field reports

[Guest]

Well guys how did we do? My brother and I got 6 between us. Not bad with a noon start. got out to the spot at 10:00 or so and scared a good 75 mallards and 50 geese off the slough. Ended up shooting all teal with one wood duck. Got my hopes up for tommorow.

[Fisher Dave]

Didnt do so well here. Went to a public lake that was just a little too popular for this years opener. Got out early and ended up surrounded. Seen some ducks dropped, and by 12:20 the sky-busting began. I dont know how many shells the boat next to us had but they unloaded their guns on everything within 175 yards .. no way to decoy a bird. We called it early and headed out. We shot one Teal .. fired 2 shots in the time I was there.

Still had fun, but tomorrow its off to somewhere less popular. There was no shortage of ducks in the air where we were. Seen lots of woodies, mallards, teal, and widgeons. Didnt see any divers ... was good to be out and it really brought the hopes up with the amount of birds.. hope the weather makes a push and the rest of the season goes well this year for all of us.

Good Hunting,

Dave

[Guest]

Didn't do that bad today...got 12, mainly wood ducks, between my father and friend...but like everyone else im relying on tomorrow to be better than today for obvious reasons...wasnt easy getting ducks into decoys though so it will be interesting to see what they will do tomorrow...good luck to everyone this weekend!

[fishermann222]

hey tri-fecta if there were three of you hunting and you shot 12 ducks and mostly woodducks how many woodies did you shoot? limit is 2

[hunt4food]

Wood ducks were plentiful. It was easy to kill two on Saturday and again today. We estimate there were 200 of them on the small Oak tree surrounded pond we hunted at noon Saturday. This morning most of the ones we jumped yesterday tried to come back in this morning. Fatal mistake. Saw a few teal and Mallards, but nothing within range. Next weekend should be good.

[Guest]

Well my brother and I went out again this morning to the same spot as yesterday. Yesterday we had the whole marsh to ourselves, today there were three groups on the little wma. Here I thought we were the only ones willing to drag a boat that far through the bog. It was frustrating the ducks would start to cup the wings and cruise into the decoys and the other group would open up. they ended up shooting a few. We missed both opportunites we had. I did shoot a huge goose though. Far and away the biggest goose I've ever shot.

[HUNTER2]

Shot 4 teal on Sat & 0 on Sun. We did get Quite a few Minnesota birds (MOSQUITOS) on Sun mourning thou!

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Hunt&Fish tell you drop!

[Guest]

Fishermann- If there were 3 of us and we got 6 wood ducks of 12 total i would call that mainly compared to the others that we had such as teal and mallard wouldnt you?

[Long Gray Line]

Limited out yesterday, 1 woodie, 1 mallard, rest teal. Went out for a couple of hours this morning, 5 mallards & 1 teal in our group. Even the kids got in on the action which was the best part. Couldn't believe it but the mallards were decoying today! Musta been my expert calling, or luck......

[Guest]

Hunted Mower Co. picked up a pair of woodies. Seen plenty of geese but only 2 flocks of teal. We had an extremly heavy fog this morning and it tough to see them before they came in. The two that comitted died but if they gave us a fly by they were pretty safe.

[Guest]

Not to good, seems like all of my good places to hunt have been discovered by other hunters. Looking for some new spots for next year.

[Ozzy169]

Worked on Sat, Sunday produced 5 teal,1 goose, nothing decoying for ducks, jumped the goose, few mallards, and other bigger birds. Hunting in the south metro

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Get 'er done

[Farley]

Not much Saturday, we had a couple last minute changes so spent most of the day walking and paddling. Early Sunday had them comming in left and right untill about 8:30 then slowed way down. Drakes werent fully colored yet or the ones we shot were young, no green on the head. Ended up with 6 mallards Sunday. Wish I was a better shot!

[Borch]

Pretty slow for us this weekend. Water is much higher and there seems to be few ducks using our usually hunting slough than normal. But my son got his first duck(a drake mallard particular colored out). So the weekend was a success.

[Flash]

Four of us bagged 12 on Saturday. 9 Teal and 3 Mallards. Three of us bagged 5 on Sunday. 2 Mallards, 2 Teal and 1 Woodie. The ducks just seem to be so wary. I think the early goose hunt and the youth hunt are really taking its toll. We are hunting educated ducks on opening day. Sure it's great to be out and everything, but opening days are not the same as they used to be. Oh well, I won't have to buy any shells for next year.

[Fisher Dave]

We tried a new lake on Sunday north of St Paul .. not much at all for ducks flying. Most the ducks we saw were still heading full speed from being shot at from other nearby lakes. I was quite discouraged ... that is until the geese started to move. There were no *record* amounts of them by any means but they did like to use the lake. We didnt have the goose decoys along so decoying them was out of the question. I had one goose come from behind skimming the bullrushes pass less than 10 feet from my head from behind.. I felt the wind... Never got a shot off, I think I was in shock.

From early scouting and hunting it seems that there are far more ducks west of the metro area. The Monticello area on opener was loaded with ducks, the northern metro we saw 50 tops on sunday morning. In my early season scouting we were seeing lots of birds in certain areas south of the metro, and just about everywhere west of the metro. The ducks are out there, we just have to find where they want to be.

Im going to focus some attention on some new waters this mid-week while most the skybusters are at school or work. I'll let everone know what I find.

[MNice]

Flash, I know you> Pete or Steve?

J. Keogh here

[Flash]

MNice,
This is Pete.

[Tim L]

went out to Lac Qui Parel sat rained the whole day shot 4 teal 1 woodie 1 drake mallard. sun got eatin alive by mosquitos left the slough by 10am with 4 teal 1 drake mallard. be back next weekend !!!. Tim

[HUNTER2]

Hey Tim hows the goose population at LQP? I have a pit there and I was wondering if it would pay for me to drive over for some goose action.

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Hunt&Fish tell you drop!

[Flick]

Four of us got 30 ducks for the weekend, the majority were teal. Not really a lot of ducks seen though. A few geese but never shot at any. Overall it was a decent opener. We hunted west central mn.

[Tim L]

Hey hunter2 didn't see many flying all weekend beleive it or not seen more snow geese than candian hoonkers didn't hear how many were around. but my buddy lives in Louisberg and he says not many around all summer. some birds during the early goose hunt with the days getting shorter the hunting will get better/. be out there duck huntin this weekend hopefully I get a goose or two. good huntin Tim

[mwktrapper]

What an opener, Four guys shot 45 ducks: mallards, green and blue wings, widgeon, pintail, grey ducks, woodrows. Saw more geese than ducks and also shot a load of em. Lots of teal, they really filled the cooler. Was also hunting west central mn. Numbers of ducks still seemed to be somewhat low this year, didn't see what is usually seen. It only gets better when the great northerners come down.

good fishin

[Sand Burr]

Well four days of hunting north of cambridge and there were plenty of woodys but very few mallards. The geese were awsome! Noon opener we had a limit of geese in 1 hour. We brought home more geese this week than ducks. Seem that the ducks were stacked up on the small creeks and water holes in the fields.

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"Hey Nice Rack"

www.bucketrack.com

[bassman222]

Did good both days, Sat. 3 of us got 7 mallards, 3 teal. Sun. 3 of us got 7 teal, 6 mallards, 3 ringbills, and a gadwall. Hunting beaver ponds in north central MN. Saw tons of ducks.

Bassman