Waterfowl Reports

[fishuhalik]

Hey Gordie did you go to the same rice pond as last year?

[dan z]

Still sky carp around. Seen a few ducks today. Managed to bring home a goose

[Rick]

Duck season off to good start; split season closures in Central and South duck zones start Oct. 1

Unseasonably cold temperatures and warm memories were hallmarks of last weekend’s Minnesota duck hunting opener, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Steve Cordts, DNR waterfowl specialist, said hunting was good across most of the state, with blue-winged teal, wood duck and mallard comprising most of the harvest.

“Duck numbers were good,” Cordts said. “Hunter numbers were similar to last year, which was the first upturn in duck hunters in Minnesota in several years. The only downs were the temperature, which was nippier than many hunters expected, and water levels at certain locations.”

With three duck hunting zones in effect in Minnesota this year, Cordts reminded hunters in the Central and South duck zones to be aware of closed dates in those zones, splitting the season into two parts to provide more opportunity later in the fall in those parts of the state.

The waterfowl season in the Central Duck Zone (south of Highway 210) will be closed from Monday, Oct. 1, through Friday, Oct. 5, and then reopen Saturday, Oct. 6. In the South Duck Zone (south of Highway 212), the waterfowl season will be closed from Monday, Oct. 1, through Friday, Oct. 12, and then reopen Saturday, Oct. 13. The goose season is also closed in the Central and South duck zones when the duck season is closed.

“These temporary closures translate into additional hunting opportunity later this fall when late season migrants are passing through the state,” said Cordts. “This is just the second year we’ve managed the hunt by using zones and the first-ever time we’ve used three zones,” Cordts said the concept of multiple hunting zones is still relatively new for Minnesota duck hunters, but seems to be appreciated.

“We’re getting good feedback,” said Cordts. “Those who enjoy hunting for wood duck and teal seem to like it because most of the birds have yet to migrate south. Those who like late season diver hunting seem to like it too because they will still have opportunities deep into November.”

South Zone hunters will have opportunities for hunting major rivers and field hunting mallards into early December, he added.

So far the 2012 season is going very well, Cordts said. Duck hunters in north-central Minnesota averaged about 2.7 ducks per hunter on opening day, up from 2.2 ducks per hunter in 2011. One of the better locations was the Mud-Goose Wildlife Management Area (WMA), where hunters averaged 3.6 ducks on opening day.

“Any harvest above three ducks per hunter on a WMA is excellent hunting,” said Cordts. “I consider two fair and three good.”

In northwestern Minnesota, hunter success at Roseau River WMA was about two ducks per hunter, but goose hunter success was very good. At Thief Lake WMA, hunter numbers were down from last year, but those who hunted averaged 3.3 ducks on opening day with dabbling ducks (blue-winged teal, mallard, pintail and widgeon) the most commonly harvested species and ring-necked ducks the number five bird in the bag.

In central Minnesota, hunters averaged two to three ducks per hunter on opening day and by most accounts had a good opener. At Pelican Lake in Wright County, hunter numbers were extremely high. At Carlos Avery WMA in the Twin Cities north metro area, success was 1.3 ducks per hunter on opening day, mainly wood ducks and blue-winged teal.

“As always, results varied throughout the state,” said Cordts. “Harvest was down in some places. We heard best hunting in 20 years from other places. In north-central Minnesota, hunters had fair, good and excellent hunting on lakes all relatively close to each other, the differences being a function of the quality of the rice crop on each lake.”

Cordts said the outlook for the rest of the season remains good, though there will be the typical lull until new birds migrate into the state. He said migrant ring-necked ducks will soon begin to move in to northern Minnesota. Teal and wood ducks will still be fairly common in southern Minnesota this weekend.

[fishuhalik]

Wow what a day!!! Let me share with you the best day of duck hunting that I've had since I started in '96.

I was hoping to get off early since I was gonna be heading to my parents place by Grand Rapids to hunt the next morning. We met at the shop at 5 am and didn't get back til 6:30 pm, so I just ran back to my apartment, grabbed my gear and a stack of 5 hr energy drinks and ran out the door. As I'm driving right past Devils Lake at about 11:30 I'm thinking, "This is crazy. Im in the duck capital of the world and I'm driving to northern MN to go duck hunting." lol!!

I got to their house at 4:07 am, threw my gear in my dads' pickup and off we go. At this point my dad told me about a little rice pond that he'd been saving for me. It's about 20 acres, packed with thick rice and no pressure. The night before he'd seen around 200 woodies and about the same amount of mallards drop into the pond, all coming from the nw. We found a nice opening to set our dekes in, pulled into the thick rice and got low in the canoe.

At first light we hear wings. LOTS of wings. We look up to see flock after flock of mallards, 100+ strong each, flying just out of range over the lake. They were following a dry creek bed out of the lake. Hmmm...

And we waited. Just when we were starting to wonder "where are the woodies?" they started piling in. Now, I've been hunting woodies & mallards my whole life and have had some darn good shoots, but this was different. Usually they'll come by 2s, 4s, maybe the occasional group of 10. These were coming in flocks, 10-50 at a time and coming in faster than we could reload. I was a little rusty at first but managed to secure my limit of nice drakes in about 15 mins, 20 rds later. Dad was done shooting in maybe 3 mins, tops. We continued sitting there, watching flock after flock pour in and just thanking God for this incredible show. I don't know how many woodies we had fly into range, being conservative I'd say over 1000.

We continued to wait for more mallards to show but none came. I did drop one real while we wee waiting. This whole time there were woodies flying all around us, circling the lake and dropping back down. At about 9:00 we packed up our dekes. We were gonna find where those mallards went!

We paddled the canoe to the dry creek bed, grabbed the rest of our shells, threw 4 dekes in a duluth pack and started walking. After 2 miles of fighting tag elders and brush we found em. Around 2000 mallards, all in a space maybe 100'x100. Since we have hunted numerous beaver ponds, we knew what to do. We made just enough notice to get them to clear out, went into the pond to check depth to make sure we could retrieve any ducks, and threw out our 4 dekes. Not 5 mins later they started coming back.

Talk about committed. These mallards were dropping in from 100 yds up. No circling, no flaring. We were picky, only dropping ducks in a small area we could retrieve em. It only took maybe 45 mins to get our 5 drakes. And it was only 10:30. Sadly none of the mallards had very good color, but that didn't really matter. I had just had an incredible day of duck hunting, a great time with my old man, and made some memories that I will never forget.

[certified jumbo]

wow, that sounds awesome. wish i was there.

[dan z]

Great post fish!

[Lunker]

Went out yesterday evening and this evening on the Miss. Saw a lot more birds yesterday, but only had a few pass shots at teal which i missed. Today I set up better and had 1s,2s,and 3s working my spread all afternoon. Ended up with my limit with about 40 minutes of shooting time left(that's a first for an afternoon hunt). 1 greenhead, 1 gadwall, 4 BW Teal. Whiffed on a nice drake woodie and another mallard before I had my limit, but most of what was moving was Teal.

[rbs]

My dad and I went out this morning and had a great shoot. One pintail, 3 mallards, and 5 teal. Should have limited for sure but oh well. Was a great time!

[Gordie]

The corn and beans are coming out fast in this area and the geese and ducks are starting to show up on those picked fields.

[certified jumbo]

Much slower action this saturday than last. We only saw a few flocks of ducks. We shot 3 drake woodies, which was cool though.

[tracker x-2]

Pretty slow this AM three mallards about 10min after shooting time and seen a few right after but other wise not a darn thing! South metro area

[walleyewess]

Very slow for me got 1 drake woodie and seen a few flocks. Hopefully do better tomorro

[fishersofmen]

Very slow for us as well, never pulled the trigger.

[RumRiverRat]

Talked to a couple groups of hunters when I stopped by the access at Pickerel Lake on my way to a different lake to fish.

1 group of 3 guys had 8 Woodies and 3 Ringnecks and a Mallard

the other group of 2 had 6 Mallards and 4 Green Wing Teal.

They saw a lot of ducks in the first 45 minutes and then it was empty skies.

Lots of rice in the lake this year after being none last year because of the high water.

[walleyeking19]

Not a bad day today for watching ducks, too bad I wanted to do some shooting. Got 2 woodies between me and my brother. We saw probably 150 ducks within the first 30 minutes. Only shot 4 times between the two of us though. They were all staying way to high to shoot, so that kinda sucked. That was in the west metro

[KidMoe]

RRR, did we chat today? We had the red Dakota and didn't shoot anything. It was pretty sparse for us out there this morning. But that lake is hard to get good cover and good decoy location.

Good luck everyone!

[dan z]

Late start this am ( dead battery) at landing. Lots of shooting for 1st hour. So there must be ducks around. After the dead battery incident we got set up just short of 8am sat till 11 and finally made a mallard fall and that was it. .

[icecold]

Saturday saw only 5 ducks, never fired a shot, going to try today leaving in about 15 min.

[Polarisx54r]

Cold nights the last week definately put a bite on the fair weather ducks near Grove City. Still some woodies around, but significantly less than last weekend. Plumage is filling out nicely with the early cold. Got 2 trophy grade drakes between my cousin and I. BW Teal and Widgeon completely absent from last weekend. I picked the wrong pinch point on the beaver pond yesterday morning, managed a couple woodducks and lost a big drake mallard. My cousin across the creek had better shooting.

Lost 6" of water since last weekend. Beaver pond is the only small water around now except for a couple springfed potholes. Poor prospects for the rest of the season in this area if we don't get some significant rain. Puddlers seem to be bypassing this area now as there were no signs of fresh migrants. Didn't hunt any big water to see if any divers were around. Lots of geese hitting harvested beans and corn this weekend. All the ducks seemed to be still local as they really knew their way around our guns.

[H0LE HOPPER]

Pond and feild hunted ducks out in Buffalo this morn 4 people we managed 19. First time feild hunted in minnesota managed 10 out of the feild mainly mallards and 6 wooducks. I couldnt beleive that i saw prolly a flock of 50 snows come by us today too, thought it was a little odd but i know there is a ton of picked corn and soybeans around so they got the food. Have been scouting a place in the chisago county area turned out to be only 2 min from my house took 2 boats out limited out for 6 people in 25 min best goose hunt ive done! Passed at shooting ducks for the first 25 in order to get the geese but still managed 4 woodies. Havent seen any teal around and i know my buddies up north havent seen much either only few flocks. Just wish this streak wont end for me, opener didnt treat me to well.

[dan z]

Same lake as yesterday. Local ducks getting pretty smart but managed 4 today. Noticed some bigger flocks of jays... is this telling me something?

[TylerS]

Lots of geese in N.D., but ducks have been tough to come by (at least where I've been). My inkling is that many birds are still fairly far north, and with no reason to move south, they've pretty much stayed put. Some cold weather might move through this week, which combined with increased hunting pressure, could start moving ducks around. Emphasis on the "could," as I highly doubt any sort of migration will begin before at least mid to late October.

Of course, one good snow storm, and that could all change...

[CANOPY SAM]

Had a good shoot this morning. Put two greater Canadians, a mature Blue, and a mature Snow goose in the bag! Had my third honker for the limit glide on me just over the ridge and out onto the water. That was disappointing, as I know the bird was hit hard, and I had no way to retrieve it that far out.

Kind of an ugly scene this weekend...watched three young guys hunting geese from about 3/4 of a mile off. They had a beautiful spread of decoys, layout blinds, and nice camo clothes, but obviously no one ever took the time to teach these youngsters how to quickly and cleanly dispatch a wounded bird. Several times I witnessed these guys frantically run down cripples, only to beat them to death with a bat! And not just a swift strategic blow, but a full on Rodney King remake! Not pretty.

Wind is gonna howl up here today, straight outta the north. I watched several large groups lift up late in the morning, climb high into the sky, and put the north behind em'. Hope we start seeing some "replacement" birds coming down outta Canada!

[Matt Breuer]

Nice work, Matthew! Your pic this morning made me jealous, as I didn't get to shoot any snows while up this past weekend. We had hundreds flying around, and most everyone else in the crew got one, but I missed out on the big group that came in the morning I arrived...

We hit a nice pile during Goose Fest. Sunday morning I was able to join some guys for a great hunt. Piles of geese around NW MN over the weekend. On our way home last night the layers were still thick all the way down through Fosston and toward Bagley... I too am hoping a big migration happens this week. We need some fresh birds!

[CANOPY SAM]

Yea, it was pretty cool to see a large group of snows and blues over this way. We typically don't see many here vs. NoDak. Glad to hear you guys really got into em'.

Just let the dog outside, and could've filled my limit off the deck! Big bunch of honkers flew over only few feet above my head. I NEVER get tired of that!

In my experience, this early in October, all we can do is hope for a little migration. I'm willing to bet all we'll see happen is our birds in NW MN will slide a little further south.

There's still more than ample food, and open water available in Canada. Seems to me these birds get a little smarter every year, and don't come down till the very last minute, everything freezes up, and the big bulk of the northern birds blow thru in only a day or two.

If we could get a year where all the water in Canada freezes up, and what little water we have here, south of the border, stays open, oh my goodness we'd have BIRDS!