Waterfowl Reports

[Stringerless!]

Took the boat out. 8 degrees. Goldie drake. Nice mallard pair. 4 curl drake and a Mergie hen. Passed on geese we thought were too far but after they went over realized they were well in range. New mallards around for sure. Only saw about 60. Saw one pair of bills. No other divers seen.

[CANOPY SAM]

- 12 F. in Northwest Minnesota this morning! I think it might be done?!?!

Making ice fast now!

[smackem33]

Woke up late I guess today hunted same spot on the sippi last weekend no one there today 5 trucks at 530, went to my back up spot 5 or more trucks there went back to first spot motor wouldn't start..... All in all great morning woke up at 4 to drive around for 3 hours FML

[BoxMN]

Hunted a field in NE metro. Kinda chilly, especially since we only saw two flocks all morning. No ducks, but at least I ended the duck season hunting them Had a flock of swans almost land in the field though, that was highlight of our bird seeing today. Didn't stay out too long though, only about 10.

Cool thing is we met some folks who had same permission we did, and it will hopefully end up with some new hunting partners into the future.

[fish_hunt_guy]

- 12 F. in Northwest Minnesota this morning! I think it might be done?!?!

Making ice fast now!

Canopy you gonna be ice fishing red or lotw this week?

[Stringerless!]

Back to same lake today. It is done. Not a spot of open water. Threw some fist sized rocks and they bounced. Scrambled into plan B. Field. Saw 3 small flocks of mallards One group of 5 might have worked us if I was not out of the blind. Did see a flock of cans go over.Migrating into a strong south wind. Never saw or heard a single goose. It is gonna be a long 305 days to next season.

[Ufatz]

All water bodies in Tumuli Country iced over. Muskrat sitting on ice today with puzzled look on face. One lone coot walking around with same expression. Ice fishing guy with funny fur hat standing on shore of one lake with big grin on face.

Me turning up heat in Cadillac and slowly cruising on by.

She's all done around this area boys.

[water rat]

Spent wed til sun am camping and bouncing around pool 5,6 and 7.never shot at a diver! Big fat green heads were the daily norm..still seeing decent amounts of migrators but it looks soon to be done! Heading out thanksgiving to finish up wi on the river pools 8&9'..

[CANOPY SAM]

That's on another thread fish_hunt_guy! Har har har....

Still have a couple honkers hanging on in our moving water way up here. Haven't seen any birds in the air for about a week now.

[websdown]

Pepin locked up last night as far as we could tell from overlooks.

[Todd Caswell]

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

ND was a bust, I believe we literally missed it by a day, got there around 11 AM Friday and 95% of the water was locked up, but there were birds in the air all over. Started scouting and by 2 pm we had 4 very good spots to choose from, all with good numbers of mallards and geese feeding in cut corn. Just befor dark we found the mother load 5K mallards and 500 geese on posted land, got permission. Saterday morning was -5 nasty cold, NOTHING flew got out of there around 10 to go warm up and get some grub. Drove past the roost mile away on the way in and the little bit of water that was open friday was about half, 10,000+ snow geese had left over night but there had to be 20 to 30K mallards packed in those open holes of water, and half that many dark geese. We were back in the blinds by 1 around 3 the ducks started to get up by the thousands, gain alitutude and were heading out, that string of mallards went on for over an hour non stop, and then it was done. Around 4 the honks did the same thing came off in waves and for an hour skipping over us landing in a field a mile away in SD, a few thousand ducks did go back to the roost at dark and about a 1/4 of the geese did as well. With forcasted lows this morning to be -8 we decided to pack it up and head home, we drove past the roost at 8 AM this morning and they hadn't moved yet.

When they get that bunched up and that many of them you better be where they want to be, because they just follow the leader. Pretty disapointing but still worth the trip.

[dan z]

Found a little open water today and did see a few ducks. Watched a pretty good size migrating flock land on another open hole. Seen one of the biggest flock of whistlers I've ever seen. Lots of ice around me. Tipped over a common sawbill and a redhead.

[fishuhalik]

Dan, are you saying you saw whistling ducks or is that a nickname for a duck? Cuz I'm pretty sure whistling ducks would be a little outta place here

[dan z]

Everyone what's a whistler?

[water rat]

The ones that whistle when flying over.......

We call them golden eyes ..

[dan z]

The ones that whistle when flying over.......

We call them golden eyes ..

[Bryce]

Got hero pics of mergansers?

[fishuhalik]

Gotcha

[dan z]

No picture here is great mount of a previous pair I took

[CANOPY SAM]

Been there Dan. Many times. I know the feeling really well.

Bout' the only thing you can do is find a good place to pass shoot birds going from roost to feeding areas, or back again. I've had some dynamite shoots doing that.

Love that last shot NoDak migration though. Just epic!

[fishgutz77]

Ended the season on a low note, had to watch 2000-3000 mallards go round and round about a mile north of our field and was able to squeak out a half dozen a day for three days. Was fun to see them just would have liked to get a few more. Once the big swarm starts it's tough to pull them away. Let the late season goose hunting begin!

[Fowlmouth]

Hunted a picked corn field today in Rosemount. 5 man limit of mallards in about 1.5hrs from 2-3:30pm. Mallards were coming in waves, seen a couple thousand ducks easily. Also got 5 bonus geese, seen a good amount of them but they were tougher to work.

[Fowlmouth]

Last day of the season. Hunted same field in Rosemount as the day before. 4 man limit of mallards and 3 honkers. Had to work for these today. Hunted from 1:30pm till sunset. Got the last 2 ducks in the last 5min to close out the season. Until next season..

[Smuts]

Central MN

Last ducks of the season came from a big lake in our area that was still open as most of the other water in the area had locked up. Good to be able to hunt water the last day of duck season. We saw quite a few ducks, and managed to shoot six mallards, three goldeneyes, and a redhead. Field hunted over the long holiday weekend for geese, as ducks were closed. Not as many geese as we had hoped. Big groups were shy, but we finished enough singles to groups of five to keep the gun barrels warm. Disappointing part was seeing dozens of nice groups of mallards and finishing five good groups over the goose decoys, but only being able to watch as the season was closed. It was fun to watch, but it would have been nice to take a few of the nicer greenheads out of these bunches. Oh well, maybe next year. Time to move to ice fishing. Check for my ice fishing reports to start on the Hutchinson, West Metro, and Mille Lacs Fishing Reports soon.

[#fishhunt#]

Evidently I didnt hunt enough ducks this year. Arizona here I come. Departure 1:00 Sunday. Already time to get out of this cold and let the ice get safe for fishing. 3 day hunt M-W. Can't wait!