Waterfowl Reports

[Musky Buck]

Thanks Finlander and I'm mostly Fin myself, forget tomorrow morning, I have to go tonight, my wifes report today was roughly 200 cranes, 200 geese, and they flew off at 10:35 AM meaning they ate in peace and harmony, that's about to change, good luck Finlander, I hope your heater meaning gun is smokin this weekend ! You kinda wonder about our Octobers the last several years, pretty mild, it's been pretty cool and definitely dry, but it's awesome to hear so many good duck reports, I realize quite a few kids are getting to experience it and that is great as well as patient old-timers like myself.

[Musky Buck]

But I wasn't very patient lol.

[grey ghost]

Had a successful South Central MN hunt this morning. The south wind was not very good for our spot but we set up anyway as that was where the birds had been during the week. When the wind died down we had ducks setting into our decoys but when it picked up it was mainly pass shooting. Ended with 5 mallards, 2 shoveler, 2 GWT, 1 BWT.

[dan z]

Great morning tipped over 11 mixed bag woodies mallards real and ting bills. Lotsa ducks around can't wait till the week day hunts this week

[rbs]

saw lots of ducks at dawn this morning. Too bad we had a guy shoot early and shove everything out of the slough early. still ended up with a couple mallards tho.

[Todd Caswell]

VERY and I do mean very slim pickens in the lakes area, saw 3 legit ducks this morning on North Long. From shooting time to 8:30 I heard 5 different volley's of shots and no more.. This evening I didn't hunt but got home from training right at closing time and did not see a duck on the lake from 6:45 to 7:15.

[tracker x-2]

South metro area Sat morn.

Ducks where slow but steady. didnt shoot till about 30 minn after shooting time. Ended up with 8 mallards and one teal i shot as we where packing up. The geese didnt fly till around 11. we packed up early to chase some roosters. seen 3 roosters and 4 hens.

I saw a lot a lot a lot of geese flying today only problem was i was in my deer stand

[WalleyeJeff]

BRD lakes area, same as T.C. had some malards friday that landed on other side of spot, Sat, very thin a couple divers in to decoys. Thought better to hold off, but that was all! Today not a darn thing. Headed to river tomorrow evening as I have seen reports of bills heading down. Son has had better luck than me, rubbing it in. Time to step the game up!

[Musky Buck]

Heavy honkers wow, seem to be dispersing more now that more corn is coming off and getting disced, MB PS. Time to haul it in and get jerky made.

[H0LE HOPPER]

Lots of woodies to be had in the chisago county area do some scouting and youll get on em. Hunted a lake saturday night was just swarmed by them. That morning seen a few divers a balls of teal everywhere nothing decoyed though. lots of birds in bean feilds though instead of corn in the area it seems like. Still a lot of geese in the area still just been hard getting into the right feilds.

[Musky Buck]

How about Cranes ? Will they open it in other parts of the state, I have several farmers in my area that are telling me to please thin them out and I'm like not yet, his field averages 200-300 per day and it's only 40 acres in size. They will soon hit the migration button and be gone, the farmers say in the spring after planting they do crop damage, quite a bit when so many are around, any DNR talk on this expansion possibility of hunting opportunity ?

[Riverratpete]

Was fishing up on Rush yesterday AM..no real flocks or ducks to speak of except the one small flock of local dock ducks that have been hanging around all fall and a confused White Pelican hanging out with them nasty Cormorants.

[Musky Buck]

Geese are vary decoy wary lol, when you have 500+ birds using a field why do people still want to put out decoys, especially in a 40 acre field ? Neighbor boys put out like 150 dekes, hid well,flagged and called, took em a good hour to set up, got 2 birds for 4 guys and the birds just kept circling and skirting these guys then started landing heavy about 200 yards from these guys, they shot a pair busted the gang off the field and said they'd never come back tonight, that night I go out with just a good concealed blind on a sled and had 3 immediately right where they were set up, I just don't get it sometimes, too many smart birds that get roasted year after year from goose chairs and dekes, if they aint watching other birds land they are freaked out plus you just grab your limit when you're done and no field cleanup to do and the rest coming can eat in peace for the next hunt. If you have lots of singles,pairs,etc. small batches yes but these are 20-40 in a batch for the most part, I don't know.

[Stringerless!]

North metro. Never shouldered the gun. Couple flocks far and high. A few small flocks of geese after shooting closed. That was it. Saturday morning we were tearing down blind and getting ready to wrap it. Guns unloaded and cased. Just about to step out of the boat and something catches my eye. Huge flock of ducks already locked up and making first swing. CANS !!!!!!! 60-80 of em ! Never seen that many in my life. Mad scramble to get in bottom of now blindless boat. Fumbling with gun cases and feeling for ammo boxes. They kept circling the whole time getting closer and lower with each pass. Last time they went right over the boat at about 20 yards. My son was asking " Should we shoot ?" I told him no next circle they will land. Over the trees they went never to be seen again ! Was it a mirage ? Dream ? Man, we cursed ourselves for not shooting. I know I will see that scene again . If no where else at least on my death bed.

[fishuhalik]

Mallards are definitely starting to come into nw NoDak. Found a marsh with about 50,000? mallards tonight. Pretty incredible sight....

[Todd Caswell]

North metro. Never shouldered the gun. Couple flocks far and high. A few small flocks of geese after shooting closed. That was it. Saturday morning we were tearing down blind and getting ready to wrap it. Guns unloaded and cased. Just about to step out of the boat and something catches my eye. Huge flock of ducks already locked up and making first swing. CANS !!!!!!! 60-80 of em ! Never seen that many in my life. Mad scramble to get in bottom of now blindless boat. Fumbling with gun cases and feeling for ammo boxes. They kept circling the whole time getting closer and lower with each pass. Last time they went right over the boat at about 20 yards. My son was asking " Should we shoot ?" I told him no next circle they will land. Over the trees they went never to be seen again ! Was it a mirage ? Dream ? Man, we cursed ourselves for not shooting. I know I will see that scene again . If no where else at least on my death bed.

Sweet, some of my best memmories have been when we didn't shoot but sat and watched them...

[nate larson]

Stringerless, I feel for ya bud! I feel like I was right there with you. If you had shot and only dropped one you would have been kicking yourself that you didn't wait for them to to come back around. Either way you second guess yourself. You better get back out there and get after them again. It's getting to be that time of year for the cans to be coming through.

[BoxMN]

NE NoDak was pretty good to us from last Thursday to Monday morn. Lots of ducks, some geese, but did I say lots of ducks?... Some widgeon, some GWT, some spoonies, some redheads, couple ringers, but lots of gadwall and lots of mallards.

Buddy got a three curl greenhead and nice blue he is going to mount. Had some good field hunting for mallards, but most was small slough taking them a couple at a time. Lots of small dry sloughs, and the bigger water was down, but still more water than I expected to see. There were ducks in every body of water - not tons of ducks, but ducks in just about every hole.

Now back to MN hunting this weekend, but from the number of birds seen on the way home on 94, I might be grouse hunting...

[dan z]

Seen ducks on a local slough and shot at only flock that decoyed dropped one stayed till 1130

[Stringerless!]

Heard shots in Carlos Avery at 6:52. Can hear it from my house. Quitting time was 6:25. Heard shots at 641 and 646 too. Unbelievable ! And they wonder why no ducks come till after sunset.

[dan z]

Local slough, less busy than anticipated with MEA weekend more ducks than yesterday went out late pulled the trigger right away so that was nice. Came home with 3

[Lunker]

Been very slow on the Miss down here lately. My buddies did awesome when the split season opened back up last weekend, but Monday we went 5 ducks(3 BWT 1 woodie 1 ringneck) between 7 guys, Wednesday I went solo and only shot one(gad), today again I only shot one(widgeon). Most of the teal and woodies seem to have pushed out for the most part this week, still seeing birds coming in and out of the refuges but hunting has been slow. We need some cold weather to bring some more birds!

Side-note- thanks to the guys who finished off my crippled bird this morning and allowed my dog to finish his 200 meter retrieve, I owe you a shell!

[Stringerless!]

Carlos Avery. From noon till 6:20. Saw 5 ducks only. Only heard one shot towards refuge. Never heard or saw any geese.

[Stringerless!]

One goose. More geese in the area. Never saw a single duck ! First time this season.Super thick fog

[srfishin15]

Hunted state land last night, saw 20-30 ducks in the last 15 min of legal time but none came within range. As we were packing up and it got darker I would estimate between 200-300 ducks of which more than half were woodies came and landed in the pond. One mallard landed 15 feet from me when I was picking up the last of the decoys.