Waterfowl Reports

[Cheetah]

I am up north this weekend chasing most anything I can shoot at. We went out to try a spot near Island Lake, north of Duluth, for waterfowl this morning. I picked the spot since it is a series of beaver dam ponds along a creek line with small lakes on each end. I hoped birds would be moving between the lakes and following this line of ponds. We had one flock of geese come by early and I shot one young one, my cousin missed. One duck buzzed us going north, never saw it until too late. Had two more geese come in low from the south, somehow we both managed to miss both birds unloading both guns. Pretty embarrassing. One other diving duck I could not identify flew in and landed out about 60yd but would not swim closer. We hung it up after a couple hours and went chasing grouse. Heard a couple other groups of geese in the area passing through while grouse hunting.

We put on a bunch of miles trying to find any ducks or geese. It is a sad sight. Not a single duck or goose to be found on many great looking ponds and creeks. Finally saw one small flock of geese on Island Lake. My aunt who lives up here says she hears shooting on the lake in the mornings, I suppose some locals have some spots they motor out to on the lake.

We are going to go back tomorrow in hopes some more geese will fly past. It's a really nice looking spot, just no birds migrating through right now it seems. Hopefully better shooting tomorrow.

[Stringerless!]

Popular north metro lake. Never shouldered the gun. Sounded like only a few did. Should have been able to hear shots from 3 different lakes. Nothing would give us a look. Did see 2 flocks that were over 50 birds. Big birds. Never did get an id on em.

[icecold]

So far this season hunting has been very good, my 2 sons and i have been doing good with bags of woodducks ,teal and mallards , we have been hunting the minnesota river bottoms, seem to be holding alot of ducks, Friday and sat were great, today was slow only fired 2 times. wont get out till next weekend as it is looking as of right now. Then its deer season, and who knows when freeze up will be this year, at least the river usally stays open through out the waterfowl season, just have to dodge ice chunks during late season

[skee0025]

Went out in the Ashby/Dalton area Friday morning. Not much flying. 1 Mallard for 2 hunters. Barren skies all around.....

[Lunker]

Headed over to Green Bay(the Bay not the city) friday-sunday for my annual 3 day trip to hunt with some old buddies. Was one of the better hunts I've had out there. Lots of big flocks of divers moved into that area last week, so we had some good action. We each got our cans each day, also got bluebills, redheads, buffleheads, mallards, GW teal, ringnecks, and a ruddy. Really a fun mixed bag hunt.

[311Hemi]

Still a lot of woodies on the creeks down here in the southwest corner. Been doing a rooster/duck hunt along our streams with a lot more success on the wood ducks than on roosters.

We set up on a small creek in the Wilmar area this past weekend which we usually see a couple ducks in when we walk it for pheasants. We decided to actually set up and hunt it for ducks and found a lot of wood ducks using it in the last 20 min of the day and first 20 min in the morning. It was a nice surprise!

[hunter322]

Was out this morning around hugo and boy are divers comein down!!! saw one flock of teal and saw a ton of mallards and a little later in the morning the divers started flyin. didnt get anything though, still fun seein the divers!

[Stringerless!]

North metro lake. The Bull cans are still there ! 4 big flocks got off water at first light and never came back. Both missed on a pair of mallards. Shoulda let em come further. Only oppurtunity we had. Saw a few big flocks of geese out over fields. No where near the lake. Heard a lot of field shooting. One other guy on lake never fired a shot. Still lots of coots. Eagle came hunting for cripples and a black tornado got out of other end of the lake !! Have not seen that many ducks together in along time. One of those things where you wish more ppl were out there hunting to keep em moving. Reminded me of Carlos Avery back in the day before it was ruined.

[fishuhalik]

was planning on getting out to the winnie area sat-sun but babysitter (grandma) fell through. ended up getting a call at 9pm saturday night that she could watch the kiddos so i called in a favor at work for monday & took off. started sunday morn at a popular rice lake & got a couple ringers, a goldeneye, & a nice greenhead. wasnt too impressed with numbers so we started driving. put on about 300 miles checking 38 different bodies of water. found TONS of swans but few ducks. finally found a little 15 acre rice pond loaded with a ton of ringers & a nice group of mallards. ringers were on the sw part of the lake, mallards were nw, and we decided to set up for mallards on the nw side of the pond. bad move. at daybreak the ringers started pouring back in, mostly in small groups just like you want. had we been set up right we woulda limited out in 10 mins. for some reason the mallards never came. we decided to jump the ringers up at about 9:30 & set up where they were in the hopes they would come back. about 100 of them did, including a flock of about 75 that decoyed just out of range 4 times before committing. man was that an awesome sight! overall it was a great wknd and i shot alot better than expected, since it was my first time holding a shotgun in 6yrs.

[BoxMN]

Got back from NE NoDak - thursday thru Monday. Not as many birds as two weeks previous (that was great local bird hunting, lots of birds, many teal and gadwall, some nice redheads and ringbill too).

This trip was still pretty good, we were letting teal pass in favor of mallards, some redheads and even butterballs and a snow goose. But not as many ducks, but more geese in the area, lots more geese. The big greenehads seem to be just getting there, but not in big numbers yet. So we were a bit late for locals and early for the true migrators. We still shot about an average of 4-5 birds per hunter per day, but could have had limits if we weren't quite a picky, or a bit better shots

Snows were starting to show up, but not in great numbers. Best morning was one snow, 5 greenheads, on drake redhead, one drake greenwing, once canada goose, one drake gadwall and the lone hen a gadwall. This was for two guys in a little pothole. At least we did better on boy ducks than average for us, haha!

Now time for some bow hunting, and an occassional weekeday trip in North Metro, until deer opener, when I usually chase ducks in AM and deer in evening out in WC MN.

[MinnetonkaMan]

Still a ton of woodducks in south MN on the rivers. Some mallards but very skiddish. Ended the weekend with six woodies and a mallard. In the area we are holding around 100 woodducks but usually this time of year we are at two to four hundred in area. I hope they are still coming or the mallards get thick. One rooster this weekend that was young and dumb. Heading out this weekend to get deer stand ready and do some duck and pheasant hunting!!! Corn is all down. Earliest occurrence in ten years!!! Deer better watch out and once I get my buck, ducks are the next on the hit list!!!!

[gurkster]

Was out in the north metro this morning for an hour before work. No ducks and one flock of geese is all I saw. I hope we get a push at some point.

[dan z]

If it wasnt for the six pack of little geese that came in this morning that I took half of the ski was empty.

[fishuhalik]

went scouting at dusk yesterday and saw a bunch (300+) of divers on a tiny pond in the west metro but it's private. landowner said "h.e.double l no" & shut the door in my face. good thing my car gets 35mpg, gonna be putting alot of miles on. 6yr haitus and now i've got the itch again bad!

[Stringerless!]

Scandia cornfield. 20 geese came and landed in one of the 2 fields at 5:50. Not the field I picked ! Never saw a duck . Heard one single shot. Pheasant?

[BrdHunter01]

Bad this morning. Very few ducks! Heard a cpl volleys, we never shot our guns. Could have poked at some cans and a flock of mallards but both would have been quite the poke! Most mallards are very skiddish, I think they've been shot at a cpl times. No migration at all.

[Stringerless!]

Cornfield on edge of Maple Grove. 1 goose. No ducks seen. Couple shot volleys heard. Not much.

[fishersofmen]

Went out this morning, didn't fire the gun. Only saw 3 ducks fly right away and then nothing until we were leaving of course then there was several large flocks flying right over our head. Too nice out today!!

[Tubitz]

Goose hunted this morning north of isanti. Shot our 6 by 8 o'clock and quickly hopped in the truck to go get breakfast so that the rest of the birds could feed undisturbed. Hopin for a good follow up hunt in the morning.

[icecold]

We went hunting on Minnesota river bottoms, did terrible today saw 6 mallards total and biffed on 2 of them, the sky was empty ,going out Sunday with the windy forcast hope it is alittle better

[dan z]

went out this morning blind and the boat had six ducks in it when we pulled into the driveway, early shoot 5/6 were shot before 8'0clock not much flying up in the sky . picked up at noon after we filled the first limit. seen some flocks of geese that didnt land on the lake. was really impressed on how the motor pulled us (3) through the muck at the landing, the new boat in working very well...

[icecold]

Went this morning 1 small flock mallards and 1 small flock geese otherwise a very quite morning

[Stringerless!]

Did not get out till 9:30 when kid came home with van. (hitch on it ) saw 3 ducks. Pair of mallards came right in and I got the immature drake. Let suzy go. When I went out to get him a dozen geese got off lake. Saw one other smaller duck . Heard more shooting during the day than normal.

[fishuhalik]

On my way home on 94 between maple grove and monticello I saw about 2000 geese all flying low. Not sure if they were locals or just got here, but they were everywhere!

[H0LE HOPPER]

Hunted around the metro this weekend made a trip out to our land in buffalo shot 13 for 3 guys so i wasnt disapointed... didnt see too many either all the birds that came in were singles or doubles then today hunted in chisago county seen a lot just not a lot came within shooting range but came out with 4 all GWT though? heard a lot of ducks have pushed down though up north buddies said lots of buffle heads and mallards so ill just have to see once i get back up there.