Waterfowl Reports

[Stringerless!]

Carlos Avery. 6 0f us in 3 boats .21 bwt on opener. Lots of ppl. Kids jumped some local streams in afternoon and got a few woodies Got there at 2 am and were beat bad. Sunday morning. 1 goose i ringneck 1 bwt.9 woodies. Went to 2 different spots and left because we counted 9 trucks at one and 13 at the other. These are NOT big bodies of water. Thank heavens for plan C. Great opener in my book. Plenty of misses. Box of shells in the first half hour. It is usually the last day before I start hitting them .

[Roosterslayer05]

Friend and I were west of Delano and we did great. Lots of shooting, total misses. Had a great time out in the blind and we didn't have to clean a thing. All wood ducks. No teal at all despite there having been many on the lake a few days earlier. It pretty much shut down by 830 or so. How did anyone shoot ducks when the opener was a noon?

The last year the opener was at noon two buddies and I were done by 1 oclock. Great opening day. 3 guys and we were done 15 minutes into shooting time. 4 mallards, 1 spoonie and the rest bwt. Sunday was the worst sunday iv ecxperienced on opening weekend. I knew the earlier opener would greatly effect sunday's hunt. Shot 9 for two guys on sunday. 4 mallards and the rest bwt...but we only missed 2-3 birds. All the ducks flew before shooting time. Would have easily limited both days if it opened at 9 on saturday. Time to write Landwehr a letter.

[UMC]

If you are that clairvoyant I'd go buy lottery tickets instead of writing letters.

[JustLOVEit]

The best Opener i have ever had in my 18 years. Would not care if i don't get a single duck for the rest of the season, might just call it quits and wait until next years opener.

[Bryce]

Right around the triple digit mark out west. Mainly filler ducks. Some colored mallets but mostly shoot to ID. Geese must have really been harrassed in the area. No lookers even though leased slough was off limits to roost busters and youth scare away day. Hope the pressure is on up north to help push some new action in.

[skee0025]

When walking back to the truck a flock of woodies, flock of mallards, and a flock of 4 pintails landed exactly where my decoys were.

They actually let you start walking before they arrived? For me they always wait until I have my gun unloaded and am starting out to pick up the decoys.

[skee0025]

We were up by Fergus Falls. There were mostly Woodies flying, a few Mallards and no Teal. We took a drive about 5:30 saturday and only saw 10 teal total on all the ponds we looked at(15 - 20).

[Gordie]

The last year the opener was at noon two buddies and I were done by 1 oclock. Great opening day.

Opener hasnt been at noon for a few years now and You said you got 9 birds on Sunday and missed 2 or 3 birds The way I see it you did great and if you would not of missed those birds you would of had a limit.

I think the earlier opener was the best thing thats happened for waterfowling regs for quite some time,. We saw a bunch of teal and woodies they were not gone yet and the ringnecks arnt quite down yet either .

As the saying goes "you can Please some of the people some of the time BUT you can't please all of the people all of the time"

This holds true for everything.. just my

[swany25]

Best opener in years. My dad and I shot 7 green and blue wing teal and one hen woody on Sat. 3 blue wing teal and one hen woody on Sun. Had a great time. I shot more ducks in first half hour on Sat than I did all of last year. Two year old lab continues to show promise.

Crappy part now is that we have to wait a week to hunt again.

[311Hemi]

Overall opener weekend was not quit as good as last year numbers wise for us, but we managed a few of teal, woodies, and ring bills each day (8 total each sat and Sun, 2 Monday, 3 guys). Definitely saw ducks moving around Saturday and Sunday, just could not get them to commit Sat morning and could have made better shots as well.

There were definitely a lot more people out on Saturday this year vs last year. Reports from the area we were in were that everyone saw a lot more hunters, even on back woods pot holes.

Oddly, a slew we used to hunt near Marshall that always had people on it only had one group this year, which was my buddies dad/uncle. They limited out by 9 each day on Teal and Woodies.

[Roosterslayer05]

If you are that clairvoyant I'd go buy lottery tickets instead of writing letters.

Its not being clairvoyant...Its called commen sense. If ducks get shot at opening day at 9am and later...it doesent effect their morning flight the next day as much as if it opens a half hour before sunrise. Very straightfoward. I have never had birds on the sunday of opener start flying half an hour before shooting time and almost be completly done flying by shooting time. Thats due to hunting pressure sat morning. When it opens at 9 what happens?? At 8am you get a massive flight of birds...why? because everyone is seting out decoys. At 9 you get a massive flight of birds why? because they start geting shot at... hunters create their own flight...but the key here is that the ducks were not harrased in the early morning when they were doing their normal routine. Its like that first evning you can hunt ducks of the season, the hunting is awsome...but what happens after that?? Most of the birds fly after shooting time.

This might not hold as true in the wooded area of the state where there is more water and less hunters, but holds true in the prairie portion with less water and more hunters. Usually its good on opening day and better sunday...which I believe makes the hunting better for the weekend as a whole. Other hunters I talked to in my area noticed the same thing...sunday morning was a major dropoff from sat with birds flying before shooting time.

Elwood- It has been years since opening day was at noon, I was talking about the last year opener was held at noon, not 2010. I agree not everyone is going to be happy. I dont mind the earlier date for opener, what I dont like is the earlier shooting time on opening day. I had a great opener, no complaints about it. I talk to allot of hunters and no one has an opinion on the earlier shooting time, or dislikes it...I think thats because allot of guys havent thought of the effects the earlier shooting time has on the flight sunday. Everything has a cause and effect. Opener at half hour before sunrise= better hunting on opening day. Opener at 9am= better hunt sunday.

Enough of my rant....Heres an actual report. Went out tues morning. Shot 2 ducks and a goose hunting solo. 1 mallard and 1 wigeon. Very warm out there with no wind. Passed on 2 good shots because the flocks were very large (50 +) and I dident want to educate that many birds.

[ducker]

Hope you were hunting in the North Zone on Tuesday.

[H0LE HOPPER]

Well it is what is i guess... you got to change it up sometimes lol. But went out the past two days wednsday pretty slow had a group of three guys only shot ten birds lost two nice ringbill drakes was kind of a bummer didnt see to many cept we got out 10 min past shooting time and seen around a 100 divers coming outta the rice. And today a lot better this storm we had pushed in quite a bit of ducks seen around 400 only had about 60 to 70 though decoy but shot a limit for four only recovered 17 lost 6 birds due to the wind or birds diving. Most ringbills and wigeons even some teal still around. didnt expect it to be storming though this morn and having to battle 5 ft rollers on the way out to the spot.

[duckslayer23]

two shooters sat morning got 6 woodies and one mallard, sunday three shooters and nine woodies. waiting for the mallards to get to us

[no bait nate]

Two hunters, 12 birds saturday with 5 drake mallards, 2 gadwalls, 3 bwt, and 2 gwt. Fast shooting but we were picking 1 or 2 birds per group so out hunt would last longer.

Sunday. Same two hunters, same pond. 6 mallards (one hen), 1 gadwall, and 5 bwt. Took more of the shots that were given to us and weren't so picky due to us wanted to get back to camp, pack up, and head some before lunch.

Great hunts both days with my Friends Lab making all 24 retrieves, including two blind retrieves each day on birds dropped behind in the TALL cattails. Couldn't have asked for a better performance out of the old girl.

This was a very good WMA we hunted and was not the only one in the area that was FULL of birds. Over 200 miles logged on the truck last friday paid off big time!

[HNTNBUX]

I had a great morning with my daughters one of which is shooting. 12 ducks and she got her first goose. We had a mixed bag with mallards,bwt,gwt, wood ducks, red head and ringnecks. I picked the shots carefully this morning and went 5 for 5 and then picked up the last one on the second shot. What a great morning.

[cbrooks]

I've been hunting about a 40 mile radius from Grand Forks and haven't had a problem of finding ducks or geese...especially hunkers. Manage to limit out on geese yesterday by just sitting in a ditch and waiting for them to pass by. There was lots and on the move and flying low. Not alot of hunters what so ever. Saw only three groups decoying maybe three other groups hunting ducks. Duck hunting is really good as well. Biggest problem for me trying to identify all the different ducks(first year duck hunting) you can or can't shot so I pass on alot of them. Good luck to anybody going out

[Gordie]

I had a great morning with my daughters one of which is shooting. 12 ducks and she got her first goose. We had a mixed bag with mallards,bwt,gwt, wood ducks, red head and ringnecks. I picked the shots carefully this morning and went 5 for 5 and then picked up the last one on the second shot. What a great morning.

Is it where I think your hunting

[hunter322]

was out this morning around hugo. saw a bunch of geese was able to get 2. a few ducks nothing to talk about but we ended up with 3 mergansers. its weird ive never realy seen mergansers this early in the season around here before.

[tracker x-2]

plently of geese flying in the south metro. five on sat. and three today.

[HNTNBUX]

Yep I will be up in the morning too.

[Gordie]

Maybe I'll see ya Good luck

[MinnetonkaMan]

Well The season has been slow for my group. A total of seven woodducks for the first two weekends for three guys. Tons of birds around but they are not using our area this year. Too little water is the issue. Flooded three times this spring and we end up with two dry ponds. Mallards are very weary already and I just got a new black lab and wanted to put birds under it like previous years with my retired black lab. I guess that we will have to put some ringnecks up in her face or even buy some chuckars to make sure she has some birds in her face. Good luck out there and hopefully this little spot that I found tonight has the ducks I saw on it tomorrow morning. Then my dog will have plenty of birds in her face and I will have to retract my statement!!!!!!

[carpshooterdeluxe]

Went out to a family pothole in west central MN on Saturday, I should have rounded up a few guns, but didn't scout friday night so I had no clue what to expect. the small openings in the cattails were loaded with woodies, mallards, and bw teal. Had a lot of birds moving back and forth from hole to hole all morning, with the occasional duck checking out the big opening and my decoy spread. I wasn't too choosy, taking the first 2 bw teal, and first 3 mallards that came in, and got the heck out of there hoping to get another hunt in on sunday. Allergies kicked in on saturday night and I didn't get out yesterday though. It was good to see that many ducks in there though, I venture to guess many of them were hatched out right there in the crp surrounding the sloughs.

[Gordie]

You Know CSD I had a simalar deal going on with those allergies also sunday that was a battle in its own.

This morning I got 1 GWT and thats it lots of birds just nothing close enough I set up and about 20 min later about 20-30 mallards land a few yards from my decoys and WOW was that loud no better way to learn duck talk than from the ducks themselves well that went on for about and hour and abotu 15 min before shooting they get up and fly away. thats hunting

OH yea I almost forgot to put the plug in the boat noticed a bit of water when I climbed in and well you guys know the story... Thanks Hntbux for the offer of your spare plug