Waterfowl Reports

[monstermoose78]

Was out this morning and we did not see much except some seagulls chasing some ducks around the lake early. When the rain started bingo we had ducks coming in we missed a few of the first shots. Then we had a flock of buffies come in hard and well not one made it out. I know am pretty sure both of us shot triples and for me that is amazing. I have shout out to Gordie Thank you!! We would have stayed long but I had a meeting for school at noon. We saw redhead, mallards, ringers, spoonies, and some other we could not make a positive ID on. So we did not shoot at the ones we were not sure about. Which was came in as we were picking up the decoys.

[Stringerless!]

Scrambled to get out after work tonight. Never saw a duck. Never heard a goose. Heard one single shot from Forest lake. Heard migrating Tundra swans while picking up dekes.

[fish_hunt_guy]

Nice day monday birdhunter! Were u hunting in MN.

[BoxMN]

Didn't see that many birds this am, but we got a few buffies and still were able to be at work by 8:30 (9:30 for my brother, he has a drive). We hoped to capitalize on the "lots of birds" reports we were hearing, but not so much in our part of the north metro. Two came in perfect and fell, and while we were reloading after a couple cripple shots three more came in. Should have had 5, but got three and one beaker my bro chased but couldn't catch up to.

Saw a few more, but not much. Off the lake before 8.

Nice morning to be out there!

[Gophereyes]

Nice quick morning! Hoping to get out on Saturday with my son in the south metro. Hopefully will have some birds here.

[BrdHunter01]

Nice day monday birdhunter! Were u hunting in MN.

Yes, I hunt mostly the South Zone, not to far from the Central Zone.

[Ebiz]

Hunted yesterday morning, north metro - few flocks of ducks moving around early but wanted nothing to do with decoying. LOTS of geese flying around between 7:30 and 8:30 but mostly to the east of me and on a mission, looked like they had likely discovered some fresh picked fields.

Did get buzzed by three mallards while I was watching the geese off in the distance, go figure...

[Stringerless!]

Northern Washington county. Saw one flock of 6-8 and another flock of 10. Too far away to even take a guess what they were. Never heard a shot. Never heard a goose. Never saw any high flying migrants.

[Archerysniper]

Lots of new birds on the water today in northern chisago county

[monstermoose78]

Lots of new ducks around Princeton as well. My buddy went this morning with a friend and got 7 Mallards, a redhead, 2 ringers, 2 buffies.

[Beast26]

Deer hunting Sat and Sunday and then headed out to hunt big water out west Weds, Thurs and Friday. Hope the lows on Tuesday night don't lock up all of the water. Think we should still be fine the middle of next week.

[Tom7227]

Went to Onamia Thursday evening. Flock of mallards in the distance. Pair of ringbills with one down and another paid out too far. Spoke to a local who hunts nearly every day and he said it has been slow. Said the one he got the day before had corn in the crop. Not much rice on the lake and a lot of shallow water that had enough weeds to choke up the prop a few time. I thought it would have been better with the cold coming in. Anyone have any reports about ice further north?

[Stringerless!]

Ringie hen,Mergie hen,Woody hen. Saw about 100 ringies. Birds that have been here long enough to shy away from the hunting spot. Geese too. Locals that know exactly where they are safe. No migrating flocks noticed. Geese or ducks. Only heard 2 single deer shots. Ringie hen had some mono line on her. Swivel and split shot too. Not tight just wrapped around her body once. Weird.

[Stringerless!]

Mopped em today. More shooting than whole season up to this point. Steady stream of high flying migrants all morning. Ducks and geese. Birds we got decoyed perfectly. Feet down. Worst season so far, forgotten in the first flock of decoying birds. Shooting locals still yesterday. Today, migrants. Shame the majority of it will be over in a few days if the wind lays down at all during the nights. Maybe we should have " rollover" days from season to season because of ice cover. Ha.

[sdsufowler]

Saturday and Sundays was out deer hunting with no luck. Was watching the weather and realizing the duck season was coming to an end. Couldnt resist the water. Went out yesterday and the birds made me forget how miserable my season has been to this point. Birds worked beautiful and decoyed nice. Ended up with my first Bull Can is 7 years and 2 drake Buffies, 1 hen, and a bill. Was out today and the wind cut right thru, birds worked great again. Before we had all the deeks out birds were trying to come in. Swans and geese were flying south by the flock. Finished with 3 bills, one greater and two lessers, 3 buffies 2 drakes and a ruddy. Should of had more birds but it seem that we would only hit one bird per decoying flock. What a great last two days. Hoping for one last mallard hunt.

[Wanderer]

Nice!

I took an extra large hen woody last Friday while scouting for deer in central MN. Was surprised to get her at this time of year. Also jumped a flock of about 20 mallards to soon to be in range but I was perplexed by what I saw. Most all of them were big, beautiful drakes but one with them was black - like all black and roughly the same size.

I asked die hard duck hunter friend what it might be. His best guess was a lost scoter. He sees them from time to time in western MN. If it was, glad he got away. Not enough taxidermy funds available right now.

Pretty good numbers of divers whistling through and lots of swans

[Ringbill]

Could have been a black duck as well. Drakes are very dark especially this time of year. I see them come through this time of year with mallards. Just a thought.

[Todd Caswell]

Black Duck

[mwal]

I have shot White winged surf scoter and Old Squaw in NW WI Here is photo of White winged

surf scoter

[Kettle]

Cold as snot on the range, lakes are iced over, will be hunting the river the next week or so to see if i can pick up any stragglers, got a buddy coming up Sunday to hunt Monday, the low is 7 degrees with a high of 17. Anyone ever have a motor freeze after you ran it and sat foe awhile. I am running a standard outboard.

Kettle

[luckycrank]

Ye ive had an engine freeze but was my own fault keep the lower unit under water at all times .and either start engine every once in a while .. to help prvent it feom freezing .. if it would lock up remozve engine cover and rotate fly back and forth by hand till impellar breaks free. And pray you dont brake it

[Wanderer]

That's a much darker black duck than the couple I've seen so far this year. I know blacks and mallards will hang together and that makes the most sense. Hard to say for sure but my memory recalls the bird to be darker yet than the one pictured. I guess between the two, I'd have to ask how much a person sees the white of the scoters wings while in flight? I don't recall seeing white on the wings.

[123fish]

Had my old Evinrude freeze up when I had it in the tilt position one time on a day like we have been experiencing. It was beached and waves were hitting the back of the boat and freezing it in the tilt position. Took some serious chipping to get it to lower again when we wanted to go. Something to remember.

[Ringbill]

The Birds are really pouring through north central MN right now. We pounded out 2 limits in a couple hours this morning(all G-eyes). I think that will do it for me this year. It will be difficult to get on any lake around here after tonight. As much as I hate to say it I might have to organize my ice fishing gear this weekend.....

[water rat]

Finally!!! Had a great mallard shoot today. Went out for a mid day try, set up about 10:30. Stretched it out as far as I could till 1:00 to take my fourth fat greenhead! I needed a day like this, landscape was stunning and birds were flying!!

Find ANY open water and you have a chance at some nice birds.I hunted tiny flowage with some lil open pools, when they showed up, they come in nice!

Birds seem blind to white camo!