Rate the opener! Great, Good, Bad

[Finlander]

I rate it as good! Not many mallards as I would have liked to shoot, but fun shooting a mixed bag to get limits saturday and sunday! It was fun shooting redheads and ringbills!

[bisonthunder]

Terrible. Birds were way to spread out with all the high water.

4 birds day 1.

1 bird day 2.

[Musky Buck]

It was poor so bad I guess, I went only Sunday AM for geese and saw very few flocks of ducks and heard the least amount of shooting on that first weekend sunday plus it was fairly calm till 9ish so who knows, maybe extra water meant they were in spots they normally can't hide in and maybe where hunters couldn't get at. I guess I talked to no one that had decent hunt, but wait for those late season curlies, oh that's right they usually come through during rifle season.

[B. Amish]

it was good. no limits but plenty of action to keep us fully entertained.

the high water had me seeing ducks go into areas in the distance that i've never seen ducks go into before.

[walleyeman1]

It was very good, with limits on Sunday and Monday. Mostly Mallards, Wood Ducks and Ringbills. Not to many teal around.

[lawdog]

best we've seen in many many years!!!

[buddha]

Best I've seen in years. I have hunted Swan Lake for many years and that was not good so we tried a different area and found plenty of woodies and a few others. I would venture to say that if we hunted Swan it would have been terrible just like the past number of years. I think I got lucky.

[kobear]

Better than good, great. Near limits Sat and averaged 3 on Sunday with leaving early (930 am)and terrible shooting. Haven't shot a box of shells on opener since I can't even remember. Between six guys Sat we shot 5 boxes of shells.

That said I talked to lots of guys North of me (Douglas County) that were down from last year. They saw birds but weren't in the right spot.

Almost makes me forget all those bad openers. Like '88, '89, most of the '90s, ...

[TruthWalleyes]

Avoca, MN... Des Moines River. Opener was great again. Wood ducks like crazy(as expected), not many mallards - but that is normal for this time of year.

[brassman]

Is there a fourth option of not great but better than good? Opening morning saw lots and I mean lots of ducks! I being in a rush forgot to bring my shells, borrowed 12 from my buddy which was not nearly enough! I had ducks flying all around me, knocked down 3 in half an hour, ran out of shells and thats when they came in droves! All I could do was watch, my dog was looking at me dumbfounded. Later I glassed a pond and found it was holding some ducks and downed 3 teal, a lot of birds got out of there. Sunday dawned cold! One teal in the morning, one Drake Mallard in the afternoon after jumping another pond. Monday, was yet another frosty adventure with 2 down one being a gadwall. Many many ducks flying, my father and neighbor sat on one pond and had 150 ducks fly out all before legal shooting all within range.

[Gordie]

I would rate it as the most birds Ive ever seen on opener in many years but the worst as in what happened on opener.

I was cut off buy some jerk-baits that set up 150yrds in front of us on opening day and I fair warned them that they will get rained on but they didnt seem to care we didnt get to shoot at all because they sky busted evry bird that was around I left and went by them and they wouldnt even look at us but I thanked them for showing my kids what not to be like.

The next day while pushing off to set decoys I thru my back out and I could not even stand up to shoot at birds my oldest boy was able to get one ringee before we left the lake.

I can hardly walk but cant wait to get back out as soon as I heal up.

[bemidjibasser]

That's almost as awesome as having permission to hunt an area, then being told at about 8:30 am that you can't hunt the field you are set in because a congresman has that particular field reserved for the day... Then you get to pick up your spread of 5 doz. decoys and watch one guy put out decoys in the same field you were set up in while 3 fat a s s es sit and watch him from the four wheeler and trailer... Nevermind the fact that there were birds trying to land in the decoys as we were picking up... Whaddaya do but grin and say ok?

[Tator2k]

I rate it Good. It's the best I've seen in a number of years.

Of about 6 or 7 parties of 2-3 guys around the lake shore, most filled out the first day within 3 hours. We seemed to be in a bad spot with everything swinging out away from us.

The 2nd day we moved to another spot and we were the only ones on the lake with most of the shooting.

[paceman]

I would say pretty poor west of Detroit Lakes. Saw lots of geese but very few ducks.... Ponds are pretty empty.

[nate larson]

I would rate ours as being between poor and fair. Between 4 of us we only shot 2 ducks on Saturday. On Sunday we got 5 geese and 2 ducks. Lots of people on the lake but luckily nobody set up too close.

Elwood, sorry to hear that someone ruined your hunt. I have had that happen to me before and it sure makes your blood boil. I hope you heal up and are out after them again soon.

[magnum mike]

Bad! High water, water everywhere, plenty of birds around but more hunters than I have ever seen. Our lake can support maybe 6 sets. There were 13 on Saturday and 11 on Sunday. Lots of skybusting! Very frustrating.

[Stringerless!]

Could have been good but turned out bad. Lots of birds before 9 on Sat. Never got a shot after legal opener. Saw so many I did got nervous and thought a box each of shells for my son and I was not gonna be enough for Sunday morning. Wrong ! There were so many ppl in Carlos Avery that no ducks got out to us in the morning. I hunt on the outer edge so I have a better chance at decoying birds but it was not to be.I am starting to think it does not pay to get there at 4 am cause Chai sneaks up with no lights and no noise and does not honor another hunters light. They got too close and did not even have decoys. Just standing in a canoe calling. Shooting at anyting that comes within rifle range. No chance of retrieving birds in the bog ! My other son was out there yesterday and yelled at couple guys for sky blasting and they yelled back something about messing up his car ! I told him he has to get the TIP # in his phone !

[walleyehunter80]

best i have seen in years

[buckx37x]

Fair to partly poor.

[BrdHunter01]

Terrible. Thank god i'm heading to ND this weekend! I'm questioning whether I should even buy a MN license anymore. Hopefully the season gets better. It can't get much worse

[mws4dux]

Great !! Lots of mallards,woodies,and honks

[dan z]

I would have to say good. saw a great number of birds. we didnt get limits but we had alot a good time still. 4 ducks on saturday and 3 ducks and 2 geese sunday.

[MinnetonkaMan]

Our whole spot is in a river bottom area down by Kato all flooded decoys floating away on our private pond that we put out the week before. No thought it was going to flood the river was almost dry. But woodducks were thick Limited out with in ten minutes wish we could have three in the bag. Saw some loner honkers that we almost pulled up on but said one more time and they left. Just talked to someone hunting the area today and river is back inside its banks and not as many ducks around but still about two hundred woodies sitting around and shot a mallard and gwt today So not a bad start just hope they get the corn out for rooster hunting and deer because the ground is going to be plenty soupy for a while. So with telling all of that it was an average opener. We always get the woodduck limit quick but other birds are the x factor.

[Feathers Rainin]

Our whole spot is in a river bottom area down by Kato all flooded decoys floating away on our private pond that we put out the week before.

Leaving decs out on a feeding/roosting spots trains/spooks ducks and makes them decoy shy. Pass shooting spots dont affect much tho.

Our opener was below avg for duck numbers. Did ok considering the amount of birds around. 3 mals sat let a lot go in range because the rice was so thick on our spot so we wanted to drop em on our feet. 1 woodie 1 teal 2 malls and three bonus snows sun. Lots less hunters for the area which is great to see. Still saw the typical sky busters. Some guys were shooting at birds no lie 200+ yards and after missing with three guns they would load another shell a piece and throw another one at them another 50 yds farther. Sad to see stuff like that. They don't realize it hurts everyones hunting including theirs. Those people should just go shoot trap. Glad to hear some had good shoots opener! Off to ND tomorrow good luck to all on the season! If you're stuggling on ducks grouse and woodcock are holding good numbers up north and most of the leaves are down.

[CANOPY SAM]

Good.