Waterfowl Reports

[ClamITup]

I'm from St. Cloud and hunted the Sauk Center area this morning, ended up with 2 hooded meggansers and 1 mallard. Didn't see a whole lot of birds. Was just wondering if anyone had any insight on where to go from St. Cloud to like a hour away. Not trying to take any of your birds, but just looking for a spot before next weekend deer opener(I won't be duck hunting for a while). Thanks for any help

[sartellangler05]

If you have a boat, try finding a spot somewhere on the horseshoe chain, between bodies of water. It tends to hold some birds.

[ClamITup]

Thanks for the info, but I just use a canoe and that's a lot of paddling for that body of water.

[Proskier2038]

Not much for ducks around the west metro right now- geese are around and I'm going to my field tmrw morning- watched 500 pile out of the roost at sundown so evening hunts are out of the question for now - dang they are smarter than we give them credit for sometimes

[walleyeking19]

I've been bow hunting the last 3 nights, and like clockwork, at 5 minutes to 6, a big flock flies over me going towards the river. But this morning, I saw a few new flocks fly over earlier. So maybe some new birds are working down!

[Skjefte]

Hunted north of Hawley, Mn tonight saw ALOT of geese just none wanted to give us a look. Only saw about 3 flocks of mallards maybe 20-30 in each flock. Found out where there all going and going to give it another go on Sunday.

[Todd Caswell]

Once again seen very few birds this morning, last evening I went down to the lake to get the boat ready and seen 10 different flocks of divers but this morning was a different story, had 5 singles come in, landed a hen Bluebill and let her fly away.. Very little shooting as well..

[sartellangler05]

Hunted Saturday and this morning south of Alberta and worked a circumference of 40 miles. There are no ducks around yet. Drove down to Ortonville and saw just a couple birds here and there, but literally the sloughs are empty. Wish I would have taken off next weekend or later when more birds push down. On a positive note, there were a couple hundred geese sitting on the pond Saturday morning and was able to jump up on them. Dropped 2.

[Smuts]

11/3/13 Central MN

New wave of divers moved in Friday. Some moved through, but some stayed around for Saturday, and some more moved in late Saturday and were around for Sunday. Got burned by two nice flocks of mallards, talking at us like crazy, while we were out picking up divers on Sunday. Nearing the end of cans, redheads, wigeon, pintails, shovelers, but bluebills and ringers are just starting to show up in decent-sized flocks and mallards, buffies, and goldeneyes aren't far behind. We did see some new geese on Sunday as well, and saw swans on Saturday. Get ready for a couple of good weeks coming up after the rain is done early this week.

[booger]

Went walking around Phalen today and holy dump are there a lot of birds. Probably 300 mallards and 300 geese. And one specklebelly??

Hunted the north metro Sunday, was an absolute bust. Saw a few flocks of geese and 1 duck.

[Stringerless!]

Hugo/Centerville area. Apparently the laws have changed so we can use rifles. Let em get closer !! My over/under misfired both chances we had on single ducks. Saw about 40 ducks total and about 20 geese.

[Todd Caswell]

Went walking around Phalen today and holy dump are there a lot of birds. Probably 300 mallards and 300 geese. And one specklebelly??

Hunted the north metro Sunday, was an absolute bust. Saw a few flocks of geese and 1 duck.

Kinda looks like a farm goose to me...

[BoxMN]

Nice going Smuts! Looks like great fun!

Stringerless, I feel your pain.

Hunted in Grant Twnsp Sat morn, field, and got two honkers, one real big one. Hardly saw any ducks, and most geese didn't look at us.

Hunted tonight in NE metro, probably same area as you Stringerless, but we didn't take a shot. I saw lots of redheads on it yesterday late morning, should have hunted then, but went fishing... My bro-in-law said it was a war zone this morning (he lives on the lake) but this afternoon it was very slow... very... ugh... oh well. Not one duck came within 70 yards, and didn't see much either, except coot.

Talked to a buddy in Ashby/Fergus area, and he said ducks are non-existant, to not even bother this weekend, so far anyway. I guess another weekend around home, as I chase the deer up there Weds-Sunday after deer opener. Hopefully some duck appear from the ether this week...

[monstermoose78]

I saw a flock of snow geese today. I also saw lots of Canadian geese I would guess close to 500 hundred but they did not fly until after shooting hours for waterfowl. Only seen one flock of mallards fly over.

[Finlander]

Why in the world are there no waterfowl flying into Minnesota with a more normal than usual fall this year?

[tracker x-2]

Lots of geese flying around the south metro but not much duck action.

[CANOPY SAM]

Finlander. From what I've seen, read, and heard reported, it generally appears that many of the few remaining refuges, large WMA's, and private sloughs have been temporarily, or perhaps permanently/partially, in large part frozen over.

Agassiz/Thief Lake north of us was almost completely frozen over last week, but I believe there is still some open water now. This has likely caused some shift in bird movement.

In a nutshell, I believe the Lion's Share of the head of the Mississippi flyway has simply moved west into the Dakota's, down the Missouri river, and meeting up with the Mississippi further south. There's millions of potholes and sloughs remaining in North Dakota, where in Minnesota, the majority of wetlands that were here only 25 years ago, are now gone.

There's just not that many places left for ducks to be. Hence, we see lots of geese, but few ducks. Meanwhile, in southern Manitoba and central NoDak, there are tons of ducks!

[Stringerless!]

Cornfield. One pair of mallards seen and 2 big Vs of tundra swans migrating. Not a single goose seen or heard. No distant shots heard. Of course I was sitting up with the doors open when I caught the mallards out of the corner of my eye. They had already seen me. Chisago cty. Finally some corn coming down around here.

[Todd Caswell]

Quote:

There's just not that many places left for ducks to be.

I call Bingo...

[Skjefte]

Yep I hunt our land in SE North Dakota so many ducks but little geese. Hunt West Central MN no ducks thousands of geese. The amount of potholes in Minnesota is not even comparable to the amount in North Dakota. We saw potholes in ND that were just bigger than a household pool that had 50-100 mallards in them.

[fishersofmen]

Is it just me or is there a ton of swans around this year? Non stop flying right over my head every time I'm out. This weekend there was a goose flying in the middle of a flock and I swear it was smiling at me.

[Matt Breuer]

Piles. They decoy so nicely...

[fishgutz77]

Did a diver hunt on Whitefish last Saturday and it was slim.

We are a week or so early, only got three the one morning.

Still waiting like everyone for the freeze up on the boarder.

Saw a few geese and some mallards but no new birds coming yet.

[bmc]

Diver hunted today in the Winnie area. Only saw about 50-70 ducks, but my shooting was ON for the most part and I ended up 1 short of a limit.

I passed on some hooded mergansers, got "flock" fever on a flock (15-20) of butterballs (buffleheads) and only dropped 1.

Then had a suicidal squadron (10) of bluebills dump into the decoys while I was on the phone. Threw the phone down, they flushed and I dumped 2 drakes, much to my surprise! The survivors came around for a 2nd look and I dropped a hen 'bill.

Also had a pair of hen goldeneyes drop in and dumped 1 of them.

Should have had a limit easily and of course after my limit of 3 bills are in the boat, another pair set down in the decoys and checked things out. Fun to watch and see them flush with that 'OH Sh!!" look in their eyes. LOL

1,000's of swans migrating through today.

Brian

[leechlake]

hunted pheasants and ducks about 70 miles southwest of Aberdeen Wednesday-Saturday last week. I have never seen so many ducks in my life. We shot limits and at around sundown each night we sat on the porch and watched flock after flock of ducks moving North to water for 30 minutes or so. I couldn't even guess the number of birds. 25,000? 100,000?

There's where the MN ducks are.