Waterfowl Reports

[fishuhalik]

Best of wishes Bryce! You got this

 

buddy reporting absolutely bonkers action up in mid Saskatchewan right now. They're still a long ways away boys

[SledNeck]

Where I hunt its the worst year Ive seen for mallards. Thank God for 2 weeks in Arkansas every year or Id probably give up. 

[DLD24]

Just got back from Nodak and we had a good shoot 2/3 days... They were pretty much commiting suicide into the dekes the last day...

[Wanderer]

I see a couple of my bucket list birds in that mix.

 

Well, I guess any species of duck I haven't harvested yet is still on the bucket list...

[O.T.C.]

Got a theory for you guys to try, last weekend and beyond this has been $. We set a real for sure decoy spread not wanting to fool any and set up about 250 yards away same field playing the wind and roosts from where they'd come. Highly pressured birds I'd guess. Previous hunt they were in 3-20 flocks and all wanted to flare us and did plenty, we did get 7 the three of us. So I convinced the guys to set blinds where they wanted but set a huge quiet spread a ways away and boy first flock of 8 were at 10 yards and 5 feet. The next batch we were done. They all flared the spread and came for this ridge, but didn't quite get there. Cut corn disced and chisel plowed isn't much food in it but they want it for now. If you have flare itis but landing same field it's hard to not have 1 guy in the spread but can have on the deck if you have the right situation. 

[HugoBox]

O.T.C

I like your idea.  We've done it on the water a few times.  Set decoys on one side of a slough and then go to the other side.  While growing up, all the old guys we hunted with were diver guys.  They called all puddle ducks screw ducks since they screw around and around before committing to decoys.  Haven't had the guys to try it in the field yet.  May have to give it a shot this weekend.

thanks

[CANOPY SAM]

Did this for many years in central NoDak, when I used to hunt there every fall.  Set the Canadian Goose and field duck dekes about 50-75 yds directly upwind of a reasonably large spread of Snow Goose rags and socks.  Then we'd just lay in the field, wrapped in cheap white bed sheets (like big tamales) right in amongst the snow goose dekes.

 

Every time, and I mean EVERY TIME, we had flocks of ducks and honkers I could get interested by calling, they'd swing right over the snow rags like they weren't even there.  It was really fun cause you could watch those honker's heads craning back and forth as they scanned the decoy spread ahead (upwind) for whoever was calling.  And the REAL bonus, they were right on top of us, and totally unaware, or even looking to see if we were there!!!  Not sure if anyone else has ever noticed this, but in my experience, those honkers could care less about a flock of snow geese in a field, if there are visible honkers also in the field.

 

Just a quick (NW Minnesota) update from a couple weeks back.  Starting to see some geese coming down from Canada.  And a few ducks.  Nothing major, but there are definitely new birds coming down.  We have a flock working a cut corn field out in front of our place that's grown from about two dozen birds, to well over 500 in just 3 days.  The weather is still really mild and pleasant, albeit overcast and light drizzle, but nothing that will make birds bust out of Canada by any means.  But at least they're starting to trickle down.  

 

Forecast for the next week remains the same up here.  Pretty mild days, mid-40-50's each day, occasional overcast skies, but nothing in the way of a big frontal push of any kind for the next week.

 

I heard one flock of snows fly by about 3-4 days back.  Never saw them, but I knew they were snows by their calling.  That's pretty much the only thing I've seen yet that would indicate any kind of real migration thru our area this year.  Spent a couple hours up near Thief Lake, by our deer hunting lease a few days ago.  Should've been seeing numerous flocks of birds around for this time of year, but I didn't see a darn thing in the air.  Still pretty quiet in the NW corner of the state.

[Neighbor_guy]

My report from today is that the sky busters are out in force today. This mornings hunt was ended due to the clowns in the area sky busting a volley of shots at every goose or flock of geese that came within 100yards of their spot and these birds were never less than 100feet off the deck. I've never seen anything like it. One guy put the stalk on our decoy spread calling more and more as he closed the gap. The best shots we did have we couldn't take as we would have been shooting right at him. I think if I hadn't stood up when I realized what was going on he would have shot into the spread. His son was pass shooting at the birds as they flew by FROM THE DECK of their house. You could actually hear the sliding door open before the shots were fired. It was a three ring circus. We never fired a shot 

 

When i I got home it was more of the same here. Two groups on the lake taking shots at birds 75-100yds away, birds that had no intention of decoying or even taking a second look at their spread. 

 

If if they aren't in range it does no good to shoot at them. All you are doing is making them decoy wise and making it harder for everyone else. 

 

Maybe tomorrow will will be better. New spot new attitude. 

[fishuhalik]

Man, are they spread out this year. I'm already seeing calendar migrators down here in south Texas. Ponds are starting to fill up with gads and wigeon, and I've seen more than a few flocks of snows. Buddies in north Texas are reporting huntable numbers of snows already. And our season hasn't even started yet. Gonna be a good year!!

[BoxMN]

Yesterday hunted a small pond in north metro on private land. We shot 8 ducks (gadwall, mallards, one BWT) and a couple geese. It was so dark with the clouds that even at shooting time they were coming in but once below the cattails you couldn't see them at all, so all we could do was laugh  

 

North of us was a field that those guys must have shot a case of shells easy! The volleys sounded like WWIII! ha! They had a great day I am guessing, the birds must have just kept heading in to them. Probably 6-8 guys from the number of shots in each volley, I bet they were celebrating at the end of the morning, would have been fun just to watch them

 

Then we went muskie sucker fishing and caught three fish (one fish we caught twice, 2 hours apart!), had two others on. Was a  great day!

 

Not dead duck pics, but kinda funny

 

[CANOPY SAM]

LOVE that report!!!  Awesome day!!!  Thanks for sharing, Box! 

[leech~~]

On 10/29/2016 at 5:07 PM, Neighbor_guy said:

One guy put the stalk on our decoy spread calling more and more as he closed the gap. The best shots we did have we couldn't take as we would have been shooting right at him. I think if I hadn't stood up when I realized what was going on he would have shot into the spread.

 

I told you those dam nice hand carved Dec's were going to get swatted someday!

Edited October 31, 2016 by leech~~

[MattL]

Not much to report down in the southern part of the state. Need some cooler weather to push some new birds down. I knocked down a pair of wood ducks this morning.  Fair number of divers buzzing around, but I was hunting skinny water with a puddler spread. 

[monstermoose78]

Well my brother and I took a drive today looking for anything but deer. There is a good number of divers around grand Marais we seen golden eyes buffleheads bluebills ringers and some others I could not be sure of. 

[Lunker]

There have been a lot of birds down on the Mississippi the last couple weeks. About 90% Cans and a mix of other divers and puddlers. A bunch of gads showed up this week but are the finickiest gads I've ever seen. I'm currently watching some live cans taking a nap in my spread since I already have mine. 

[Wanderer]

Well, I can tell you this: They sure didn't use all of the Mississippi. 

 

Never had a fall flight to speak of around central MN.  Not in my neck of the woods anyway.  Seems like that's been the case the past several years, the more I talk to people.

[certified jumbo]

I'm not a huge duck hunter, but I live 1/4 mile from a large waterfowl sanctuary in central mn.  In about 20 years i've never seen much more than a few rafts of bills out their late season.  Lots of geese though!!!

[Tom7227]

This is the latest report that folks can come up with.  What's with that?

 

[monstermoose78]

Go to outdoor Minnesota I have been posting my reports there mostly

[Wanderer]

If anyone checks in here and has any reports, light us up! 

 

I don’t know how many ducks are left in MN with the recent cold snap but there has to be some.  Last weekend we shot a 3 man limit in western MN.  Mostly spoonies but saw 10 different species and harvested 5 of them.

 

I thought I had two really nice GWT teal drakes but I’m not 100% sure I should mount one.  So early in the season and they still have some pin feathers.  

 

Is that chair at the top of the pic?  Why, yes it is.  My buddy has a sweet set up with some old chairs I gave him.

 

Feet still got a little cold but it was a super easy watch over the dekes.

 

Tonight at home I went down to my blind for the last 20 minutes to see what might be flying.  No gun.  NO PHONE!  4 hooded mergansers flew by and 6 GWT settled in pretty much at my feet. The two drakes were really nice - probably nicer than the two in the pic.  One coot was hanging around with them. 
 

The no phone/no pics was probably the best duck call and deke spread ever. 

[Wanderer]

Yesterday was too blasted windy to paddle out but this morning was better - and colder!

 

Frozen anticipation 

 

Watching ice making

 

Light set due to paddling and not having lots of birds around.

 

Hooked a flock of 7.  Only 4 left.  Just took a few light notes on the call to get their attention.

 

One chance was better than none.  Better than watching it on TV too.

[fish_hunt_guy]

Nice birds. I too shot a nice drake gwt in late October and I dropped it off at the taxidermist and he said it looked good. 

[Wanderer]

Yep, yours is plumed out better.  Nice one!  
 

Those mixed bags are always cool to see!

[Wanderer]

Anyone else run into their taxidermist having COVID supply chain issues?  That was the reason I got for my 2.5 year wait to get my birds back.  I believe some of it was that but….

 

Anyway, finally…

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Wanderer

[Mike89]

that is fricken awesome!!!!