything froze up Saturday and many seem to have moved on.

[CANOPY SAM]

Yea, that's just great. I wait for weeks for the big push, leave for business in Georgia last week, and while I'm gone they all blow thru!!! I think the good Lord might be telling me something!

[gurkster]

Good shooting for us in the Wyoming area this past weekend.

[Stringerless!]

French lake. Nothing. Broke 1 and a half inches of ice. Couple of very small open pockets. Saw 1 single duck and one single goose. Shot at neither. Oh yeah as we r coming in, about 60 geese are acting like they would land on us ! OF course ! If it goes down to 14 degrees like they are saying it should be curtains for shallow water.

[morefishplease]

Scouted the refuge tonight after work, very few mallards seen, what very few were here left. A few geese around. Lakes are ice free, bays have skim ice on them. Lakes will be locked up here by Thurs.

[Stringerless!]

Sad, Sad day. Put the duck boats away . Will scout towards TF looking for field oppurtunities. No four wheel drive to deal with icy boat ramps or I would be on the water still. Figures I get laid off 1 week AFTER the big push ! Time to grab the chisel soon .

[jparrucci]

With just about everything locked up, it looks like my year is done. All in all it wasn't too bad. My goal for this year was to get a Canvasback and a Pintail, the only 2 common ducks in Minnesota that I haven't bagged yet. I got my can, although it wasn't a real big bull so it didn't get to the wall. Opener up north jump shooting wood ducks was ok, have had better and worse opening weekend hunts. I received access to a private pond just south of the metro, and did a majority of my hunts there. That pond easily made up for the other poor hunts I had throughout the year, as the stupid city mallards would come right in without even calling them. Numerous good hunts were had on that pond, including a 4 curl mallard that I really should have mounted even though it wasn't retrieved by my dog. (one of my requirements for a bird to make the wall). I was in North Dakota when the huge low pressure system came though and left us half frozen and under snow. The system pushed out lots of local birds and brought in only a few migrating snows. We weren't really set up for field hunting, so we actually left early. All in all, not a bad year.

[morefishplease]

I just put my license through the paper shredder if thats any indication of how well the season was for me.

[norwall]

I was in the outhouse n there was no paper,so it was either my vikings jersey or my Lic,since the football season is still going and unbelievably better than my hunting season,use your imagination on what i used to wipe....uffff bye lic. thats sums up my season !

[Gordie]

I was in the outhouse n there was no paper,so it was either my vikings jersey or my Lic,since the football season is still going and unbelievably better than my hunting season,use your imagination on what i used to wipe....uffff bye lic. thats sums up my season !

wow you havent followed the vikings this year my lic is worth way more than any game they play

[dan z]

been having a so so year no big rally day but usually came home with something. so far 63 duck and 30 geese for me and the brother with this weekend to go. and till christmas for honkers those numbers will probably change...

[Maxxed Out]

Don't give up hope guys. Lac qui parle is holding a ton of birds. I can help you with guided hunts or field leases if you want to do your own thing. I'm not trying to advertise I'm just saying if you want to kill geese yet this December, I can help you do it.

[mozy]

Yep, still birds to be shot in LQP area. Had a good weekend of shooting mallards and there are still good numbers of geese. Will definitely be out this weekend before duck closes.

[fishduck]

Lake Minnewaska is full of ducks today,TONS of mallards and others, geese too!!Lake is freezing very fast but may still have a shot tomorrow. Gotta be 3/4 crazy to go.Lots of eagles feeding on the ducks, maybe I can scare one and he'll drop a duck in my decoys.Seen it before except it was a coot, even the eagle wouldn't eat it!!

[jparrucci]

Just when I thought my waterfowl season was over with....Yesterday afternoon just south of the metro: Went pheasant hunting with my friend and my dog. Walked about 20 minutes, stopping about every ten seconds to admire the next large flock of mallards, geese, or swans. The pond we were walking around had a small stream keeping one little area open. We decided at about 3pm that we should go hunt all these ducks flying over. Quick ran to his house, grabbed a dozen decoys and the robo duck, took the orange vest of my brittany, and shot a limit of mallards in about an hour. He was retrieving the birds that landed in the water (had waders on) and my dog was grabbing the birds that landed on the ice. One mallard was only winged, and it was a hilarous chase as my dog couldn't get better traction than the drake could, and he kept sliding past the bird. All in all a great day duck hunting. No pheasants seen.

[jparrucci]

One interesting side note, we only had solos come in. Granted we were on just a tiny sliver of open water, there was plenty of room for flocks of a dozen or more to land. We kept getting one drake to peel off the big flock. Made for fun shooting, taking turns and really knowing who shot. Never thought I would duck hunt in 10 degrees with a windchill below zero.

[dan z]

Very nice JP

JP take note for this next year if you want big mallards this time of the year breaking ice is a most. me and brother have shot 60 birds this year and about half them have been in the last two and half weeks.

[jparrucci]

I really should pheasant hunt more often. This time north of the metro on a WMA I managed to jump shoot 3 ducks that were on a river/stream while pheasant hunting. I army crawled about 200 yards through cattails to get a crack at 3 Mallards and one Widgon. There were 2 hen mallards so I had to be careful not to get them both. I got close, and couldn't have done any better. Took 3 of the 4 birds, letting one hen fly. Then is when it got really interesting. I thought the flow of the river was going the other way, and couldn't get to the ducks I dropped. One landed on the water and was flowing away from me, the other 2 landed on thin ice. The whole river was iced over, with just periodic open spots. I quick ran back and grabbed my dog (brittany) and then proceeded to think my situation through. The current was very strong where the 2 ducks sitting on the thin ice was, and there was no way my dog was going to be able to climb back up on the ice. I walked downstream after the duck that floated away. I found a bend where the river/stream was pushing up against there shore and there was little ice along the bank in that spot. One duck was up against the ice here. Used my 870 to break up the ice so I could reach out far enough to grab my dog when he swam back. He jumped right in and grapped the first duck. I went back upstream to where the 2 other ducks layed on the ice. I started throwing chunks of packed snow and knocked both ducks into the river, and they both floated down to the spot where I grabbed the first duck. Dog grabbed both at once.

[norwall]

been waiting for this ! migration in full swing,seen high v flocks all wknd along w/plenty of birds where ya can find water,BOOOM or bust time as the end is near

[jparrucci]

Glad I decided to eat duck last night. Was planning on going pheasant hunting today, but one friend wanted to give the ducks one last try. Thousands upon thousands of ducks in the air all morning. 6 of us shot our limit of mallards and 5 geese as well. Best hunt I have ever been a part of. The morning started fast and furious, and then slowed down once the sun reached above the horizon. We picked up a few every so often as we were trying for only drakes at this point in the season. Large flocks of 20-50 birds started to really pour in late morning, almost non stop for about a half hour. As we were picking up decoys, they were still coming in by the hundred. A small open pond nearby had probably 5,000 birds on it. Sad to see the season end. Might just take off work Tuesday, and I need to eat some more duck between now and then again as well!

[BrdHunter01]

Some mallards still around... Went to a new spot because the river was so f'd yest with the ice flows. Shot plently this morning. Like JP said the first hour was almost non stop action. It tapered off after the sun came up. Did see some bigger flocks of mallards but most of the ducks we saw were heading north

The ducks that are around are very educated.... Thats why most of our shooting was within the 1st hour. After that they would circle very high and either not commit or land outside the decoys. The wind seemed to switch a little after the sun came up and that didn't help much either. Lots of geese around also but they weren't interested in our robos...

A pretty good day... Will give it one last shot on Tues. All in all a pretty good season for MN standards. Way better than last year. All the rain and flooded fields/rivers really helped early in the season. Never saw the 100+ corkscrewing mallards like we use to but not a bad season after all.

[morefishplease]

Thanksgiving Day I was out scouting and noticed BIG flocks of geese migrating through one after another. Came across a field with about 300 mallards working it, recieved permission and set up Friday morning but they never came back!! Scouted the refuge in my area, many ducks pushed down, probably about 2,500 mallards with the geese keeping a large hole open on the lake with another large amount on the river. Friday afternoon on my way to Owatonna from Albert Lea I also noticed many large flocks of geese migrating and noticed a few fields with mallards circling in them. Thanksgiving Day was really a sight to see with everywhere you looked there were very large flocks of migrating geese and ducks!!

[PKretsch20]

Good duck hunting year for me and my group. about 200 ducks. Haven't done as much goose hunting but killed around 35.. will still be hunting geese till the season ends a couple times at least.

[Maxxed Out]

Thursdays LQP goose count was 81,000. Through all the bad weather we've had we actually gained 5000 birds. The geese are holding two large pools open, one by Rosemount island and the other down by the dam. On cloudy days birds are flying all day long on sunny days they don't typically start moving until after noon.