Waterfowl Reports

[BrdHunter01]

The good news is they dont survey the North Pole. Santa is planning on releasing tens of thousands of mallards in December with instrutions to head to Minnesota. I guess I will really look like a fool then!

Sorry if you haven't seen it, it is incredible! If you read the article (which you must not have) it appears I'm not the only one taking notice... Keep your eyes open this Demcember

[Stringerless!]

Ringie hen and a greenhead. Chisago county. Saw 1 nice flock of mallards (over 30 birds) flying to the northwest. Saw about 50 geese total. Had a flock of 15 ringies buzz dekes. Left em go thinking next circle they would commit. Away they went. Otherwise singles or pairs without shooting . Not near as many birds as I thought we would see. Seemed like any other day of the season. No other waterfowl shots heard.

[Todd Caswell]

Leaving for ND Friday, I have buddy that got drawn for SD. And they are there right now, hunted within eye sight of ND this morning done in an hour, said there are birds everywhere ( ducks ) very few geese.

[smackem33]

Can I be the first to say jealous!!######!

[CANOPY SAM]

No kidding!

[Gordie]

Have a great time Todd. I know your photos will make us drool when you get back.

[Stringerless!]

Worst day of season. Saw one six pack of ducks and a flock of 8. Nothing anywhere close. Chisago county. Never heard a shot all morning. Not even a deer shot.

[water rat]

Worst day of season. Saw one six pack of ducks and a flock of 8. Nothing anywhere close. Chisago county. Never heard a shot all morning. Not even a deer shot.

X2 first time this year we never saw a duck....

[CANOPY SAM]

TRF/MW MN: Actually watched 5-6 big flights of geese flying over again today. There ARE still a few coming down out of Canada....of course flying high heading south. Haven't seen a duck in quite a while.

Doozy of a strong, cold northwest wind blowing today.

[mallardnwalleye]

The mallards are in down in s mn. Ice melt has prolly spread them back out.

Next hard freeze will concentrate em again.

Good luck

[fishuhalik]

Had A LOT of snows flying overhead last. Started seeing em in big flocks right at dusk & they continued well into the evening while we were cleaning our pheasants.

[fishgutz77]

Still thousands of mallards from Sartell to elk river and into the cities.

With things opening back up it will get weird for a bit and then It's gonna get good for the last weekend of hunting. If you like watching birds just scouting out there you will see lots of mallards at about 3:00 and then the geese come. Good luck finding ground to hunt most of it is locked up, it really sucks that way.

[Tom7227]

Was at Onamia the evening of the 18th. Mostly frozen but a few open channels. Sat for 2 hours and nothing, then maybe 20 minutes to sunset a fairly large flock of mallards appears but set down about 5-600 yards north. Got up and moved a few times but never came within range. Fun to watch but by the time we left the hands and feet were darn cold.

[Jmnhunter]

hunted around the baxter area last friday morning on a river with rice, saw maybe 2 dozen mallards, only a few that would look at my dekes and keep flying; not much around at all, must have missed it by a few days; there are a lot of geese around though between baxter to little falls!

[bmc]

I finished out the northern zone season this morning on big water in the Deer River area.

I got a late start and was set up at 8:00am. With in the 1st half hour I had 3 ducks in the boat.

1st flock of a dozen or so whistlers came in and I dropped a hen.

Next a single hen whistler came in and I dropper her.

Then had a pair of ringnecks come by and I dropped a drake.

I saw a few other flocks, singles, pairs that didn't decoy and then had 7 geese that must of thought they were divers, zero in on my diver spread. They were locked up and headed right at me. When they got to 25-30 yds, I started shooting. I don't know what happened, but I must have got "flock fever" and they flew off unscathed.

I was cussing myself out and looked to the left to see 2 drake whistlers dumping into the decoys. Boom! Boom! and both of them are on the water. 1 is dead on impact and the other one dove on me. I got one long shot 30-40 yds, hoping 1 pellet would find his head, but no luck. The one that I got is going on the wall, been after one of them late season bad boys for a while now.

As I'm pushing the boat off shore to retrieve my prize, a squadron of about 15 goldneyes are headed my way. I hunker down and they give me a nice shot, too bad I missed on my first shot, and my BPS had a hiccup and I couldn't pump another shell into the chamber. Aaaaaargh!!!

I then ended the day on a hen buffy that sailed in.

And in typical fashion, I had a flock of 15 or so whistlers buzz me while I was picking up the decoys.

Not a ton of birds up here but definitely huntable numbers. I really wish I could hunt through the weekend. I'd much rather be breaking ice to duck hunt than swatting mosquitos to duck hunt.

Brian

[Seabass77]

Nice post and nice bag brian. Hard work paying off. I love it. Cheers.

[rbs]

hunted by Ivanhoe yesterday and saw 4 ducks total and a few hundred geese. At least I got to try out the new boat blind I built and will have a couple small (minor) changes for next season. Can't wait to go back to NoDak next year!

[fishgutz77]

Took a couple of newbie kids hunting yesterday afternoon. We got started late cuz by 2:30 we had hundereds of mallards whizzing by over head. Spot I had would only work with a south wind and we had it. We ended up with 5 mallards and smiles all around.

Still tons of mallards with a few divers showing up in my area.

[Lunker]

Evening hunt today on Pool 8. Tons of birds flying, just didn't like my spot/set-up. Lots of mallards around. Ended up with one big greenhead and a buffie, with some other misses. Hunting Solo

[icecold]

Their heeeerrrre went thismorning in minnesota river bottoms, got 4 mallards should have had limit but biffed a few shots at some teal and gadwall taking off from work thursday noon and hit the slough before the weather front moves in hopefully the north wind and snow will have them movin

[steve1111111]

Evening hunt today on Pool 8. Tons of birds flying, just didn't like my spot/set-up. Lots of mallards around. Ended up with one big greenhead and a buffie, with some other misses. Hunting Solo

Nice. I may try the river tomorrow as she will probably be locked up come sunday morning.

[123fish]

Hunted a lake south of Marshall today. Shot two mallard hens and a really nice widgeon drake. Should have had a couple of bluebill drakes and a redhead drake. Virtually nothing for migrating mallards considering how perfect the day was. Very few ducks of any kind and less geese. The few ducks that came into the lake did give me a good look which was a positive anyway. Probably the last water hunt for me as I think it's going to be locked up come Saturday morning. We'll see.

[PerchSlayer]

Hunted a South Central MN lake today. Mallards were thick and migrating. We shot our eight and had multiple flocks of 30-70 birds LAND in our decoys. Could have shot a hen spoonie and a hen redhead but we let them live another day. I think we have tomorrow and then every lake <500 acres will be locked up.

[icecold]

Went out today from 1-4 30 today and saw only 12 ducks, sloughs will be locked up by saturday, thens its the river till season ends

[steve1111111]

I hope the river stays open. Thats where I hunt the last week usually but with a low of 5 that might even be done come sunday.