Waterfowl Reports

[TylerS]

The migration is definitely on in Nodak. Hunted Saturday and Sunday and there were noticeably more birds by the end of the weekend than the beginning. Limited on mallards both days field hunting. Lots of pretty drakes. Even plucked one that wasn't shot up too bad and it had a nice layer of fat. Should make a good roast! A 50 percent chance of snow by next Saturday has me thinking even more birds will be moving...either into North Dakota or out. Gonna set down the scattergun for a couple weeks to try and fill my deer tags, then it's back to chasing fowl. This time of year, it all depends on the weather. And considering the east coast just got dumped on, there's no telling when we'll get our first BIG snow...

[Lipriper84]

Was hunting north of Mille Lacs. There were tons of Ringbills and Buffies flying around the lake we were at. Couldn't get them to decoy into us. They all would circle the lake a few times and then decoy right in to another group that had a Mojo Duck flappin. It must have really caught their attention because they must have shot half a case of shells that morning haha. Then we decided to Bow hunt the evening by the lake and all we could hear was gun fire all evening. Guess we picked the wrong species. Sunday morning was a different story. Not nearly the flocks we had seen Saturday. we Wiffed on a few smaller flocks early. then nothing was flying. Decided to start packing up at about 9:10am and as soon as I put my gun in the case a flock of about 20-30 ringers decoyed right in My 2 buddies got 2 of them. Isn't that just how it goes haha.

[WallyGader]

Any big migrations of snows into nodak yet? I heard there has been a few moving into devils lake area, but curious as to when the masses of them start showing up. Congrats on the good mallard shoots, sounds like a heck of a time...

[wayzata]

Just got back from Nodak and it was a trip i will never forget. The mallards were blackening the sky! The best hunt i have ever had! We hunted fields mot of the time. Looked like most of the birds were using beans. Our last morning we started with 4 hens, but then the heavens opened up and we got to pick out 16 nice drakes. Then we topped it off with 4 big honkers! Did not see many snows, we were around devils lake area. Good luck and get out there before you are freezing your butts off!

[dan z]

hunted area slough and didnt see to many ducks. singles and doubles and a couple small flocks nothing would decoy. didnt here many shoots and there were tons of boats out. hope the deer hunters push a few off of the small slough so there are some ducks to shoot at this weekend. I for the first time was in aww of the lack of birds this time of year. cant waite for the white birds/mallards to show up as deer season is on its way...

[Riverratpete]

Pleasantly surprised yesterday morning with seeing quite a few birds north of the metro. Mostly Mallards, no woodies, couple teal and one really big flock of Ringers who decided to visit. Of course the Mallards were pretty decoy shy, look like they were coming in then vear off at the last moment type thing..did end up by dropping a loner goose that came in looking like a B-52..mmm goose jerky for the deer stand.

[morefishplease]

Hunted Geneva Saturday and today. POOR!! No ducks, no shots on the lake at all this morning. Saturday talked to a group at the landing, asked how they did....4 spoonies The refuge outside of Albert Lea is holding none if any mallards and maybe a few hundred geese, far cry from what it should be holding at this time of year.

[Stringerless!]

North metro. Kicked 7 ducks off lake when I went in. Saw one loner. Had about 40 geese circle and break up and start coming but mojo was to far away to turn off. All veered away. Never shouldered the gun !

[fishersofmen]

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.

Since I'm right here in town hole hopper you mind sharing that land a bit......

[Brocster]

Found a little hole on Public Land south of the Metro that was holding birds. Set up Sunday morning and saw 100 geese, 50 or so Mallards, some Buffies and a nice pack of Woodies, including two drakes that would have made the Cabela's wall proud. Think I even saw a Hooded Merganser or two.

Of course they were all on the other side of the large slough and I could not get them to come over or decoy. Dog was going nuts looking at them 100 yards away.

Interesting - the mallards were basically glued to three Swans that were feeding the whole time.

Still a fun outing. I got to see a ton of birds and listen to a lot of vocalization. Plus I know where to set up next time.

[Stringerless!]

Midway thru season I have been out 19 times. Taken 7 ducks and 1 goose. Believe me I could have taken many more. Usually hunt alone and if everything is not perfect I will not shoot.Locked up , feet down, right in my landing hole. That is what I love to see. Lots of birds have landed in my dekes and swam or flown away. They either burned me or did not come in as I planned and I do not pass shoot. Had some cataract trouble till 20 days ago too. All fixed now. My goal is 40 hunts a season but that seems almost unobtainable now with the stupid time change coming. Hard to get out after work this month. Only the government would believe you can cut one end off a blanket and sew it on the other end and end up with a longer blanket!

[strait-meat]

The other day the geese we really working well--best that I have seen this year. I didn't fire a single shot but could have had an easy 10 man limit without a problem. I had 3 of my kids in the lay down blinds and we enjoyed watching them land in the decoys just feet away from us. Even saw a few banded birds too. Wave after wave of birds came in all cupped up and in your face--I wish I could have got it on video. By the end of it there was close to 500 geese in the field. Many flocks of 20-30 geese landed at a time and 2 flocks of 50-75 landed as well--just neat to watch and listen how the geese reacted to each other. Best goose hunt I have ever been on.

[HugoBox]

I hunted the metro Saturday and Monday - Saturday shot a few buffleheads and a greenhead - Monday I should have slept in. Saw maybe 10 ducks. Its been a strange year so far in that there seems to be a big change in numbers of birds seen from day to day. I'm sure some of it is related to pressure but I don't remember seeing such inconsistency.

[hunter322]

hey hugo was that around the hugo area?

[morefishplease]

Hit Geneva today and the misery continues. Good conditions being cloudy and the wind blowing out of the NW. Never shouldered the gun....not suprised either.

[Musky Buck]

Is duck season open ? If so just close it, haven't heard a shotgun blast in my area all season, just shut it down, duck season is nearly a complete joke once again in the 4 counties I scout for nothing in. It's a sad state of affairs. All my farming uncles and contacts just laugh at duck hunting talk. Sad sad deal as it broke many of us in as a kid and you saw birds every time out, we used to go wow a flock of geese as a kid now it's reversed wow a duck no way, is it a sick 1.

[creepworm]

Musky Buck, what 4 counties are you scouting. If I remember from last years posts that I deer hunt in one of those counties. the guy who lives up there that I deer hunt with has never owned a duck decoy in his life decided to hunt ducks this year because of all the mallards in his quarter acre slough. He has been pounding them.

[fishuhalik]

The other day the geese we really working well--best that I have seen this year. I didn't fire a single shot but could have had an easy 10 man limit without a problem. I had 3 of my kids in the lay down blinds and we enjoyed watching them land in the decoys just feet away from us. Even saw a few banded birds too. Wave after wave of birds came in all cupped up and in your face--I wish I could have got it on video. By the end of it there was close to 500 geese in the field. Many flocks of 20-30 geese landed at a time and 2 flocks of 50-75 landed as well--just neat to watch and listen how the geese reacted to each other. Best goose hunt I have ever been on.

just curious why you weren't shooting. sounds like a ball either way though!

[strait-meat]

Not really sure why I wasn't. I guess 75% of water-fowling for me is just getting the birds to work nice into the decoys and the rest of it is shooting and watching the dog retrieve the birds. There wasn't any wind to speak of and the first six that came in curved around me and landed there. Another 2 did the same thing. I didn't have a shot at them--I like them cupped up in my face--anyways from there they just kept building and building--not one flock passed us by without getting sucked into the vortex. It was great and my kids had a fun time watching them. Just wished I could have videoed it. Mentally I killed about 200 or more.

[Musky Buck]

Eastern Ottertail, Wadena, Kanabec, and Todd Counties. The 4 worst in the state lol, western Ottertail has some decent hunting in the Pelican area, but you go east of Ottertail and it dwindles to squat by the time you get to Wadena county. Yo creepingworm, maybe that's some of it, some ponds and locales hold what ducks are around that area, I literally know dozens of people from those 4 counties that haven't bought stamps in 15 years, many are my relation, for geese they could see getting stamps for ducks they just laugh at ya like you're nuts, there farms are void today of any birds and go unhunted. They all tell me they see 10x the amount of turkeys than they see ducks and they are out every morning farming etc. and talking to other farmers in the areas etc. and it's just done, will those killer ponds become decent again someday ? We've been asking that ? for many years now and the answer is we doubt it.

[fishuhalik]

good for you! i always like to shoot, but in the past we've had beaver ponds that we'd baby. shoot at the 1st couple flocks then let the rest pour in & come back in a couple days. some spots we'd do that all season. i remember one day we shot about 5-6 greenheads and a couple big drake woodies and sat back. we had about 200 more land right in front of us and then a huge flock, guessing around 1000 mallards, landed right on top of us. i'll never forget that sound. probably the coolest experience i've had in my waterfowling career!

[Deet]

Wow I would have guessed those counties have lots of ducks.

[dan z]

seen a migration of gwt yesterday, had five come in dropped two sailed one, and one nice bull can fell from a flock of seven. seen more ducks yesterday than I have seen in a couple weeks. most were GWT hopefully the stay around for a couple days.

[luckycrank]

good to here been kinda quite around here, nephew poked a surf scoter last weekend but, one duck or two each outuing did see a fair number of migrators last weekend

[RiverRunner]

Wow I would have guessed those counties have lots of ducks.

Eastern Ottertail, Wadena, Kanabec, and Todd Counties. Those counties still have ducks. I used to live in that general area and their is plenty of ducks around. Is it as good as it was 15 years ago, No. But you can still have some pretty good hunts in those areas. Too many hunters in this State are used to hunting the same old lakes and ponds for 10 years and griping when theres no ducks.

Duck numbers vary from year to year on lakes and ponds. Perfect example theres a lake 2 miles from my house that's near the metro. Last year there was easily 2,000 ducks on this lake. Most of them hung around for around 2 1/2 weeks. You can hunt this lake with a little effort. This year there is very few ducks on this lake.