Cold Snap Ducks

[DCICE]

Do ya suppose there will be a few teal left to grace the openers shoot? And should we be bringing a few diver decoys to our local hot spots? Lots of ducks around, should be a great opener! DC

[Tour. Pro 175]

I think there will be a fair amount of teal around. As far as adding divers to your spread, I always have on the opener. I think the white on my bluebill decoys are a real eye catcher. They tend to make my spread stand out.

Good Hunting!

[High-ball]

yah i think you should get a few teal but enjoy them while they are there. Heck throw out some divers too...it cant hurt. I think were gonna throw out roughly 150 dekes......I dont know what the waether is supposed to be in wilmar...but its gonna be a high of 45 here on sunday...should make for a good opener

[Guest]

High Ball,

Where abouts in Willmar do you do most of your waterfowl hunting. I have spent quite a few years on Little Kandi., Florida Sloughs and even a little bit on Green lake. I didn't get out that way at all last year, just curious how it has been.

[DCICE]

Willmar area ducks have cooperated with us at times... public waterfowl areas and private wet spots near Willmar and Kerhoven have been a mainstay for me. The occasional trip to marsh is still a good time on a weekday during mid to late season. i took the decoys to the slough last eve... My 2 yr old lab should get a wookout this weekend...If i do my part. Hopefully duck on the grill!! Good luck and safe hunting to all!! dc

[Long Gray Line]

Didn't see many teal today. More mallards and woodies than anything else, Oh, and 1 widgeon! The one thing we didn't see was many hunters. Heard alot less shooting than last year. The area we hunt usually has 3-4 or 5 set ups kicking up the birds and making shooting pretty exciting. Today we were the only group out in this particular slough and while we did pretty well, there were lots of birds landing in potholes all around us. Where were all the hunters?

[ATM]

Long line, where did you hunt, I was on public land by norway lake by sundburg, and there was more hunters than we typically see. Also saw plenty of teal. Was a very good opener for us. good luck the rest of the year. Adam

[jegerjack]

I also did not see any teal, anyone think with all of this cold the migration is going faster than usual? A guy, I hunt with, thought he saw some bluebills. Wonder if the northern ducks are going to be around earlier than normal.

JegerJack

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"What did the old man trade for these guys, a used puck bag?"

[Guest]

As long as there is grain in the fields and little or no snow cover, the birds will stay in Canada no matter how cold it gets.

I did hear that there were quite a few teal around this weekend. Unfortunetly, I did not make it out, was busy finishing up my boat for the "real" season...lol

[jeffyo45]

My group saw plenty of teal. We bagged about 10 teal between 3 guys. Only got 1 woodie though. Woodducks are actually the first to leave, followed by the greenwings. We had some really good shooting. Had tons of mallards checking our slough, if only more would have committed. I think the sun was lighting up our faces. The roboduck wasn't as magic as I thought it was going to be (we were hunting private land). Got my first drake mallards ever and one even had two curls. I was pretty stoked. I got him on a really nice drake double. Oh yeah, we were hunting north west of Willmar up by Pennock. Hope everyone else had a good opener.

[Borch]

The blue wings leave early. I've shot several greenwing teal that thumped on the ice. Last time out for me last year we had one small pocket of open water with the rest of the lake iced over. We shot 4 greenwing teal that morning. Who'd of thunk it?

We saw 2 teal(bluewing) for the weekend. Mostly mallards near St. Cloud.

[deadeye]

I saw quite a few teal and got a couple this weekend, I'm kind of suprised that you guys south of here (ely) didn't get or see many. I also saw more mallards than I ever have up here. Kind of interesting because last year we got almost all ringnecks and a couple mallards, while this year it has been the exact opposite. For some reason I think that we are further along in the duck migration than we were last year at this time. Oh well, it's not like I don't like shooting mallards. Well anyway good luck!!!!
><>deadeye

[Blaze]

Hunted public water around Little Falls - a lot more hunters than last year, and the action was less consistent than last year. If you're wondering where the teal were, they were buzzin' past our blind all morning at about 120mph! 3 guys, only 6 ducks - a 50/50 mix of blue and green wing teal. Saw a couple widgeons and handful of mallards, but probably 90% teal. Very few geese.

We had problems getting the ducks to decoy well this year too - first hour of season was a free-for-all with ducks coming in from all angles (usually at the same time - where do I shoot?!?), but after that, forget it. What's the deal?

[Guest]

Just responding to a post about greenwings leaving after woodies. I've shot many greenwings during late season, even had some during the last weekend...must have been the Northern flight of teal...lol

[Guest]

Lots of Teal and Woodies this weekend. They did not leave. I got reports from my relatives who hunted near Remer that this was the best wood duck hunts they've ever seen!

There's no "rule" on migrations in my book. I've shot 2 Teal as late as November 22 and Woodies as late as first week in November (last year) and there were several of them! You all remember how cold it was last year too. I've also shot many Teal as ice forms around my decoys. All in northern MN!